Glasgow Jog Scotland 5k

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Last night I set myself the challenge to Walk, Jog or Run a 5k at Glasgow Green.

My main targets prior to arrival were to win the race, and to finish in under 17 minutes. However, I soon spotted Chris Black, Russell Whittington, Euan Geddes and Greig Glendding warming up, so figured 4th of 5th might be a more likely finish.

Photo courtesy of Great Scott Photography

The race started with a mad sprint to a very sharp, almost 180°, left hand turn. I assumed I'd be first to this turn, but Chris Black set off even faster. I tracked Chris for about 400 metres to the next sharp left turn, before Russ and Euan both went by. I tucked in behind Russell and Euan, thinking I might be able to stay with them.

This plan of sitting in 4th place worked up until 2km when Greig Glendining suddenly caught me and powered straight past. I failed to match his pace and was quickly passed by Gary Hester as well.

The 180° turn at 2.7km marked the faraway point of the course before the run back to the finish. I struggled to get going again after the turn I was feeling a bit weary, so got caught by Bruce Carmichael and Derek Govan. I really felt like I was going backwards by this staqe, but I decided to speed up when we got to the 3km mark. Unfortunately I felt flat and empty, and couldn't respond, so resigned myself to 8th position.

However, once inside the last kilometre I finally got round to looking at my watch and realised that sub 17 minutes was going out the window unless I started some sort of insane sprint. My intention wasn't to catch anyone in particular, but as soon as I changed my pace I was suddenly closing on Bruce and Derek who I caught inside the last 100 metres, and almost closed down Greig on the line.

So in the end I finished 6th in 17:09, which was my fastest 5km since 2007.