Robert Macleod just sent in this race report from yesterday’s Tom Scott 10 mile road race: If you had asked me 5 or 10 years ago would I take up running in the years to come I would have just laughed at you, the most running I ever done was running from people wanting to batter me in school, I officially ran my first race in June 2016 doing the men’s 10k in my Adidas sambas and the reason that was I didn’t intend to continue running after that, I struggled with that race and I stumbled over the line in just over an hour, fast forward to April 1st 2018 otherwise known as April fools day well I certainly wasn’t planning on being a fool today as I prepared myself for my very first ever long race, the 56th Tom Scott memorial road race which was a 10 mile race around Strathclyde park, Earlier in the week my 5 year old daughter Mirrin asked me Daddy why do you never win races, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry but I answered because there are faster people running than me that’s why, I had the added bonus of the children being away for the weekend with their Auntie so there was no added distractions, We set off in plenty of time and arrived at Strathclyde park just before 9 to get my race number, I definitely underestimated the coldness and I only had a top over my running top, we went inside and then later I nipped out for a wee warm up, the start of the race was quickly approaching so I quickly took my top off and threw it to Elizabeth, the race started quickly and I probably started off a bit quick, that would catch up with me later, I set myself a target of 1 hour 20 minutes which is 8 minutes a mile and I thought I’m more than capable of that, I was unsure of what route this race was taking me but following who’s in front of me I can’t go wrong, on the other side of the loch I seen Graeme Paterson and he told me to stay steady all the way round and that’s what I intended to do, as I was about to start the last lap the winner Luke Traynor was finishing his race which is very impressive and hopefully he will go to the very top and I certainly believe he will, when I got round to the other side I was overtaken by Lynne Hamilton, I asked her if she would wait for me but I don’t think she heard me, I occasionally looked behind me and I noticed Lynsey wasn’t far behind me so I managed to catch a second wind, this was my first visit to Strathclyde park and I could just about see where the finishing line was so I made a run for the finish I seen the clock ticking at […]
Club Championship
Conditions couldn’t have been better for the annual Renfrewshire AAA 5mile road race at Battery Park in Gourock today. A flat calm and bright sunshine are unheard of for this race as anyone who took part in 2016 will tell you! The Purple Posse had a bumper turnout, and carried home a good haul medals with Cat MacDonald, Claire Wharton and Shona Donnelly 2nd overall ladies team, with Claire 1st FV40 and Shona 1st FV50. In the men’s race it was a Bella clean sweep in the MV50 category with Colin Hughes 1st, Gerry Scullion 2nd and Al McLachlan 3rd. Congratulations to them, and to all who took part, and many thanks to the great support out on the course! Pics from the day courtesy of Caroline Turner are available on our facebook page. A copy of the provisional results were sent through to us, and available here (please direct any queries at the organisers)
The Road Runners vs The Harriers! Saturday 17th February. RSVP on Facebook, or just rock up on the day in your purple top! Following on from last year’s brilliant event, we’re bringing it back again for 2018. This time it’s part of our club championships so we’re hoping it’ll be even bigger and better this year! You pitch up at Pollok parkrun on 17th February (you are registered at parkrun, right?). Run 5K, fast. Finish as high up the field as you can. Scan your barcode. Then join everyone back at the Cartha for the after run fun. How does it work? • Turn up ready to run. Wear your club vest so that you can be easily identified. • Run the Pollok parkrun. Trying to finish as high up the field as possible. Your only job is to beat the Harrier in front of you. But watch out behind, there’s a Harrier chasing you! • After finishing parkrun, show your finish token to the Bellahouston Road Runner volunteer (who will be standing near the barcode scanners), they will take note of your name and placing. • All placings will be added up. • We will count the lowest club attendance, minus three. So, if we have 50 runners and the Harriers have 45, then the first 42 places will be counted in each team. (That’s the Harriers attendance (45), minus 3. Equals 42. You still with me!?) • The club with the least number of points will win the prestigious Mob Match Trophy……until the 2019 return of the mob match. After the race we will join the Harriers at the Cartha Rugby Club for food, drinks and prizegiving where we can all make our excuses for not running down that final hill as fast as we could have. If you can, please come along. Every runner counts. There’s no gender, age, or entry requirements. If you are a club member turn up and give it a go. You just have to beat the Harrier in front of you while not losing to the Harrier behind you. This event is designed to be all inclusive. It’s a race. A good ol’ mob match. And hopefully something to give everyone in both clubs some motivation to really attack that parkrun course.If you can’t run, please consider volunteering at the parkrun. Family & friends are more than welcome, both to run with us, and to join us back at the Cartha. Every club member who runs, volunteers or turns up to support will receive a commemorative gift! Event: Mob Match Bellahouston Road Runners vs Bellahouston Harriers Where: Pollok parkrun which starts and ends at the Burrell When: Saturday 17th February 2018 at 9.30am After party: The Cartha Rugby Club, 92 Dumbreck Road, Glasgow, G41 4SN Who: All members, family and friends.
The club had a fantastic turnout at this year’s Great Scottish Run Half Marathon. A total of 51 runners raced the event, as well as providing a set of marshals to help with start line duties (before helping cheer runners along the way), and a number of pacers helping a great many runners achieve Personal Bests and race targets. So a big ‘well done!’ to everybody who took part in some way on the day, and many thanks to the many Bellas out on the course giving a cheer to everybody too! A particular congratulations for three of our Ladies – Catriona McDonald, Romy Beard and Katie Mathieson – who took home a fantastic Gold in the Scottish Half Marathon Championships. Brilliant achievement, and culmination of a lot of hard work. Well done!
Well done to everyone who took part tonight in the President’s Cup. Congratulations to our winners Stephen Harris and Gillian Hamilton. Fastest times on the night were Bruce Carmichael (16:15) for the men and Shona Docherty (18:34) for the ladies. Shona Donnelly ran exactly her predicted time. Many thanks to all the volunteers tonight who made the event go smoothly, it’s very much appreciated. Full results can be found in the table below. Photo credit Gordon Goldie
The most recent Club Championship races were the Rouken Glen 10k on Thursday 8th June and Roon the Toon 10k in Kilmarnock on Sunday 11th June. At a very wet Rouken Glen, congratulations to 2nd place Ciaran Dougherty, 4th place and 1st vet Bruce Carmichael and 1st v55 Jim Robinson. The mens team narrowly beaten to the team prize by Giffnock North. On a windy Kilmarnock Sunday, yesterday was the ladies turn to bring home the bling. West District Medals and team prizes for the Ladies team of Louise Ross, Cat MacDonald and Shona Donnelly. Louise was first v40 and Shona first v50. Congratulations! Well done to everyone who took part in both races particularly those who PBd. Next Club Championship races are the Brian Goodwin 10k this Friday 16th June and the Presidents Cup 5k Handicap on Wednesday 21st June. [Photo Tom Ferris]
Last Sunday saw a sea of purple descend on Glasgow with over 80 Bella’s in the Great Scottish Run. The Half Marathon was the Scottish Athletics Half Marathon Championships and we’re delighted for the following national medal winners: Debs Gray took Women’s Masters Bronze and Debs was joined by Louise Ross and Mhairi Hill to win Bronze Team medals. Very Well done! Many thanks to the 20 volunteers marshalling the start waves for the 10k and Half Marathon. And well done to everyone taking part including the 5 Bellas in the 10k and 57 in the HM. There were so many great personal performances as you can see from all the PB trophies in the results table below. NB if you’re missing a PB trophy do get in touch and we’ll get that added After all the activity, a number of runners and volunteers retired to West Brewery on Glasgow Green to recover.
Fantastic news today from the Kilbarchan AAC’s George Cummings Road Relays today: the Bella ‘A’ team consisting of Russell Whittington, Andy Campbell, Greig Glendinning, and Graeme Paterson were the first Vets (V40) team home and scooped the vets team prize. The club had a total of ten runners taking part today, so huge well done to everybody who managed to get around in far from ideal conditions. Wet and windy all afternoon, with a particularly tough headwind to battle through in the last half mile or so. Another bit of great news today from the club is Russell Whittington has been selected to represent Scotland in the Great British & Irish Master XC race in Glasgow’s Tollcross park later this year. Results will follow when available. Thanks to Daniella Glendinning for the photo.
Online entry is now open for this years Jimmy Irvine Bella 10K. The race will take place on Sunday 13th November 2016 starting at 12pm. More details and sign-up at Entry Central.
With no other major sporting events on today (right?), 10 Bellas headed down the coast for the 2016 Girvan Half Marathon, part of our 2015/16 club championship. Less than ideal conditions awaited, but a fantastic friendly welcome as usual from Girvan Athletic club. Fantastically well marshalled and supported out on the course: we’re very grateful as ever for staging the event. The half marathon course is a challenging one (600ft of ascent, details on the Strava segment), and a light drizzle which picked up to heavier rain at points, with a small headwind after the turnaround point at Dailly made it tougher than usual. But despite that, and whilst we await full/final results, we’re pleased to report at least one PB (well done Marc!), and a successful defence of the male (Bruce Carmichael, Marc Bromwich and Gerry Scullion), and female team prizes (Debs Gray, Jackie McGuire and Alison Brown), from last year. Well done to Bruce and Debs for taking 2nd male and 2nd female prizes too. Full results available on runbritainrankings.com
A fantastic turnout of 46 club members, with a few past and present club members also volunteering, meant there was a big Bella presence at the 385th Pollok parkrun. After an epic downpour earlier in the morning, there were great conditions for the run itself. Some super performances, including first male (Russell Whittington, 17:14) and female (Ann Robin, 19:40), and an impressive 10 course PB’s too. Bella results below. Full results for the event available on the Pollok parkrun results page. The next event in the club championship is the Girvan Half marathon (10th July). The next short distance event is the Irvine 5 mile road race (17th July).
The Calderglen 10k trail race, the fifth event in the club’s new Hill running championships, took place last night. Despite the midges that descended around the finish area, it was a lovely evening for a run, on a super course. Full results are available on the Calderglen Harriers website. Bella results below, and the Hill running championship standings are available here. A few prizes for the club. Congratulations to: Judith MacGregor who was 3rd F35. Gerry Scullion who was 1st M50. Craig Ross, Gerry Scullion and Richard Leyton, who comprised 3rd male team. Many thanks to the Calderglen Harriers for a well organised event and warm welcome.
The “Purple Posse” were out in force at the Brian Goodwin Memorial 10k last night with 44 Bellas racing the 2 lap course of Pollok Park, hosted by our neighbours Bellahouston Harriers. A popular event topped off with beer and a burger – what’s not to love? Well done to 1st FV45 Shona Donnelly and MV45 Russell Whittington. This year the race was the West District 10k Championship event and Russell also won the West District V40 bronze medal. Some great performances and a number of PBs – if you’re missing a PB trophy, let us know and we’ll add one for you. Bellahouston Road Runners results below: Full results: Stuweb Full Results
Well done to all the Bellas who took part in the Giffnock North festival of Running 10k last Thursday. The hilly course was made more difficult by the hot conditions. James Montgomery was first Bella home in 5th place overall and Mhairi Hill was first female Bella home, scooping the Womens V40 prize. Full results here: Runbritain – GNAAC festival 10k
Results from tonight’s President’s Cup are shown in the table below. Congratulations to tonights winners Barry Freel – 21:33 and Alison Brown – 24:28. Fastest time of the night for the men was 17:00 by Iain Burns, and for the women Ann Robin ran 19:17. Special mention to Lynn Reid who finished bang on her predicted time of 24:40. Thanks to everyone who helped out. It was very much appreciated.