Saturday saw the annual BRR pilgrimage to the Killearn 10k Trail Race (including the beer festival cool down!). It was a beautiful warm first day of summer for this tough, multi-terrain route from Killearn village out to the Dumgoyne foothills and back. Brilliant running by our 22 Bellas who made up 12% of the field, with our amazing top 3 ladies being Rhona Fraser 42:50 (1st lady), Deborah Gray 44:54 (2nd lady) & Claire Wharton 46:22 (7th lady, 1st FV50). A fantastic run too by Shirley Wieland in 53:05. For the gents it was Craig Ross 40:26 (6th), Alan Chalmers 42:02 (10th) & Colin Hughes 44:13 (15th). Colin and Shirley would normally have won their respective V60 categories, but Killearn was structured slightly differently this year. Nevertheless, brilliant runs and a great event as always. Well done everyone!
Yearly archives: 2024
2024 was the 6th running of the 3 race babcock 10k Series, formerly the Polaroid Series. 12th May saw the first race at the Shettleston 10k, Glasgow Green. Over 20 Bellas ran on a lovely warm morning on a fast, flat course. Our first three gents were Tony Connelly 33:01 (6th), Oscar Coetzee 33:36 (10th, 1st V40) & Kenny Osborne 34:58 (11th) with the gents also taking a fantastic mens team gold! For our ladies it was the top trio of Rebekah Russell 37:23 (3rd FSnr), Grainne McGrath 40:20 (11th FSen) & Cathy Wood 43:41 (19th FSen). A great morning of running for all of our Bellas. Next up was Dumbarton on Thursday 23rd May, in entirely different conditions with heavy rain on a more undulating suburban route. 22 hardy Bellas raced, with the top three gents being Oscar Coetzee 32:58 (8th, 1st MV40), Calum Borthwick 33:05 (10th) & Bryan Kerr 34:34 (20th). So two straight MV40 wins for Oscar to help the gents team take bronze! Our ladies first three were Rebekah Russell 36:32 (4th FSen), Poppy Bowie 42:05 (14th FSen) & Alice Howe 51:02 (33rd FSen). So it was onto Helensburgh on Thursday 30th May for the final race of the series. What a contrast in weather from Dumbarton, with lovely Spring sunshine although a brisk headwind for the first half. 23 Bellas ran with our top three gents being Oscar Coetzee 33:15 (8th, 1st MV40), Ross Horgan 33:24 (9th) & Kenny Osborne 34:29 (14th). A clean sweep of MV40 golds for Oscar and team bronze for the gents! Our top three ladies were the formidable Rebekah Russell 36:48 (3rd FSen), Kelly Taylor 39:13 (7th FSen) & Cara Thom 45:11 (22nd FSen). Brilliant running from our ladies to also take team bronze! Helensburgh also served as the Scottish Athletics West District 10k Championship with the team competition rising to four members. With Bryan Mulgrew 35:23 (22nd) our gents were West District team runners-up. Lyndsay Kennedy 48:39 (30th FSnr) was our number four lady meaning West District ladies team 3rd. Congratulations to the outstanding Oscar Coetzee, the overall series and West District MV40 winner, 3rd placed gent overall and 3 team awards. The amazing Rebekah Russell had a fantastic series too, finishing ladies runner-up with two 3rd place FSen finishes as well as Helensburgh team bronze and corresponding West District awards! 11 members completed the full 3 race series with fantastic performances throughout from all of our Bellas. A real purple patch in another great babcock series. Well done everyone! https://babcock10kseries.co.uk/ Images courtesy of Daren Borzynsky
Endurance was the name of the game this week with lots of testing events. Cat MacDonald was first lady at the Goatfell Hill Race on Arran on Sunday 19th May. On Thursday 23rd, 22 hardy Bellas raced the second of the Babcock 10k race series at Dumbarton in monsoon conditions. Our gents top three of Oscar Coetzee 32:58 (8th, 1st MV40), Calum Borthwick 33:05 (10th, PB) & Bryan Kerr 34:34 (20th, PB) took the mens team bronze. Great running too from Al MacLachlan 41:44 (2nd MV60) with Rebekah Russell 36:32 (4th FSen) first Bella lady home. There were outstanding efforts by Jordan Davidson & Graeme McNay on Saturday. Jordan completed the West Highland Way Ultra (25:53:19), all 96.5 miles with over 22,500ft of ascent. Graeme meanwhile ran the Cateran Trail Ultra in Perthshire, at 56 miles with 7,500ft of climbing. Very well done to Craig Ross (1:29:26, 4th MV40 ) & Louise Ross (1:41:52, 2nd lady, 1st FV40) at a hot and hilly Kirkcudbright Half Marathon on Saturday. The rain returned for the Edinburgh Marathon Festival on Sunday 26th. In the Half we saw great runs by Ruairi Barfoot (1:19:32), Tom Thorne (1:37:29), Anton Soderqvist (1:50:18), Emily Jackson (2:01:49) & Lucy Mackay (2:06:51). The Marathon followed with great running from finishers Chic Forsyth (3:16:16), Harris Millar (3:23:02), Cathy Wood (3:42:51), Sam Dickson (3:54:38), Conor Cross (3:56:08), Hayley Drysdale (4:17:58), Gerry Hanlon (4:28:03) & Lynn Stuart (4:56:38). A great week, well done everdone!
You may have noticed Bellahouston Road Runner, Andy Tomlinson in the media of late following his gaining entry to the Abbott World Marathon hall of fame after gaining his 6th ‘star’ upon completion of the London Marathon in April 2024. A few weeks down the line, Andy has been reflecting upon his achievement which for most of us is beyond comprehension, never mind doing it while managing Cerebral Palsy. Starting his journey in Berlin 2021, Andy completed New York, Boston, Chicago, Tokyo and London by 2024. 6 world Majors in 24hrs 47min 25sec, averaging 4hrs 7min 54sec, with a PB of 3hrs 45min 53sec in Boston. Quite incredible and a credit to himself. We at BRR are very proud of our fellow member. Andy may well be a record breaker after his efforts and his achievements were recognised globally in the media. Our own Siobhan Dunn penned a fantastic BBC piece on Andy which is available here
What a night at Bellahouston Park on Wednesday 15th May for our President’s Cup 5k Race. A fantastic 74 members ran in this annual ‘handicap’ event with each individuals start time calculated against their recent 5k /10k race performances. This ensures that everyone has a chance of winning, and also involves a very busy finish line! It was fantastic to be holding the event in Bellahouston Park again after a couple of years at Rouken Glen, although a fine substitute. We were blessed with a fine spring evening, with good running conditions on a reasonably flat course. Congratulations to our champion on the night, Graeme Pert;, who was cheered on by our army of volunteers and supporters. Overall, there was some fantastic running and several PBs, with 44 members finishing within 30 seconds of their predicted finish times. Testament indeed to the hard work put in by our stats team. Our President, Emer Campbell, commented “This was another superb night for the club. Huge thanks everyone who helped organise this event, the volunteers, supporters and of course congratulations to Graeme”
It has been seven years since we became a charity and we are very pleased to Trustees’ annual report (2022_23) Final Public. It highlights all the fantastic achievements of members and the incredible events the club has held – we hope you enjoy reading it. The report has been approved by the Scottish Charity Regulator OSCR. We are grateful to everyone who helped write the report, particularly the Board of Trustees. We are especially thankful to Julia MacDonald for the expert, independent examination of the accounts. Note that all our annual reports, and charitable status documents, can be found on our charitable status page.