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 […]
A Stark Contrast
Another South By Five race weekend and another new route. Some sort of “artic bomb” as the click bait press would call it, led to a very late change to the route last year. The snow and ice lending a seasonal magic atmosphere to the race, with declarations of the route being better than the standard route. At nearly three laps, it was a bit too lappy for Alex, so he set about taking the […]
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 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 […]
South By Five 2 – Lx5 “The Duck Pond”
Linn Park is Alex’s favourite of the series. There’s no prizes for guessing why! It’s the sort of route that puts the “trail” into Acorn Trails! And features our now infamous Duck Pond! The weather on Sunday was, well, South By Five. The rain held off for the race allowing runners to keep dry. From about the neck up! Saturday’s rain meant there was mud aplenty. And puddles. And a Duck Pond. If all that […]
South By Five 2023 – Kx5
Time of year “It’s that Sx5 time of year ” exclaimed one participant on his Strava recording of the opening South By Five event of this year’s series in Kings Park. And it seems that means the weather is beautiful! We continue to get great weather for our races, and I know that’s just tempting fate, but I’m safe in the knowledge if the weather is garbage, it just means more mud for you guys […]
Qx5 report
It’s over. Wait what? How did that happen. Another South By Five come and gone. Absolutely flown by! And already looking forward to the next one! The Finale The last race saw us head to Queens Park. The start and finish of the inspiration South Side Six race. True to heritage Qx5 keeps to that start and finish….so don’t blame me for those steps and that hill finish. Blame South Side Six! What you can […]
Bx5 report
Nearly there Writing this, I joined with several of you who’d commented they couldn’t believe South By Five was nearly over. With Bellahouston Park the penultimate event, we’re very much into the final hill of the series as we run headlong towards Queens Park. Quiet those sighs of relief. Of course that sentence isn’t literal, there’s definitely more than one hill left!!! In the mix We’ve 84 runners still in the mix, having 30 runners […]