Monthly archives: September 2015

This was the first distance race that I ran and what prompted me to join Bella last year. The event consists of a Marathon or Half Marathon for runners in the morning with a cycle Marathon and Half Marathon in the afternoon. The organisation is excellent and the circuitous route around the River Tay is pretty spectacular. We (my wife Angela and myself) travelled up on the Friday evening and registered at the Moness Resort where there was a pasta spread laid-on for participants. With child-care sorted and a wee cottage hired for the weekend my biggest challenge that evening was trying to ignore the wine in the fridge particularly with the sun making a rare appearance! Having missed 6-7 weeks of training over the summer due to my dodgy calf I decided to wait for a post-run tipple. The Marathon kicked off at 09:30hrs from the village of Weem just over the Tay from Aberfeldy and is a two-lap course. The HM mustered about 09:45hrs at the showfield camping / car parking area (both free) just over the Tay Bridge (aka Wade’s Bridge). From there its a 500m walk to the start line led by two pipers. The start itself is at the Aileen Chraggan Hotel just shy of Weem. The weather was good, a nice bright morning and about 12c, although there was a fairly stiff breeze blowing down from Glen Lyon. The gun started us 300 HM runners off at 10:00hrs and its a fairly steady 4 miles past Weem, Camserny and Dull to the iron bridge over the River Lyon. We were into the breeze at that stretch however it was fairly kind. From there its a left turn over the bridge and on the road to Kenmore. This is roughly a 2.5 mile undulating stretch with a water stop/toilet and past some pasture where the horses were clearly having a laugh at the two-legged humans trying to run! Entering the village of Kenmore is quite a site with Loch Tay straight ahead and a cross over the Taymouth Bridge. Its probably designed to take your mind off the impending climb through the grounds of Taymouth Castle and Golf Course. Thats where the only real hill springs up, just after the castle but thankfully through the woods which provided some shelter from the head-wind that had blown-up by that stage. Its a fairly long winding climb, probably similar to the hill in the Alloa Half. Having survived, I was glad to see a water station at the exit of the castle grounds and having briefly stopped to hydrate (I’ve lerned that I cant run and drink at the same time having nearly drowned last year) I started the gradual stage on the A827 back to Aberfeldy only to feel a large stone lodged in the sole of my left trainer. Having just stopped for a drink I didnt want to spoil my momentum again so like an audition for Riverdance, I tried to ‘remotely’ dislodge the […]

With Berlin at the end of September I was in the market for a race sharpening half marathon with 4 weeks to go. I had seen that the Barry Buddon race was advertised as a flat, fast race, that’ll do nicely I thought. So off I headed not too early yesterday for a 12pm start up in the the military range just by Monifieth. A very friendly registration area was enhanced further by a couple of musicians playing guitars and a violin, not the sort of thing you get at the GSR. The only downside at this point was the fairly stiff breeze and the sun splitting the sky. Anyway, I was joined at the start by fellow Bellas Tony, Shona and Mhairi, and off we went. After a headwind in the 1st mile we turned round and got the benefit of a tailwind for the next 3 miles, at this point I was wondering what my new PB was going to be, foolish boy. After a quick change of direction, miles 5-7 were straight into the wind and by the time we turned both myself and Colin Thomas from the Harriers had nothing left in the tank. It was a pretty sorry last few miles and the last mile itself was straight into the wind again, what a whiner I am. I finally limped over the line in 3rd place and Shona retained her F45 trophy. All that aside, the main reason for this report is to highlight the selfless actions of Mhairi, who sacrificed her own race when a fellow runner collapsed after 3 miles. She waited with him for 15 minutes until help came and she finally managed to resume her race, I would imagine that most people would just call it quits at that point. Another proud moment for the club, well done Mhairi! Bruce Carmichael 3 01:14:32 61 Bellahouston RR Anthony McParland 58 01:32:46 271 Bellahouston RR Shona Donnelly 105 01:42:23 96 Bellahouston RR Mhairi Hill 166 01:53:07 177 Bellahouston RR Photo:   © Copyright Douglas Nelson and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence