South By Five – Pollok Park – The Muddy One

Rain on parade

I think that was a first for Acorn Trails. It rained during the race. Certainly a first for South By Five. We’ve had weather before, after and during but never proper rain during a Sx5 race. Unless it’s just my rainbow tinted glasses.

Of course rain on our parade does not perturb us. It just adds to the mud. Although between the damp weather and busy time of year, it seems quite a few runners were put off from toeing the line. Just 90 from 140 sign ups choosing to get their paws dirty.

Never rains but it pours..

We’re starting to get used to the pre race drama. If it’s not of our own design by arriving home from holiday same day as a race, then the weather throws us curveballs.

This time we had to deal with Michelle needing to abandon registration and event setup to deal with an alarm going off back at Acorn Towers (an inexplicable CO bleep).

Add to that I marked the course wrong which required fixing during marshal deployment, and add a sprinkling of local fuds tampering with the course signage (discovered and corrected by two of our super hi viz heros, Team Anderson! Thanks), and you’d be forgiven in thinking it never rains but it pours!

Ducks

Our wonderful ducks, lovingly rescued from Linn Park by Deirdre Parkinson made a debut in the wind swept field ponds. This deployment prompted hero Fletch to comment “I’m not going into there to collect them” – it was quite a deep puddle. Fortunately hero Angus came to the rescue and returned our ducklings for future duties!

Marcothon

With Marcothon well underway, we made sure the course was the minimum 5km distance. We don’t want anyone robbed of those vital metres during an important commitment.

Results

Kieran Cooper (Carnethy AC), a former Acorn winner home for Christmas, blew the competition away to take the top step of the podium.

Series leader, Cameron Muir crossed the line in 2nd place, with Grant Jeans completing the podium.

Callum Wallace in 4th ‘complaining’ the Cooper Conspiracy continues to keep him off the podium with Kieran’s father, and Wallace’s series rival, Richard and his injury-enforced plod languishing him further down the order than usual.

The ladies podium was also filled with familiar faces.

Jen Conway (St Albans Striders) enjoying the mud to take the first place. Juliette Linford taking second spot, keeping the battle for overall series first well alive. Janis McArthur taking third place, which leaves it all to play for going into the final two races of the series

Full results available here..

And most importantly our best dressed winners were 118 and 118!

Next up..

Bellahouston is next on the card. Our first race of 2024, on January 7th.

We also have Pollok Park Trail Race in March. Enter here…

We look forward to welcoming you all to a new year, and hope that you enjoy Christmas and the Hogmanay celebrations.

Bellahouston is a dry underfoot race. A rare Acorn Trails event that is all tarmac, totally unlike the “muddier than Plean [parkrun]” accolade that the Wee County Harriers awarded to the Pollok Park event. We’re happy with that!

ReGift and ReShoes

As we head towards the culmination of the South By Five series, we’d like to continue the good causes appeals that the series supports.

Foodbank donations at Pollok were amazing and meant that Jim and I had to walk home, the car being overly full.

ReGift is our opportunity for you to pass on those surplus presents. The prize table at South By Five is populated by those lovely Christmas gifts that you want to pass on. Bring them along to either Bellahouston or Queens Park. Hopefully those unwanted presents will be someone else’s treasure.

ReShoes is another opportunity to bring new life to your newly replaced trainers. We’re taking your used, but not lifeless trainers, to be passed onto runners less fortunate. Bring those along to Queen’s Park, and they’ll be donated to local charities.

Thank you

Our amazing hi viz heroes and photographers:

Lynn Connor, Katie Tallon, Cedric Moreau, Hazel, George Wilson, Zuzana Rencova, Ian Cochrane, Sharon Kay, Mark King, Kirsten Reilly & Euan, Catriona, Imaan Niven & Marwa, Steven Prentice, Deidre Parkinson, Andrew Anderson & Sophie, Blythe Lindsay, Angus Robinson, Pauline Henderson, Deirdre Hoyle, Paul Fletcher, Steven Gilligan, Fiona McDonald, Phil Knight, Charlene Harris, Callum Wallace, Debbie Wright & Paige

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year