On Sunday 15th June 2025, the annual Glasgow Men’s & Women’s 10k races took place. Both races started at the Riverside Museum with a route through the city centre, finishing at Glasgow Green. We had around 25 club members helping at the start of the races and out on the course, as well as 10 members running. As usual, our volunteer members represented the club with aplomb and helped ensure another successful day of racing. Well done in particular to Al MacLachlan (41:58) 2nd MV65; Jordan Davidson & Callum Dickson with new PBs of 34:48 & 36:25 respectively; and a special well done to Alice Laing in her first ever race!
Racing
284 posts
It was another outstanding run by Colin Hughes at the Skye Half Marathon on Saturday 14th June, finishing in 1:28:49 to take 1st MV60. Colin was actually faster than the MV50s too, which is quite a feat on a tough, undulating course in warm conditions. The following day, Sunday 15th June, saw the amazing Poppy Bowie run her latest marathon at Lake Windermere. Another tough hilly course, but nonetheless an outstanding run again by Poppy, and a brilliant PB performance in 3:23:42, to finish 2nd lady overall and 1st FSnr! Lastly, Iain Murphy ran in an amazing event on Sunday too. The (Broloppet) Bridge Race 2025, a Half Marathon of 40,000 runners that started in Tårnby, Denmark, going through the 4k tunnel, 22m below sea level, over the artificial island of Peberholm, then up onto the 57m high Øresund Bridge, finishing near Malmo, Sweden. This was the first time that the bridge has been open to pedestrians in its 25 year existence. As usual, Iain ran a great race, despite a strong headwind, to finish in 1:20:27. Not bad considering his second place finish at Malmo parkrun on Saturday!!
It was the annual Bella outing to the Killearn 10k Trail Race on Saturday 7th June. Fairly wet conditions to contend with this year, but sunshine performances from our purple posse who made up 12% of the field. Quite brilliant results: Bryan Mulgrew – 34:21, 2nd Colin Hughes – 41:52, 1st MV60 Rhona Fraser – 42:02, 2nd lady, 1st FV40 Jonny Moran – 42:36 Poppy Bowie – 43:02, 3rd lady, 2nd FSnr Ross Wood – 44:03 Kevin Queenan – 44:12, 1st MV50 Gavin McGowan – 44:18 Marty Campbell – 44:42, 2nd MV50 Claire Wharton – 45:38, 3rd FV50 Leanne McIntosh – 46:23, 3rd FV40 Kirsty Toms – 47:57 Kenny McDonald – 49:12, 3rd FV50 Anne Campbell – 49:12 Lynn Rennie – 49:23 Shirley Wieland – 51:09, 1st FV60 Wallace Gray – 51:09 Gary McIntosh – 51:31 Henry Merriweather – 55:49 Della Lansley – 58:55, 3rd FV60 Louise Gray – 59:57 SJ Kissock – 1:01:11 Terry Nimmo – 1:08:24 Nicola Barrington 1:09:47 On Sunday 8th June, it was the Strathearn Marathon up in Crieff, with decent weather conditions on an undulating and very scenic course. Very well done to Tomoyo Fujiwara (3:33:10, 1st FV50), Iain Watt (3:36:08), Guy Schmidt (3:57:14) and Lucy MacKay (4:34:50, 3rd FV60). A great category win for Tomoyo on her 40th marathon! Also on Sunday, was the Kilmarnock Roon the Toon 10k. Always a popular and well-organised race with nice conditions this year. Great running again from our Bellas: Stuart Macdougall – 34:49 Paul McNairn – 34:54, PB Josh Evans – 35:03 Jordan Davidson – 35:19, PB Bryan Kerr – 39:24 Alan Digweed – 40:23 Chic Forsyth – 40:11 Jamie Wieland – 40:47, PB Robert Smith – 41:00, PB Al MacLachlan – 42:15, 2nd MV60 Dave Ferguson – 43:11 Martin Murphy – 46:28 Katie Blackett – 47:48 Wallace Gray – 49:10 Claire Galloway – 53:20 Louise Gray – 57:16 Great to see Josh back in the saddle after an injury lay off and some amazing PBs too. Overall, a fantastic weekend. Well done everyone!
It was the third, and final, babcock 10k of this year’s series, at Helensburgh on Thursday 29th May. A humid evening, but another great night for BRR with 14 members competing. Results as follow: Oscar Coetzee – 32:40 (4th, 2nd MV40) Grant Murphy – 34:02 Ruairi Barfoot – 34:05 PB Stuart Macdougall – 34:27 Bryan Mulgrew – 34:34 Iain Murphy – 37:36 Robert Smith – 42:01 Ross Wood – 42:20 PB Jamie Wieland – 42:39 Cara Thom – 42:41 Lauren Rice- 42:46 PB Tom Thorne – 43:47 PB Rich Evans – 48:20 Graeme Pert – 57:13 Our first 3 men, Oscar, Grant, Ruairi, took the team prize, meaning we took the series Mens Team gold! Oscar was the series MV40 winner. Some great PBs achieved too! Another successful event for BRR with our stats for the series being: 51 runs by 32 members 7 completed the full series 13 PBs A 2nd placed man 3 x MV40 gongs 1st & 2nd placed mens teams, series win A 3rd placed ladies team Well done everyone!
Saturday 31st May saw the epic 60k Cairngorms Ultra Trail Race. Starting near Braemar with over 1,000m of ascent. A challenging event to say the least. It was an outstanding effort by Iain Murphy (5:18:06) to finish in second place and great efforts too by Kevin Mallon (6:34:21) and Mike Wilkes (7:14:15). The following day, still in the Cairngorms was the Blair Castle Trail Weekender. A great run from Simon Wells in the 13k Banvie Burn Trail Race saw him over the line in 2nd place overall, first MV40.
The senior Scottish Athletics Hill Running Championships were held on Sunday 1 June at the Yetholm Race, near Kirk Yetholm. This race starts and finishes just outside of Kirk Yetholm, with the course taking in a circuit of hills around of Halterburn Valley. The outward leg of the circuit contains most the ascent, running over tussocky grassy hills, before much faster running on return leg along parts of the Pennine Way. And our very own champion struck again, with Catriona MacDonald winning the women’s in an impressive 1:15:08. This was on the back of Cat’s recent efforts with Scotland in Italy.
It was another big one in Edinburgh for the Marathon Festival on Sunday 25th May. There was a punishing wind and a four seasons day to contend with for our Bellas for bother the half and full marathon. Mark Young was our sole Bella in the HM and ran a great 1:24:51, made more impressive as he continues his recovery from recent injury. In the marathon, there were brilliant efforts in by Neil McSeveney (2:44:03 PB), Bryan Mulgrew (2:44:32) Angus Gray (2:47:03), Sean Coyle (2:47:08), Alan Moss (3:20:54), Ronnie Hart (3:38:38), Hayley Drysdsle (4:29:09), Anton Soderqvist (4:30:17) and Ewen Cameron (4:39:28). Special mention to Alan, who completed the marathon in his globe costume, representing and fundraising for Worldwide Cancer Research. https://www.justgiving.com/page/alan-moss-globe-marathon-run
Wednesday 21st May, was the Kilpatrick Kaper Hill Race, 6.8k with 350m ascent. It was a glorious evening for this one, with lovely views down the Clyde. Well done to our very own Team KPR of Kenny McDonald (48:30), Poppy Bowie (41:44) and Rich Evans (39:12), who can now tick off another off-road club championship race! And it was congratulations again to Poppy, who despite running up that hill on Wednesday, finished 3rd lady at the Kirkcudbright HM on Saturday in a brilliant 1:36:32!
Thursday 22nd May was the Dumbarton 10k, and the second babcock series race this season. It was another warm one with 18 Bellas in the field of almost 450. Brilliant running again from our contingent and podium finishes too! Ross Horgan ran a PB of 31:53 to finish second while Oscar Coetzee, 32:20, finished fourth overall, first MV40. Together with Grant Murphy, 33:42, they took second mens team! Our ladies produced great runs too with Kelly Taylor 38:11, Cara Thom 42:11, and Katie Mathieson 44:02 to finish third ladies team. Kelly and Cara also PB’d! Congratulations too, to Emma Queenan on her first 10k! Our full results were: Ross Horgan – 31:53, PB, 2nd Place Oscar Coetzee – 32:20, 1st MV40 Grant Murphy – 33:42 Stuart Macdougall – 34:43 Iain Murphy – 35:35 Bruce Carse – 35:44 Kelly Taylor – 38:11, PB Bryan Kerr – 40:03 Robert Smith – 41:26, PB Cara Thom – 42:11, PB Katie Mathieson – 44:02 Tom Thorne – 44:20 Frans Roelofse – 45:47 Lyndsay Kennedy – 47:47 Emma Queenan – 48:53, PB Kevin Queenan – 48:53 Sue Campbell Senior – 54:46 Graeme Pert – 57:36
On the evening of Friday 16th May, it was Silverknowes on the east coast, on another very warm night for the Sri Chinmoy 5k, doubling as the Scottish Athletics 5k Road Race Championship. This is a very popular event that sells out within hours and runs on a flat course, parallel to the Firth of Forth just north of Edinburgh. We had brilliant running and excellent pacing from the 6 Bellas who secured a spot, with Paul McNairn (16:29 PB), Jordan Davidson (16:47), Bruce Carse (17:04), Cathy Wood (19:39), Flora Henry (21:14 PB), Kirsty MacFarlane (21:16 PB). Not far off PB times for Jordan and Cathy and getting close again to sub-17 for Bruce. A great event, well done everyone!
The first babcock 10k of this year’s series took place on Sunday 11th May at the Shettleston 10k at Glasgow Green. It doubled as the Scottish Athletics West District 10k Road Race Championship. It was a beautiful morning and another great event, as always, being very well organised. Incredibly, the course records for men and women both fell in a very strong field of athletes from all over the UK. It was another great club turnout, with some brilliant PBs for Bryan Mulgrew (33:39), Callum Dickson (36:37), Emma Peters (42:48) and another great MV40 win by our ever consistent Oscar Coetzee (33:34), taking the top category spot by one second. Well done everyone! Best of luck at race number two in the babcock series, the Dumbarton 10k on Thursday 22nd May!
The Bella mountain goats were back out this week at two of the most popular hill races in the calendar. On the evening of Wednesday 7th May 2025, it was the University of Stirling 50th Dumyat Hill Race in the beautiful Ochils. 8k with nearly 400m of climbing at what used to be the pictish hill fort of Dun Myat. Great going by Jethro Browell (43:14), Rich Evans (45:23), Kenny McDonald (55:31) & Allan McDermid (59:09). Saturday 10th May was a warm one at the Westerlands Cross Country Club annual Ben Lomond Hill Race. Around 7.8 miles and 3,150ft of ascent, from Rowardenan to the summit of Scotland’s most southerly Munro (and back down!). A fantastic performance by Cat MacDonald in 1:27:55 to finish 1st lady. Brilliant too for Simon Wells in 1:39:03. And congratulations and good luck to Cat, who has again been selected for Scotland at the Trofeo Nasego Mountain Running International event in Italy on 24/25 May.
It was one of our favourite annual races on Wednesday 7th May, at the 38th Troon 10k. It was a glorious night in Ayrshire for the 17 Bellas who ran in what is one of the most popular 10ks in the calendar. Great running from Kenny Crawford (41:35), Al Maclachlan (42:57 1st MV60), Claire Wharton (43:05 1st FV50), Kevin Queenan (44:38), Ruth McKelvie (45:42), Lyndsay Kennedy (47:45), Anne Campbell (47:50), Shirley Wieland (49:12, 3rd FV60 PB), Alice Howe (49:24), Lynn Rennie (51:00), Babs Wilson (51:04), Catherine Laurence (53:49), Robert Boag (1:00:09), Louise Nimmo (1:01:50), Terry Nimmo (1:03:40), Nicola Barrington (1:05:02), Carla Telfer (1:09:32). Another great event by Troon Tortoises who even laid on the weather! We are looking forward to number 39 next year!
Entries are now open for this years Jimmy Irvine Bella 10K race, at Bellahouston Park at 1200hrs on Sunday 9th November 2025. We have 800 places this year and it’s a changed route now that works within the park are complete. And the good news is that it’s flatter! We also have a new venue at the Glasgow Club, Bellahouston Sport Centre for registration and hospitality afterwards. Again, the good news is that this is directly beside the start / finish of the race! You will be able to enter at Entry Central https://www.entrycentral.com/jimmy2025
On Monday 28th April, we had our annual 3k Track races. There was a fantastic turnout of 80 Bellas at Hutchesons’ track on a lovely sunny evening. There were some cracking performances from the 58 runners who took part. All ably supported by the Bella volunteers and supporters who gave up their time to make it such a great event, we couldn’t have done it without you! On signing up, our members had the option to donate to local parkruns, and a whopping £300 was raised! On top of that, we brought along our old trainers and kit which will be sent to running clubs in Malawi by https://rerunit.co.uk Well done everyone!