Dunbartonshire XC Championships

I had been fighting off a cold for several days and declared myself OK to run on Saturday morning. With several rivals involved in the Masters International at Bellahouston Park, I thought I might have a chance of the Vets' prize. This year the Dunbartonshire was at Posties Park in Dumbarton, which I expected to be a lot less challenging than Maryhill Park, although the weather was terrible, with rain and a strong blustery wind, although it was just about warm enough to get away without a top under my club vest. Expecting heavy underfoot conditions, I went with 9mm spikes. There were occasional tarmac paths to cross but everybody else was going with spikes.

I set off quite fast and was in about 10th place early on, just behind four Dumbarton AC runners who looked like strong condenders for the team prize. About a third of the way round the first lap, I moved up a couple of places, and by the end of the first lap I was still 8th with one of the Dumbarton guys close behind. At around the same point on the second lap, we passed one of the early leaders who had slowed quite a bit. The Dumbarton runner was being implored by the odd spectator and steward to overtake me for the sake of the team prize, and I expected him just to outkick me at the finish, but he did actually go past as we started the loop of a football pitch near the end of the second lap. He seemed to slow down immediately and I went back into 7th place shortly afterwards and began to pull away. I could see behind me that our fourth counter was sufficiently far up the field that we were likely to win the team prize unless something drastic happened. On the final lap, I slipped on an embankment and lost a couple of seconds, but by the end I was 5 seconds clear in 7th, 3rd for Garscube. I usually have a disastrous performance at the Dunbartonshire so it was a pleasant change to finish inside the top 20, let alone the top 10. It turned out that one of the Dumbarton runners ahead of me was a Vet, and there was nothing for 2nd Vet, but we still took the team prize. Approximately 6 miles in 37:39, average pace 6:17/mile.