Glasgow University Des Gilmore 5 Mile Road Race 2026

Last Saturday I ran this understated classic, now a tribute to sadly-departed Glasgow Uni/Westies legend Des Gilmore.

Some wee guy called Sam was also there. He looked familiar but I’d certainly not seen him at road race before. He did pretty well despite being one of the few without carbon in his soles.

For my part I over cooked the first mile or so trying to stay with a fast group. After getting dropped I ran a lonely race, got a few scalps along the way and kept a strong pace till the end finishing 22nd in 30:34. For a first outing in my recently acquired Dad-bod I was pretty happy.

By contrast, my 2014 race report from this event is mostly me whinging about how unfit I was and musing on how unpleasantly hard road running is. I was nearly 3 minutes faster that day, and took another minute off that in 2015.

Decline might be real but it’s all relative.