Beautiful spring weather welcomed 500 runners to Fort William for the Lochaber Marathon on Sunday, 15 April. An out and back course along the shore of Loch Linhe was the challenge and 6 runners from Bellahouston Roadruners were up for it. The course is fairly flat, undulating in places. Basically you run towards Corpach and continue on until you reach 13 miles, then turn round and run back. The snow capped mountains give a scenic backdrop and the fact there are only 500 runners and few cars means you get a clear run. Although there is a sneaky wee steep hill in the last mile. Bellahouston highlights included PBs for Greg Glendinning ( 2.41 and 1st MV40) and 2.59 for Nea Macinnes. Thanks to Danielle, Brendan, Susie and Peter for their excellent support around the course. Bellahouston Times Greg Glendinning 3.41 Nea Macinnes 2.59 John Gilhooley 3.09 Frans Roelefse 3.14 Tomoyo Fujiwara 3.33 David Boyle 3.39 Full results Above report from David And some additional reporting… from Tomoyo I enjoyed running this race, beautiful view and plenty of water station there. It was my 19th marathon and I had my first experience “I took a wrong turn” at 25 miles, as I did not see any runners in front of me. However the guy who was running behind me (actually he was walking when I passed), he shouted and rescued me!!! I wonder if this guy ignored me….am I still running now?? Lucky me, I guess! I will try hard again at the Edinburgh marathon next month to get sub 3:30!!! Thank you for all your support. And more from Nea ….. Phew, that was close! Ran 2:59:46, new PB by 10 mins. Perfect running weather on lovely flat course, until the last mile when little hills come out of nowhere and feel as if you are climbing Ben Nevis itself! I thought I had 90secs to spare and cruise to the finish until Brendan started running beside me in the last mile screaming at me and looking worriedly at the stop watch on his iphone. My garmin was showing that the finish must be round the corner, but alas it was round the corner, up the hill, round another corner and then the final straight (0.25miles longer than I thought!). In the final straight just as the legs wanted to fall off I had Brendan screaming behind me and Peter screaming in front of me – there was NO way I was not going to finish under 3 hrs!! Great support from Danielle, Suzie and the Sadistic Duo – Brendan & Peter! I know I could not have done it with out your support – BRILLIANT!!!! Well done to all Bella’s on the day and Greg getting 1st V40!
Monthly archives: April 2012
While everyone else was off running Lochaber or tapering for London a crowd of us ran the Balloch to Clydebank half marathon on Sunday, 15 April. The conditions were perfect with sunshine, cool temperatures and no wind, so there were quite a few PBs bagged. I think Chris Bell might be able to claim the biggest PB, knocking an impressive 10+ mins off his previous time! Debs Gray won 2nd Female, Rebecca was 3rd female, the ladies won 2nd team prize (although that might have been upgraded as they hadn’t counted it right….) and I scraped a prize for 5th male. Bella results below, full results attached. Position Race No Competitor Name Gender Category Cat Pos Finish Time Chip Time 6 272 Bruce Carse Male SNR 5 01:16:22 01:16:22 24 337 Tommy Oconnell Male SNR 14 01:22:45 01:22:45 38 338 Deborah Gray Female VET40 2 01:25:50 01:25:46 44 402 Jim Robinson Male VET50 4 01:26:07 01:26:05 48 195 Rebecca Johnson Female VET40 3 01:26:33 01:26:32 50 404 Robert Mcewan Male VET50 6 01:27:33 01:27:31 51 405 Neil Mcewan Male SNR 27 01:27:33 01:27:32 68 183 Chris Bell Male SNR 32 01:30:18 01:30:09 97 410 Grant Edmondson Male VET40 30 01:34:27 01:34:16 102 417 Tom Mcmillan Male VET50 13 01:35:08 01:35:02 110 285 Alex Lawther Male SNR 53 01:36:09 01:36:02 129 333 Norman Coyle Male VET50 14 01:38:34 01:38:25 131 373 Jane Wild Female VET40 8 01:38:47 01:38:38 173 140 John Sandbach Male VET40 46 01:42:29 01:42:10 184 346 David Lafferty Male SNR 78 01:43:24 01:43:18 217 305 Jane Galt Female SNR 24 01:46:54 01:46:45 221 242 Louise Gray Female VET40 19 01:48:01 01:47:53 Report from Bruce
Six Bella’s headed to Livingston on Saturday, 31 March, for the Scottish Road Relay championships. This is the most important of the road relay events in the running calendar and so it is important for our club to be taking part. Conditions although overcast at first turned into an afternoon of fine weather and excellent for running. The men’s event comprises 6 stages, 3 runners covering a short loop of approximately 3.2 miles and 3 runners covering a longer loop of 5.8 miles. For this sort of race you need a bit of self motivation as, beyond the first runner, you can be heading out on your own without anyone to keep pace. Our team put in a fine performance. We were 22nd out of 46 finishing teams, covering the course in a total time of 2:36:37 Brian O’Donnell 18:59 Bruce Carse 33:45 Rankin Lawther 20:01 Cieran Dougherty 32:55 Gerard Scullion 18:06 Craig Reid 32:51 It’s interesting to note that, last year our first team finished in a time of 2:34:14, just over 2 mins quicker than this year but finished in 8th position out of 43 teams. Entries from some clubs must have been a lot stronger this year. Results Report from Gerry