Mudfest
The common theme across folks description of South By Five’s visit to Pollok Park was “mudfest”! Traditionally a muddy route, the recent unsettled and unseasonably wet weather turned the race into our muddiest ever! Even course marking was fun! An out section led to the start of the ‘screaming pits’, with squeals, squelches and wails caught on video and photo by the ever intrepid Blythe! The course then began a two loop circuit with some […]
Saints Day
St. Andrew’s Day The sky shone blue on another beautiful South By Five day. All that was needed was a couple of crossed contrails to celebrate St Andrews Day…. It wasn’t just a blue sky, runners were encouraged to celebrate and several of yous came attired accordingly. Volunteers also joined in, and Colin the Clown AKA Colin the Cone became Coin the Kilt. The alliteration continues, lets see what he comes up with for the […]
Duck Tales
A beautiful cold crisp morning for our “home race”. Linn Park is a just a few hundred metres from Acorn HQ, and Jim is well versed in every nook and cranny in the park. Means Alex can get out even earlier for the course marking. Disappointingly the mud was frozen as was the duck pond! But it had a few hours at that stage to defrost. And it did…. Interest Race 2 at Linn Park […]
The Battle of Langside – Sx5 – Queens Park
The Battle of Langside Queens Park, the finale. South By Five once again comes to a close. But not before another new route and exploration of the heart of Glasgow’s south side, Queens Park. Named for Mary, Queen of Scots, her opponent at the Battle of Langside, Earl Moray, lined up on Langside Hill, while her forces aligned opposite on what is now Mount Florida train station/Langside College. Langside Hill now forms the central point […]
True Grit
South By Five – Bellahouston Park falls in early January. Always going to be a cold one in Scotland. In the 23/24 series, the race was postponed due to a severe freeze, despite Michelle and I gritting parts of the course the night before. Fast forward 12 months and we were back in a similar position. With planned Saturday parkruns and other events in the city over the weekend falling by the wayside as early […]
Brutal B*stard
Another new route. Judging by the in race feedback it wasn’t a good change. Type 2 fun was promised prior to the event. And type 2 fun it was. And it didn’t even take that long for in-race offences to change to finish line compliments! Bastard brutal A post race Strava trawl had many “brutal” comments, mostly related to the route change. Mostly related to the new hill in the new route. Now known affectionately […]
“No bad”
With the dust barely settling on the Duncan Macfarlane Race, download were done, route tweaks completed and volunteers organised for another event. Who can believe it’s been twelve months since South By Five began, and here we are again. As a wee reminder Facebook pushed up a memory – Alex pounding up those steps at Queens Park before heading to the finish line of the South Side Six. It was what transpired to be the […]
The Last One – Queens Park Sx5
We finally closed out the 23/24 South By Series. Here’s some numbers to crunch: 193 folk entered at least one event 171 different runners took part in a least one race 27 finished all 6 events and are Series completers An additional 35 are also Series completers having finished 5 of 6. Over 200 hours of volunteer time that helped the series be the success it is. 50 trees purchased to be planted in the […]
The Cancelled One! – Bellahouston Park
This phoenix didn’t rise from the flames. We rose from the ice and freezing temperatures of the scheduled Bellahouston date, to run on another perfect running morning. We made every effort to ensure this race went ahead this time (not that we don’t usually 😏). With time running out on the series, there was no scope to squeeze it into any other date. We were out on Saturday evening with the newly christened “Fraz” […]
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 […]