Well done to the 48 Bella members who competed in the second club 3k track race on Wednesday 24 April. Even though many of us are busy preparing for Spring marathons right now, there were some fantastic performances on the track in windy conditions. The runners were enthusiastically cheered on by fellow Bellas before everyone went inside for a post-race debrief over sandwiches and cake. We were delighted to welcome Jimmy Irvine at the event who, together with his wife Sandra, were awarded honorary life membership of the club. Jimmy remains as enthusiastic about running and generous in his support for the club as ever. Congratulations to all the runners who took part and a big thank you to everyone who helped with the organisation. Please let us know if you have any ideas for future club race evenings.
Racing
Around 50 Bellas turned up at last weekend’s (10th March, 2019) Balloch to Clydebank Half Marathon, in pretty grim weather. As always, our ladies team won lots of medals with Louise Ross and Ann Robin finishing 2nd and 5th overall. Shona Donnelly and Emer Campbell placed 1st and 3rd in the V40 category with our ladies team of Louise, Ann and Shona finishing in 1st place overall. Congratulations everyone and well done to all who took part! Particularly if you managed to secure a PB in those conditions! We’ve loads of photographs over on our public Facebook page! There’s a specific album here too. Many thanks as ever to Gordon Goldie for turning out to take so many!
Bellahouston Mob Match 2019 – Road Runners triumph for the 3rd year in a row 🏆 Both clubs had a fantastic morning at Pollok parkrun with a magnificent 60 Bellahouston Road Runners and 56 Bellahouston Harriers taking part. It was the closest contest yet, with one runner making all the difference. Thanks to all who came along to run, volunteer and support both clubs, and also to everyone at Pollok parkrun for making us feel so welcome 💜💙 The full results for Pollok parkrun event #521 are available. You can read more about the rules and organisation of the Mob match on our post “Organising the Bellahouston Mob Match“, which has now been updated with the stats from the 2019 incarnation! The breakdown: 60 Road Runners v 56 Harriers, so a total of 116 members. So the Road Runners ‘won’ attendance. 1st, 2nd and 3rd males were Harriers, so the Harriers won the mens on a 3-to-count basis (Harriers 6pts vs RR 30pts). (This is using positions from the published parkrun results at 2.30pm) 1st female was visiting Jennifer Wetton from Central AC (who won the 2018 Jimmy Irvine 10k), The Harriers first female was 3rd overall female. The Road runner ladies were closely packed thereafter, so the Road runners won the ladies on a 3-to-count basis (Harriers 25pts vs RR 20pts, using Ladies finish positions). Ditto published results. Based on overall finishing position scoring for smallest club attendance (Harriers had 56, so 53 counting positions), the Road Runners ‘won’ (defended) bragging rights, and the main trophy. However it was by any measure the closest result yet, with just 24 point difference, which is really just a one runner difference in terms of points.
An amazing turnout of 60 Bellas raced at today’s Renfrewshire AAA 5 mile Champs in Greenock and again we were in amongst the medals. Emer Campbell and Andy Campbell both won Gold in the V40 category while Shona Donnelly and Gerry Scullion won Gold and Silver respectively for the V50s. The ladies senior team of Emer, Shona and Claire Wharton also won the Bronze team medals. Congratulations to all our medal winners and the several members who earned a shiny new PB 👏👏
The club was delighted to hear that members Romy Beard and Louise Ross were recently selected to represent Scotland at the British and Irish Masters XC International, in Swansea on 17th November. A fantastic achievement in itself, they returned from the event with bronze team medals in the W35 (Romy) and W40 (Louise) categories. A huge congratulations to them both, from everybody at the club! Well done to everybody who took part, at what sounds like a great event. Romy also sent in a great race report, which we’re delighted to share here: The team bus leaves Glasgow at 9am. Everybody is chatting. The journey is fine until we go cross-country through the Welsh mountains. In the dark. The bus becomes quiet. One lady is very sick. By the time we arrive it’s nearly 8pm. We wonder how Swansea can be so far away. We have dinner at the hotel with some other ladies including our rivals from Giffnock North. We decide to be friends for the weekend. Not much sleep much because they’re working right outside the hotel and in the morning the seagulls are loud. Some people report music and shouting, which I missed, so I must have slept after all. We put our Scotland shorts and vest on, and tie the tartan ribbons in our hair. The excitement begins! Short bus ride to Singleton park. The sun comes out just in time for the Scotland team photo. We do an easy jog of the course. It’s 3 laps of 2k. The second part of the lap is up and down one big slope. It doesn’t seem too bad. Photos. More warm up stuff. Getting very, very excited now. Lining up with all the other Scottish, Irish, Northern Irish, English and Welsh runners in our race (ladies plus the 65+ men). I feel fantastic on the first lap. I am running for Scotland. Hurrah! I can’t stop smiling. I’m also going too fast. I can see Mary McCutcheon from Giffnock North in front and know that I am too close to her. Fuck it. I am running for Scotland! It’s only 3 laps. The hill is worse than I thought. I get a stitch at the start of the second lap. I pull back a little. Only two laps to go. The hill is a killer on the second lap. I’m just looking at the piece of grass in front of me and keep putting one foot in front of the other. Whenever someone shouts Scotland I smile. I tell myself that I am strong and that I can do this. Third lap. I don’t care what race this is I just want it to end. Louise goes past just before the hill. I have nothing left to chase her. I lap a lady in the 70+ group and shout a well done to her. She is amazing. I feel a bit sick when I get over the hill for the last time. Down the hill and then around […]
The 2018 Jimmy Irvine Bella 10k took place on 11 November 2018. The event was a sell out again! Many thanks to everybody who took part, to our amazing marshals and race team, our sponsors Achilles Heel, plus Tunnocks, Sainsbury’s for the bananas and water, and Glasgow City Council staff (Pollok park for the cones, Bellahouston park for the course and support), and Craigton Primary School for the race HQ venue. An amazing effort by everybody, for which we’re really very grateful. Thanks too to the donations for our Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice: We’ll update you on the total raised very soon. Final results from stuweb, our race timing provider, are available here, and a full race report for the day will follow in the next day or two. Congratulations to our winners: First Male: Stuart McGeachy (Cambeltown Running Club) in 33:23, 2nd Male: Gordon Robertson (Cambuslang Harriers) in 33:31, 3rd Male: Jonathan Roebuck (unattached), in 33:45 First Female: Jennifer Wetton (Central AC), in 37:03, 2nd Kirstian Macruary (Corstorphine AAC) in 38:11. 3rd: Emer Campbell (Bellahouston Road Runners) in 40:26 In the age category prizes, firstly sincere apologies for not having the Ladies results available at the awards ceremony: The explanation for this is the club decided some time back to equalise the age categories (ie. same age ranges for men and women), but the Ladies provisional results we were given were for V35, V45, V55 (ie. not correct). This also appeared on the timing slips and website for a while. We felt it was better to award them later when we were certain and they had been update. Prizes will be posted to the winners soon. First Male V40: Andy Campbell (Bellahouston Road Runners), in 35:24. First Ladies V40: Jennifer Macfarlane (East Fife Triathlon Club) in 42:31 First Male V50, and Peter Cunningham cup winner: Wattie Mackay (Strathearn Harriers), in 37:24 First Ladies V50: Pamela McCrossan (Clydesdale Harriers) in 42:23 First Male V60: Graham McGrattan (Greenock Glenpark Harriers) in 42:25 First Ladies V60: Erica Christie (Achilles Heel Run Club) in 43:29 In the very-important-to-local-clubs team prizes, the first Men’s team was Bellahouston Road Runners, and the first Female team was Bellahouston Harriers. Thanks again to everybody for making today a great success.
We’ll shortly be sending final instructions to participants email addresses. If you don’t receive your copy this evening, please check your spam folders, and mark any email from bellahoustonroadrunners.co.uk you find there as not spam, to help our emails reach you, and others, in future. Note too if you registered two people with the same email address, you will only receive one copy of the instructions. Please review the entrycentral.com/bella10k entry list or get in touch with us if you’re unsure. Please do also follow us on social media for any last minute announcements or changes relating to the race. We’re at facebook.com/bellahoustonroadrunner and twitter @bellaroadrunner
For the second year in a row, our Women’s masters ladies were on the podium at the National XC Relays in Cumbernauld. Huge congratulations to Emer, Louise and Ann for securing Bronze medals! Louise, together with Romy, has also been selected to represent Scotland at the British and Irish Masters International Cross country event in Swansea on 17th November. Well done to both of you! Thanks to Scottish Athletics for organising event (the full race report and results are available here), and well done to all the Bella members who took part yesterday, before heading back to party at our Annual Awards Night! The Women’s Masters podium at #LindsaysXC National Relays – 1. Hunters Bog Trotters2. @rungarscube 3. @bellaroadrunner pic.twitter.com/XjjliCRvi6 — scottishathletics (@scotathletics) October 27, 2018
Here it is! Jimmy Irvine himself was delighted earlier today to show off this year’s finisher’s t-shirt. Every runner will get one of these technical, long-sleeved t-shirts after finishing the race. The t-shirt image is from the Edinburgh to Glasgow relay race 60 years ago. Jimmy overtook the fancied Victoria Park runner, J. Taylor to win the third leg with a 38 yard lead. “When you go past, leave them no hope,” is one of Jimmy’s pithy mottos. The race will take place on Sunday 11 November in Bellahouston Park and has been very popular in recent years. You can sign up now at https://www.entrycentral.com/bella10k Enter as soon as you can to avoid disappointment! For more details go to https://www.bellahoustonroadrunners.co.uk/?p=711 We are very grateful for the support over many years from our Main Sponsor, achilles heel.
What a day at the Great Scottish 10k and Half Marathon! At least 85 Bellas were involved in marshalling, pacing and racing this morning. That must be a record, and that’s not even including our fantastic supporters along the route! Congratulations too to Louise Ross for winning the Scottish Masters Bronze medal, finishing with a huge PB of 1.24.57. We were defending our Scottish national Ladies team Gold from 2017, and hope to find out later this week if we were successful! Thanks to everyone for making it such a memorable day!
Danny just put together a list of ’13 Good Things about the Stirling 10K’. We needed to share, so you all know what they are…. It’s Flat It’s true to its word. My Garmin says the elevation gain is 43 metres. That means those of you who live in a house probably climb something like this going to bed. Those who live in a flat, I suppose it depends what floor you live on, but you get my point. It’s not Sherbrooke hills Van with real coffee machine Parked right near the start. It had a van with a built in proper coffee machine. We arrived early and got espressos, cappuccinos, and americanos (easier to get your heart rate up than doing strides). Richard got a snickers bar. Lots of Bellas Twenty in all. We had a great time. Where were you? You got half a pint of milk at the end (instead of a medal although see point 7) Means you don’t have to stop on the way home to get milk. Or you could drink it as the perfect recovery drink it is. (Check the ingredients of those expensive recovery drinks – they are just milk, with unhealthy stuff added). And lets face it you have too many medals hanging all over the place. Milk is better. Harry entertained us with his superhero impersonations. Kenny and Julia brought Harry. Harry is 3 years old. He is a superhero. Be like Harry. It’s the Scottish 10k championship too True. It is. It’s also in the Bella Roadrunner Club Champs. Bella ladies win Scottish medals. Again. Our ladies brought back the bounty. Louise Ross and Emer Campbell picked up National Silver and Bronze medals in the V40 category and Shona Donnelly won V50 Bronze. Bella men ran too. Bella’s got PBs Hard training pays off. Also see point 1. And in Richard’s case also see point 2. Richard and Sarah Jane both got a 10k PB. Purple arch at the start Roz liked the purple arch. Roz is mara training so she paced Sara-Jane. Be like Roz. Good weather It was a bit windy but sometimes it was behind you. (Ok, Ok, no it wasn’t. You always had a head wind even though we changed direction all the time). And it was surprisingly humid conditions. But it did not rain until we all finished. So I suppose weather was OK. Maybe fix the weather. Well organised There are no queues for the toilets (well only a small queue sometimes), there are more toilets in the sports centre, it had just the right amount of runners, there are loads of marshals and they are really nice, staff in the sport centre were helpful, you can park very close to the start, the finish line is really well organised, It’s not crowded, did I mention you get milk no medal, although Shona, Louise and Emer did. Scenery is nice There is a bit when you are running down a straight track and […]
Twenty Bellas raced this morning in windy and surprisingly humid conditions at the Stirling 10k which also doubled up as the Scottish 10k Champs. Several scored PBs and season bests, but it was our ladies who once again brought back the silverware. Louise Ross and Emer Campbell picked up National Silver and Bronze medals in the V40 category and Shona Donnelly won the V50 Bronze. Well done ladies! 🥈🥉🥉 Results available here, and our thanks to Central AC for hosting a superb event! Photos courtesy of Graeme McNay and Robert Macleod.
Some great results in the last few weeks at the club that we wanted to highlight. 2018 John Lucas Round Strathaven 50 Mile Relay Huge congratulations to to Euan, Andy, Graeme, Russell and Craig (Euan, Andy and Graeme pictured) for winning the men’s relay event. Well done too to Ann who took part at the same event, in the mixed team event. Many thanks to Marc Bromwich for organising the men’s team entry, and was all set to run, but had to pull out because of injury. 2018 Paisley 10k A great clutch of results and individual runs from the always popular Paisley 10k, part of our annual club championships. Shona Donnelly was 1st female v50, Gerry Scullion 1st male v50, and Cat, Ann and were the 2nd female team home. Cross country training returning in September Our informal Saturday morning cross country focused training sessions resumes from 8th September in Bellahouston Park. More details on the club forum: Chi will be posting specific details in advance. Always a great way to start the weekend! Cross country and relays are a big part of the club’s autumn and winter focus, and pretty much all the races are included as part of our membership. Justensure your Scottish Athletics and club membership is up to date, and that you’re setup on the forum in order to get your name down when entries open! Jimmy Irvine Bella 10k entries open Entries to our popular 10k, the Jimmy Irvine Bella 10k, have now opened, and are already selling fast. Pop along to entrycentral.com/bella10k to sign up.
66 Bellas competed in another hotly contested President’s Cup on Wednesday 20 June. The 5K handicap race around Bellahouston Park was won by Julia McDonald for the women and Andrew Haddow for the men. Each runner sets off after a time handicap based on their recent race performance. So every club member has a good chance of winning and the finish is always exciting. More than three quarters of runners crossed the finish line within one minute of each other. Even so the team of volunteers at the finish funnel coped brilliantly. Club president Richard Leyton led the winners to victory on the lead bike before presenting the prizes afterwards over sandwiches and cake at Nethercraigs. Congratulations to all the runners and well done for all those new PBs. Full results for the race are available on the club member’s forum.
A sunny, if slightly windy day in Glasgow today saw the conclusion of the Babcock 10k series at the expertly organised Shettleston 10k on Glasgow Green. A great turnout from members – many of whom were completing the series of three – and some super pics too (a selection below) from the Bella support crew! We’re delighted that Romy Beard, Laura Henderson and Mandy Morgan secured team bronze in the West District championships competition within the race. Full results here, and the team results are on the Scottish Athletics report. Well done Ladies, and well done everybody who took part! Well done too to Stephen McQuade securing a 13 minute PB at the Edinburgh Marathon today (in a time of 3:05:47), and Garry Smith following on from his debut Highland Fling a few weeks ago tackling the Edinburgh Half Marathon. Many members just took advantage of the lovely bank holiday weather to enjoy a ride or run in the sun, whether a parkrun, the Dunblane 12k, or their local park/streets. This week’s training we’re looking forward to track speed sessions, and tempo efforts in Pollok park, all looking forward to next month’s Brian Goodwin 10k. If you fancy getting along to develop your running or improve your 10k time, have a poke about our website, and come along around 6.20pm. Pictures courtesy of Camilla Cunningham and Mhairi Moir. Plenty more on our club member’s facebook group.