30/12/10 - S.O.G.U - (Southside of Glasgow Ultra) report + video

You probably haven't heard of this ultra because I made it up about 5 days ago! Well it's really a training run but I thought SOGTR didn't have the same ring to it.

The Idea


I was making up a list of all the things I wanted to do when I was off work and one of them was to go for a long run to celebrate completing the Marcothon. I thought doing 31 miles on the 31st December to finish with would be a fitting way to complete the challenge. So I set about devising a route round the southside of Glasgow. I had thought about the WHW but I quite liked the idea of starting and finishing at my flat and not having to travel to get to the start/finish. So I thought about all the routes I have done and some of the clubs long runs and combined quite a few of them. I also liked the idea of going into the Fling having done one long run on my own because in the race I could be running on my own for long periods of time. So it was to test of mental strength too.

Over the last few days I thought about it more and more and decided to move it forward a day, so I wasn't too knackered for New Year (or at least have a days rest before it!) and I want to do the parkrun on New Years day. So I knew it would be a wee bit of a gamble doing 30/30 days for the Marcothon then having to do a run on the 31st with potentially extremely sore legs. But I thought I could get round 3 miles even if I have to crawl so 30th it was. When planning the route I also wanted to make sure I had plenty of opt out points along the route so if things weren't going well I could cut it short but in the end I didn't need them.

Here is the route I did, which was near enough to plan with a few exceptions:

1st stage - Cathcart to Tescos in Newton Mearns (10 miles)

The first 8 miles was all pavements and pretty flat with some undulations. I headed off towards Hampden, along Aitkenhead road which heads towards town. Then heading west along Calder Road to Crossmyloof before heading along beside Pollock Park. I had thought about going into Pollock Park but its difficult to work out mileages on the trails on mapping software so I just stuck to the roads. I then headed through Thornlibank and along to Darnley. That was the longest stretch of urban areas I would do and it was good to get it out the way early on. I was doing 13 minutes running, 2 minutes walking for the whole stretch. This is when I turned up Corselet Road which I had never been on before and it was awesome. It was more of forest track than a road and after about half a mile no traffic was allowed beyond that point. Waulkmill and Ryatlinn reservoirs were so picturesque as they were still iced over and the mist was really low. I remember passing a road which said no unauthorised entry which is the road I thought I was meant to turn left at, at the time. But looking at the map now, it was right in between the 2 reservoirs and I must have been so distracted I totally missed them!  No big deal though I just came out a junction after the one i thought I was going to come out at. So I turned left and headed down the road to Tesco.

2nd Stage - Tesco Newton Mearns to Mearns Castle High School (21 miles)

Bought some water and doubled back until I got back to the junction. This is the bit I was looking forward to the most which was a 5 mile loop round countryside backroads. I had made a point when route planning to avoid going along 60mph roads for as little as possible and for starter I was on one for maybe 50 meters. Then I turned right and the next 5 miles were really quiet single lane roads and I must have seen about 4 cars and 3 walkers. It was great and really undulating. I had changed tack with pacing and just walked the hills and run all the downs and flats (WHW style!). I finished the loop in no time which took me out at the top of the Ayr Road. The next section was suburbia along my old running stomping ground and I still use the area for some of my longer runs (or middle distance runs nowadays!). Next pitstop was at my parents where I re-fuelled and chatted to my Dad for a bit. Then it was onwards to my next checkpoint, Mearns Castle High School.

3rd Stage - Mearns Castle High School to Cathcart - (32 miles)

From Mearns Castle I took a track which I use to mountain bike down a lot when I was younger. There were a lot of puddles, showing the thaw had totally kicked in. It's a nice track going through fields and along beside Earn water. I then turned up Humbie Road which is a 60mph road. It is no where near as bad as it use to be though since the Southern Orbital got built right beside it taking a lot of the traffic off Humbie. I was only going to be on it for a mile though and there was a grass verge to run along anyway. I then took a sharp right on to the Bonnyton moor road which starts off with 1.5 miles of continuous uphill. I walked a lot of it. Usually on a good day you can see right across Glasgow from the top but not today as it was so foggy. I was surprised when I looked in the other direction the fog had lifted and I saw the wind farm motionless in the distance. Then it was onwards to Eaglesham where I dropped in at Spar to get another bottle of water. Just 500mls this time as from this point it was just 6 miles to go. It was mostly downhill though, but by this time my legs were sore and I just ran as much as I could, walked for 2 minutes and repeated until I eventually got to Cathcart. Finished! What a high I got from finishing.

After thoughts

Mentally I really nailed this run, I always thought I was going to finish and just enjoyed the ride. Overall I covered 32 miles in 6 hours 2 minutes which I'm also really pleased with. It was so nice too, to get straight in the door after the run and have a bath. I'm feeling good now going into WHW training next year. Tomorrow's run is going to be interesting!

Video

I don't normally do a video for training runs but since I was running by myself I used it as a weapon to keep my mind occupied. It's amazing how much time it does take up. It's not just the actual filming as you are also thinking - where I am I going to take the next video and what am I going to say etc. So again I found it useful. So here it is and I promise it's not all pictures of food establishments ;-)


S.O.G.U - Southside of Glasgow Ultra from Stuart McBeath on Vimeo.