On Friday 5th June, it was the 50k Ayrshire Sunset Ultra, starting and finishing at Irvine beach, south past Ayr and back, and designed to run from sunset to sunrise. We had the amazing Murphy brothers running, with Grant finishing 2nd in 3:50:31 and Iain just behind in 4th with 4:06:45. Outstanding by both. On Saturday 6th, Angela Eadie took on her first ultra at The Priory 100k. A trail race along the Northumberland coast, from Bamburgh Castle to Tynemouth Priory. An amazing achievement by Angela, finishing in 17:19:27. It was the Killearn 10k on Saturday, and we had a great turnout for this very popular race, with 38 members running. Some great results too, including Bryan Mulgrew 36:11 2nd overall, 1st MSnr, Amelia Matthews 40:17 1st lady, Colin Hughes 42:45 1st MV60, Sarah McSharry 44:50 3rd FV40, Rebecca Croney 46:33 2nd FSnr, Emma Peters 3rd FSnr, Marty Campbell 47:27 2nd MV50, Tomoyo Fujiwara 48:32 1st FV50, Caroline Munro 49:08 2nd FV50 (in her Giffnock vest), Pauline Wright 50:10 3rd FV50. On Sunday 7th, it was the Kilmarnock Roon the Toon 10k, where we had 8 members running. First home for us was Jamie Wieland in 38:55. Well done to Jordan Davidson, who was 1st place at the latest ‘Up & Running’ Queen’s Park 10k on Sunday. And to Ben Nurse who was 3rd at the Milngavie Trail race. “Twas on the ninth of Joon”..Tuesday night in a very wet Newcastle was the annual Blaydon Race. Just under 6 miles from ‘the Toon’ to Blaydon with a field of 4,600. We had six soggy Bellas running with Alan Moss 34:62, Jim Robinson 45:17, Henry Merriweather 48:04 & Roz Wilson 49:12, and in their Morpeth vests, Cat MacDonald 35:40 & Ant Jannetta 36:56. On Wednesday 10th, it was our annual President’s Cup 5k Race at Bellahouston Park. Eighty six Bellas ran with sixteen more helping-out and lots of supporters too, all making it such a great event. Well done everyone, especially our winners, Murdoch Rodgers & Laura Henderson. On Thursday 11th, it was the Kirkintilloch 10k with Oscar Coetzee 32:09 second & first MV40 and Cathy Wood 40:03 PB third FSnr. Then on Friday night, it was the latest Acorn Trails event at Linn Park with the Toota-Linn 8k. Well done to Terry Nimmo who was first FV60. And it was the very scenic Strathearn Marathon in Perthshire on Sunday 14th. A lovely, but hilly route (500m+ of ascent) starting and finishing at Comrie. Very well done to Jamie Howie 4:20:23 & Lucy MacKay 4:53:49. On Friday 19th June, it was one of our favourite races of the year, the Brian Goodwin 10k at Pollok Park. We had 49 Bellas running with our top threes being: Ross Horgan 32:47, Calum Borthwick 33:40, David Jarrett 34:37 / Amelia Matthews 38:13, Ann Robin 39:43, Sarah Field 41:38. On the podiums were Colin Hughes 39:04 1st MV60, Ann Robin 39:43 1st FV45, Claire Wharton 44:33 1st FV55, Tomoyo Fujiwara 47:28 1st FV50, Bruce Carmichael […]
History
We had some fantastic news recently for our very own Poppy Bowie, who has been selected to represent Team GB in the Marathon, at the Deaflympics in Tokyo in November this year! The Deaflympics will take place between 15th – 26th November 2025, its 100th anniversary. It is the second oldest multi-sport and cultural festival in the world, celebrating deaf athletes. Since the games began in 1924, only three British women have competed in the marathon, so Poppy will be the fourth; the first from Scotland; and the only GB marathoner in the 2025 games! Running is a huge part of Poppy’s life, and being selected for this event is an amazing achievement, breaking new ground for deaf athletes from Scotland. Poppy explained “In 2019, I started doing parkruns with my first parkrun taking 29 minutes. I couldn’t run 5k without stopping, but over time my 5k performance steadily improved as I built healthier habits and rediscovered my love of running. In 2023, I joined Bellahouston Road Runners, which helped me take things to the next level. I took ten minutes off my 5k time and began racing longer distances. I fell in love with long-distance running and started exploring trails in the Scottish countryside, including some Munros. Long runs became the highlight of my week, and I’m grateful to have the stamina to enjoy them. I ran my first marathon at Strathearn in June 2024, placing 7th female. A year later, I finished 2nd female at the Windermere Marathon. That result secured my qualification for the Tokyo Deaflympics. I find women, especially mothers, who take on ultra trail challenges deeply inspiring. Stephanie Case, who breastfed her six-month-old at feed stations during an ultra, really stands out. She displays endurance, strength, and consistency in the best way possible. I hope to be like her one day!“ Unlike the Olympics / Paralympics, Deaflympics athletes receive no funding and need to raise money to train, travel and compete. Poppy has begun a ‘Go Fund Me’ page which can be found at https://gofund.me/79d4daef Poppy was until recently a primary school teacher in the southside of Glasgow, but had planned a career break this year to visit Australia. Congratulations Poppy, we are delighted and proud of you! Have a good training journey and good luck in Tokyo!
Bellahouston Road Runners celebrated it’s 25th anniversary this week. To celebrate, we headed to the Emirates Arena on Saturday 11th January, for a morning of indoor races. Over 70 Bellas ran one mile heats, that counted as a Club Championship ‘short’ distance, before 800m, 400m and 200m ‘fun runs’. It was great to see so many brilliant races and performances on the fantastic new track. It was then on to Glasgow Green Football Centre for lunch, birthday cake and a series of talks and inputs Opening remarks and memories came from our founder, Jimmy Irvine, accompanied as always, by his wife Sandra. We also enjoyed the reflections of our current president, Emer Campbell, and past presidents Oscar Wild, Emma Birnie, Robert McEwan, Brian O’Donnell and Richard Leyton. This really was a thoughtful insight into the formation and development of the club, and as was so aptly put by Robert, a glimpse of the jigsaw that has helped to establish the club with members at it’s core. We had two further distinguished guests who delivered excellent presentations, namely Kilbarchan AAC legend Bobby Quinn and Cambuslang Harrier, and recent Jimmy Irvine Bella 10k winner, Ryan Thomson. Bobby and Ryan’s experience, achievements and perspectives were fascinating and provided real food for thought. Thankyou to both for giving their time and enthusiasm. It was a great day, and a wonderful start to our 25th year. Thankyou again to all of our guests, committee members, coaches and volunteers who put together and ran these events.
We thought it’d be fun to write up some of our favourite club sessions and routes, to perhaps give a few ideas and inspiration, or take a look at in more detail. The club’s full training schedule is on our website, and detailed each week by our coaches during the lockdown, via social media. We’re grateful to Niall Murphy for his excellent twitter posts and pictures, that served as the inspiration to this first post. Sherbrooke Hills A core session for our winter training schedule is the Sherbrooke hills. We’d even suggest it’s one of the very best hill rep routes in Glasgow: we even have members, who’ve moved away or further afield, comment to us of their “fond” memories of the session, and all the hard work. To borrow a term from cycling, it’s perhaps the Queen of our training sessions. It’s well worth hunting down, to create memories of your own: have a look at the map, or read our summary below, or why not become a member of the club, so when we resume our winter training schedule we can introduce you to it properly! The Strava segment helps visualise it, but: It starts on St Andrews Drive/Dalziel, right next to the lampost adjacent to ‘Somersby’. Head up the punchy (first!) hill, turning left on Nithsdale Road, then next left (by Sherbrooke castle). Head up the Sherbrooke Avenue hill (second!) – the famous three parter. Continue over the top, and down a bit, turning right on Springkell avenue just by the postbox (watch out when it’s wet). Continue down, then next right on Hamilton Avenue, up the steep (third!) hill, turning right and continuing up as it levels off. Turn right again, to the junction with Springkell again (by the postbox), but this time turn and run back up Sherbrooke Avenue for the fourth hill. Then it’s a brief downhill for a bit, taking the second right down Hamilton avenue, and first left to complete the loop at the junction with Dalziel. Club sessions are generally a timed tempo hills session (eg. 30 minutes), a number of loops (3-4), or efforts on the uphill/recover downhill. Do watch out for leaves in the autumn months, which – with some intermittent lighting – can absure uneven surfaces, ties. Roads can sometimes be busy too, so be sure to be careful, and wear highviz, and of course give way to others on the route, and during coronavirus, take care to follow applicable rules. A guided tour For those who know the Sherbrooke hills as a classic, we will all have found ourselves peering up at some of the houses whilst doing the session, thinking (perhaps initially) Is there a story to that house? – Pollokshields is Scotland’s first Garden Suburb, so if you’re on Twitter Niall Murphy (@MurphyNiallGLA) is well worth a follow for interesting and engaging stories of the architecture of this neck of the woods. A few highlights to look up next time you’re along. This whole thread […]
We’ve recently been looking at some options for cross country courses in Bellahouston park, and thought it would be fun to look at some of the historical courses that have been used, as well as some of the history of the park itself. The biggest cross country event by far was the 1978 World Cross Country Championships, and we are immensely grateful to Graham Macindoe, and Hugh Barrow of Victoria Park, for having unearthed a couple of absolute gems from this big event. Firstly, the map of the course from the event. It’s interesting to see the change in layout of the park, and the old sports centre (refurbished in the late 1990s). There is plenty more on the park’s history on Wikipedia. For a more close-to-home section, including some quotes from our very own Jimmy Irvine, scottishdistancerunning.scot has a section on Bellahouston, featuring a history of the running track in the park. There’s an interesting piece, featuring ourselves, on the Nethercraigs page. Secondly, a copy of the programme, and admission prices. Last, but by far from least, here’s a super section of video from the John Treacy archive. John was the eventual men’s winner, and very successful Irish Olympic athlete. The winner crosses the line at 8:40, and it runs until 12:27 when it switches over to another event. We hope you agree it’s a lot of fun to see the park as it was, in 1978. Maybe some of that course might feature in a future XC event!?