The Glasgow Parkrun 5000m Races

Parkrun organise weekly races over 5000 metres on the roads at a number of venues around the United Kingdom. There are eighteen venues from Glasgow and Edinburgh in Scotland to Eastbourne on the extreme south coast of England. The record attendance in Glasgow was 250 runners and the attendance this week was 177 runners. The club attendance has been good at these runs but Marina McCallum was the only runner this week and she ran a personal best of 20:19. In a sense the time was irrelevant. One of the precepts of distance running is that you run under distance for speed and over distance for strength so if your main event is 10K you really must do races at 5k for at least 25% of the time. This year the club was represented by a large number of runners including club secretary Yvonne Green and Marina McCallum was almost certainly the top club woman in terms of the number of appearances. Antony Jones ran many events and David Gibson, Bobby Young and Bobby Rosborough were among the best attenders as far as the senior men were concerned. However the award for best attendance among club athletes would probably have to go to Roisin McShea. Although Claire Reid also turned out often and Rachel Busby, Kirsty Alexander and Kirst Alexander among the girls ran, Roisin ran well and often with her best run being her last run.
For the young athletes there is the benefit of getting tuned up for the cross country season - going from 5000 on the road to 3000 on the country is easier than going from 800 on the track to the same distance on the country. This is borne out by the running early in the Cross Country season. However the main cause of injury in young athletes is over use injury. Too much runing on roads and over long distances, whether in races or in training can lead to Sever's Disease or Osgood Schlatter's disease. Check them both outon the internet. However Brian McShea seems to have got it right for Roisin this year and the Under 13 girls team of Roisin, Rachel and Kirsty look good for the Dunbartonshires on 28th December - be there in time to cheer them on!