Games Hopefuls Duel At Birthday Bash

7 DEC2009

Despite a number of club runners missing the Glasgow parkrun’s first anniversary, due to it clashing with the West Cross Country Championships, two of the country’s top athletes joined in with 184 other runners to ensure that the occasion was marked in style.

Commonwealth Games hopefuls Allan Adams and Jethro Lennox put on a tremendous show to finish first and second respectively in a hard fought dual. Adams, running in his first parkrun, out paced his younger Shettleston club mate to complete the testing 5k course in a time of 15:31, just five seconds off of David Phee’s course record of 15:26 set on August 1. Lennox who finished second to Phee on that occasion had to settle for runner-up again, on his second running of the course, finishing with a time of 15:54.

Competition was less fierce in the Women’s event where Scottish Schools Cross Country Champion Kirsty McWilliam finished well in front of the others to claim first prize in her maiden run, with a time of 18:42.

Men’s Race

Inverclyde’s David McElhinney (MV40-44) finished behind the Shettleston pair to earn third spot with a time of 17:51.

Two Young Kirsties

Youngster Kirsty McWilliam (F15-19) beat her closest rival Kelly Van Der Toorn (F35-39) by over two minutes, despite the Fusion Triathlete taken 29 seconds off of her course PB to finish second with a time of 21:29. Even younger Kirsty Gray (FJ14), participating in her thirteenth parkrun, earned third spot for the second time, crossing the line in 22:56.

Yasmin Ali closed the 50th Glasgow parkrun finishing in 186th place with a time of 44:55.

Freebies

To commemorate the Glasgow event’s first birthday, all finishers received a goody bag and free samples and expert advice from a Lucozade sports nutritionist. The goody bags were only made possible through the help and generous support of parkrun's national sponsors Sweatshop, Lucozade and Nike.

Over 2,350 runners, including over 1,000 women, have taken part in the Pollok Park event over the last twelve months.