Post 71 - The Garioch 10k

This week started with yet another work trip to Italy. I really could do without these trips, but there was nothing to be done but to grin and bear it, and get through it as best I could. I knew I was tapering down this week for the Garioch 10km road race in Inverurie near Aberdeen at the weekend, so I only did light training while in Italy, and tried to eat well and keep hydrated. I took with me literally boxloads of food: apples, oranges, flapjacks, bananas, and vitamin C.

I had a great chat one evening with the waiter in the hotel restaurant who had spotted me earlier arriving back to the hotel after my run. He asked me about running, and the conversation moved on to triathlons, and I showed him some pictures of my bike. He was a smart guy, it turned out he was from Morocco, speaks six languages, and he immediately understood that after my running and exercise bike riding I needed some quick and nourishing food, in big portions. I can’t be doing with frilly, delicate and decorated food that you can eat in one bite…

I survived Italy and flew to Aberdeen on the morning of the final day of the 6 nations rugby championships. There were a lot of flights heading to Edinburgh from London City airport that morning, and on these flights were a lot of Irish rugby fans. But I was heading to where the real action was: Aberdeen/Inverurie for the 10^th anniversary of the Garioch 10k… I won the first Garioch 10k in 2006, and again in 2007. My attempt at 3-in-a-row in 2008 was scuppered by a really bad ankle injury just a week before the race. With hindsight, this injury was quite a big turning point in my life. I wasn’t able to run for months, and took the decision to go travelling after university. I went off the running scene for years, and then ended up working in London. Had I not wrecked my ankle in 2008, I might have gone back to Aberdeen full-time after university, and life would have taken a different path. Who knows…?

In Aberdeen, I was staying with an old running buddy, the one and only Gavin Reid. On arrival in Aberdeen, I took the airport bus into town, having been instructed by Gavin to meet him in a bar. On the bus, I picked up a copy of the Evening Express newspaper, where there was a full-page article previewing the race. I had a bit of a mention…

I met Gavin and we settled down to watch the rugby. He was on the Guinness, I was on the juice (the orange stuff, not the illegal sort…) The rugby turned out to be hugely entertaining – almost as entertaining as Gavin! He’s good company. Ireland won the tournament by a very slim margin, but it really did go down to the wire and made for a good afternoon.

A lasagne dinner was followed by a reasonably early night. Before I drifted off to sleep, I did some strategising. I thought I was in shape for a sub-33 10k. Relatively speaking, my 10k PB (33:16) isn’t as good as my other PBs, so I hoped that I would run a PB. My last PB was in 2007, so it has been a long time! I knew the course was hilly. Should I go all out for the win and risk fading in the second half, or would I bide my time and pace the run? I decided I’d try to hang back a bit in the first few kilometres and then hopefully move through in the second half. I’d run my own race and not be tempted into following any early pace-setters.

Room with a view... beats London

After a good sleep, Gavin and I headed for Inverurie. Gavin hadn’t got a race entry but was planning to jog around the course. The organisers have turned what used to be a small and friendly 10k run into a much bigger (but still very friendly) event. They now have a 5k, a 10k and a half marathon all on the same day, as well as junior races. There must have been pushing 3000 runners across all the different races. There was light drizzle, but it was quite a calm day. For a running event, it’s not the drizzle that makes things tough, it’s the wind. So conditions weren’t too bad. It was a case of trying to keep as dry as possible while warming up. My ancient Metro Aberdeen running club jacket didn’t do a great job of keeping me dry, it’s long past its sell-by date. Bits flake off it every time I wear it, like it has got the world’s worst case of dandruff. I’m sure I’ll wash it one day and when I open the washing machine, there will be nothing left of it but rags. Must get another one…

Metro had a good presence on the start line of the 10k. It was great to be in a Metro vest again, and good to see some old faces, as well as a few new faces too. The course winds through town for a couple of kilometres, then follows a country road for about 5km before a final few kilometres lapping around the town, with the finish at the sports centre. It’s still the same route as ten years ago. There was great support in the town and around the sports centre. It really is a great event, most of Inverurie must have been there in some capacity, whether running, volunteering, or spectating.

A klaxon set us on our way. Quickly, a lead group of 4 established itself as we climbed hill after hill. I didn’t force the pace and sat back at the tail end of the lead group, trying to keep my running and breathing nice and controlled. I didn’t remember so many hills, twists and turns 10 years ago! After about 2km we took a right hander and headed up another steep hill. I remembered this part, after the hill would come the country road and I though I remembered that the country road section was a bit flatter.

The group splintered on this hill. Ben pulled out a gap on Kenny and Phil, and I was sitting just behind in fourth. I then decided that I would lift my pace slightly, and I moved through into second. I didn’t lift it into the red zone, but I did enough to start to reel Ben in. The country road section wasn’t as I remembered, it was actually very undulating. Tough running. The half marathon had started ten minutes before the 10k, and as I caught Ben, we started to pass the tail-enders in the half marathon. I thought this had the potential to get pretty busy making our way past the slower half-marathoners, but we soon turned right and the half marathoners turned left, and then it was just myself and Ben, shoulder to shoulder.

We ran for a few kilometres almost side by side, working hard. I had a sense that the two behind weren’t far away either. Then, on a gradual downhill, around the 6km mark, I started to pull out a gap. I run well on gradual downhills, and I eked out a few seconds. The route went down an underpass and up the other side, and I could hear the echoing footsteps behind. Still two miles to go. Now it’ll get really tough.

Usually in a race, the philosophy is to go straight ahead unless advised otherwise by a marshal. I was coming up to two barriers across the road, with a marshal between them. There was a side road off up to the left. The marshal saw me coming, and moved one of the barriers put of the way. Straight ahead, I assumed. I ran through at full tilt. As I passed the marshal, 5 or 10 metres after the left hander, he shouted “10k or half?” “Ten,” I shouted. “Turn, turn…!” Feck it, I was already 10 metres past the turn. I slammed my brakes on, came to a full stop, did a U-turn, and strained to get back to speed as I took the turn. I don’t know how much time I lost. Maybe only a few seconds, maybe a little more, but I didn’t know how much of a gap I had.

I was really gritting my teeth up this hill, trying to keep the pace up. After 8km, I saw Gavin and he gave me a shout. I could barely acknowledge him as I was running up another hill and working hard. He later told me I looked very comfortable at this point. I was anything but! A steep downhill followed, then a right hander onto what I thought was a flat finishing mile. I crossed a marking on the tarmac saying “Go go go, 9km.” One more kilometre. I glanced at my watch. 29-something, I didn’t quite see how many seconds, but it was definitely 29 minutes. A sub-33 PB was possible. I was leading. The win was possible. I didn’t look back. I just tried to run as hard as I could. But then came a right-hander leading onto one more damn hill. It was like running through quicksand. Come on. Now I was maxing out. I dragged myself up that last hill. Surely only 500m to go. Doing everything to keep the pace up.

I was directed through a gate into the sports centre grounds, and I knew there were only about 200m to go. The finishing gantry was up ahead. I made it. 33:30-something. A third win at the Garioch 10k. Ben had dropped to third by the finish but I later found out that he had just had his appendix out, so his sub-34 performance was very impressive.

Finish line

I got my breath back and chatted to a few people in the finishing area, then got taken for “media duties” – slightly cheesy photos of the male and female winners propped up against a tree and sitting on a park bench. I also got a VIP hospitality pass for after the race. It wasn’t long before I was getting cold as it was still raining, so I found my bag, put on some dry clothes, and had my pre-prepared protein/banana milkshake – essential to give the legs the best possible chance of recovery. Then I went for a warm-down. I jogged back along the final couple of kilometres of the 10k course, giving a few words of encouragement and claps to incoming runners and saying thanks to the marshals. I got chatting to one of them and it turned out he has a daughter-in-law who comes from very close to where I grew up in Northern Ireland. Small world, especially in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

I jogged back to the sports centre and went upstairs to the VIP area with Gavin. There was a great spread, and I was hungry. I polished off a few sandwiches, crisps, quiche, cakes, and peppers, of all things. It was great. During the prizegiving, I met a friend who I worked with in the USA nearly 7 years ago. She’s now living in Aberdeen and training for an Ironman as well, so if things go well, we could both end up at the Ironman World Championships later this year. Fingers crossed. I know she’s a good swimmer and a very good runner, I don’t know much about her cycling, but hopefully she can do it. Her boyfriend Kyle (who used to beat me years ago on the local running scene in Scotland, but who I never really got to know), had just come back from injury to win the half marathon in 70 minutes, hugely eclipsing my 33 minute 10k. A 70 minute half marathon on a course like that is worth at least 67 on a flatter course. We had a bit of a chat, and if I do get back to Aberdeen I’m sure I’ll see a lot more of them, Debbie kicking my ass in a pool and Kyle giving me some dust to eat on the roads…

After the prizegiving, I had a quick chat with the race organiser-in-chief, then Gavin and I headed… for the pub. We caught the second half of the Man Utd v Liverpool game, then went back to his place. I got a shower and then we headed… for the pub! We went into town and this time, I could relax and have a pint of Guinness. I’m somewhat ashamed to admit that I also had a sloppy, dirty burger.

Treat time

Gavin is the type of guy you could chat with for hours. We went through my run mile splits for the race: 5:14, 5:22, 5:39, 5:18, 5:32, 5:17 and then 1:11. My final full mile, with the tough last uphill, was in 5:17 so my pacing wasn’t too bad. There was an article in the Sunday Times about a legal “super supplement”, L-carnitine, that Alberto Salazar (coach to Mo Farah, among others) has got involved with trialling on his athletes, with performance gains of up to 10% being seen. To a certain extent, athletes were being guinea-pigged with trialling drinks, injections, and intravenous drips of this L-carnitine. It reduces lactic acid and fatigue. In my opinion, it all sounded a bit iffy, although the governing bodies and drug testing agencies had all ruled it legal. I wonder what the long-term effects are. Anyway, a discussion about drugs in sport is worth a blog post by itself.

I looked at my watch. Ten past seven! Yikes, my flight was leaving at half 8. I abandoned Gavin and my half-finished second pint of Guinness, and made a beeline for the taxi rank. Thankfully, I got into a taxi straight away and the drive to the airport was clear. Only 25 minutes later I was passing through security, with legs that were by now starting to feel very sore. I don’t really train for such fast-paced racing and my legs aren’t used to such punishment. But I think the sore legs are a small price to pay for the weekend, and it really reinforced to me that Aberdeen(shire) is absolutely where I want to be, as soon as possible, for the long term. I'd love to be getting back to my old stomping grounds on a more regular basis - places and races like Lossiemouth, Inverness, Inverurie, Livingston, the Aberdeen beachfront, places where I developed my sporting career as a runner, and where I developed as a person too, and enjoyed some really great days with great people,

Thanks to Gavin, all at Metro Aberdeen Running Club, the race organisers, and Fraser Clyne for making such a great weekend and great event possible. Hopefully I'll be back next year... I haven’t managed to find too many photos from the race itself, but if I come across any, I’ll post them later.

Training done this week was as follows:

Mon 16 March: Rest
Tue 17 March: 30 minute bike
Wed 18 March: 25 minute run
Thu 19 March: 30 minute bike
Fri 20 March: Swim 1.5km
Sat 21 March: Rest
Sun 22 March: Garioch 10k: 33:32

Totals: Swim 1.5km, Bike 20 miles, Run 12 miles