Sunday 17th May saw two Tortoises travel the 46 miles to North Lanarkshire and Coatbridge to run the half marathon, the run has been taking place one year longer than the Troon 10k and has a great start and finish location at St Ambrose School which from a sporting point was impressive with numerous outdoor football pitches, indoor gyms and plenty of changing facilities, a facility of credit to the local council.

After finally locating Stewarts house we set off along the M77 and M8 in driving rain hoping that the rain and importantly the wind would cease or at least get lighter, a 50 min drive and we pulled into the impressive school facility, a quick registration and more importantly a check where the toilets were it was time to pull on the club vest and decide weather to run with or without hat gloves and waterproof jacket, Stewart being true Scottish went with the vest while myself went with the long sleeve shirt under club vest and hat, see I am getting more brave !!

Start time was 10.30am and all runners set off under a clear blue sky making the vest only runners look really smug, 5k in when the first torrential down pour started my hat and long sleeve top was looking a smart choice.

For the first time in over a year I realised this was the first new race I had entered and therefore had no knowledge of the terrain or area, it also made me think that maybe we stay to close to home and should experience new running areas, I think on reflection this thought must have been on one of the few miles the sun was out or on one of the few down hills as this run was pretty tough!

The route was almost two loops, in the main along pavements but also including three loops of Drumpellier Country Park, the route was really tough, you knew after the first loop what was coming a couple of the hills were really tough and coupled with the wind and rain any PB was going to be tough and well earned.

After running the first 5k with Stewart he eased away and though I could always see him on the long straight sections he was always a good few minutes ahead, myself I knuckled down and hit all my pre race targets 10k 44 minutes, 1 hour 8 miles, 10 miles 1hr 15, finishing in a PB of 1hr 39 51 and 34th place

Stewart was even better posting 1hr 34.47 for a PB and 18th position.

The weather probably stopped a lot of entries on the day as the total field was 129 runners, a good event but a pretty tough run

Darrell