So this week I ran my 2500th mile of the year, my most ever by a long way and a nice target to have hit and it got me thinking how fortunate I am to be able to have a hobby that I enjoy, and to still get the opportunity to go out there and do it. It also gave me the opportunity to go into word and delete the blog post that I had written without posting and replace it with this hastily cobbled together one. They are both reviews of the year but with my tendency to let the negatives consume me I wanted to take the opportunity to celebrate the real highs that I have had in my running this year. Let’s be honest, I am getting older and the luck, like the legs, has to run out some time 😊
So negatives, this is your wee bit here, enjoy your token paragraph then scatter off and don’t bother me again. Do not pass Go, do not collect £200. There have been many, many, many of them but I do need to stop dwelling. The main things? Age has been catching up with me but these things happen. I thought I had dropped off the age cliff this year but started to see a little light that suggests the drop isn’t as bad as I had feared. I also found it really difficult finding my place again after realising much later than I should have that I was no longer part of a gang and training group. Physically I am really enjoying training again and loving the club sessions when I can make them, but to be honest mentally I still have a bit of work to do and I haven’t managed to process it all very well. I’m way out on the periphery again because it’s easier that way eh? Right, time up, one paragraph and gone. Shoo.
You should have seen the last draft 😉
So before those highlights its the random quotes from the blog this year. Like a sleazy politician they tell you everything but nothing:
They have nice slacks. And jackets.
The dancing horses of doom cascading round my brain, dancing to the rhythm of the bongos of fear.
“Good Luck” says David Cooney as he appears in a puff of smoke.
The course was changing and an extra couple of hills were being introduced. Not Bobby, not Ross, but real slopey up and down ones.
I had parked my car next to Gala’s Sara Green and watched how the real runners prepare compared to me playing at it. Parked beside her car to be more accurate. And not as strange sounding.
He really did not like me, maybe that’s why I can’t stick that Gareth Malone.
Who am I to argue with the quiz show in my head?
Not sure how you spell shzooom, a sort of teleportation noise but…
We are all penned in now, like caged animals. Small fluffy ones mind you, but animals none the less. Rowff.
the nice weather and the PB drug coursing through my carbon plated veins
after getting the evil eye from a llama it was time to start
Crackerjack pencil!
Betsy the doodle gives me a suspicious, or is it a “get it right roon ye” look as she rolls over back to sleep
I watch the airport pints being savoured while I eat a cereal bar and question my life choices.
Try and kick arse on the course, but be respectful off it.
we would all let him go and win the highly sought after cap whilst the rest of us fought for his crumbs.
The commentator says I’m like a rocket. Not the first time I have been called a rocket to be fair
believe me, Linlithgow isn’t Hollywood
I am Abe Simpson, that old man yelling at a cloud, and I won’t change
Frank was having tremendous glee watching folk fall on their arses, he’s good that way our Frank
This blog comes 100% from a place of joy and not ego
I am not usually close enough to even see what shorts he is wearing
“hopefully you are happy but not satisfied.”
I came into the year with one aim, to try and go sub 3 for the marathon. I had no idea if I was capable to be honest, but I would have regretted not giving it a go. And the clock was ticking away. I’m that old that I talk about “music these days” and the only gig I went to this year was the Soup Dragons. Came into the training plan a little late after having COVID at Christmas, but hit the ground running well as I eased back into training managing to get a very hard fought M50 Scottish bronze for the indoors 3000m with my eighth successive sub 10. Did over do it after that though and spent a week or so on the sidelines after the hammy went but since then have been fortunate with injuries, only minor ones over the year with no longer than a week out. I can’t argue with my block to be honest, and I can usually cause an argument in an empty room so that’s something, and on many occasions where I had races lined up I chose to do a training session instead. I chose the races I actually ran through the block carefully and when I look back it what a purple patch that was for me. Maybe even mauve.
Not a race really, but my first “first over the line” at Strathclyde parkrun in a PB which was just enough to get me in the Cambuslang team for the …
Scottish Road relays – M50 team gold and fastest individual 5k leg
British Masters 10k champs (Round the houses 10k) – 35.07 PB, individual M50 bronze, team gold
Monkland Half marathon – 5th overall, 1st M50, my second fastest half ever.
Scottish 10 mile championships (Tom Scott 10 mile race) – 2 minute PB, Sub 60, M50 Scottish champion. This is one of my favourite races and race organiser Bobby saying to me “congratulations on winning the Jackie Gourlay Shield for 1st M50+. Now forever a part of Tom Scott RR history “ was pretty special.
So a decent build up but the marathon owes you nothing. I still had to go out there and do the job. I am proud of my approach though, as I went out in a disciplined fashion and barring a tickle from that cheeky little cramp gnome a few miles from the finish it went to plan.
Job done and very probably my last marathon. I even got to chat about it to the two gents I call my Sunday morning companions as I always listen to their podcast on my Sunday Long Run. A real fun experience chatting to Young Hearts Run Free (season 8 episode 8 if you fancy a listen) and even that was a big step for me with my lack of confidence. https://markgallmac.com/2023/06/09/young-hearts-run-free/
I suppose it set me up for going on Talksport later in the year to talk about my run on strava that looked like Morrissey….
I can’t believe the shape I had managed to get into, marathon training does that for you, sustaining it is more difficult. In retrospect I should have taken more time off or eased it off more but I didn’t. I did however manage to build back again in time for the Scottish Masters 5000m champs, and my silver medal in a PB of 16.52 ranks as one of my best ever track runs. I got the chance of my final Scottish vest as a late replacement in the inter area 3000m and savoured every second, giving it a right go against some really good opponents for 3rd in another sub 10.
I had high hopes of pushing that 10k time even further and breaking the 35 barrier, but despite following what I thought was a good plan I didn’t even manage to get under 36 over 3 races. The legs and head simply weren’t there and it was a really difficult time for my running. A couple of low 17 5ks lifted me out the fog a little before I somehow ran the best XC race of my life as we narrowly took the M50 gold at the Scottish XC relays after a titanic battle with race favourites Garscube. A pleasing 4th in the National individual short course XC Champs followed giving me a bit of hope that maybe I’m not totally washed up yet. I completed my 100th parkrun and 2500 miles for the year, more wee personal challenges to tick off. I got involved with the Athletics Trust Scotland charity which has been great fun. Giving a talk to the SHRLG masterclass event on ATS behalf about my own running path with no preparation was certainly a challenge but one hopefully I managed to rise to. I look forward to where we can hopefully take this in the future, with the first lot of grants having been given out.
So there you have it, so many positives and highlights and it is unlikely I will ever see such a year again, so yep I’ll embrace it. If this is indeed where the story of the most irritating runner in Scotland ends then it’s a good positive note to end on. If you have read this far then thank you. If you have ever read, then thank you. The running is a hobby, the writing is a hobby, and together, for me, it’s been cathartic but neither will go on forever. Next year? I have no 2024 aims other than to go out and race hard when I can. I don’t expect any PBs though I will always have a pop, I’m not good enough to be competitive in my age group now but hope I can have the odd race where I can let people know I still exist, and I don’t do big championships, so I just want to try and be consistent and annoy people with my presence. If I can do any of that and keep enjoying it then it’ll be a grand year. Big thanks to everyone who spoke to me this year, it’s appreciated and I hope we can keep saying hello next year. Have a song then some pictures. This one goes on the playlist, from Grian Chatten, from the wonderful album “Chaos for the fly”, “All of the people.”
Some more pictures from the year.
markgall 