The 2nd race in the Polaroid 10k Series.
I started reasonably well and in fact caught and passed Paul Thompson after about 2km. However this probably wasn't a good idea. It wasn't until about 3km that Stephen Mulrine of Garscube went by, and on the first lap I was still within sight of Russell Whittington.
At the start of the 2nd lap after crossing the bridge over the canal I could feel myself fading, and got caught by Steven Prentice of Bellahouston Harriers, which shouldn't have happened given that he ran Edinburgh Marathon on Sunday. I was then also caught by Nick Reid who asked if I wanted to flip a coin to see who would win after last week's close finish. I said I'd let him win, so long as he gave me a tow past Paul Thompson, who appeared to be a catchable distance in front. Nick said "no problem, we'll easily catch him", and then sped off and dropped me with 4km to go.
I tried not to panic and figured that with 14 minutes of running left, there was still a chance of catching them both. I caught and passed Steven Prentice again, plus Donald Cameron of Clydesdale, and at 8km I tried to ramp it up like last week at Helensburgh.
At 8km I could hear new footsteps on my heels, moving faster than my own and suddenly Liam Conway sped past to make up for last week, and he had Craig Ross in tow. I jumped back ahead of Craig as we climbed the bridge over the canal, but then felt horribly flat with a mile to go as we hit the edge of the business park.
This was suddenly the business end of things when I should have been chasing down Nick and Paul, but I felt rubbish, and had no response for getting back to Liam and Craig. Plus Steven and Donald came barreling past with less than a kilometre to go. I tried to hang on for the dip through the tunnel for the sharp right turn and final sprint.
A good shout from John Bell had me on my toes and working and suddenly I found some speed that leapt me past Donald and brought me alongside Steven. I saw Steven try to respond, but I was now finally in my stride and closing rapidly on Craig and Liam, but too late to catch them before hurtling across the line.
Similar to last week, I finished 3 places behind Paul, this week in 35:24 for 16th position, so just 4 seconds slower than Helensburgh. Perhaps if I don't race at the Kilpatricks next week, I might stand a chance of going sub 35 minutes at Dumbarton.
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