The Lochaber marathon is an out and back course that starts in Fort William and heads out on the road towards Mallaig to the turning point. The course is fairly flat apart from a couple of small climbs in the last mile, I always said a decent time is weather dependent due to the out & back nature and the fact that Lochaber is the wettest part of Britain! This was my first marathon in 2 years since the last time I scraped a sub 3hr in 2:59:46 at the same race (having being roared home by the Gruesome Twosome – Brendan Moriarty & Peter Gallanagh)! The weather started of overcast with a slight breeze and that was as good as it got as the forecast was downhill from there! Myself, Iain Burns and David Lafferty were the Bella team on the day with myself and Iain starting with 6:40 / mile pace in mind. We settled at that pace on the road out until 10 miles when Iain got bored with my patter and decided to push on ahead! The rain and wind at this point was in your face and I couldn’t wait until the turn with the thought of a tail wind! With a time of 1:27:13 at the halfway turn, which I felt had been tough up to this point with the wind & rain I was concerned about being able to maintain the 6:40 pace. Iain by this point had created around a 30 second gap in front of me and was looking strong. I was now running on my own with a group of around 20 runners not far behind me. The runners were not the only thing to turn after 13 miles with the wind somehow managing to swing back into our faces with the rain now pelting down – not good when you are 13 miles from home and praying for a tail wind! By miles 18 – 20, I had slipped to 6:50 pace and feeling the pain into the wind. To my horror I felt the first jolt of pain from the early onset of cramp, with 6 miles to go the wheels had started to come off! I didn’t just feel as if I had hit “The Wall”, I felt as if I was having to push the wall into the wind and rain for the last 6 miles with bouts of cramp starting to hit with the power of a Tazer Gun! With mile 23 & 24 being the first miles to slip over 7:00 minute mark at 7:12 & 7:13. As I reached the 24 mile mark – BOOM my right hamstring & calf seized bringing me to a grinding halt, as I stood there swearing at myself I had a look at my watch which showed 2:42 and after doing the maths I got it into my head to run through it in the last 2.2 miles. The last turn with 1.5 miles was again into […]
Monthly archives: April 2014
In an attempt to re-discover my race legs I took a break from the usual Sunday morning marathon training and headed north to Alloa for their ever popular half marathon. Still smarting from being forced to travel “a bit” further north to do the Inverness half last year after Alloa had sold out, I had made sure I got my entry in early. Having not raced much over the last few months I was quite looking forward to the race, that was until I checked the 5 day forecast in the days prior. A 20mph westerly wind was on the menu for Sunday, which for anyone who has done the race will know means a very unpleasant 4 mile stretch straight into the wind. Rather optimistically I figured that the weather would have calmed down by the time Sunday came but if anything the wind got stronger as we lined up at the start. And so off we went, the first 2 miles way too fast as I’m sure we can all relate to, but after that I settled into a nice steady pace which I figured might bring me home in about 1hr15mins. Of course by this point I had completely forgotten the wind, the mighty wind… It was only I as I took the left turn onto Tillicoultry high street at the 5.5 mile point that reality struck home, there was to be no avoiding it, the next 4 miles were going to be unpleasant. I tried in vain to make up the 50 metres or so to the group ahead but either they were somehow shrinking or more likely just easing further away, was I the only person affected by this wind?? Somehow I managed the first 2 miles to Alva but each mile was taking longer and longer. My prospects were starting to look bleak but then out the blue our old friend Ollie Scott came charging past me, a man on a mission if ever I saw one. This gave me the boost I needed and I managed to keep up with Ollie for the remaining stretch of the wind tunnel, after which is half a mile of respite followed by a nice steep incline to sap any remaining energy you might have had left. Having made it to the top there is just one more gentle incline followed by about a mile and a half of largely flat and downhill to the finish, with the welcome feeling of a tailwind at long last. I finally crossed the line in 1hr17mins, which I felt was about the best I could have managed given that the wind stole about 2 mins off me over the 4 treacherous miles. Lastly, can I invite all the other Bellas who ran on Sunday to back up my story, honestly I’m not just a lightweight, it was blowing a gale… Bruce
Hi Folks, Twenty-four Bellas made the journey though to Livingston for the National Road Relay on Sunday to take on the top road runners from across the country. Cold fog and a hilly, twisty route greeted us, not to mention some top-notch opposition. The route was fairly scenic though with the best bit being the trail (eh, ROAD relay?) section along the river. Ladies teams finished 17th (4th in the V40 category) and 27th. Mens teams finished 18th, 37th and 6th in the V50 category. Some really good performances in there, which is hard work when sometimes running alone in a race that gets very strung out. Without any disrespect to all us runners, the grittiest performances of the day had to be from Iain O’Donnell and Carla Ward who volunteered to marshal in response to a request from the race organisers. Three hours standing out in the cold keeeping us on track – thank you both! Thank you to all who turned out to represent the club at a very tough race. Full results attached below. I should point out that the organisers liked Graeme P so much, they added a bonus minute onto his time – well done Graeme! If anyone else notices any major discrepancies in the results lets us know. Bruce
The Clydebank 5k road race took place on Saturday 15th March and there was another good turnout from Bella members. Some of us were returning to Clydebank for the second time in seven days after the previous weekend’s half-marathon. The race begins with a couple of laps of an industrial estate before heading towards Dalmuir, then turning along the Forth and Clyde Canal for the last mile. In such a short and intense race though, there’s little time to notice the surroundings. There were high hopes for some PBs on what promised to be a fast course, and with that thought in mind we set off very briskly. My watch was showing a seriously ambitious pace but it felt good so I kept going. I was through the first mile under 3k pace. Optimistic arithmetic was going on in my mind… I should have known I’d suffer later… Suddenly the slight headwind started to feel much more like hard work and the finish seemed a very long way off. For the last mile I suppose there was a tailwind, but it didn’t really feel that way as I laboured along at 10k pace. I rallied somewhat for the final 100 metres or so and was surprised to cross the line with a PB. I didn’t do it the easy way but it was a satisfying result nevertheless. The results aren’t available at the time of writing but there were good PBs for several Bellas. Well done to all those who took part! There’ll be a chance to do it all again at the National 5k race in Edinburgh on 7th May.