The Alan Scally Relays/ KB5 Edinburgh University -
Over the last few weeks, I don’t honestly know where the time has gone. Training has been getting into a more controlled phase with some more coaching and racing has stepped up.
Over the last three weeks I have travelled through to Glasgow to race in the 50th anniversary of the Alan Scally relays and attended Edinburgh University’s annual 5-mile hilly road race. On top of that I am also having to juggle a busy time table at university and home life.
However, despite being exceptionally busy I completed both races in good times and I loved both for different reasons.
The Alan Scally Relays –
Three weeks ago I attended the Alan Scally relays which I had never ran before. This year was the first year I have ran for Edinburgh AC and I was lucky enough to be entered into the race as part of one of the relay teams.
The race is held at Glasgow Green which is a lovely part of the city right in the city centre. It is a large open park which runs along the river side and is highly popular with runners, dog walkers and cyclists. The course of the race starts and finishes next to the river front and the course begins running down the river towards Glasgow green. It then takes a few turns around Glasgow green which is the most technical part of the course with a few tight and narrow turns making you lose a lot of speed and momentum if you aren’t careful in choosing your line right. It then eventually does a full loop round the park and heads back along the river in the same direction you started in. The last 1k is along the river front again and you finish at the same location where you started.
The course overall is flat, fast and all on road.
On the day of the race my legs felt good and I managed to get in a full warm up and drills. However, the weather wasn’t the best conditions with a strong wind on the way back in towards the finish line.
I ran the race slightly faster in the first few kilometres than planned and I certainly paid for it towards the end however, I think the reason looking back for that was due to the high equality field that was present such as Jake Wightman (who was also running Edinburgh AC). Overall I had a decent race with a 17 minute 5km however, I know I can do much better. I would certainly recommend anyone if they get the chance to run this to do it as it’s a great atmosphere, great racing and allows you to have the opportunity to stand on the start line with some big names.
The KB5
This is another race in which I have never competed. I signed up to this race with the thought of using it as a good piece of hard training and to get a 5-mile time. The course starts and finishes in Edinburgh University Kings Buildings Campus on the edge of the city.
The course takes in some short and steep hills and other which turned out to my cost to be slightly longer. The route starts on campus and exits the main entrance and follows the main road towards Comiston. It then takes a sharp left up the first major climb of the race. Once you reach the top of the first climb which is about 3 minutes of hard effort you then take another left and find yourself climbing up past the Braids Hotel. This is a short but steep climb which from having spoken to a lot of people after the race they found the toughest. After peaking over the climb the race starts to level out and you find yourself at the top of the Braids which offers great views due to being so exposed.
By this stage in the race my legs were starting to really hurt along the tops trying to keep a good cadence. The race then starts to descends back down towards the university campus which is a fast straight downhill which I manged to carry some good speed down. Once at the bottom of the climb only 1 kilometre remains however, this for me was the hardest part of the race.
Approximately 600m from the finish line there is one last climb up to the finish line. By this point my legs were absolutely spent and I couldn’t get my legs turning over quick enough. Once I had tackled this last challenge the course turns back onto campus and you finally get to see the finish line.
I manage to complete the hilly 5 miler in 30 minutes which had been my target before the race and I can now go on with that in training.
Summary -
The last few weeks have been very tough with some big races and little time to recovery between however, one person I would like to thank more than anyone is my other half. Kait has been there every step of my running journey and has always been there to support me. Without her I really don’t think I would get some of the results I do.
My next race (depending if they are not cancelled) is the Livingston National Relays on the 28th of this month and I look forward to getting another big race under the belt.
Until then happy running all.
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