Henderson Cup

I thought if I could earn enough Summer League points in this race I might avoid having to take part in the Great Scottish Run, so the large turnout looked like being bad news. The race had indeed been switched to Garscube Estate to encourage as many as possible to participate. I had a quick look at the handicaps at the start and noticed I had 3:18 on Ben, which meant I could afford to lose about a minute per lap, Joe had 26 seconds on me, and John wasn't listed at all. It had been dry all day, and most people were wearing ordinary running shoes. I had brought my spikes just in case but they seemed unnecessary and even not a great idea as large stretches of the course were on tarmac, so I went with my Inov8s instead.

Due to ground staff concerns, the course had had to be revised at the last minute and was now short of the advertised 7.4 miles. It was originally supposed to be 3 laps of the Dunbartonshire course, but we had to eliminate the section with the steps up to the Vet School and head straight around the cricket pitch instead, making up some of the missing distance with a revised route up the hill and around the synthetic pitches. There was also some construction work on the warm-up trail so some so we had to follow the road anti-clockwise.

Ben led from the start, and for much of the first lap I sat behind Joe and Gavyn with John somewhere behind. The pace seemed brisk and on several occasions I considered throwing in the towel, but I thought endurance might eventually win out. Part of the way round the warm-up trail I moved through into 2nd, and held this place for a while with John gradually gaining on me. At the top of the cricket pitch he suddenly pulled up slightly and I began to get away. I was a few seconds clear by the end of the second lap, and Ben was occasionally in view on the third lap where the course looped back on itself and evidently not more than a couple of minutes ahead. I passed my first back-marker on the warm-up trail on the final lap and was concerned about behing held up on the narrow trail through the undergrowth, but it didn't look like I would be caught, and the handful of runners I encountered were perfectly accommodating, Jennifer even stopping to let me pass. I finished what was reported at 6.8 miles in 40:58, which works out at about 6:01/mile. Ran a 400m warm-down afterwards.

Finishing only 2:10 behind Ben and comfortably ahead of my rivals, I wondered if I might have beaten the handicap for once, but in the results I was actually 8th man, losing around 90 seconds to the winner. John had somehow been given 22 seconds on me and consequently finished ahead. This all rendered the race something of a waste of time in terms of the Summer League.