06/02/11 - Renfrewshire 5 mile Road Championships

I haven't done a proper road race since the Great Scottish Run last year. Therefore I was going into today a bit "in the dark" as to what to expect performance wise. I thought I'd be doing well to get under 35 minutes, should get under 40 minutes and be no more than 45 minutes.

I don't normally do 2 races in a month but at the moment I'm just doing what I feel like and I felt like really going for it so I chose to do this race. Another reason is because it is part of the club championships so I knew Giffnock folk would be there. I know I won't come anywhere near competing for any trophies or anything but I still like competing against people in my club and wearing the vest.

The Race


There was 8 men representing Giffnock today and top 10 get points for the Club Championships so I knew I was in the points. I started towards the back and found a good pace. I wore my garmin but it was more to check what distance I was at as there were no mile markers. Early on it was clear that I would be racing against Martin and James. I was ahead of them for a bit. But when the route goes off out of Battery Park heading east along the promenade. Martin and James took off. I thought that's fine I'll run my own race. They must have gained a good 400 meters at least on me but I could always see them. The promenade section is a long out and back. When heading back into Battery Park I caught up with James and managed to overtake him. He said after he just went out too quick. I was slowly reeling in Martin but in the end I just ran out of path as he finished just a place above me, and it can't have been more than 10 seconds difference.

I finished in 34.50! Delighted and I really feel I gave it all I had today. I have never done a 5 mile race before so a PB.  The pace per mile average is 6.54 which is pretty much my 10k pb pace. This is even better as I've hardly done any speedwork since November so looking forward to see how much I can improve this year. I was 5th Giffnock member out of 8. If I had pipped Martin I would have counted in the team competition.

Thanks to Inverclyde for putting on a great event. My mum for supporting along with the other Giffnock supporters. Also thanks to Alan the team captain for organising and getting us registered.