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Well done to all the Bellas who braved the challenging conditions at the West Districts yesterday, great results in both team and individual Team results here : http://www.scottishathletics.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/West-Dist-2014-XC-Champs-Team-Results-NEW.xls Individual results here : http://www.scottishathletics.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/West-Dist-2014-XC-Champs-Indiv-Results.xls
Well done to Bellas Andy Campbell (17:25) and Claire Wharton (19:51) – 1st Male and 1st Female respectively at the 6th Anniversary Pollok parkrun on Saturday. And congratulations to Derek Rankine who completed his 100th parkrun at the same event. Big congratulations too to Al Maclachlan (pictured) who won the Men’s points competition. Much to celebrate over a piece (or 3) of parkrun birthday cake in the Burrell cafe after the event. Consolidated parkrun results for Bellahouston Road Runners on 6 December 2014 can be found here: Latest Bella Consolidated Results NB If you’re missing from the results, add Bellahouston Road Runners as your club on your parkrun profile – a link is given in the email with your result you received on Saturday.
Full 2014 results available here: http://www.stuweb.co.uk/events/2014/11/08/1858/ Congratulations to the 2014 prize winners: 1ST MALE Robert GILROY – Ronhill Cambuslang Harriers 0:31:03 2ND MALE Colin THOMAS – Bellahouston Harriers 00:33:19 3RD MALE Shaun LYON – Greenock Glenpark Harriers 00:33:36 1ST FEMALE Julie GORDON – Inverclyde AC 00:37:24 2ND FEMALE Laura WALLACE – Ayr Seaforth AC 00:37:50 3RD FEMALE Megan DAVIDSON – Falkirk Victoria Harriers 00:38:21 MV40 Peter CURRIE – Dumbarton AAC 00:34:55 MV50 Wattie MACKAY – Strathearn Harriers 00:36:03 MV60 Jim SCOTT – Portobello Running Club 00:41:00 FV35 Lyndsay CURRIE – Dumbarton AAC 0:38:46 FV45 Mary WESTERN – Carnegie Harriers 00:39:11 FV55 Lorna COYLE – Greenock Glenpark Harriers 00:44:38 MALE TEAM: Bellahouston Harriers :Colin THOMAS, Jack ARNOLD and Cris WALSH FEMALE TEAM Bellahouston Road Runners : Ann ROBIN, Elaine SOMERVILLE , Kirsteen PATERSON
The Jimmy Irvine Bella 10K on 8th November is sold out and there are no entries on the day. All entrants should now have received their final instructions email notifying them of their race number. The race number can be collected from Achilles Heel Glasgow store on Thursday between 9:30am and 7:30pm or on Friday between 9:30am and 5:30pm. Numbers will also be available on Saturday at Mosspark Bowling Club between 8:45am and 10:45am. We look forward to welcoming you on Saturday https://www.bellahoustonroadrunners.co.uk/events/bella-10k
Woke yesterday feeling excited about the marathon but with an agony mouth full of horrible mouth ulcers. Had my porridge and walked the 30 minutes from my friend’s flat to the start in Fitzwilliam Square, was very warm. Was really looking forward to running: so wonderful, all the runners gathering at 7:45, the excitement in the air, smell of muscle rub, pre-race tension. My sore mouth was getting me down but I reminded myself of all the long runs I’d done over the summer and that it was my legs I was running with, not my mouth. I thought of what Oscar said on the day of Loch Ness mara: you’ve done all the hard work, today you can just enjoy it. He’s so right(of course). I queued for 20 mins for the toilet and made pals with 3 lovely Irish runners(great banter). They each had a full face of make-up on, very glamorous(I wondered what they’d look like after 26.2m) and they were ridiculously nervous cause it was their first mara, tried to reassure them. The race started with 14,000 runners at 9 sharp. It was a warm day(17 degrees) and somewhat windy at some points as well. I was focussing on setting off nice and slowly and wanted to replicate Belfast this year(8:40s in first half, 8:30s in 2nd half). Was thinking of Chi’s words:keep focussed and run strong. Kept saying it to myself. Fairly early on in the race we ran through enormous Phoenix park for quite a few miles. Was beautiful, lovely trees, enormous and ancient(almost as good as our own Pollok park trees). Loved that park The race seemed to have a huge amount of European runners and I ran with a handsome man(such beautiful eyes!) from Naples for a bit. I have a terrible tendency in marathons to talk utter mince and after a mile or so he shook my hand, looked into my eyes, wished me ‘buona fortuna’ and sped off. Wee shame. The crowds were brilliant, so loud, so supportive, as busy(in some places) as in London. They were so kind, shouted ‘fair play to ye!’ and ‘you’re grand!’ and their support really kept me going. My Dublin pal Kirsti & her daughter Ruska surprised me by shouting me on at mile 13, it really spurred me on(they are quiet and self-reserved Finns, to see them quite excited and enthusiastic was completely out of character for them but a real boost for me) After halfway somehow it all went wrong and my dream of a Belfast-like negative split started to slip away. I felt weak & sick and my stomach was so sore. Even to keep going felt like a struggle, never mind speeding up. I really had to dig deep for my inner strength. I think perhaps I need to be less silly and more sensible and start taking gels(yuck!) in marathons? 4 wee milk bottle sweeties maybe just not enough. I also felt so over-heated & parched, the sun was […]
The Ben Venue Hill Race took place earlier today. Well done to everyone who took part and many thanks to all the helpers. Results can be found here.
I headed down to Dumfries this evening for the 5 mile Hollywood Stroll race. It’s not quite as glamorous as it sounds, following quiet country roads on the outskirts of Dumfries. The course itself is undulating which makes it hard to get into a steady rhythm and the wind also meant my splits were all over the place. The race was 15 minutes late in starting due to a larger than expected number of runners. Not ideal since I hadn’t had any tea and was getting hungry so just wanted to get going as soon as possible! About 350 entrants eventually lined up on the start line. I started up near the front and by the time we were 200m in I was in the lead. By the end of the first mile I had built up a good lead and with a strong headwind I eased up a bit until about 2.75 miles in. Once the course turned I had a quick look round and could see the second placed runner from Dumfries some way behind. I knew from my average pace that I wouldn’t be getting a PB but knowing I was in a strong position for my first win of the year and picked up the pace in the last couple of miles and finished strongly in 27:05, a minute or so ahead of second place. Good selection of food at the finish line including yogurt drinks and trifles in the sun made for a good nights work. Only downside was that I had to run off before the prizegiving to pick up the wee man from my parents’ and get back up the road, cant have it all though I suppose!!
Back in 2005 Chris Upson set up a webpage to provide more information on the Scottish hill running scene, as well as providing race details and calendars it collates all results and allows you to look at clubs and individual runner profiles. Since its creation Bella has had 115 different club members participate in a hill race, the 6th highest total from around 120 clubs listed…… not bad for a road club. Bella Page – http://www.scottishhillracing.co.uk/Runners.aspx?ClubID=C1007 Anyway, back to the main point… tonight at ‘The Whangie Whizz’ Bella’s David Stakes ran his 100th hill race since the site was established (Only around 60 runners have reached this target so far from over 12,000 runners on the site). David has done a great job representing the club at these events and taking the purple vest on tour. From short local races like tonight’s to the gruelling Stuc a chroin & two breweries races, and from the borders to Kinlochewe in the North David is ever present. David’s full list – http://www.scottishhillracing.co.uk/RunnerDetails.aspx?FromSearch=true&RunnerID=R8084 To put this in perspective, when you compare this achievement with some of Bella’s other seasoned hill runners you can see that the rest of us have a long way to go. Dougal Ross – 55 Andy ‘Mountain Stig’ Birnie – 44 Grant McDonald & some guy Mathieson – 36 Well done David…… Keep up the good work !! http://www.scottishhillracing.co.uk
Online entry is now open for this years Jimmy Irvine Bella 10K. The race will take place on Saturday 8th November 2014 starting at 11am. All the important details including online entry are on the event page here. If you click on the picture in this post it will link to short film from the 2013 event.
In an attempt to re-discover my race legs I took a break from the usual Sunday morning marathon training and headed north to Alloa for their ever popular half marathon. Still smarting from being forced to travel “a bit” further north to do the Inverness half last year after Alloa had sold out, I had made sure I got my entry in early. Having not raced much over the last few months I was quite looking forward to the race, that was until I checked the 5 day forecast in the days prior. A 20mph westerly wind was on the menu for Sunday, which for anyone who has done the race will know means a very unpleasant 4 mile stretch straight into the wind. Rather optimistically I figured that the weather would have calmed down by the time Sunday came but if anything the wind got stronger as we lined up at the start. And so off we went, the first 2 miles way too fast as I’m sure we can all relate to, but after that I settled into a nice steady pace which I figured might bring me home in about 1hr15mins. Of course by this point I had completely forgotten the wind, the mighty wind… It was only I as I took the left turn onto Tillicoultry high street at the 5.5 mile point that reality struck home, there was to be no avoiding it, the next 4 miles were going to be unpleasant. I tried in vain to make up the 50 metres or so to the group ahead but either they were somehow shrinking or more likely just easing further away, was I the only person affected by this wind?? Somehow I managed the first 2 miles to Alva but each mile was taking longer and longer. My prospects were starting to look bleak but then out the blue our old friend Ollie Scott came charging past me, a man on a mission if ever I saw one. This gave me the boost I needed and I managed to keep up with Ollie for the remaining stretch of the wind tunnel, after which is half a mile of respite followed by a nice steep incline to sap any remaining energy you might have had left. Having made it to the top there is just one more gentle incline followed by about a mile and a half of largely flat and downhill to the finish, with the welcome feeling of a tailwind at long last. I finally crossed the line in 1hr17mins, which I felt was about the best I could have managed given that the wind stole about 2 mins off me over the 4 treacherous miles. Lastly, can I invite all the other Bellas who ran on Sunday to back up my story, honestly I’m not just a lightweight, it was blowing a gale… Bruce
Hi Folks, Twenty-four Bellas made the journey though to Livingston for the National Road Relay on Sunday to take on the top road runners from across the country. Cold fog and a hilly, twisty route greeted us, not to mention some top-notch opposition. The route was fairly scenic though with the best bit being the trail (eh, ROAD relay?) section along the river. Ladies teams finished 17th (4th in the V40 category) and 27th. Mens teams finished 18th, 37th and 6th in the V50 category. Some really good performances in there, which is hard work when sometimes running alone in a race that gets very strung out. Without any disrespect to all us runners, the grittiest performances of the day had to be from Iain O’Donnell and Carla Ward who volunteered to marshal in response to a request from the race organisers. Three hours standing out in the cold keeeping us on track – thank you both! Thank you to all who turned out to represent the club at a very tough race. Full results attached below. I should point out that the organisers liked Graeme P so much, they added a bonus minute onto his time – well done Graeme! If anyone else notices any major discrepancies in the results lets us know. Bruce
The Clydebank 5k road race took place on Saturday 15th March and there was another good turnout from Bella members. Some of us were returning to Clydebank for the second time in seven days after the previous weekend’s half-marathon. The race begins with a couple of laps of an industrial estate before heading towards Dalmuir, then turning along the Forth and Clyde Canal for the last mile. In such a short and intense race though, there’s little time to notice the surroundings. There were high hopes for some PBs on what promised to be a fast course, and with that thought in mind we set off very briskly. My watch was showing a seriously ambitious pace but it felt good so I kept going. I was through the first mile under 3k pace. Optimistic arithmetic was going on in my mind… I should have known I’d suffer later… Suddenly the slight headwind started to feel much more like hard work and the finish seemed a very long way off. For the last mile I suppose there was a tailwind, but it didn’t really feel that way as I laboured along at 10k pace. I rallied somewhat for the final 100 metres or so and was surprised to cross the line with a PB. I didn’t do it the easy way but it was a satisfying result nevertheless. The results aren’t available at the time of writing but there were good PBs for several Bellas. Well done to all those who took part! There’ll be a chance to do it all again at the National 5k race in Edinburgh on 7th May.
On Friday afternoon I began the very long coach trip to Birmingham for the UK Inter Counties Cross Country Championships. The trip down was interesting in itself with the under 17 men deciding that they would have an smartphone/headphone rap battle…I was delighted and surprised when their batteries lasted for the full 6 hour journey (surely they can’t own an iPhone). The bus driver also thought that he would create tropical weather conditions on the bus (we were heading south after all) by putting the heating on full blast. On arrival at the hotel we were fed the hottest curry known to man, all of our mouths were on fire, not the normal pre race meal I would go for but there was certainly enough to feed a small army. The race day was great if not some what intimidating. We all got rallied into pens, around 40 in total, with 6 ladies racing for each district or country. Looking around at the start most of the girls figures resembled those of models, they were so tall and thin and I must say I felt like a bit of an oompa lumpa stood next to them (this is my next fancy dress outfit!). The race started off at a blistering pace which of course I tried to go with…ha this plan would soon backfire! The course consisted of 1 small lap and 2 big laps totaling 8km. The course was hilly, muddy and technical everything that a cross country race should be. For the duration of the race I had girl A* running on my shoulder breathing like a dragon. I tried to run away from her mainly because her breathing techniques were driving me insane but no such luck she stayed right there with me for 8km! The race finished with a ridiculously steep downhill which was pretty fun to run down. With girls finishing on average every 2 seconds you can imagine the pandemonium the marshals had to deal with as girls flew down the hill and then suddenly stopped on the finishing line incapable of walking (I was potentially one of these girls). I ended up finishing 101st out of 270 which I was pretty proud of considering the caliber of runners and that I am in full marathon training at the mo. Once the race was finished we dusted off the mud off our legs and clothes as best as possible jumped back on the bus and headed back home! Oh and before you ask we got to recreate the iPhone/Headphone rap battle on the way home. It was such a great opportunity to race for West Scotland at this race and fingers crossed I can better my position next year! P.s. I beat A* by 2 seconds Carla * Girl A’s name has been changed to protect her identity. Mostly because we’re scared of dragons.