So, Sunday 15 February was the final race in the Borders Cross Country Series. This was the day the boys finally got their hands on the coveted horseshoe. You see, Greig had promised us the best momento of any race possible and given it was the 25th anniversary series excitement was tangible as to whether the horseshoe would be polished silver this year to mark the date. Graeme had mentioned that he had already cleared a space in the living room to exhibit the prize. The final race was at a place called Conundrum near Berwick. Now, I have never been good at the conundrum on Countdown, possibly because I am so focused on Rachel Riley. I was hoping today, in the town of Conundrum, and as a disassociation tactic, to solve the ultimate conundrum. A question so tough that even Stephen Hawkins has failed to resolve: “Why is Davy’s hair more orange than oranges?” My race tactic was to focus on that question and maybe it would spur me on to success in the race too? The weather was as usual tropical. I arrived slightly late and realised I’d lost my number. Not to worry, the tattoo parlour in Conundrum was delighted to scribe my number on my chest and after a quick change I was ready to go. During our warm up I was scanning the other runners to see if I could see Deep Sea Diver. They either had decided to take the day off or were having problems with the replacement canisters of helium strapped to the suit rather than the oxygen. An inspired feat of psyching your challenger out ( well kind off!). It was during this process that I saw The Terminator. This beast was truly magnificent…..a real professional. Dressed in matching shoes, socks, shorts, racing vest, hat, gloves and sunglasses, he looked mean and ready to kick ass. When I grow up, I thought, I want to be just like you! I mentioned to the boys that he was clearly the winner and that Grieg was now racing for the lower places…….no problems for me as I am always in that position. The whistle summoned us to the start line. This gave Greig just enough time to take his last sip of EPO. I stared in awe as the majesticness of the Terminator muscled his way to the front. The starter gave us precise directions: “You run up there, across there, through there, across the road, down there, up there, through a few fields, watch the electric fences, run down there, it’s quite muddy over there and you finish right there” Brilliant….where can we go wrong? The race started. We ran across a very flat section for about 100 metres and then bang…up a big hill. I settled in behind a group of boys watching Greig, Davy and Graeme running into the distance ahead. I just thought dig in…..oranges, oranges, oranges. At the top of the hill I noticed I was right behind […]
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The Carnegie Harriers Devilla Forest 15K took place yesterday with 13 Bellas taking part. The cold, dry weather last week meant the trail sections were firm under foot and the sunshine on the day made for perfent running conditions. Bellahouston Road Runners results are shown below and the full results available from the Carnegie Harriers Website here. Well down to all our runners. 40 Kevin Queenan 01:02:59 70 Gerry Hanlon 01:05:59 78 Brian O’Donnell 01:06:26 94 Elaine Somerville 01:07:33 123 Henry Merriweather 01:09:29 156 John Sandbach 01:11:38 218 Christopher Doak 01:15:41 238 Judith Macgregor 01:17:16 251 Derek Smith 01:18:08 256 Chris Kay 01:18:27 306 Walton Pantland 01:22:00 315 Jackie Mcguire 01:22:31 326 Roz Wilson 01:23:06
Bellahouston Road Runners had an impressive turnout of 12 men and 7 women for this flat race in bright conditions along the esplanade in Greenock. As expected, the first half of the race was great but then we turned round and all of a sudden that nice gentle tail wind became a gale-force headwind. The injustcie of it all! After a battle with the wind it was back to Battery Park for a final lap-and-a-bit of the park, complete with an exciting crossing of paths with the other runners. Yet again it was the women (Elaine, Mary and Shona) who stole the show, winning bronze team medals. The men however missed out on a team medal by just ONE point! Must try harder guys… Seriously though, there were quite a few PBs getting posted today and some valuable club championship points earned, so well done everyone. And big thanks to the enthusiastic support from the Bellas who weren’t racing. Results attached below. Full results: Renfrewshire AAA – Road Relay Results 2015
The conditions were surprisingly good yesterday at Strathclyde park for the Scottish Veteran Harriers Club (SVHC) Road relay event. One lap of the loch made each leg an unusual distance of 3.8miles. Well done to everyone who took part in a race with a strong field, and congratulations to Russell, Greig, Graeme and Andy who took 3rd place. The men’s teams were 3rd and 9th out of 41 teams and the ladies placed 7th out of 17 teams. Full results on the SVHC website: SVHC Road Relays 2015 – results
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.
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 […]