On Sunday 3rd May 2026, in British Columbia, Canada, the amazing Ross Horgan, ran the BMO Vancouver Marathon in a fantastic 2:33:39 finishing in 14th place from 7,300 participants! An outstanding performance, and even more impressive with Ross only recently back running after injury.
Racing
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On Sunday 3rd May, it was the ‘Run Nation’ Strathclyde Spring Half Marathon at Strathclyde Park. This was a ‘long’ Club Championship race for us and there were good conditions for it. Brilliant running by Jordan Davidson 1:18:24 2nd, 1st MSnr & Cathy Wood PB 1:32:31 2nd lady, 1st FV35. Another PB in the bag for Cathy who goes from strength to strength. Jordan continues to impression every outing, a real inspiration. Well done you two!
The weekend past was a great one for Grant Murphy, Ross Gale and Ruiari Barfoot! First off, Grant Murphy finished in 3rd place (35:52) at the Neilston pad race on Saturday 2nd May. Saturday was also the Blast Running Fife Pilgrim Way Ultra from North Queensferry to St Andrews Cathedral. 56 miles with 1,200m of elevation. A fantastic effort by Ross Gale, who finished in 4th place in 8:26:33. Then, on the same day, over at the most westerly point of the Inner Hebrides, there was a great performance by Ruairi Barfoot (36:20) in the Tiree 10k, to claim 2nd place. Well done gents, great running all round…literally!
It was the Sri Chimnoy Scottish 5k Championship at Silverknowes on Friday 1st May. This is a fantastic annual event that always guarantees a fast field. And again this year, the conditions were good. Scorching his way around was our sole Bella, Paul McNairn, smashing his 5k PB with 15:52. This follows a week in which Paul, a local Postie, also smashed his 3k (Track Night) and 10k (Round the Houses) PBs, notwithstanding crushing his PBs for Half Marathon (Alloa) and 10 Miles (Tom Scott) just a few weeks back. What a ‘run’ our Paul is on! No doubt kept in check by his champion wife, Yvonne, who runs with our neighbours at Giffnock North! There must be a big mantelpiece in the McNairn household!
On Sunday 26th April, over in Greece, Angus Gray finished 13th, 3rd MV40 in 2:41:57 at the Thessaloniki Marathon. At the Rhodes Marathon & Half Marathon, there were brilliant runs by Laura Loddo 4:03:19 Mara PB & Gianluigi Re 1:44:48 HM PB. Bravi a tutti e due! Sunday was also of course the big one, the TCS London Marathon. An historic world first sub-2 hour major, a women’s World Record, even a Scottish record. A warm one to contend with, so many congratulations to the Bellas lucky enough to take part: Bryan Kerr 2:38:10, Ruairi Barfoot 2:39:32, Kenny Osborne 2:43:23, Iain Murphy 2:52:29, Jamie Robinson PB 2:55:28, Mark Young 2:59:21, Chelsea Cruikshank 3:02:41, Lucy Prior PB 3:11:36, Alan Chalmers PB 3:15:00, Claire Wharton 3:26:13, Tomoyo Fujiwara 3:30:25, Christie Lamb PB 3:29:43, Anne Campbell PB 3:37:42, Debi Scott 3:55:22 & Gillian Gallagher 3:55:46 PB (GN vests), David Pattison 4:01:05, Shirley Wieland 4:46:29.
Saturday 25th April saw the latest running of the 42 Mile ‘Devil o’ the Highlands’ Foot Race. Tyndrum to Fort William on the West Highland Way, and thankfully, the weather was good for our Bellas! Well done to Bryan Mulgrew 6:47:09, Ben Nurse 8:00:21 (Glasgow Frontrunners vest), Kenny Mcdonald PB 9:48:22 & Della Lansley 12:20:16. It was also the inaugural Beecraigs Backyard Ultra on the same day. As many 4.167 Mile laps as you can muster every 60 min until there’s only one person left. Stephen McQuade took this on and ran a sensational 20 Full Laps, 83.3 miles, cumulative time 17:58:48, just shy of 85 miles total, a PB. Wow!
On Sunday 19th April, it was the 2026 adidas Manchester Marathon. The event is the second largest of its kind in the UK and widely regarded as the flattest. Three Bellas made their way south to tackle the race. Thankfully, there were good weather conditions and as usual, it was very well supported. Congratulations to Chic Forsyth PB 3:11.03, Robert Smith PB 3:23:05 & Angela Eadie PB 4:25:44. Three Bellas, three PBs, not too shabby!
Monday 20th April 2026 was the 130th running of the Boston Marathon. The race was held on it’s traditional spot on ‘Patriots Day’ with over 30,000 participants. It is also one of the abbott world major events. We were fortunate enough to have two ladies running. It’s a tough undulating course, extending from Hopkinton to Boylyston Street in Boston, but did they run well! So, congratulations to Sarah McSharry who ran a PB 3:27:29, and Pauline Wright who ran a brilliant 3:45:06! And since its Boston..”Cheers!”. Enjoy the recover ladies, and safe journey home.
It was the Dunbartonshire AAA Clydebank 10 Miler on Sunday 12th April. The route is a flat, out-and-back and begins at Clydebank Leisure Centre, following the Clyde River along the scenic Forth & Clyde Canal to The Bowline at Bowling Harbour, before returning to finish under the shadow of the iconic Titan Crane. It’s a great event and one of our ‘long’ championship races, with some strong wind to contend with on the day. Nevertheless, there was great running by Jamie Wieland PB 1:04:15, Al MacLachlan 1:09:22, Gerry Scullion 1:10:04, Kenny Crawford 1:11:34, Tomoyo Fujiwara 1:15:56 (1st FV50), Alice Howe PB 1:18:50, Stephanie Boyle 1:22:53, Wallace Gray 1:22:58, Lynne Hamilton 1:27:30, Sue Campbell Senior 1:27:44, Roz Wilson 1:29:30, Claire Galloway 1:29:45, Louise Gray 1:32:15 & Graeme Pert 1:47:35. Another great FV50 win for Tomoyo as she gears up for the London Marathon! And well done to Wallace Gray, having ran 20 Along the Forth, the Alloa HM and Clydebank 10 in the past four weeks!
It was Drumchapel parkrun on Saturday 11th April for our latest off-road championship event. Its a great parkrun event and a tough, challenging, hilly course. There was a great wee turnout of 10 Bellas and we had the top 5 spots with Ben Nurse 18:39, Jordan Davidson 18:52, Sam Ramsay 20:55, Alan Moss 21:16 & Calum Brown 21:43. We also had second and third placed ladies in Claire Wharton 23:50 & Tomoyo Fujiwara 26:20. Many thanks to all at Drumchapel for hosting us, and making us feel so welcome.
We had three of our men away from Scotland over the weekend racing in events. Poland, Italy, England, in that order. First off, on Saturday 11th April, there was a nice performance from Piotr Kopec with 1:38:17 at the ArcelorMittol Poland Dabrowa Half Marathon. An excellent run by Piotr while home visiting family. Then we had our current reigning men’s club champion, Tony Connelly, in Italy, producing an outstanding run of 2:38:20 at the Milan Marathon on Sunday 12th. Tony just continues to perform at an excellent consistent effort and holds almost all of our club records! Lastly, we had Ross Gale (pictured) at the Boston Marathon (the English version!) on Sunday, recording an excellent PB performance with 2:44:55 to place 10th in the race!
Oscar Coetzee has been back home in South Africa of late, and still getting in those challenging races! After finishing first Male Vet (51:41) at the Ravensmead 15k in Cape Town last week, he took on the much tougher Two Oceans Ultra around Table Mountain National Park, Cape Town on Saturday 11th April. This 56k (35 mile) race is said to be the most beautiful of its kind in the world, sitting between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Oscar ran an incredible 3:58:53 to break the four hour mark. His first 30k saw him up with some of the best in the race, including the ladies eventual winner, Gerda Steyn (in the attached image, Oscar is on the far right with Steyn third from the left). So, he continues to go from strength to strength, and is a real credit to himself, his family and luckily, to his adopted Glasgow running club. Well done Oscar!
Congratulations to Stuart Dougall, who ran the Moray marathon on Sunday 5th April 2026, finishing in 13th place with a fantastic PB time of 3:12:14. The Moray Marathon is an historial running event in Scotland. It was the oldest running marathon in Scotland until 2016 when it was cancelled. It was brought it back to life with an updated, improved route in 2024. The route itself begins and finishes at the Morriston Playing Field running track in Elgin. Here you line up to start on the river path to the side of the playing field. The route takes you onto Brumley Brae and out of Elgin before descending onto the flat and fast country roads towards Burghead at Mile 8. You then continue along the coastal road passing Cummingston, Hopeman and Covesea before running through the beautiful beach town of Lossiemouth at mile 15, running alongside the harbour and sea front. On leaving Lossiemouth, it’s on the road through Oakenhead with the forest on your left (mile 17-19), all the way down towards the A96 before cutting right onto the cycle path at Mile 23. The its Cooper Park, before the final mile to finish at Morriston a victory lap of the track. On the day, there was a real mixed bag of weather with wind and rain, permeated by glorious sunshine and blue skies. So, a great effort by Stuart on the back of his Neil McCover Half Marathon PB in late February!
We lost an hours sleep on Sunday 29th March 2026 at the 62nd Tom Scott 10 Mile Road Race at Strathclyde Park This is always a favourite annual event run by Law & District AAC, and again, it served as the Scottish Athletics 10 Mile Road Race Championship. It was also one of our won ‘long’ club championship events. Over 300 starters lined up, including 22 Bellas, on what was a cold, wet and very windy day in Motherwell! The race started at 1000hrs sharp, with the first mile spent battling a strong cross-wind that seemed determined to push someone into the loch! The exposed parts of the course were tough all the way around in pretty relentless conditions. So, it was tough going, but as always, great running all round from our Bella contingent. Our top threes were (M) Tony Connelly (53:27, 5th), Callum Borthwick (55:22, PB, 14th), Paul McNairn (57:02) (F) Cathy Wood (1:07:08, PB, 10th lady), Ann Robin (1:09:59, PB). Claire Wharton (1:14:37, 3rd FV50). Cathy, Ann & Claire also finished 3rd ladies team! A big thankyou to the organisers, and particularly the volunteers, first aiders, photographers, Perfect Timing Scotland, etc, for battling really brutal weather conditions. Full results below: https://results.perfecttimingscotland.co.uk/Results.aspx?CId=20065&RId=3125
Five Bellas lined up for the inaugural Paisley HM on Sunday 22nd March 2026. A route from the centre of town, out past Ferguslie to Linwood, then a loop round towards Elderslie before heading back to finish in town again. Very well done to Kenny Osborne (1:14:53, 5th, 2nd MV40), Rhona Fraser (1:31:16, 5th lady, 1st FV45), Sandy Macdonald (1:34:28), Mandy Morgan (2:00:40) & Pauline Bradley (2:13:29).