A much bigger field than last time I did this race 2 years ago, and finished 2nd in 16:53.
I knew I wasn't on for sub 17 minutes this time, and had far more competition at the front. The 2 young guys from Glasgow Uni, Michael Deason and Daniel Bradford, set the pace with Ross McLennan in pursuit. I held 4th place for almost the first kilometre before Ian Stewart (Carnegie) and Adam Peters (Kirkintilloch) both went past.
Just before and after 2km there were 2 critical junctions, neither of which were flagged or marshalled properly. I stopped altogether at the first one wondering where to go as the other runners had disappeared, and at the 2nd junction discovered the lead runners returning having turned right instead of left. I was therefore amused to find myself briefly back in the lead!
I found it slightly confusing knowing how to pace it, being plonked back in the lead, so I backed off and allowed the leaders to take over, but they realised I'd also let Anthony Devlin of Falkirk overtake so I had to suddenly speed up again.
I was feeling fairly worn out and uncompetitive by 2.5km and this allowed Rob Soutar of Shettleston to sneak past. Then at 3km Paul Thompson pulled alongside and we ran elbow to elbow until the wooden bridge at about 3.8km. I tried to dredge up some resolve, but couldn't raise my game and Paul pulled away.
I pressed on across the dam and tried to close down Paul and Robert in the final 200 metres, but I was chasing shadows and came in 3 seconds after Robert in a time of 17:13 for 8th place.
No comments:
Post a Comment