It was a busy day yesterday with many from the Club taking part in the Tollcross Parkrun, part of the club Winter Championships. With black ice underfoot on the main paths, the runners took to the grass. Well done to everyone who took part. Our ladies dominated the podium taking the top 3 spots. Over in Fife, in the Lomond Hills, we had 6 runners running in a mixed team at the Devil’s Burdens relays. The race is run over 4 legs, with legs 2 and 3 run in pairs. Very Well done to the team who finished 32nd of 132 teams.
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With the temperature rising above freezing on Friday for the first time in a week, the weather looked promising for parkruns in Glasgow this weekend. But social media early on Saturday morning told a different story as Pollok, Victoria and Springburn were all cancelled – victims of sheets of ice on the courses caused by light rain and a subsequent cold snap overnight. Since Tollcross parkrun was the only Glasgow parkrun still going ahead, it was an inspired choice to make this the venue of a Bella Winter Championship race. Or maybe Bruce has a crystal ball he’s not told anyone about. There were changes to be made however, and even Tollcross had to make use of the alternative course, out and back 4 times on the grass. Just making it to the start was the first challenge to overcome. Thick black ice on all the paths meant that anyone watching from the overlooking flats had an entertaining morning counting the number of runners using their posteriors rather than their feet to get down the hill. With everyone upright again and safely on the grass, we were given a brief description of the revised course and we were off. The hills and grass combined to make this an even more challenging run than normal, and after a couple of laps, some of the turns were getting treacherous. Bad news for anyone who hates cross country. Graeme’s shouts of encouragement from the sidelines were very welcome and he gets a special mention for taking photos, probably suffering frostbitten fingers in the process. First Bella home was 3rd place Tony McParland (19:54) but the day belonged to the Bella ladies who put in some great performances and gave us the first four females over the line: 1st Mary SENIOR (23:43) 2nd Helen CRAIG (24:54) 3rd Jane WILD (24:57) 4th Julie VINTER (25:00) Well done to all 15 Bellas who ran. Results for the club can be found on the parkrun website here: Bellahouston Road Runners – consolidated results – 24 Jan 2015 Full Tollcross parkrun results are here: Tollcross parkrun – 24 Jan 2015 Consolidated parkrun results for Bellahouston Road Runners are linked from the: Bellahouston Road Runners parkrun results page, or directly on the parkrun website:
Well done to all who took part in Sunday’s East Kilbride AC Open XC race. It wasn’t the mud-fest that last year’s race was, instead we had mainly snowy fields and sunshine so despite a bit of windchill it was a great day for racing. Louise Ross – 1st Female Ciara O’Connell – 2nd Female Shona Donnelly – 4th Female(but scooped 3rd Female prize) And funnily enough Louise, Ciara and Shona won the women’s team prize too – brilliant effort girls! For the men, Greig Glendinning had a great race and got the prize for 3rd V40, and the rest of us (Iain, Tim and I) thought it polite to let the home team (East Kilbride AC) win the mens team prize by the narrowest of margins. Doh! We did get given consolation prizes of some unwanted Christmas selection boxes, so that made it all alright.
The latest consolidated parkrun results from Saturday are available on the parkrun website: Bellahouston Road Runners consolidated parkrun report Highlights include 1st places for Ciaran DOUGHERTY (17:10) at Victoria Park and Andy CAMPBELL (17:49) at St Andrews, a 2nd place for Iain BURNS (17:52) at Pollok and includes Bella’s running at 6 different events including Iain O’DONNELL in Sydney, Australia. Links to the last few weeks Bella parkrun consolidated reports can be found here
During the holidays we gave the website a bit of a makeover. If you have any comments on the new look, problems with the site, or suggestions for improvement, please email: webmaster@bellahoustonroadrunners.co.uk
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.