Polaroid Clydebank 10K

I wasn't sure about taking part in this race at all, and felt hamstring tightness as soon as it started. I still aimed for 3:30/K and passed the first marker in exactly that. The 2K marker was reached in 6:30 which was much too fast. The second kilometre can't be short in all these races, so I obviously need to watch my pace more carefully. However, the pace still seemed OK as we finished the first lap, and I went through 5K in 17:04. My hamstring was feeling increasingly tight by this point and coming back along the canal I started to lose touch with the pack I was running with, falling back into second for Garscube with no prospect of catching anyone. I was passed a couple more times within the last 2 kilometres, which were a bit of a struggle, and I felt like I couldn't risk a finishing kick so didn't want anybody closing in on me in the final straight. In the end I posted a chip time of 35:29 which wasn't much down on my Helensburgh time, although my immediate rivals seemed to do much better. It was also about 20 seconds faster than the same race last year. With three finishers inside 36 minutes or so, I thought I should hang around for the presentation, and we were indeed the third team.