Glasgow Parks Championships 2016Sunday 4 December
Good results from ESOC members at the 18th Glasgow Parks Championships, which returned to its traditional December timing this year.
The Glasgow Parks Championships is an annual competition, with three separate short events in one day. This event was originally planned for mid-September, but had to be rescheduled. A big change from previous events was that all three venues were revealed on the preceding Thursday, complete with detailed instructions on how to drive from one to the next. The first two races had allocated start times, with a chasing start for the final race.
The first race was at Drumpellier Country Park. Although this is on the edge of Coatbridge, east of Glasgow, its SW corner lies within Glasgow city boundary, and the courses were in the SW part of the park. The terrain here includes mixed woodland, marsh and lowland heath, and the finish was near the loch.
The second race was at Tollcross Park, not far away in the E of Glasgow. This is a small, hilly park, with a children’s farm and the deep glen of the Tollcross Burn. Courses looped around the area.
The third race was to the south of the Clyde, in Pollok Country Park, with the start and finish beside playing fields in the E of the park, as at last year’s event. Pollok Park has many tracks and paths through varied terrain including woodland and open parkland. Courses were in the northern part of the park, avoiding the Burrell Collection buildings, which are currently closed for refurbishment.
The weather was cold to start with, but with no slippery ice, and there was wintery sunshine all day. The first two venues had cafes for between-run socialising.
Congratulations to Alison Cunningham, who won the Veteran Women class.
Other ESOC members in the top half of the overall results were:
Ultra Veteran Men (9) – Alastair Lessells 3rd, Les Dalgleish 4th
Super Veteran Women (10) – Margaret Dalgleish 3rd
Ultra Veteran Women (6) – Eleanor Pyrah 2nd, Anne Stevenson 3rd
Juniors (14) – Rachel Brown 3rd
Full results, including Routegadget, are available here. Thanks to the small team for slick organisation, as usual.
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