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I spent this morning up in Balloch, supporting the hundreds of runners in the Vale of Leven 10k, the last race of the 2009 Polaroid 10k series. I’d have been running myself if I’d got my finger out and entered in time, but figured it’s just as important to do a spot of supporting on occasion to make up for all the cheers I’ve received when running myself! I took my camera along and snapped away quite furiously, and think I managed to capture a picture of almost everybody taking part in the process. My pictures are available on flickr here.

I had a great spot in the first 1k where the leaders were already edging ahead, and snapped most people as they want past, even chucking some money in Tommy’s collection bucket, before jogging to the 4k mark where the runners emerged out from their loop of the Balloch Castle park. After snapping most people there, I then headed back to the finish area to catch most of the finishers. I’d missed the winners, but my excuse is I’d foolishly not put on running shoes or gear, so was plodding along in jeans and heavy shoes. Not the best. Ah well. Didn’t do too badly.

It was wonderful to see so many participants, not only from my own running club, but so many from Glasgow parkrun too. My only difficulty is remembering names! So my apologies if I just cheered something generic. So many people seem to know my name as a result of giving the pre-race briefing to the 1200+ runners who’ve now taken part, I only know a fraction of your names. But great efforts from everybody taking part. It was a warm and sunny day, so looked like it was tough going in the second half of the course, where shade was in short supply!

Regarding the pics: As I say on the notes, please get in touch if you’d like higher resolution pictures, or if you’d like to use the pictures at all.