This is my third running of the 3k on the Green race in Glasgow. I did it in February and March but had to skip April’s as that is when my knee niggle started to become something a bit more sinister. So, I was glad to be toeing the line today only 5 days after pacing Al at the Edinburgh Marathon. I decided after a few days decent running with no major knee problems to go for it and see how the knee held out.
My two previous excursions to the green had seen me post times of 10:33 and 10:38. I was really pleased with both efforts and weirdly those outings both came after other races (Kirky 12.5k and D33 Ultra) also. The difference here is that I was carrying an injury rather than fatigue.
Expectations were low for today’s event. I was unsure what I’d be able to do here – I hoped for 11 minutes. I’d done no pace running since the March edition and my training workload was at about 70% of what it should have been. And, I wasn’t certain my recovering knee would hold out.
Peep-peep-peep and we were off. 62 runners, raising £124 for charity raced east. I started in the second row but was quickly into about 6th place and a wee check of my watch after 300 metres showed my pace at 5:06 minutes per mile. That was not going to be sustained so I eased off. 10% of the way in and the knee hadn’t screamed at me. In fact, the lightness of my wonderful Asics racing flats seemed to be helping. I dropped back to about 5:40 pace, well inside that 11 minute hope. I was overtaken just before the turning point by a couple of runners, one of them a woman. I didn’t care that I was going to be chicked. I was happy to be running. That said, it felt she was aggressively cutting across me so I was glad to let her run away from me.
We turned, I headed back and was starting to struggle. My breathing was laboured and when my watched beeped a mile in 5:32 I was surprised but could feel myself slowing.
The run back always feels longer and this felt like an age. I was beginning to struggle badly and was overtaken again. But I dug in. The last 400 metres felt like running in treacle. However, I managed to cross the line in 10th place and with a watch time of 10:34, official time of 10:34. Just 1s outside my PB.
I was mighty pleased and delighted that my two poor months hadn’t cost me too much pace.
Lastly, shout out to @ordinarybhoy Barrie Johnstone and ultra daftie David Mooney. Was good to meet both of of them for first time today. Keep on running lads!
If you want to find out more about this cracking event go to: http://www.3konthegreen.com
James Stewart 