My plan for this race was the same as usual, 3:30 kilometres for as long as I could. Getting to Helensburgh in time to pick up my timing chip before the race had been a bit stressful but I felt reasonably OK before the start and my calf wasn't causing any problems. I went through the 1K mark in exactly 3:30 and was hanging just off the back of the main pack. On 2K my time was 6:30 so the marker was obviously incorrect. I wasn't making up any ground on the runners in front, but when I looked round there was a big gap behind me. I didn't see the 3K marker and just after 4K I heard a steward ask his colleague, "Where are the rest of them?" which was vaguely encouraging.
As we reached the water station just before the 6K mark I suddenly felt quite fit and picked up the pace a bit, passing a couple of runners who had started to slow down, although one was spurred into action and overtook me again shortly afterwards. Heading back towards the finish we were running into a strong headwind which I'm sure cost me a few seconds per kilometre, and I could see my time slipping further away from sub-36 at every marker. At 7K a football bounced towards me and I tried to kick it back but sliced it into a hedge and shouted, "Sorry!" as I ran on. In the last couple of kilometres there was little prospect of catching anyone or being caught, so I started to coast a bit and only picked it up in the final stretch in order to finish inside 36:30. Time was 36:27 in 24th position, second Garscube finisher. I had been wearing slightly heavier shoes than normal in order to use the SportBand, although during the race I was only keeping an eye on my time. At the end it said the distance had been 5.57 miles. 1.5% out yesterday, nearly 12% out today. I know the Nike web site says that accuracy can vary with terrain and speed etc. etc. but that's just ridiculous. I'm coming to the conclusion that it's a complete piece of junk.
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