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I’m delighted to finally be able to announce the launch date of the Glasgow parkrun: A free, weekly timed 5k around Pollok Park. This joins the 10 other parkrun events that take place around the UK, and is the first parkrun event in Scotland. 

The provisional start date we’ve agreed with Pollok park management is Saturday, 6th December at 9.30am, outside the Burrell museum. The all important sociable coffee and chat follows in the Burrell cafe. The parkrun occurs every week at the same time. Plenty more at: 

http://www.parkrun.com/glasgow_home.aspx 

If you want to take part in this, or any of the other parkrun events, you just need to register with parkrun before your first event: http://register.parkrun.com/ - It’s a one-off process. No need to repeat each week. 

parkrun’s are run entirely by volunteers, so please get in touch if you’d like to help. You might be racing later in the day, want to give something back to the running community, or be recovering from injury and want to stay in touch with running friends. 

We’re particularly keen to get names down for the first few weeks as the event establishes itself. See the Volunteer tab, drop me an e-mail, post a comment, or speak to me in person. 

A bit more on the parkrun idea follows below.

Regards, 

Richard Leyton and Iain Brown, Event Directors  Read the rest of this entry »

I’m delighted to hear, and fully intend to support, the creation of a new ‘Friends of Pollok Park’ group that will be launching after the Save Pollok Park meeting (Tuesday 28th October at 7.30pm, at Pollokshaws Burgh Hall, opposite Pollok Park). Members of Kelvingrove Park’s Friends Group will be along to explain how they operate. A constructive supporters group should be a great asset to the park. I’ve myself put forward one or two ideas as to how the park could be improved, without recourse to commercially focused development, and hope they’ll be considered at the public meeting next week.

The Save Pollok Park meeting that precedes it should be interesting too, as it’ll be covering the legal arguments as to why the Go Ape lease can’t be granted, and updating supporters as to progress and strategies. Hopefully a constructive series of discussions. 

There’s a petition still open for supporters to sign. It closes next Tuesday, so be sure to get your name down on it before it’s presented to the council.

Things had been quiet over the summer with regards the Save Pollok Park campaign. The application was with Scottish Ministers (as the council has a financial interest in the proposal), and they were to decide whether to call it in.

Despite the fact that the council didn’t accurately portray the views of their supposed park management partners National Trust for Scotland, the Maxwell family (who bequethed the park to the people of Glasgow), and despite the views of over 5000 people who signed a petition, and despite the fact that the councils ‘consultation’ was woeful in the extreme, and countless other issues, Ministers decided not to call the application in, so it’s been returned to the council to proceed as they see fit (BBC news article here).

Personally, I’m appalled. It smacks of cowardice, a lack of concern, and despite their repeated deferral of a decision, not really understanding the issues and concerns that were being legitimately raised by the Save Pollok Park campaign, and brushed aside by the council. Call me naive too, but the rather populist agenda of the SNP had me thinking they’d surely see the campaigners view point. But I fear budgets may have been a factor, and calling-in notable other planning proposals has become something of a hot potato.

It’s far from over. There are numerous legal avenues to explore, and the campaign is moving forward with these issues. There’s also a new petition, which you can also sign online. This one asserts that the council is acting illegally in proceeding without the agreement of it’s partners in Pollok Park, the NTS and Maxwell family.

More on this whole sorry mess very soon.

I took part in the 2008 Glasgow Half Marathon yesterday. One year on from my first half marathon, a very different runner was hitting the streets of Glasgow. My goal last year had been to run it in a reasonable time, but primarily to get around and justify the sponsorship I’d managed to raise. It was an unknown quantity. But as I enjoyed myself thoroughly, I decided to take my running up a notch and joined a running club.

So a year later, I’d managed to run the Helensburgh half marathon in my buildup, and completed the clubs winter handicap championship (coming second, no less). The Glasgow Half would be the last race for me to complete the main club championship. A total of 15 races over the course of a year.

I’d been training as hard as I could, but hadn’t managed to get quite as many decent long runs in as I’d needed, and this showed in Helensburgh. My goal there had been to get around, but I still managed a time of 1:41:23, a full 11 minutes improvement. I was chuffed to bits, and deliciously close to a 1:40. So that became my target for Glasgow. “Get safely below 1:40″. I figured a 1:37:30 target time would be sensible, but largely dismissed any suggestions of anything faster than that.

The day dawned, and despite heavy rain in the North of England (which had, I think, been expected to move further north), nothing other than grey clouds and a breeze hit Glasgow. Nice for a change, but perfect running weather. I took no chances though and took all the appropriate precautions (close inspection of the Helensburgh photographs will reveal why), and headed in to town with Frances (who was going to dart around the course and take pictures).

After a brief warmup, I joined the starting area. I was in the white group (ie. the first section to start). Last year I was in the green area (third group to start), so felt like quite a step up. Ahead of us loomed St Vincent Street, which seemed to get steeper and stepper as the start time approached. The course was different this year due to road works, so we had an incline up St Vincent Street, over the M8 to Finnieston, then up an off-ramp and onto the M8.

Whilst trying to ignore Jimmy Saville who seemed to do nothing more than wave, the start seemed like quite an anti-climax, and after the usual big race jostling (reminding me why I prefer smaller club-run races) it was off up St Vincent Street. I’d largely written off the first couple of miles given the inclines, but the first mile bleep gave a time 0f 7:29 - nicely on target. A relief, and I’d been feeling a lot better than expected (all those hill training sessions paying off!). The second mile was even better, but probably too fast: 7:05. Perhaps because there was a bit of downhill along the way, and the crowds were easing out a bit.

After last year, when I found it all very interesting, the run over the Kingston bridge (M8 bridge through Glasgow) felt a bit of a silly diversion, so I was glad to get off the bridge and onto the flat straight that led through to Paisley Road West. Mile 3 at 7:02 was another speedy split, so eased off and found a more reasonable pace, but still fast at 7:12, but seeing Frances gave me some encouragement and passing some fellow club runners I’d been eyeing as a target perhaps helped too. Mile 5 at 7:30 was a little under pace, but a few windy corners, and I wasn’t too bothered. More than enough ‘in the bag’. Time for a wave as I passed through Bellahouston Park, where Frances’ brothers Brendan and Paul, who were with my nephew Nathan (looking very confused as to what all these silly people were doing). But I did manage to get a bit confused by the changed water layouts (a feature of the race).

Mile 6 at 7:18, and Mile 7 at 7:23, and feeling very comfortable, but not wanting to push some as I knew Pollok Park was coming up, and it always catches me out, despite doing most of my training there and knowing it’s inclines inside out. Through the park saw Mile 8 at 7:31, which was better than I expected, and Mile 9, just as we exited at 7:33 (missing Frances’ parents and assorted uncles and aunts, but hearing them). They’d changed the exit from the park at the last minute (as far as I can tell), so a nasty incline was inserted by the Burrell collection, but pleased my times weren’t too affected. I’d also passed a Fetchie (Alex) from the 1 mile challenge a few months back suffering from stitch. Something I’d never experienced in a race, but come mile 10 (07:30) I was starting to feel a bit in my left side. That said, it could also have been trying to drink water. I knew I needed some, but struggled with it. So mile 11 was at 7:34 pace. This was through the dull streets into town, so whilst the end was almost in sight, it was ‘dig deep’ time.

Another sighting of Frances around the 12 mile mark (7:27), and just over a mile to go. Whilst by now feeling really rather tired, I managed a 7:13 (thousands of people lining the finish straight must have helped too), and I was across the line in 1:36:46, a full minute faster than even my most optimistic time prediction, and very safely under my target of 1:40. That said, I’m not looking forward to the finish-straight pictures that are usually available, which will probably have me pulling a very odd expression!

I’d largely made good progress throughout, and didn’t really lose too many places once I’d taken them. I fell in with a few people along the way. I was quite glad to see a chap with loud headphones disappear off into the distance. Grrr!!! Similarly, the chap with the very noisy breathing/nose-blowing (what was that noise! Sounded like a dog sneezing…), I was glad to get some distance ahead of him! It’s amusing what can annoy/inspire you to push that bit harder whilst you’re running!

Along the way I was boosted by the support from the Bellahouston Road Runner supporters. Many of the club runners who weren’t taking part in the Half (many did the 10k earlier) were along the route crying out names or just “Come on Bella!”, which really made a massive difference. If there was a club-supporters championship, I’m pretty sure Bella would be up there at the top!!

Chuffed to bits with my time, and delighted to have finished the season in such fashion. I’m deferring thought of targets for next year for some time, but already eagerly looking forward to the next few races. I’ve a 10 mile race next weekend down in Cumbria (where I’m away for a short holiday), and am looking forward to finding a decent 10k somewhere to mount an attack on my 45:01 time!

Links

• Full results
• 2008 Glasgow Half Marathon pictures (Bella Selection), courtesy of Frances
• 2008 Glasgow Half Marathon Pictures, the full 245 picture set, including Beagles!
• Norman’s writeup
• Ian Goudie pics, plus a special mention for being the loudest supporter!
• Jim’s pics
• Captain Caveman’s pics selection

News came through late yesterday that Scottish ministers weren’t going to call in the Go Ape proposal, handing it back to the inept at Glasgow council.

I suppose the indecision was writ large in the various delays in coming down off the fence. Once was understandable. Twice just silly. It was turning into a farce, but one with a painfully inevitable punchline.

A newsletter to campaigners last night from savepollokpark.com shows the fight is continuing. There’s a sound legal challenge underway, the opposition of the NTS and maxwell family, and a number of significant issues the council has to see resolved before trees get cut down and rich businessmen start swinging from the trees of Pollok park.

Last week I took part in the Co-operative Jog Scotland 5k challenge on Glasgow Green. This was two weeks after my club ran it’s annual “Presidents Cup” handicap, over the Bella 5k course. So lots of 5k races to report on.

The Presidents Cup is a handicap, and this was my first experience of such an event. Runners are set off in reverse order of speed with a ‘handicap’ related to a recent 10k time. So we were all entirely consistent to that, all the entrants would finish together. I managed a time of 21:25, which I was really rather pleased with, considering my previous PB was 23:18 at Richmond Park Time Trial in November (write-up here). So in 7-8 months, I’d managed to take almost two minutes off my time (allowing for the fact that the RPTT isn’t as flat as the Bella 5k course).

The hardest part of the race was, as frequently is the case with running, the mindset. As well as all the usual battles that go on in your mind as you’re running, the additional complication was battling the desire I have to fall in with another runners pace. I’ve done it before in races, and benefited from a faster runner, almost as much as I’ve lost out to falling in with a slower runner. With the handicap, the people in front are (theoretically) slower, and so you’re aiming to catch up with them over the distance. Not fall in with them.

All said, it was a great race, and a lot of fun, and I was delighted to get a PB in the process. I find most sessions where the entire club is involved a lot of fun: It’s great to see how good the other runners are, and helps inspire us slower runners. Best of all though club regular Colin (aka Captain Caveman) won the men’s event, and he’s a fellow group B runner, giving us all hope! He quipped to me afterwards that he wouldn’t have come that night if he’d realised we’d be racing, and he went on to win! Marvellous stuff.

Anyway, last Wednesday saw the Co-operative Jog Scotland 5k on Glasgow green. This was a much bigger event - The results page shows close to 1,000 runners took part - and I had a hope I’d push my PB a bit more, even though the course was unfamiliar to me.

After a huge amount of walking about Edinburgh (for work) and all over Glasgow (to dump my laptop bag with my helpful brother in law, Paul!), I arrived thinking I’d done enough of a warmup already! After a quick few re-adjustments (In my hurry to get to the race I’d managed to get my running vest on the wrong way round, after pinning my number on! Doh!) and a short warmup, we lined up close to the People’s palace. Gun starts always give me a fright, but I managed to set off at a decent pace. Consistency was my goal, but pushing as hard as I could manage with that in mind.

I got into a good battle over the course with fellow Bella, John. I’d passed him around the 1k mark, but in a storming example of “digging deep”, John barrelled past me on the finish straight like something possessed. He’d been keeping pace with me all along, and did a stunning job to pull out a finish like that. That’s still “advanced running” for me: I feel great to just get to the finish line in a reasonable time!

In the end my watch time was 20:59, and my chip time 21:00, so I’m suspecting a rounding error is involved! A new PB either way, so I’m still absolutely delighted, and it’s given me some real hope I might just about to be able to think about mounting a challenge on the 20 minute barrier next year. Best of all, reasonably consistent splits (by my measure at least): 04:01, 04:13, 04:18, 04:26 and 04:01. As ever the 3k-4k split proves hard, not helped by a slight incline along the path.

The event itself had a reasonable turnout of fellow Bellas. 13 in total, with a stunning 16:12 and 16:18 by two of our leading club runners. It was won by the Glasgow racing scene regulars from Eritrea (a bit more about their story here, but ignore the bigotry in the comments!) in a truly stunning 14:07.

With a good goodie bag (I’ve got the chocolate stashed in my laptop bag ready to much!), and some great performances, it was a fun evening. Rounded off with a (I think) deserved beer and healthy(ish) noodles at Wagamama, it all made for a great evening.

Well, there’s nothing quite like a media storm to draw attention to the fact that your own MP has a weblog. It seems he’s been accused of calling us all miserable (link to BBC news).

You can read the article here on his weblog - I plan to do so later on. He also has a slick, but rather generic looking Labour-MP website

As a weblogger myself(!), and a constituent with no party affiliations (but plenty of opinions, as Mr Harris himself will have recently discovered after I wrote to him about 42 days detention), I plan to keep a bit more of an eye on his weblog in future. It’s certainly to be commended (especially as he’s a minister), and I certainly hope the current media storm doesn’t put him off maintaining it. If only more politicians would do so (Glasgow councillors in particular), we’d all perhaps know a tiny bit more about what our representatives think.

This was a significant race for me in a number of ways. Most importantly last year it was the first race I ran after I took up running (here’s my 2007 write-up), but more recently it was a race I’d taken on to beat my PB in, as part of the XT Wings Challenge. It’s also my most local 10k race - running through Pollok park, which is right besides my house, and where I spend most of my time training.

The race is certainly going from strength to strength, and over 2,500 runners took part. Still a way to go before it reaches the 12,000 in the Ladies 10k that I helped out with last month.

My late write-up of the race perhaps belies that I didn’t finish the race in quite the way I’d hoped. I certainly didn’t beat my PB of 45:01 from this years Jack Crawford 10k. In the end I managed a time of 46:23, which was some way off.

I certainly started off quite well. The first couple of km were in my target pace range (around 4:25) - 04:20 then 04:25, and a bit slower at the 3k mark (04:33). But still reasonable. It’s very easy to set off too fast (something I’m particularly prone to do), so was keen to keep it under control. Unfortunately, the 4k mark (04:44) marked the start of the long slow incline into Pollok Park, and that drained me. I couldn’t make up much time down “Sarah’s hill” (as the club call it), I was just enjoying the easier downhill rather than pushing, so my times went to 04:51 at 5k. It pretty much says all. There wasn’t much hope for me to beat my PB at this point, and I found it difficult to get close to my target pace at all. 6k at 04:40, and 7k, the exit from the park at 04:47.

But disaster struck when I had my first shoelace incident during a race. I’m normally very careful to tie my laces. Not too tight as the tops of my feet hurt if they are, due to their slightly odd shape. So that took a chunk of time, so 8k at 04:45 was probably actually quite close to my target. 9k at a pace 04:45, and the final 1k felt a lot longer - there’s a difficult incline at the start of the park entrance, and it’s a lot further than you think to the finish line. Last 1k was at 04:37 average pace. So my average pace was 04:39 throughout. 9s off the magic 04:30 I needed to stand a chance of beating my 45:01 PB.

Reasons? Well, most likely I didn’t do enough consistent longer train runs in the build up. Plenty of short, faster runs/speed session work, but I perhaps didn’t get out for longer runs enough in April and May. But I have a good excuse for at least most of April :-). But not much of one for May It’s also a tougher course than I’d given it credit for. Perhaps complacency too given I do most of my training on the roads and paths that the course uses, but it’s a different kettle of fish when you string them together and try to run them at pace. I also was a bit foolish by going for what turned into quite a tough training run on the Friday just before. I hadn’t planned to, but whilst I was very pleased with the results, it really would have been better to have taken it easier so close to a race.

One of the problems I do have is maintaining exertion for longer periods at a higher heart rate, and building endurance is something I really need to focus on. I’m a bit of a whimp, and find it hard not to think negative thoughts when I really need to be “digging deep”. The winter training helped with this, and probably played a big part in my previous 10k PB.

But I still very much intend to get my PB down if at all possible this year. I just need to find a flatter course and ensure that my mileage is up. Oh, and that my shoelaces don’t get untied!

But to put it all into perspective just one year ago I completed the race in 53:56. This year’s time of 46:23 is 07m33s faster. My average pace was 05:23 compared to 04:39 for similar effort. With a focus on building endurance (I’ve entered the ballot for London 2009, so hope to see something along those lines!), who knows what next year might bring. As ever, it’s not all about individual results (although those are nice!) but the journey that counts, and even when you don’t hit your targets, you still learn a lot, and that’s all good

I’d previously written about my experiences with being cited for Jury Service here in Glasgow. I’m pleased to say that my duties have been absolved, and I wasn’t in the end required to actually sit on a Jury, although I did need to attend for selection.

Somewhat in contrast to my rather gloomy feelings about how the process “felt” in the lead up, on the day itself it all went rather smoothly, and I felt that the staff at the High Court in Glasgow were very understanding, polite, helpful and informative. After a wait in the restaurant, where not much was said by anybody, we were called and led through a maze of corridors to a waiting room, where we were then addressed and the process explained to us. We were checked off the list, and then addressed by one of the court officials.

I’m not going to go into details of the case, but I’d already discovered that it wouldn’t last more than a week (We’d have been written to in advance if that had been the case). Whilst the case was described in somewhat flippant terms, the details of the charges when read out in court sounded somewhat more severe, and not particularly pleasant.

We were called into the court, and sat in the public area. On arrival of the judge (and his impressive looking mace), 15 numbers were drawn from a glass bowl, and that constituted the selection process. No rejections took place. My number didn’t come up, but the numbers on either side did, so I rather felt I’d escaped by something of a whisker! We had to hang about in case those selected discovered some reason they couldn’t serve, but it was pretty much over after that. We were eventually advised we weren’t required again, and didn’t need to phone in at all.

A few observations of the process I observed before being relieved…

The policeman at the back of the court didn’t sound very amused at having to tell some in the public gallary to stand on the entrance/exit of the judge. It’s a slightly strange experience, but it signifies a respect for the judicial system. A judge is an important individual - but represents a great deal more - so that people didn’t think it necessary to stand seemed strange.

Getting dressed up in a fancy suit, and carrying a briefcase didn’t make any difference to one or two in the selected jurors. There seems to be an urban myth floating about (it was certainly suggested to me) that you’re guaranteed a rejection, but a jury is supposed to be random and balanced. Posh looking suits won’t make much of a difference. I just dressed up in what you might call “smart casual”, but others were even in jeans and t-shirt.

Affirmations are a minority activity. Before the selection process, we were asked to let the court clerk know if we wanted to afirm, rather than swear an oath to invisible sky pixies. Just a few of us raised our hands, and one of us was picked. He got to do it on his own, so atheists be brave!

The range of citation numbers was about 60, but by my estimation there were just over 30 jurors in the room. So a 1 in 2 chance of being selected for a 15 person jury, rather than the 1 in 4 I’d estimated. Perhaps cited jurors had lots of good excuses, or the numbers were just ‘filler’, or a lot of absconding occurred, but I was taken aback by the relatively small number. We were advised we may be needed again, due to a juror shortage elsewhere, so it seems it could be widespread. No wonder there’s only one person from Frances’ family who’s not been cited.

In the end, I’m glad I didn’t serve, but I’m still curious about the experience. I will, I understand, be eligible for citation in 5 years time. Whilst the impersonal process in the lead up to the actual requirement to attend court didn’t impress me at all, the experience on the day was interesting and intriguing. But do remember to take something to read. There’s a lot of waiting.

I’ve been a member of Liberty for a few years now. For an organisation of its size, it makes a considerable impact in any debate on civil liberties, which I feel have repeatedly under attack by this Government, most recently with the unnecessary proposal to increase pre-charge detention from 28 to 42 days.

I find this proposal objectionable in the extreme. It further undermines fundamental liberties we used to enjoy, and despite the concessions being offered by the Government (Which, to me, smack of political desperation: Just listen to the concessions supposedly being offered to “rebels”), gives the UK the longest period of detention of any comparable democracy. That Sir Ken MacDonald, the Director of Public Prosecutions - the man who will charge the people detained - is opposed to it’s six week period.

There is a survey that suggests 60% of the public support this measure, but I worry that this reflects a knee-jerk response to a question that draws on fears which have been built up (in my view rather cynically and with political motivation, rather than based on evidence) over the years. Put simply, try to imagine what it would be like to be locked up, without knowing the reasons why, for six weeks?

The desperately frustrating thing is that there are genuine and solid alternatives that appear to be being dismissed: allowing the use of intercept evidence in court, post-charge questioning and, if needed in a genuine crisis (which the Government makes such an issue with), using powers that already exist in the Civil Contingencies Act 2004.

Whilst my MP Tom Harris is almost certain to vote for these measure (he’s a minister), to ensure that he’s properly aware of my objections and the issues I hold important when I come to decide who to vote for at the next election, I’ve today written to him through the excellent writetothem.com website. My letter appears below. I’d suggest anybody else who cares about this matter to consider writing themselves.

Some other resources:

• Sign the petition on the Prime Ministers website.
• Read Liberty’s suggestions on what to do
• Review the campaign details (PDF)
• Join Liberty.

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