2012 Women's 10k launch

We are gearing up for the 2012 Ignis Asset Management Women's 10k with our official media launch today in Glasgow. We will be revealing some famous faces taking on the 10k challenge and telling you all about the exciting new developments for this year's race.

You can find out more about what we have in store for 2012 at the race website but enhancements include:

- price freeze
- technical t-shirt upgrade option
- more route entertainment
- pace makers and much more

We are also launching our new advertising campaign - My 10k - which highlights how much we know our runners love the Women's 10k. You told us loud and clear that this is not just any 10k, this is 'My 10k' and you are proud to take part in Scotland's only all-female 10k event.

See you on the start line!

Fiona: This Week

Hope everyones gearing themselves up- only a few weeks to go!

This week I ran a 6 miler on monday. It was quite toasty here in Ggow so afterwards I looked a lot like this: 

Gosh, my boyfriend is a lucky man. Do you like my neon extreme Grangemouth finishers tee shirt?

On Tuesday I did some extreme abs work from the Runners World Olympic Abs page. OUCH. 

On Wednesday I headed for the gym and made my peace with the dreaded cross trainer. I used to use the X-C in 10 minute bursts on a casual gym day. Then when I caught the running bug, X-Cs now felt boring, you just go on and on and on. But on Wed I ended up doing 30 minutes.Actually felt pretty good.

Now, if I could just bring myself to love the treadmill...

Thursday was another speedy 6 miler crammed into a study day:

Friday I took a rest (was dead stiff) and Saturday I ran for the athletics team in the 3K and 400m relay. Was a great laugh- ended up doing the  3K in 14.39 which is a 7.51 mile pace and I don't yet know my 400m time. I was so nervous before because track/athletics runners are a lot more serious and I had never run at a track event. Sarah and I, however, devised a mantra. That mantra was, 'We are distance runners. For us this is a TRAINING RUN.'. It really helped. To be honest I was really glad to be part of Glasgow Uni at that point because we were the ONLY team who cheered on anyone in any team. A lot of teams seemed to lack the camaderie you see in cross country.

There was a massive headwind on the 300m corner of each lap but my race seemed really well paced to me and the spectators told me the form was spot on. Overall GUAC came 2nd and could hold their heads high another day. Also I had fun! And I reckon I'd like to try a little more sprinting- I wore Sarah's track spikes for the 400m and I really liked running in them.

Fiona: Grangemouth 10K

I don't mean to sound like a whiny child, but sometimes it doesn't seem fair. I have been eating rot and hardly training, but I still can't believe that after a year with a club I just achieved a personal worst time. I know running shouldn't upset you... but this kinda does.

I guess I need to really get back on it. Start eating well, slim down, train hard.

It just really put me on a downer! Some of our team did amazingly too, the best at a swift 34 mins.

(My horrible time was 59.14. Which may not seem appalling, but the first 10K I ever did was 58.44, and my PB is 50.14. Ick.)

Fiona Mcg

Fiona: Week 4/BUCS

Last week i did a lot of running (Mon-Thursday), nothing hugely out of the ordinary apart from ENJOYING a tempo run on Tuesday, which is a rare thing indeed! It was very hard but I felt a huge huge sense of achievement when done.

The biggest thing this week was of course BUCS, which went really well. Our highest woman was Elspeth Curran, a truly amazing runner, who was 8th in a very competitive field. I was the second slowest GUHH girl but for me my time was alright!  The girls team was 8th overall. Our captain was lovely and said that he was so impressed at all runners. Personally I was seriously impressed at Neah and Stephen, who had great races, and at Luke for battling through seriously hurting his shoulder. He was almost in tears when he finished but He. Finished. and thats incredible.

The men's A Team: from left: Adam, Chris (El Captain), Mike, Dave, Kerrick and Shabir.

Its a tough course too- a lap that was a) over the distance stated and b) had a double loop hill, where you are required to race up, run down, then turn on your heel and go straight back up... That its a lap course can also be quite demoralising as the best runners lap you.

Women's race start

I may not be any good as a competitive runner, but events like that remind me of why I race. Everyone was cheering everyone on- by name or by institution if you didn't know each other. If you saw someone flagging you yelled 'Good effort!' or 'Not long now!' or simply 'Come on insertunihere!'. It also reminded me of why I love my club- No one yells 'try harder' or anything, just full on support. Whereas other clubs had members shouting advice... in a race I wouldn't want to hear that! Also the overall feeling of GUHH is that its amazing if you happen to be a gifted athlete, but if you're not all they require from you is that you love a run and banter.

Back Row: Julie, Stephen, Chris, Neal
Mid Row: Megan, Me, Neah, Bernadette
Front Row: Yulia, Cat, Sarah

Fiona McG

Fiona: Fuerteventura

Hi again guys,

Got back from sunny Fuerteventura on Monday night (or technically Tuesday morning!). I'm going to be wildly honest- outside an extremely unskilled game of tennis we did no working out at all. We did, however, have a total blast and made great pals in the sprint team! Actually, I tell a lie, two boys did a whopping 24km run one day.

This week so far I have done my strength training at the gym (oww, hello arms), ran a whopping 7.5 or 8 miles yesterday and today Im planning on super circuits at 5.15pm (this one is a tough class). Eating since I got home has been okay- a little too much chocolate perhaps but hey, thats WHY I run...

I should tell you why I did so much yesterday... It isnt that I'm a cool, dedicated athlete. Its that Julie and I got lost on a group run. I had a date so we ended up tempo running two miles, found the start of our usual 6 miler and raced around that too at a massive pace. And I was still late!

There are a lot of hard races upcoming for me- this weekend is the (aptly named) Devil's Burden Hill Relay - I'm running leg 2 as part of a mixed gender team. Its hilly to be sure. Then its only 2 weeks till British Uni Cross Country Champs in Birmingham- eep!

Fiona McG