SVHC Relays, 7 miles moderate

I was on the first leg for the Garscube A team in the Scottish Veteran Harriers Club Relays at Strathclyde Park. I felt quite confident of a fast run and intended to try to stay with the leaders as long as possible. After about a mile I was still feeling comfortable and saw an opportunity after a small hill to push ahead on my own. Shortly afterwards I was directed by a steward to "follow the path" which forked almost immediately, but I apparently guessed right and had soon opened up a gap. The main difficulty I was having was dodging pedestrians and dog-walkers. I started to tire after a couple of miles and was also running into a mild headwind, but I wasn't under any pressure, and handed over to Lindsay in 20:32 with a lead of 28 seconds. This was 18 seconds faster than my time from 2008, and this year's course had also been extended near the finish by somewhere between 100 and 200m. I think the usual course is somewhat short of the advertised 3.8 miles as Lindsay measured this year's at 3.75 miles with GPS. We were still leading after the second leg but had dropped to 7th by the end. My time was the fifth fastest of the day.

Afterwards I went on a 2-mile recovery jog along the last mile of the course and back. In the afternoon I went back out for my usual 7-mile run via Garscube Estate, intending to take it fairly easy. After a steady start I reached the 3-mile point comfortably inside 20 minutes and decided to try for a sub-45 finish, which means maintaining an average of about 6:25/mile. Sub-45 was looking safe with a couple of miles to go, and I thought even sub-44 might be possible, despite tired legs. In the end I had some good luck crossing the last couple of roads and finished in 43:53. Weekly total: 42 miles.