This won’t be a long one you’ll be glad to know. A short one because I did the short race. And because I’m short. Just a wee reminder to myself. About the race that is, I always know I’m short.

Now I love the Tom Scott road races.

The 10 miler is one of my favourite races and when it was announced I was right in there and signed up. Problem was I never quite got fit enough to do it due to injuries and interrupted training so I ended up switching to its sibling the 6k round the loch race. Pretty gutted about it, but sometimes we have to accept our own limitations and to be honest even 6k would be a test of my endurance just now, but I wanted to come along, do the race then have a wee jog about watching the big race so that’s what I did.

I had no idea what type of time I could do for this. Now as I build back to fitness I have recently been running around the 17.30 range for a 5k. That’s 3.30 a k pace, so stick another one on and its 21.00. Not realistic to be honest to maintain that pace so aim for between 21 and 21.30 and I would be happy with that I think. We were to be starting alongside the 10 milers and splitting off around 3 miles so at least I could get involved in the big race atmosphere. With no 1 on my vest I got a few funny looks but the only thing I was fast at was entering a race 🙂 Conditions dry, wee bit of sun, a wee wind, and we were off.

Now this will just be a quick summary as I said, as there was nothing to shout about. First k in 3.29 so all to plan but then I ended up in a group for a couple of k and my pace dropped. The group was all 10 mile runners. Great ones aye, but I ended up getting into the wrong groove and my average time severely slipping. Was to be no sub 21 anyway and I had no idea at all where I might be in the 6k race. Any other time I would be delighted to be running with BRRs Alan Moss who is flying this year, but since he was doing 10k more than me it was doing me no good.

Even the woman with her dog seemed to be pacing it better than me, fair play. We split and I see a stream of runners ahead and going round the bottom of the loch.

I am well down.

My nearest competitor is the talented Valencia Wright who is a wee bit ahead but will give me something to chase. Further ahead is my old parkrun rival Iain Tomb of Calderglen, too far ahead today I think. Through 5k in the around 17.50 I decide to go for it anyway.

I catch Valencia and try to bridge the gap on Iain. As we get to the bottom of the loch he is within reach but a strong headwind comes out to play. We must be maybe 300 400 to go and I sneak ahead and I think I annoy him and run hard for home.

Maybe I could still sneak the 21.30? I finish well. I have to be fair had a good last k but overall the run has been disappointing. The time of 21.42 not what I had expected, way down on how I felt I had run even over the last k. On further inspection of the garmin after I had put my specs on I see we had run 6.17k and I had averaged 3.31 per k. Had it been 6k then I would have been somewhere in between the 21 and 21.30 so not as bad as I thought.

It was nice to find out that I had won the vets prize, but as I put on insta later, and a few days afterwards still feel the same, on reflection the result better than the run. Barring the final k I’m not very happy with this one. Back to the drawing board as my pace and ability to click into a decent “groove” just isn’t there. I need to try and find that extra level within myself I found last year and get out my comfort zone. I need to get rid of this cocoon, my protective covering and hit the pain zone again. No disrespect to anyone else running but I am looking at my 16.38 5k from last year and I am a mile off it. A lot of work to do. Anyway did a few miles after it and watched the 10 milers, inspiring stuff and brilliant to watch. Well done to Bobby Hill and his team at Law for another superb event. Hopefully I will be back next year at the longer distance.

Thanks to Bobby Gavin, Dave McNulty, Keiran Pugh and Kenny Phillips for the photos.

The song, on the playlist, “Cocoon” by Scotland’s own wonderful Annie Booth.