Balloch to Clydebank Half Marathon

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This was my 4th attempt at the Balloch to Clydebank Half, having previously run 1:18:17, 1:20:04 and 1:19:30 in 2007 to 2009. I missed out last year through injury, and took these photos of the race instead. For 2011, I felt in reasonable shape, having run every day for the past 103 days.

I started fairly slowly and tried to resist running a ridiculously fast opening kilometre, which I managed with a 3:36 opener. I kept this pace going for the first 8km, running in a pack of 8 down the Renton backroad to Dumbarton, sitting right behind the Henderson brothers David and Alan.

As we dropped down the hill over the River Leven to Mile 5, the group was getting bunched so I jumped into the road to overtake. However this proved to be a mistake, since as soon as we went under the railway arch on to Bank End Road, I found myself dropped and struggling to catch any of this pack which was suddenly scattered.

I chased in vain, but never caught any of these 7 runners, however I did pass Toby Messenger (Garscube), Christopher Macdonald (Motherwell) and Scott Martin (Kilmarnock), who had all started too fast. As I reached Mile 11, I could hear heavy breathing and Damian McAuley appeared on my shoulder. This woke me up, and I realised I'd need to start making an effort. I realised I'd been coasting along for most of the route, and only now did it suddenly feel like a race.

I was fairly confident that I had enough left to hold off Damian, but I didn't want to blow up by hammering off too fast with 2 miles to go, so I slowly starting ramping the pace up, digging in for the little climb up Duntocher Road, before hitting the long almost final straight along Singer Road and North Avenue in the Clydebank Business Park. I realised I was now closing fairly quickly on Craig Ross and Bruce Carse of Bellahouston RR, but I couldn't quite find the impetus to close the gap fast enough.

Having gone through 10 miles in 59:33, I was thinking I must be close to going sub 1:18, and despite putting in a last ditch sprint down Seaforth Road I went just over, and clocked 1:18:15. However this was a course PB by 2 seconds, so I was reasonably pleased.

Balloch to Clydebank Half Marathon

8th March 2009
Results | Route Map | Photos | More Photos (1) | More Photos (2)

Wild blizzardy weather first thing thankfully calmed down in time for the race.

I tried to run tactically by resisting the usual urge to hammer off too hard at the start. Instead I tucked in behind 2 of the many Bella runners, and sheltered from the wind during the first 5 miles down to Dumbarton. My other plan was to stay behind Paul Thompson for as long as possible, and resist any urge to overtake. This plan more or less worked up until the A82 Bowling Roundabout, but like last year at Mile 8 I started feeling tired, and could feel my pace dropping, which allowed Paul to open up an uncloseable gap, and Robert Rogerson to catch me around Mile 9.

I was overheating by now having started in a long-sleeved Helly, but I managed to extricate this and throw it to Muffy at the Mountblow roundabout. I then hoped to chase down Robert but instead was caught by Graham Kennedy of Motherwell. We ran more or less side by side until the final mile, but I couldn't keep the pace going and Graham got away.

My main goal was to get properly under 1:20 as part of the general marathon training. As I passed under Kilbowie Road with 250 metres to go, I was slightly stressed that I might miss 1:20 like last year. I didn't want to make the same mistake twice, so upped the pace and managed to cover the final 250m in 47 seconds, which is 5:02/mile pace - and by far the fastest I ran in the entire race!

So I finished 21st in 1:19:30, just 11 seconds behind Graham and Robert who were 3rd and 4th V40s. This was faster than any of the half marathons I ran last year, so I was reasonably happy with the result, especially seeing as I felt pretty comfortable with the pace most of the way, and all the kilometre splits were well within my target 4:00/km pace for a sub 2:50 London Marathon.

The race was won by Kerry Liam-Wilson of Ronhill Cambuslang in 1:12:30. The only other Westies running were Katy Mackintosh and Tony Ritchie who ran 1:33:17 and 1:40:20 respectively. Thanks for all the shouts of support from the Westie marshals on the second half of the course! And thanks to Davie Hall for some of the photos.

Balloch to Clydebank Half Marathon

11th March 2007
Results
Clocked a PB by exactly 2 minutes. Finished 16th in 1:18:17, and 1st V40 - although I was beaten by the first V50. Ellie finished 6th lady in 1:31:08. The race was won by David Millar in 1:09:03. Helen Stuart was first lady in 1:20:38.