Glasgow University 5M Road Race

What are the pleasures of road racing?

There are retrospective ones. A good time with a solid placing. Satisfaction of a race well ran – nerve held, plans stuck to and opponents dealt with. A wry chuckle at how absurdly difficult it felt at the time. Then there are the ‘real time’ enjoyments. Moving with efficiency and poise. Having enough strength to maintain intensity. Knowing that you can keep up a pace that feels untenable. Reeling in those in front and outrunning those behind.  Sweet relief when crossing the finish line.

I had very few of these on Saturday at the Glasgow University 5M. The course is two laps around Garscube, with two longish hills each time and a gentle downhill towards the end. I wasn’t feeling fit and knew I wouldn’t be at my best, so wasn’t hoping for much of anything. I held back at the start, not wanting to get sucked in to the mad initial pace. Despite that, by 1M I was already feeling drained, it was going to be a bit of a drag.  The 2^nd ascents of the two hills seemed to take a tremendous amount of effort and it was difficult to get moving again when you did reach the top. I lost a lot of places on the 2^nd lap and didn’t have enough oomph to fight for them. I made a push on the last 500M, but it wasn’t enough to make up anything up. Crossing a finish line never felt so good.

A tough course this one, a good one though. Will have to come back next year in better shape. I’ve made it sound a bit sombre but it was reasonably good fun and there was a good turn out from the club – well done to all the Westies who took part.

    1)   Marc Austin/VPCoG 25.24

21) James Callender

54) David Riach

97) Rod Flemming

101) John Quinn

113) Cat Fisher

129) Hamilton Semple

161) Ian Struthers

174) Graham Orr