The Great Run

Bloody Scotland Part Two The Queen Mary.

The Great Run

The wonderful Victoria Wood tells a joke about her PE class at school. They got banned from cross country running after they dented a viaduct.

The relevance of that joke to this pictorial and speedy flaneur is that the Great Scottish Run which took place on Sunday. It's been four years since I ran due to a lovely condition called Farmer's Lung - a fungal pneumonia and not pleasant. It requires lots of oxygen and steroids then a long, long time of not stressing the airways - so no running. But kind of not bad enough to warrant lying in the sun doing he haw.

My last training run suggested that 1.20 time would be remarkable. I thought crossing the line in one piece and not being sick, in front of or over anybody else, would be credible. .

The route was round the city centre, over lots of bridges, under lots of bridges- we crossed the Clyde four times in 6.2 miles, a few of us nearly ended up in it.

The subway/underground opened early. The trains didn't ! So 30 000 people converged in Glasgow for the big start.

This is a diagram of the full Glasgow underground train as system. Dead easy. Dead easy to use when drunk. Which is useful.

Just a few folk gathering

Then there was a few more

George Sq was the big meeting point

So we gathered in the square

This road would soon be full of the pink wave ( that's a timed group of runners not a hair do)Or though it could be a new political movement.

I have no idea what that man standing on the wee wall was doing. By the way he was dressed, he might have thought it was Monday.

He was chatting her up, saying he was a sub 40 minute man. But I thought he was lion!

Yip, he was running. Half kilt before he started.

Posh bit of Glasgow business world- with ready made urinals

But all very pretty to look at while the gentlemen went about their business

You can run in a kilt. Well he obviously could.

The elevated platform for the big warm up.

Spiderman stretches his adductors

30 000 people clapping

30 000 stretching...biceps?... no idea?

defo gastroc stretching here

Garmain at the ready

And Up....

And down.....

George was running because zombies were chasing him.
Then I looked behind me

Arghhhhhh..

up over the Kingston Bridgeñ

running on the motorway- the fastest traffic has ever moved on the bridge I can tell you

View from a bridge - good novel title that

Piper at every K

An unusual view of the river

Then under the motorway

At the water station- that's me in green

Over the Squinty bridge, so called because it is squinty...

The Rotunda and the famous Finneston Crane In old days of horse drawn traffic in the Clyde Tunnel the rotundas were where they turned the horses and carts on a rotating platform. A bit like a lazy Susan.

Finnieston Crane with the new Hydro and Armadillo in the background

and over the river again

And under another bridge

and another...

oh no, we are turning right so we can go over the bridge again!

over this one

then under that one

on the bridge coming back the way

near the finish line

Very near the finish

The Great Wall, as we ran up the computer recognition system flashed messages of support that our charities or families had logged for us. Being Glasgow, not all of them were complimentary. I must have been running close to 'Amy' whose brother was telling her to MOVE HER FAT ARSE.