Around 50 Bellas turned up at last weekend’s (10th March, 2019) Balloch to Clydebank Half Marathon, in pretty grim weather. As always, our ladies team won lots of medals with Louise Ross and Ann Robin finishing 2nd and 5th overall. Shona Donnelly and Emer Campbell placed 1st and 3rd in the V40 category with our ladies team of Louise, Ann and Shona finishing in 1st place overall. Congratulations everyone and well done to all who took part! Particularly if you managed to secure a PB in those conditions! We’ve loads of photographs over on our public Facebook page! There’s a specific album here too. Many thanks as ever to Gordon Goldie for turning out to take so many!
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Club members have recently been sent formal notification of the club’s 2019 AGM, which will take place at 7.30pm (straight after training) at Glasgow Club Nethercraigs, on 20th March, 2019. As well as a few housekeeping items (the full agenda is here, on the members forum), and a presentation of the Trustees Annual Report, members will be invited to vote on a motion to create a new honorific of “Honorary life member”, in order that the club may recognise members who have made a lasting contribution or impact at the club. We will also be thanking a number of Trustees who are stepping down, and a motion will be presented to approve the new Board. If members are interested in getting involved, one or two roles are open, and details are also available on the members forum. We look forward to welcoming as many members as possible to the meeting. For any members unable to attend, apologies may be sent in advance to the secretary via email to info@bellahoustonroadrunners.co.uk. Thanks and Regards, Lynne Goldie (Secretary) Richard Leyton (Chair)
Yesterday a group of club members took part in a festive run around the Glasgow subway stops, starting and finishing at Ibrox, and going anti-clockwise. We had great fun, in ideal conditions, and took loads of pictures, some selfies, and a few videos, a selection of which are below, and on our Facebook page. Running doesn’t have to always be serious or hard work: Having a laugh with friends is every bit as important as pushing for a PB, or tackling a personal challenge! Many thanks to Gordon Goldie for organising the run, and for the support he and Lynne Goldie provided along the way. During the first part of the run, we were accompanied by Colin Mearns, a photographer at the Evening Times, who was taking pictures to accompany an interview with club president Richard Leyton regarding the 10th anniversary of parkrun in Scotland, which he helped start. We’re delighted parkrun has grown so successfully since it first started in Glasgow in Pollok park: Many thanks to all the volunteers and core team members across Glasgow and Scotland for their brilliant efforts growing the footprint, bringing free, weekly, 5k timed events to their local communities. Amazingly, the pictures even made it on to the Front Page! A special mention to Colin, who seemed to pull off an impressive feat of endurance and logistics dashing around Glasgow to catch us, with a couple of large cameras around his necks, to capture some great pics. Catriona Stewart‘s article is on page 3 of today’s paper, and available online here: https://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/17323393.glasgows-parkrun-founder-reflects-on-10-years-of-5k-phenomenon/ Wishing everybody a very happy Christmas and a brilliant and successful 2019!
An amazing turnout of 70 Bellas and their families came along to this morning’s Club Everyone Festive Fun Run at Pollok parkrun then back to the after party at Nethercraigs. Congratulations to Claire and Kenny Wharton who won the best dressed awards and to Jane McNeilly whose name was pulled out the hat and donated a fantastic £240 to the Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity. Merry Christmas everyone!
This year’s Jimmy Irvine Bella 10k took place on the Armistice Day centenary. The runners paid their respects with a minute’s silence at the start line. But the club wanted to go bit further this year, and so invited race participants to make a small donation to a local good cause. Thanks to the generosity of our runners and volunteers we are delighted to announce that we have raised £597.58 for the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice which has just opened in Bellahouston Park. The beautiful new, purpose-built hospice will provide 21stcentury palliative care to the people of Glasgow in an innovative, peaceful setting in the park. Club President, Richard Leyton visited the new hospice to present a cheque and thank hospice staff personally for supporting this year’s event. “The club tries to give something back to the local community,” Richard said, “so we are all really chuffed that our runners and volunteers have been so generous, and that we have been able to use the race to raise funds for such a good cause.” “The hospice clapsticks proved very popular with some of the younger volunteers on the water station, bringing a smile to many a struggling runner’s face as they ran past!” Next year’s race will be held in November 2019. Subscribe to https://www.facebook.com/bellahoustonroadrunners/ for more details as soon as they are announced.
31 Bella’s headed to Kilmarnock on Saturday for the popular West District cross country event, and the recent rain ensured it was a properly muddy affair, so a real test of resolve for everybody who took part. We’re delighted to report that our Ladies did another amazing job, securing overall team bronze, and the Masters team Gold! There are some cracking photos available from Scottish Athletics, courtesy of Bobby Gavin, and plenty from members, a selection of which are on our facebook page and instagram (@bellaroadrunner) Overall team bronze medal counters were Cat Macdonald, Ann Robin, Romy Beard and Louise Ross. Well done too to Cat who was 7th home overall. Our Gold masters women were Ann (4th master home), Louise (9th) and Claire Wharton (11th). Some standout performances from the men too, well done to Bryan Mulgrew who was the first Bella gent home. Huge congratulations and thanks to all our runners and supporters for making the race one to remember, and helping work up a thirst for our Christmas night out, which followed later in the evening! Lots of pics from the day on our members facebook group, courtesy of Gordon Goldie. Provisional results area available from Scottish Athletics race report. Huge thank you too to Kilmarnock Harriers for hosting, to all the marshals and officials who made the event and races happen, and a huge well done to everybody who took part.
The club was delighted to hear that members Romy Beard and Louise Ross were recently selected to represent Scotland at the British and Irish Masters XC International, in Swansea on 17th November. A fantastic achievement in itself, they returned from the event with bronze team medals in the W35 (Romy) and W40 (Louise) categories. A huge congratulations to them both, from everybody at the club! Well done to everybody who took part, at what sounds like a great event. Romy also sent in a great race report, which we’re delighted to share here: The team bus leaves Glasgow at 9am. Everybody is chatting. The journey is fine until we go cross-country through the Welsh mountains. In the dark. The bus becomes quiet. One lady is very sick. By the time we arrive it’s nearly 8pm. We wonder how Swansea can be so far away. We have dinner at the hotel with some other ladies including our rivals from Giffnock North. We decide to be friends for the weekend. Not much sleep much because they’re working right outside the hotel and in the morning the seagulls are loud. Some people report music and shouting, which I missed, so I must have slept after all. We put our Scotland shorts and vest on, and tie the tartan ribbons in our hair. The excitement begins! Short bus ride to Singleton park. The sun comes out just in time for the Scotland team photo. We do an easy jog of the course. It’s 3 laps of 2k. The second part of the lap is up and down one big slope. It doesn’t seem too bad. Photos. More warm up stuff. Getting very, very excited now. Lining up with all the other Scottish, Irish, Northern Irish, English and Welsh runners in our race (ladies plus the 65+ men). I feel fantastic on the first lap. I am running for Scotland. Hurrah! I can’t stop smiling. I’m also going too fast. I can see Mary McCutcheon from Giffnock North in front and know that I am too close to her. Fuck it. I am running for Scotland! It’s only 3 laps. The hill is worse than I thought. I get a stitch at the start of the second lap. I pull back a little. Only two laps to go. The hill is a killer on the second lap. I’m just looking at the piece of grass in front of me and keep putting one foot in front of the other. Whenever someone shouts Scotland I smile. I tell myself that I am strong and that I can do this. Third lap. I don’t care what race this is I just want it to end. Louise goes past just before the hill. I have nothing left to chase her. I lap a lady in the 70+ group and shout a well done to her. She is amazing. I feel a bit sick when I get over the hill for the last time. Down the hill and then around […]
The club held a very successful training day on Saturday 17th November, for club members. A jam packed schedule, devised by our lead coach Gerry Scullion, included: Cross Country training session, led by Graeme Paterson. 6, 2, 2, 4, 2, 2, 6 minute efforts, with a 1 minute recovery. ‘Nutrition for Runners’, by Emma Birnie, a Dietitian and Sports Nutritionist Tips and discussions on good running form, and the club’s training sessions, with Gerry ‘Marathon Training’, by club member Bruce Carse, who went from a 3:44 marathon at his first attempt, to 2:35! ‘Running and Injury’, by Matt Williamson, outlining injuries, and how to reduce the risk of them, and how to aid recovery. Yoga session, led by club member and yoga instructor, Kelly Ludwig And we’ve not even mentioned the free lunch! We were ‘live streaming’ a few pics on our twitter feed @bellaroadrunner, some pics and tweets attached below from the day. We’re really very grateful to everybody involved in making the day happen, particularly for those who led and spoke during the day. Many thanks to the 50 or so members that made it along through the course of the day, and we hope you found it useful and informative. All of the presentations are now available to members via the club forum. Club training day in full swing @Glasgowclub Nethercraigs. XC session earlier this morning. Now Gerry is talking about good (and bad!) running form. pic.twitter.com/n7Dj58hChB — Bella Road Runners (@bellaroadrunner) November 17, 2018 Now former club president Emma is talking about sports nutrition pic.twitter.com/76r2Knqntk — Bella Road Runners (@bellaroadrunner) November 17, 2018
The 2018 Jimmy Irvine Bella 10k took place on 11 November 2018. The event was a sell out again! Many thanks to everybody who took part, to our amazing marshals and race team, our sponsors Achilles Heel, plus Tunnocks, Sainsbury’s for the bananas and water, and Glasgow City Council staff (Pollok park for the cones, Bellahouston park for the course and support), and Craigton Primary School for the race HQ venue. An amazing effort by everybody, for which we’re really very grateful. Thanks too to the donations for our Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice: We’ll update you on the total raised very soon. Final results from stuweb, our race timing provider, are available here, and a full race report for the day will follow in the next day or two. Congratulations to our winners: First Male: Stuart McGeachy (Cambeltown Running Club) in 33:23, 2nd Male: Gordon Robertson (Cambuslang Harriers) in 33:31, 3rd Male: Jonathan Roebuck (unattached), in 33:45 First Female: Jennifer Wetton (Central AC), in 37:03, 2nd Kirstian Macruary (Corstorphine AAC) in 38:11. 3rd: Emer Campbell (Bellahouston Road Runners) in 40:26 In the age category prizes, firstly sincere apologies for not having the Ladies results available at the awards ceremony: The explanation for this is the club decided some time back to equalise the age categories (ie. same age ranges for men and women), but the Ladies provisional results we were given were for V35, V45, V55 (ie. not correct). This also appeared on the timing slips and website for a while. We felt it was better to award them later when we were certain and they had been update. Prizes will be posted to the winners soon. First Male V40: Andy Campbell (Bellahouston Road Runners), in 35:24. First Ladies V40: Jennifer Macfarlane (East Fife Triathlon Club) in 42:31 First Male V50, and Peter Cunningham cup winner: Wattie Mackay (Strathearn Harriers), in 37:24 First Ladies V50: Pamela McCrossan (Clydesdale Harriers) in 42:23 First Male V60: Graham McGrattan (Greenock Glenpark Harriers) in 42:25 First Ladies V60: Erica Christie (Achilles Heel Run Club) in 43:29 In the very-important-to-local-clubs team prizes, the first Men’s team was Bellahouston Road Runners, and the first Female team was Bellahouston Harriers. Thanks again to everybody for making today a great success.
We’ll shortly be sending final instructions to participants email addresses. If you don’t receive your copy this evening, please check your spam folders, and mark any email from bellahoustonroadrunners.co.uk you find there as not spam, to help our emails reach you, and others, in future. Note too if you registered two people with the same email address, you will only receive one copy of the instructions. Please review the entrycentral.com/bella10k entry list or get in touch with us if you’re unsure. Please do also follow us on social media for any last minute announcements or changes relating to the race. We’re at facebook.com/bellahoustonroadrunner and twitter @bellaroadrunner
Hot off the press: Read all about our GOLDEN Bellas; our yellow Bellas, our saltire Bellas; our green Bellas, Our Royal Bella; our Blistering Bella and our improved Bellas! All in your Bletha 6! Read on line or pick up your very own copy at the club!
Here it is! Jimmy Irvine himself was delighted earlier today to show off this year’s finisher’s t-shirt. Every runner will get one of these technical, long-sleeved t-shirts after finishing the race. The t-shirt image is from the Edinburgh to Glasgow relay race 60 years ago. Jimmy overtook the fancied Victoria Park runner, J. Taylor to win the third leg with a 38 yard lead. “When you go past, leave them no hope,” is one of Jimmy’s pithy mottos. The race will take place on Sunday 11 November in Bellahouston Park and has been very popular in recent years. You can sign up now at https://www.entrycentral.com/bella10k Enter as soon as you can to avoid disappointment! For more details go to https://www.bellahoustonroadrunners.co.uk/?p=711 We are very grateful for the support over many years from our Main Sponsor, achilles heel.
Congratulations to our magnificent ladies team who have today been announced as the Scottish Half Marathon Gold medalists at Sunday’s Great Scottish Run! Louise Ross, Cat MacDonald and Emer Campbell all finished in the top 20, and retained the title won last year. Well done ladies, we’re so proud of you! Congratulations to Dumbarton AC and Metro Aberdeen on taking Silver and Bronze team prizes, and to Inverclyde AC for winning the men’s Gold, with Shettleston, Edinburgh AC for Silver and Bronze.
What a day at the Great Scottish 10k and Half Marathon! At least 85 Bellas were involved in marshalling, pacing and racing this morning. That must be a record, and that’s not even including our fantastic supporters along the route! Congratulations too to Louise Ross for winning the Scottish Masters Bronze medal, finishing with a huge PB of 1.24.57. We were defending our Scottish national Ladies team Gold from 2017, and hope to find out later this week if we were successful! Thanks to everyone for making it such a memorable day!
💜 People Make Bella 💜 Big thanks to everyone who had a great time volunteering at GSR Super Saturday this morning, you did your club proud 👏👏 All the best to all our runners and volunteers tomorrow! Hope everybody taking part has a great time! Pictures courtesy of Kevin Queenan, Robert Macleod. Used with permission.