Daily archives: May 18, 2014

I headed down to Dumfries this evening for the 5 mile Hollywood Stroll race. It’s not quite as glamorous as it sounds, following quiet country roads on the outskirts of Dumfries. The course itself is undulating which makes it hard to get into a steady rhythm and the wind also meant my splits were all over the place. The race was 15 minutes late in starting due to a larger than expected number of runners. Not ideal since I hadn’t had any tea and was getting hungry so just wanted to get going as soon as possible! About 350 entrants eventually lined up on the start line. I started up near the front and by the time we were 200m in I was in the lead. By the end of the first mile I had built up a good lead and with a strong headwind I eased up a bit until about 2.75 miles in. Once the course turned I had a quick look round and could see the second placed runner from Dumfries some way behind. I knew from my average pace that I wouldn’t be getting a PB but knowing I was in a strong position for my first win of the year and picked up the pace in the last couple of miles and finished strongly in 27:05, a minute or so ahead of second place. Good selection of food at the finish line including yogurt drinks and trifles in the sun made for a good nights work. Only downside was that I had to run off before the prizegiving to pick up the wee man from my parents’ and get back up the road, cant have it all though I suppose!!

Back in 2005 Chris Upson set up a webpage to provide more information on the Scottish hill running scene, as well as providing race details and calendars it collates all results and allows you to look at clubs and individual runner profiles. Since its creation Bella has had 115 different club members participate in a hill race, the 6th highest total from around 120 clubs listed…… not bad for a road club. Bella Page – http://www.scottishhillracing.co.uk/Runners.aspx?ClubID=C1007 Anyway, back to the main point… tonight at ‘The Whangie Whizz’ Bella’s David Stakes ran his 100th hill race since the site was established (Only around 60 runners have reached this target so far from over 12,000 runners on the site). David has done a great job representing the club at these events and taking the purple vest on tour. From short local races like tonight’s to the gruelling Stuc a chroin & two breweries races, and from the borders to Kinlochewe in the North David is ever present. David’s full list – http://www.scottishhillracing.co.uk/RunnerDetails.aspx?FromSearch=true&RunnerID=R8084 To put this in perspective, when you compare this achievement with some of Bella’s other seasoned hill runners you can see that the rest of us have a long way to go. Dougal Ross – 55 Andy ‘Mountain Stig’ Birnie – 44 Grant McDonald & some guy Mathieson – 36 Well done David…… Keep up the good work !! http://www.scottishhillracing.co.uk