Half-marathon debut to ‘kickstart’ Butchart

Rio Olympic 5,000m finalist Andrew Butchart will make his half-marathon debut at the Great Scottish Glasgow event on Sunday October 1.

The 25-year-old Scottish 3,000m and 5,000m record holder takes on his first 13.1-mile event as part of Scotland’s biggest weekend of running to kickstart his winter season.

Butchart’s summer ended last weekend with an appearance at the Great North City Games athletics event in Newcastle/ Gateshead.

With April’s Commonwealth Games in Australia on the horizon, the hard work will start with a distance he has never taken on competitively.

Butchart said: “I’ve never done a half marathon competitively or otherwise, so this is a first for me. I’m looking forward to it, especially being in Glasgow.

“I’m not planning to do another one after it, I just wanted to see what it was like and how I would cope. It’s my first race of the winter and we’re going to try and give my body a good shock after the break, a good hard hit to the system to kickstart the winter phase of training.”

The Dunblane athlete is looking forward to the support from Scotland’s athletics fans around the course in the city centre.

Event organisers have also announced the return of five-time Olympian Jo Pavey, who last took part in the Bank of Scotland Great Scottish Run half marathon in 2015.

Andrew Butchart will make his half-marathon debut at the Great Scottish Glasgow event.