Buchlyvie 10K – 24th January 2009
Whilst some of the more intrepid members of the club were running the Devils Burden Relay, the 3 S’s (Scott Jarvie, Stephen Maley and Sandy Macdonald) were up near Stirling for the Buchlyvie 10K.
I entered the race months ago, mainly to see what progress I’m making toward my ultimate aim of getting close to 3.30 at the London marathon. I had a very clear aim in mind, which was to go for 43 minutes. With my PB for 10K being 44.20 from Scottish Gas 10K in 2007, if I got anywhere near my target time, I’d know my training was going well and that the Wednesday nights with Bert’s group are paying dividends!
It was a beautiful crisp, sunny morning in Edinburgh so I was looking forward to it. Found the place easily enough, registered and met Scott, and then Stephen, soon after. In the half-hour before the race, the weather changed…. we had a biting, cold wind and heavy rain which then turned to sleet and at one point hail. Thankfully, this all passed before the start though, the rain stopped and we were good to go.
The start point was a bit random, in a housing estate down from the centre of the village. From there we headed out of the estate and then towards the snow-covered hills in the distance along the road to Aberfoyle. Scott and Stephen both set off quicker than me, but I was determined to stick to my plan of trying to run an even pace just under 7min/mile throughout. Still went off too quickly of course, but I tried to keep a lid on it. So that was the last I was to see of Scott, until the turn anyway, but at about 1 km I caught up with Stephen. As I passed, I commented that the first 1km was too quick, and we’d run it between 6 and 6.15min/mile pace, and he replied that we might be on for a good time then… which was a much healthier and more positive way of looking at it, I thought.
Shortly after we turned on to the trail which made up the lion’s share of the race. It was muddy and stony and it wasn’t easy to run well on, but I maintained about 6.45 pace all the way to the turn. Having watched lots of people disappear away from me at the start, it was helping my confidence that I was mostly passing people now.
Saw Scott coming back the way and not long after I saw the turning point, so figured he must be about 45 seconds or a minute ahead of me. A bit after that, on my way back I saw Stephen again, who’d obviously been counting runners and shouted “you’re 36”. I didn’t know how many runners there were overall, and didn’t realistically think I’d be overtaking the other 35 but it seemed like a pretty low number to me so that was good…
The way back seemed to be more uphill and I made the mistake of assuming that anyone still ahead of me at this point would be maintaining a reasonable pace. This was a mistake, as the next few people ahead of me were obviously slowing up badly, and rather than just going past them like I should have, before I knew it I’d settled in behind them and was down to a pace of nearer 7.45/mile. As it happens, it wasn’t easy to overtake at that point because the trail wasn’t that wide, was very muddy in parts, and there was a fair crowd still coming the other way. But when I realised what was going on, I decided to dig in and try and pass some more people.
I started passing a few runners and although it felt like hard work and I was still struggling to get back near my target pace, I seemed to be going well. I thought from my Garmin that I’d probably not make my target time now, but I’d still make a PB if I could keep it going. That terrain does sap the legs, so this would still be a reasonable result. I think I went past 3 or 4 people on the way back, and it wasn’t until nearly 9km that anyone went past me. When he did, I tried to stay with him, but realised that he was stronger than me. However, the effort to keep pace with him had paid off and we’d opened up a fair gap between us and the next group. The last 1km was largely downhill and back on the road – which felt like track after the muddy forest trails. Not surprisingly, my pace picked right up and I managed to keep it to between 6.15 and 6.30min/mile pace. At this point my legs were feeling pretty similar to how they’ve been feeling on the 9th or 10th fast interval on a Wednesday night…. so I knew I had a bit more left and, and except for the uphill near the end where they were a bit heavy, I managed to keep it going. Looked at my watch when I heard people cheering at the finish and unbelievably it showed 42.36… so thought I might still be on for 43 if I really pinned my ears back. Turned the corner and the final stretch was a wee bit longer than I thought but pushed on to finish in 43.04.
I was VERY happy with this. Well over a minute off my 10K PB, and bang on track with training for a 3.30 marathon at the end of April! It also means that my good performance at the handicap race was not a fluke and yes, I need to reduce my handicap time! Ironically though, I think it’s definitely the club training which has helped me improve so much…
Saw Scott who had finished in about 41 minutes, which he was happy with given the terrain, and Stephen came in pretty strong at about 46 minutes, managing a sprint and a smile along the final straight.
So despite concerns at various points about the weather and my ability, both turned out well on the day. No showers on offer, and when I got back to Edinburgh I not only had to wash myself, I had to wash the car seat too, with all the mud up my back. All good, dirty fun though.
Report and photo Sandy Macdonald
