Six Parks – Really?

A relay – through six parks – really?

An overdue race report is better than no race report right? Well maybe.. Maybe I’ve missed this moment. A redundancy, a family holiday and a Garmin outage delaying teams results submissions are all the excuses I have lined up to use. And there they are, all used in one swift sentence.

Six Parks Relay

The idea sprung from the need and desire to get back racing. Virtual events have filled a gap for some people. Fulfilled a need. Scratched an itch.

As the restrictions of “lockdown” were eased, we were back able to run with other people. The format of the Six Parks Relay, in that each leg was run in pairs, was different. A social run with your pal, with the added edge of virtual race. Best of the both worlds currently available! All the current guidelines and regulations could be adhered to.

The route was the well-known classic of the South Side Six. With three legs of 12.4km, 6.4km and 6.4km (ish!), allowing for a range of abilities to take part within a team.

Name that team

Seven times signed up to take part – it may have been too short notice between concept and start date to allow folk to wrap their collective heads around the idea and organise a team. Maybe a 2021 version will garner more interest?

Teams were encouraged to be creative with their team names. A prize was offered to the best – some rose to the challenge better than others. I even entered a team using the imaginatively “Team TRB” moniker! The wooden spoon for team name probably more closely contested than the actual event itself! “Bellahouston Harries One” closing pipping “Glasgow South Road Runners” – I’m slightly biased as I have some occasional involvement with GSRR. The winning team name was actually the other Harriers team, the Bella Busters – well done to them on not becoming “Bellahouston Harriers Two”, and I’ll arrange to drop your prize with team captain.

The event

GSRR ran this event as an internal club event, before TRB released it on the public. Teams were allocated out of the hat for that. GSRR team captain, Mark King, had been itching since then to hand pick a team with speed in mind, which he certainly did for this event. Blowing the competition away GSRR finished all three legs in 01:46:31 to take the crown. Team captain will be issued with a prize for you. Congratulations!

Lockdown Ladies Let Loose (a close second on that team name prize!) were the only entrants in the “Female” team category, which allowed them to take first place in 02:37:34. Your prize is on the way too! Well done 😊

Results

Six Parks future…

So we’re hoping to return soon with the Six Parks route with a solo version…watch this space for further details. We also got the South By Five scheduled to begin in November – we’re still waiting on permissions for this due to COVID restrictions.

Happy running

Alex, Race Director, Six Parks Relay