Posts Tagged “cross country”

 Maps of the course in Bellahouston Park have now been added to the Events pages, or are available here.

We look forward to seeing you on the day.

Bellahouston Road Runners was well represented at the annual National Cross Country Relays, in Cumbernauld. Out of 100 men’s senior teams (plus 20 part teams) and 63 women’s senior teams (plus 11 part teams), we fielded a whopping five men’s teams, and two women’s teams.

The rain kept away for the duration of the races and the Bella Brollies (this years prize for completing the club championship) were in attendance, but not required until the post race walk back to Cumbernauld High School. With the conditions so much better than last year there were PBs aplenty as the purple posse put in some credible performances. Emma and Matt recorded the fastest Bella times and Club Captains Jane and Brian did a sterling job but everyone did well in a great turn out from the club.

Women’s

13 Bellahouston RR “A”

Claire Thompson 17 17:18 17:18
Emma Birnie 10 16:52 34:10 
Jane Simpson 13 17:20 51:30 

42 Bellahouston RR “B” (V) 

Jane Wild 57 20:20 20:20
Jacqueline McGuire 50 20:10 40:30
Julia Harris 42 19:21 59:51 

Men’s

19 Bellahouston RR “A”

Alasdair McLeod 39 14:58 14:58
Marcos Sanz Gomez 34 15:26 30:24
Matthew Williamson 28 14:41 45:05
Liam Conway 19 14:55 1:00:00 

31 Bellahouston RR “B”

Neil Farnell 44 15:10 15:10
*Grant Edmondson 40 15:36 30:46 
Craig Ross 34 15:08 45:54
Russell Whittington 31 15:16 1:01:10 

48 Bellahouston RR “C“

Brian O’Donnell 60 15:55 15:55
David Weatherhead 51 15:53 31:48
Andrew Birnie 47 15:54 47:42
Brendan Moriarty 48 16:08 1:03:50 

77 Bellahouston RR “D”

*Peter Goodwin 76 16:34 16:34
Robert McEwan 70 16:29 33:03
Ewan McDonald 78 18:31 51:34
Ian Goudie 77 18:49 1:10:23 

Bellahouston RR “E“

Norman Boyle 118 19:53 19:53
Douglas MacGregor 114 20:46 40:39
Mike Devlin 105 23:09 1:03:48

Thanks to Ian for the race report, and well done to all the participants. Full results available at the Scottish Athletics website.

A little rain, a bit of mud and autumn leaves blowing around the park made for excellent cross country conditions today at Pollok Park for the Renfrewshire Cross Country Relays hosted by Bellahouston Harriers. Both captains had a stress free day with all runners reporting for duty as requested. In an exciting climax to the Ladies race our girls were in with a shout of a medal right to the very end, finishing in 4th place, only 6 seconds behind the 3rd place team.

The boys on the other hand weren’t so close, finishing in 5th place, but less than a minute from the medal positions in the end. The course was a little shorter than advertised but that just meant the fun was over a wee bit quicker. Thanks to the numerous supporters and all the runners. I hope you all had a good day.

Roll on the nationals next week…

Craig Ross submitted this race report:

On a warm and uncharacteristically sunny day, four Bella teams participated in the West District relay champs, this year held at the Royal Academy, instead of the beachy Magnum Centre. 

Despite torrential rain in the days leading up to the event, the course was relatively dry underfoot, which suited many of us unaccustomed to the dark and mysterious arts of off-road running. Some say that it’s not a real cross-country unless it is chucking it with rain, and you end up covered in mud, but I’ll take a dry track any day thanks. 

The men’s A team was lead out by novice stand-in captain Craig Ross, who muscled and cornered econmoically around the course to have the team well placed after the first leg. Marcos SanzGomez then took over and finished stronlgy before tucking into a meal of home-made pasta in a trademark plastic container. Jim O’Hara in his debut XC ignored all advice and took off like a rocket, and worked hard in the final stages before handing onto Gordon Durnan, up until this time a Bella race virgin. The A team finished in a respectable 20th place in strong field. 

For the B team, Euan Black started well before handing onto a hungover Dougie MacGregor, and then onto Norman Boyle who despite fancy new bold spikes had his efforts impaired by a bad cold. The team was anchored by Chris Doak who had a strong run, to bring the B team home in 44th. 

For the ladies’ team, Louise Ross finshed looking remarkably fresh before handing onto Emma Simpson, who had been out of XC for 16 years. Iona Robertson finished typically strongly, and clawed back several places to bring the team back in a commendable 10th. 

For the ladies’ vets team, Karen Clarkson (who had been roped in after a few drinks the night before at the Awards night) started things off, before passing onto the consistent Julia Harris, and finally Maddie Smillie brought the team home in 17th, after some time spent running the wrong way. 

All told, a great day out, and notable for the number of athletes who made their XC debuts.