Well done to everyone who completed the Jimmy Irvine Bella 10k yesterday in dreadful weather conditions. Particular congratulations to our winners: Congratulations to the 2015 prize winners: 1ST MALE Neil RENAULT – Edinburgh Athletic Club 00:31:32 2ND MALE Robert GILROY – Ronhill Cambuslang Harriers 0:32:12 3RD MALE Paul KERR – Edinburgh University Triathlon Club 00:32:36 1ST FEMALE Shona MCINTOSH – Hunters Bog Trotters 00:36:20 2ND FEMALE Megan DAVIDSON – Falkirk Victoria Harriers 00:37:03 3RD FEMALE Donna McHUGH 00:39:34 MV40 Chris WALSH – Bellahouston Harriers 00:34:55 MV50 Wattie MACKAY – Strathearn Harriers 00:36:03 MV60 David KINGHORN – Jog Scotland 00:43:35 FV35 Karen KENNEDY – Carnegie Harriers 0:40:23 FV45 Susie HUBBARD – Ayr Seathforth AAX 00:42:17 FV55 Lorna COYLE – Greenock Glenpark Harriers 00:47:47 MALE TEAM: Bellahouston Harriers :Colin THOMAS, Jack HEATHWOOD and Darren MCQUADE FEMALE TEAM Bellahouston Road Runners : Debs GRAY, Louise ROSS, Ann ROBIN Provisional results are available here: Jimmy Irvine results
Racing
Bella Results from the Jimmy Irvine Bella 10k on 8th November 2015 are shown below. Full results available here
I really wanted to do the Dublin marathon. Seeing as it is the home city and I remember being brought in as a child to watch my Dad and uncle run it, I thought if I only do one more marathon, that’s the one it’ll be. So I signed up. With only three months to go. Not ideal preparation time. But I had an ok base and looking at the calendar, I could just about fit in the long runs and a few build up races. But then life got in the way and as it happened, by the time it came to taper I had only done 16 miles as my longest run. Eek! So I was a bit anxious heading into it not properly trained. Lining up at the start, I was helped keep calm by a man’s voice over the tannoy. I don’t know who he was but I was enthralled by his ramblings over motivation, pride, inspiration, personal bests, descriptions of the crowd, such as people wearing “high-falutin lycra suits”, musings over what brought people here, in all shapes and sizes, the great and the good, the veterans and the first-time, on and on like a priest saying mass. Such a lovely experience and in stark contrast to the usual high energy pop that’s belted out at race starts. He called it “an emotional experience in a material world”. We got an indian blessing of “Namaste” then a garda sang the national anthem. It was all very surreal and I loved it. Off we went through the streets of Dublin and it was wonderful to see city landmarks and old haunts from this perspective. The route starts on south side of city centre, heads past Christchurch cathedral and onto the quays of the River Liffey. Crossing over to the north side and into the Phoenix Park. A great expanse of autumnal views across Europes largest city park. All along was great support and crowd energy. There are some gradual hills but nothing severe. The route exits and enters the park again, down into the liffey valley and back across south side. It crosses the canal and loops through residential areas, taking you back to the city centre finish. It was a very well organised race with plenty of water stops (flip top bottles) and Lucozade and energy gels at the latter stops. Easy bag drop and start area, but not so easy to find travel information on the website. The crowds were really amazing. I have never experienced anything like it. Very funny shouts and signs. Lots of “Fair play to ye” and “yizzer great” and my favourite “Yer not really bollixed, ye only think ye are!” I optimistically thought I might get 3:45 if I kept it under 8 and a half minute miles, which I did easily for the first half, then I slowed down after that and struggled to get back up to pace. I was scoffing the energy gels too which I […]
Congratulations to Debs Gray, Louise Ross and Claire Wharton on their Women’s Team Bronze Medal winning performance in the Scottish National Half Marathon Championships on Sunday at the Great Scottish Run in Glasgow. Debs ran a seasons best 87:11, while Louise’s 89:59 equalled her half marathon PB set at last years GSR. Claire ran within 11s of her PB set way back in 2004 to finish in 91:33. Well done – great to see all that hard work in training paying off. Scottish Athletics article with Results
There was a fabulous turnout of 79 Bellas at the Great Scottish Run events today. 49 took part in the Half Marathon, 10 were in action in the 10k and a further 20 volunteered to marshal the start. Conditions were ideal for running and there were a number of big PB’s. The Half marks the last race in the Club championship for this year. Well done to everyone who took part and a big thank you for all the support.
Last Sunday saw Bellas competing in Marathons at Loch Ness and in Berlin. First Bella over the line at Loch Ness was Russell Whittington who said he was “Well chuffed” to win the Scottish Vet 40 Marathon Championship, finishing in 2:44:39. There were some big PBs and some extremely determined running from the other Bellas, so well done to you all and thanks to all those supporting. Results below: Meanwhile, in Berlin, Bruce Carmichael and James Montgomery were running with Bruce finishing in a very impressive 2:35:10 and James in 3:05:41.
There was “Sunshine on LeithMusselburgh” last Sunday for the second ever Scottish Half Marathon, and the penultimate race in the Club Championship. Nine Bellas took part and earned themselves possibly the biggest race medal ever created. After spending some time scouring the provisional results, the times are shown below. Well done to everyone who took part. Do let us know if we’ve missed anyone or you need a PB trophy added. Full results will appear on http://www.runbritainrankings.com after a week or so. Photo from Maddie
Well done to all the Bellas who took part in the Kilmacolm Running Festival on Sunday. In the Half Marathon, a race in the CLub Championship, Alex was 1st Senior Female and Carla was 2nd Senior female. In the 10k Debs was 2nd female vet and 2nd female overall. Let us know if you’re missing a PB trophy icon. Note that as this race did not have a UKA licence or TRA permit, the results will not appear on Powerof10 or RunBritainRankings Full results available to download from here: Inverclyde Leisure – Kilmacolm Running Festival 2015
Sunday 13th September 2015 must be one of the busiest days of the year for athletics, with a cornucopia of races organised. The Round Cumbrae 10 mile race, a new 7 mile trail race in Helensburgh and the opportunity to run with Mo Farah (and a few others) in the Great North Run were all on offer today. Even the Bellahouston Road Runners Club Championship schedule had a choice of the Kilmacolm Half marathon or the Stirling 10k to choose from. Weather forecasts earlier in the week had us expecting hail and wintery showers this morning, but with barely a cloud in the sky, and the sun shining it felt more like July than September. 15 Bellas were running in Stirling and there were a number of big PBs. Well done everyone and thanks to those who came to support. Full results here: Sportssystems – Stirling 10k 2015 Photos: Helen Craig and Garry Porch
This was the first distance race that I ran and what prompted me to join Bella last year. The event consists of a Marathon or Half Marathon for runners in the morning with a cycle Marathon and Half Marathon in the afternoon. The organisation is excellent and the circuitous route around the River Tay is pretty spectacular. We (my wife Angela and myself) travelled up on the Friday evening and registered at the Moness Resort where there was a pasta spread laid-on for participants. With child-care sorted and a wee cottage hired for the weekend my biggest challenge that evening was trying to ignore the wine in the fridge particularly with the sun making a rare appearance! Having missed 6-7 weeks of training over the summer due to my dodgy calf I decided to wait for a post-run tipple. The Marathon kicked off at 09:30hrs from the village of Weem just over the Tay from Aberfeldy and is a two-lap course. The HM mustered about 09:45hrs at the showfield camping / car parking area (both free) just over the Tay Bridge (aka Wade’s Bridge). From there its a 500m walk to the start line led by two pipers. The start itself is at the Aileen Chraggan Hotel just shy of Weem. The weather was good, a nice bright morning and about 12c, although there was a fairly stiff breeze blowing down from Glen Lyon. The gun started us 300 HM runners off at 10:00hrs and its a fairly steady 4 miles past Weem, Camserny and Dull to the iron bridge over the River Lyon. We were into the breeze at that stretch however it was fairly kind. From there its a left turn over the bridge and on the road to Kenmore. This is roughly a 2.5 mile undulating stretch with a water stop/toilet and past some pasture where the horses were clearly having a laugh at the two-legged humans trying to run! Entering the village of Kenmore is quite a site with Loch Tay straight ahead and a cross over the Taymouth Bridge. Its probably designed to take your mind off the impending climb through the grounds of Taymouth Castle and Golf Course. Thats where the only real hill springs up, just after the castle but thankfully through the woods which provided some shelter from the head-wind that had blown-up by that stage. Its a fairly long winding climb, probably similar to the hill in the Alloa Half. Having survived, I was glad to see a water station at the exit of the castle grounds and having briefly stopped to hydrate (I’ve lerned that I cant run and drink at the same time having nearly drowned last year) I started the gradual stage on the A827 back to Aberfeldy only to feel a large stone lodged in the sole of my left trainer. Having just stopped for a drink I didnt want to spoil my momentum again so like an audition for Riverdance, I tried to ‘remotely’ dislodge the […]
With Berlin at the end of September I was in the market for a race sharpening half marathon with 4 weeks to go. I had seen that the Barry Buddon race was advertised as a flat, fast race, that’ll do nicely I thought. So off I headed not too early yesterday for a 12pm start up in the the military range just by Monifieth. A very friendly registration area was enhanced further by a couple of musicians playing guitars and a violin, not the sort of thing you get at the GSR. The only downside at this point was the fairly stiff breeze and the sun splitting the sky. Anyway, I was joined at the start by fellow Bellas Tony, Shona and Mhairi, and off we went. After a headwind in the 1st mile we turned round and got the benefit of a tailwind for the next 3 miles, at this point I was wondering what my new PB was going to be, foolish boy. After a quick change of direction, miles 5-7 were straight into the wind and by the time we turned both myself and Colin Thomas from the Harriers had nothing left in the tank. It was a pretty sorry last few miles and the last mile itself was straight into the wind again, what a whiner I am. I finally limped over the line in 3rd place and Shona retained her F45 trophy. All that aside, the main reason for this report is to highlight the selfless actions of Mhairi, who sacrificed her own race when a fellow runner collapsed after 3 miles. She waited with him for 15 minutes until help came and she finally managed to resume her race, I would imagine that most people would just call it quits at that point. Another proud moment for the club, well done Mhairi! Bruce Carmichael 3 01:14:32 61 Bellahouston RR Anthony McParland 58 01:32:46 271 Bellahouston RR Shona Donnelly 105 01:42:23 96 Bellahouston RR Mhairi Hill 166 01:53:07 177 Bellahouston RR Photo: © Copyright Douglas Nelson and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
Results for the Bellahouston Road Runners taking part in the 10k (a medium distance race in the Club Championship). Particularly well done to Debs Gray, Ann Robin and Louise Ross for winning 2nd team prize in Sunday’s race. full results here: paisley 10k 2015 – Full results
Well done to the 8 Bellas who were in Club Championship action, taking part in the Marymass 10k in Irvine last Wednesday night. Particular congratulations to Shona who was first FV40.
14 Bella’s made the trip down to Irvine for the Irvine Running Club‘s 5 mile road race, which was the penultimate short distance race of this year’s Club Championship. Gathering clouds and a weather forecast to match that didn’t promise great weather, but an epic downpour 45 minutes before the event started seemed to clear the air perfectly, leaving good running conditions – the odd sea breeze excepted – for the event. An out and back from the centre of town, along cycle path on the way out, and a closed for the event Marine drive on the way back made for a great course (a few deceptive climbs over rivers and roads excepted), and excellently marshalled. Full results available on the Irvine Running club website, club member performances were: A total of 165 runners took part, and First male runner home was Neil Renault (Edinburgh AC) in 24:58 and first female Melissa Wylie (Dumbarton AC) in 31:05. A couple of prizes for the club: Claire Wharton was 3rd female home, and Mary senior 1st F40. A special mention too to Lyndsay Kennedy too for whom this was her last race with the club before moving south to Poole. Well done to everybody! A reminder that the Strathclyde parkrun on 8th August is the final short race in the club championship.