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| Bellahouston 4k Cross Country Route |
The Bellahouston 4k Cross Country had been moved from its regular January slot, to tie in with the end of the 4km cross country relay season. It was also earmarked as the final selection race for places in the Scottish Vets teams for the British & Irish Masters Cross Country to be held in Bellahouston Park on 26th November.
To get selected for the B&I Masters, I knew I'd need to run well against the other M45 runners, and in particular to stay ahead of Denis Williams of Shettleston. There were over 200 runners on a narrow startline, so the race was a bit of a chaotic scramble to begin with. I chose to stay wide on the righthand side to keep out of trouble and followed the line of Craig Mattocks.
After about 1km things were settling down and I decided to press on and pass Niall McAlinden and Denis who were just ahead. At the very start of the 2nd lap I was caught and passed by Greig Glendinning and Denis Williams. I kind of switched off a bit for the 3rd kilometre, and could see Denis and Marc McColl gaining a more and more uncatchable lead that I could not visualise closing down. I was now pretty much resigned to not being able to pull anything out of the bag, but suddenly catching and passing Andy McCall gave me a bit of a lift. Everything was getting a bit of blur by this stage. Niall was back in front and I had the first 2 M50 runners Gerry Gaffney and Alexander Chisholm right on my shoulders. I can't really remember what was happening during the final kilometre, I just knew I needed to work hard to get to the turn through the beech hedge, but that turn totally killed my speed and I found Scott Martin passing me just before the tarmac pass crossing. From here I knew there was only about 150 metres to go, so I decided to attack as hard as I could. I flew past Scott, then went by Niall and suddenly realised I could also catch Denis. The final 50 metres was uphill and straight into bright sunshine, so it was impossible to see exactly where the finish line was, but once I'd gone past Denis I realised I could also catch Marc McColl and nipped ahead just before the finishing funnel.
I finished 99th in 15:01, and was 8th M40, but more importantly was 1st M45, so hopefully that's enough to make the B&I Masters team. I'll need to wait and see.
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| 150 metres to go. |
