Bellahouston Road Runners were well represented at the Scottish 4K Cross Country Championships taking place on our home turf of Bellahouston Park on Sunday 31st January. In terms of entries we had the highest number of runners entered of all clubs in the senior races. On the day numbers were slightly down due to illness and injury but we still faired well. We’re all looking forward to our next cross country challenge at the Scottish National Championships in Falkirk on Saturday 20th February when the club should have 30 plus athletes out in force.
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Bellahouston Road Runners sent seven full teams (a total of 42 runners!) to the Devil’s Burdens Relay Race on Saturday 23rd January. The top male team and the top female team both scooped 2nd open prize. Well done all! Another success for us road runners up on the hills!
We’ve had a number of enquiries about whether the club is meeting in the current cold conditions. We can confirm that the club is meeting as usual: sessions take full account of the conditions and are always enjoyable! More details on the club forum. If you don’t have an account, please get in touch. See the forum tab for more information on getting an account.
A little rain, a bit of mud and autumn leaves blowing around the park made for excellent cross country conditions today at Pollok Park for the Renfrewshire Cross Country Relays hosted by Bellahouston Harriers. Both captains had a stress free day with all runners reporting for duty as requested. In an exciting climax to the Ladies race our girls were in with a shout of a medal right to the very end, finishing in 4th place, only 6 seconds behind the 3rd place team. The boys on the other hand weren’t so close, finishing in 5th place, but less than a minute from the medal positions in the end. The course was a little shorter than advertised but that just meant the fun was over a wee bit quicker. Thanks to the numerous supporters and all the runners. I hope you all had a good day. Roll on the nationals next week…
If you’re already a club member, the forum is a really important service to sign up to. It’s the online meeting place for club members, and where you’ll find all sorts of details about local races, championship details, social events, and race reports. To sign up, visit the forum page above, or send an e-mail to the club webmaster, giving your details and when you joined. We’ll set you up in no time, and you’ll be ready to go. If you’d signed up previously, and have been having difficulty logging in, drop a note to the webmaster as well. In the next few weeks we’re hoping to have a ‘forum helpdesk’ so you can ask questions, get your password reset. Speak to Richard or a committee member to find out more.
Results for the Bellahouston Road Runners first ever hill race, the Ben Venue Challenge, are now available. Click here for the results (PDF). Please report any result corrections to Andy Birnie via benvenue@bellahoustonroadrunners.co.uk. Feel free to send any comments or suggestions via e-mail, or in the comment section below. Drop us a note too if you have any pictures from the event. The gusting 80mph wind forced a course change, but nothing could dampen the friendly atmosphere or the competitive racing for Bellahouston Road Runners’ inaugural Ben Venue race. The race had a bit of everything – fast forest paths, muddy bogs, open hillside & a quick taste of the gales at the cairn but more importantly there were lots of smiling faces and plenty of homebaking at the finish! Matt Williamson (Bellahouston Road Runners) was eventual winner of the 6 mile race (1800 feet of ascent) in a time of 51 mins 17secs, having led for most of the way. He held off newcomer Peter Devenport (Unattached) and Matthew Sullivan (Shettleston Harriers) during the fast descent through Gleann Riabhach. In the girl’s race, Fiona Maxwell (Shettleston Harriers) had a slightly greater winning margin, winning in 59 mins 22 secs from Ellie Homewood (Westerlands) and Lyndsey Munro (Bellahouston Road Runners). The boys from the east coast cleared up the vet prizes with Carnethy boys taking the vet40 prizes in order of Adrian Davis, Bruce Smith & Steve Fallon. Gordon Pryde (Lomond) collected the V50 prize while Keith Burns (Carnethy) was 1st in the competitive group of V60s. The ladies vet prizes were better spread around Scotland, with Jo Schreiber (Lochaber), Joanne Anderson (Carnethy) & Caroline Strain (Wee County Runners) collecting the V40 prizes and Helen MacPherson (Westerlands) taking the V50 prize. Both team prizes went to the home club with counting runners Matt Williamson, Mark Johnston & Marcos Sans Gomez for the guys and Lyndsey Munro, Pauline Wright & Katie Padgham for the girls. Many thanks to the 83 runners who ignored the weather forecast and turned up today, and helped raise over £400 for the Lomond Mountain Rescue Team. This was Bella’s first hill race, so we’d love to hear your suggestions for how to improve things for next year. And there will be a next year, since we want to run the full advertised course, because we are so confident you will just love it! Please email any comments to benvenue@bellahoustonroadrunners.co.uk
Last night’s AGM saw a new committee elected for the next year. We’d all like to thank committee members who were standing down for all their help and dedication over the last few years, particularly Scott Kennedy and Club president Emma Birnie who’d both served for a long time and given so much to the club. We’d like to wish the new committee all the very best over the next year, which next year will see the club’s tenth anniversary. The new committee is: Club President:: Robert McEwan Club Secretary:: Carla Deans Membership secretary:: Maddie Smillie Treasurer:: Peter Gallanagh PR officer:: Alistair Kell Womens captain:: Jane Wild Men’s captain:: Brian O’Donnell Social convenor:: Lucy Mackay Ordinary member 1:: Jim O’Hara Ordinary member 2:: Julie Fitzpatrick
If you’ve recently completed the Glasgow Half Marathon or 10k, you’ll soon be looking for your next challenge, rather than putting your running shoes away for another year. What better way to prepare yourself, and keep your fitness up, than joining a running club? Bellahouston Road Runners are a friendly, welcoming, active and sociable group of runners, and we always welcome new faces. With the winter months approaching too, having company on long runs or training sessions is invaluable. The winter months are particularly good for building up your core strength ready for next year. But you may also fancy giving cross country or hill running a go to provide a little variety. Whilst running your race, you may also have noticed the many purple topped runners (it’s the biggest race for the club, and marks the end-of-championship), and must have heard the many supporters out along the route? It makes a big difference to have so much support when running. Check out the rest of the website to find out more about us, and if you fancy coming along see the details on the Join Us page. If you can run for an hour, and have a 10k time of approximately 55 minutes, you’ll have no trouble. We know ourselves it can be daunting joining a club – we’ve all been there – so we always try to provide a warm welcome. Your first two sessions are free, so what have you got to lose? Pitch up at about 6.15pm (there are basic changing facilities/toilets, but no showers), look out the on-duty committee member in the ski centre club room (just ask anybody that looks like a runner, or ski centre staff member, to point you in the right direction), and they’ll explain what the score is and introduce you to coaches and other runners. Sessions vary in length, but are usually around 1-1.5 hours.
Congratulations to club members Iona Robertson and Kenny Richmond, who have been selected to represent Scotland at the World Long Distance Mountain Running Championships at the Kaisermarathon in October. Click here for more details on the Scotland team. Both had great runs at the Ochils 2000 race at the weekend to earn their places in the team. Good luck to them both, from all members of the club, plus also good luck to Iona in the Transalp Race starting this weekend. Not bad for a road running club!
In the last few years, some members of Bellahouston Road Runners have found that they actually prefer running up (and down) hills rather than on roads. We have enjoyed running many hill races the length and breadth of Scotland, so we decided it was time to do our bit, and organise Bella’s first hill race. The race will be on 3rd October, starting at 1pm, on Ben Venue in the Trossachs, close to Aberfoyle. More details can be found here All race proceeds will go to Lomond Mountain Rescue Team, who will be on duty providing safety cover during the race. We look forward to seeing you on Saturday 3rd October.
Results for today’s Bella 5k are now available. Click here to download the results (PDF). Note these were updated on 21/Aug/09 to correct some omissions, and are now the final results. Pictures are also available here, courtesy of Kenneth Phillips. Add any other photos to the Bella RR flickr pool (link). Robert Gilroy, of Ronhill Cambuslang, won the men’s race with a time of 15.31. Kirsty Husband, of Garscube Harriers, won the ladies race with a time of 18.14. 2nd and 3rd in the Men’s race went to Michael Deanson (Glasgow Uni), in 16.04, and Daniel Bradford (Glasgow Uni) in 16.11. 2nd and 3rd in the Ladies race went to Donna Finlayson (Victoria Park) in 18.51 and Michelle Sandison (Springburn) Harriers. The first male and female team was Bellahouston Road Runners. First MV40 was Charlie Thompson (Ronhill Cambuslang) in 16.05, First MV50 was Paul Thompson (Helensburgh AC) in 17.11, and first MV60 was Tony Hall (Garscube Harriers) in 21.45. First FV35 was Emma Birnie (Bellahouston Road Runners) in 19.17, First FV45 was Jacqueline Cowan (Giffnock North AC) in 21.21, first FV55 was Sandra Wilkinson (Helensborough AC) in 30.28, and first FV65 was Sallie Lloyd Jones (Jog Scotland) in 36.06. Thanks to all sponsors, volunteers, organisers and participants for making the event a great success. If you enjoyed the event, why not come along one evening and try out a training session with the club? We meet twice a week (Monday and Wednesday) at the Ski Centre in Bellahouston Park, ready to run at 6.30. We’re always friendly, and like to see new faces. Your first two sessions are free. See the rest of the website for more details.
Club President Emma has some great news about the 2009 Bog and Burn Championship: Tonight saw the final race of the Bog & Burn series at Hillend Ski centre in Edinburgh. A mere (but very tough) 1.4m race up and down Caerketton hill. Three Bellas – John Milligan, Jane Simpson and myself racing with me taking 2nd place in the womens race and Jane taking 4th place and John getting a pb for the course! The race was followed by a tasty bowl of soup and a roll at the Steadings pub and the prizegiving for the series. Bella featured quite heavily in the line up of prizes and John and I came away armed with enough booze to open a small off-licence! Amongst the winners were: Kenny Richmond for 3rd place overall Andy Birnie for 2nd MV40 Iona Robertson for 2nd place in the ladies series Emma Birnie for 3rd place in the ladies series Jackie McGuire for 1st LV40 A brilliant effort from a ROAD RUNNING club eh! Well done to all.
Entries for the Achilles Heel Bella 5k are now open. This year the event takes place on Sunday, August 16th. Race starts at 11am, with declaration and changing (from 9.30am) at Palace of Arts, Bellahouston Park, Glasgow. Pre-entry is £5 for SAL members, and £7 for non-SAL members. There’s an additional £2 for entry on race day. Minimum age of 16 on race day. Visit https://bellahoustonroadrunners.co.uk/bella5k for more detail and to download the application form.
Emma has sent this excellent race report from the The Inter-Counties Fell, on Saturday 23rd May at Hutton Roof Crags near Kendal: Bella was represented by Kenny Richmond, Iona Robertson and Emma Birnie all running for the Scotland West team. The course was a tough 7 mile slog up to Hutton Roof crags then a long undulating cross country course to the near vertical acsent up Farlton Knot and back for a fast grassy descent back to Hutton Roof village. The West teams led the way in the Scottish stakes with the West girls team (Fiona Maxwell (Shettleston), Iona and Emma) bringing home bronze medals for third place and the mens west team (Matthew Gillespie & Tom Owens (both Shettleston) & Kenny Richmond the 3 counters) securing 4th place overall. Other Scottish team results are as follows: Women – Scotland East 4th (just beating Greater Manchester on first-team-home), and Scotland Central in 8th. Among the men’s teams, the honours were in the same order with Scotland West 4th, Scotland East 6th and Scotland Central 9th. The Scotland North teams were incomplete. A great day out with fabulous cakes on offer at the village fete afterwards! Full results are here: http://www.race-results.co.uk/results/2009/hutton.htm