The Seven Hills of Edinburgh took place yesterday, described as: “a few hundred hardy individuals taking part in one of the most unusual running events in the country, The Seven Hills of Edinburgh — a combination of road-running, cross-country, hill-running, and urban orienteering… 14 miles in length and with 2200 feet of ascent/descent.” Brendan Moriarty and Jane Simpson took part, and sent in this cracking report: Yesterdays big race was not the Mens Health 10K but actually the “7 Hills of Edinburgh”. The race starts at Calton Hill and takes in Castle Hill, Costorphine Hill, Craiglockhart Hill, Blackford Hill, Braid Hill and Arthurs seat before returning to Calton hill to finish. There is no set course which means that you constantly see people running in all directions. Its a mental start, ploughing through throngs of tourists that were sightseeing early on the Sunday morning before taking to the streets for the first few miles as you make your way up to the castle swarming all over the royal mile like a plague. You clip your number at the bottom of the castle esplanade with the orienteering clip and and then from there it gets a bit more sane… well all apart from scrambling up near vertical hills, sliding down near vertical hills, jumping walls, jumping hedges on round abouts, scaling walls, wading through burns, jumping walls/ fences, ploughing through nettles and gorse, dodging traffic, getting covered in mud and ( if you are Jane Simpson) doing an impromptu forward roll down a hill in to the gorse and nearly whacking a fellow runner as you pretend to be a plane on a downhill“triple salco and somersault combination”. In total you do about 14 miles and about 2,200 ft of climbing. There is plenty of water juice and food stops along the way, which were great on such a hot day.. At the finish there is a feed to rival even the Bella 5K. A cracking race that is thoroughly recommended, not just for the cake.. Results below: Jane was 4th Lady home. 65 Brendan Moriarty 02:11:01 Bellahouston RR 66 Jane Simpson 02:11:03 F Bellahouston RR Well done both of you. Excellent performance, and great report!
Racing
Oscar, one of the ‘B’ group coaches, was in London this year, supporting wife Jane and the rest of the Bella runners. He’s sent this report in of his exploits: As has become my norm over the last 4 years, since I ran my last London marathon in 2006, I made my way down to London to support Jane and the rest of the Bella team doing the Marathon. Arriving at the elite start just before 8 am the atmosphere was already starting to build and after saying a final good luck to Jane I headed to my first vantage point just after 12 miles. Having done this supporters role many times I have come to the decision that I can catch many more Bella runners if I limit myself to two points on the course, first one just before the turn to run over Tower Bridge then on to the Embankment. Getting the train back from Maze hill to London Bridge I ran down to my first stop and got a great position before it starts to get too busy. I’m there in plenty of time to see the wheelchair leaders and then the first Ladies come through followed shortly by the leading men’s pack less than 20 minutes behind. Lemonchello going well and he gets a good cheer from me. Then comes the first athlete I know Jethro Lennox from Shettleston closely followed by our own Kenny. The crowd had really grown by now and the atmosphere built up – the noise was incredible. Seeing Kenny got my excitement level up and then Bella’s are coming thick and fast, Colin, Russell, Scott, Al, Brian, Rebecca, Alastair, Stewart, Linda and Karlyn, Lucy and Jane all getting the full Oscar projection to encourage them along. I hung around for about 10 minutes after Jane went through with a hope of seeing other Bella’s but I had to go if I was to get the 4.5 miles to my next viewpoint in time to see everyone again. I find it easer to run this rather than try to fight my way through the crowds using the underground. I arrived at the embankment just before the 24 mile mark, at a point I am sure a few of the regular runners will expect me to be at, just missing the leading ladies group but in plenty of time to see the full list of those I saw at 12 miles. By this stage the runners really need a boost and I do try my best to give them a good shout. I don’t think many miss me though. Colin, Russell, Al, and Linda in particular looked like they were running really well as they came past me, then before I knew it a slightly emotional Jane came up the rise and I got a quick cuddle before she was off for her last two miles. Off I set running the last two miles to meet up at the finish which is a […]
Andy Birnie sent in the following report from last weekend’s Highland Fling ultra marathon. Saturday 24th April marked my first and very last ultra marathon. This unique experience started off really well in cool damp conditions. Upto 23 miles it was a breeze, hitting all splits bang on schedule, sitting as 4th Vet, even enjoying the scenery. Then suddenly somebody switched the lights out. Joe had warned me beforehand to expect some dark moments, but I did not expect the first dark moment to last 30 miles and another 6 hours. My running was reduced to something more akin to shuffling. If my wife Emma had been at Inversnaid (34 miles) I would have happily chucked it, but without a means to get a message to her, I had to go on. At Bein Glas farm (41 miles) I was met by the Bella posse. I knew there was no way I could chuck it now, so after my 6th Muller Rice and with my support team in tow, I was off shuffling again, eventually getting to Tyndrum (53 miles) and a heartwarming Bella reception, in just under 10 hours. I was outside my target time, but to be honest, after Rowardenan it stopped being a race and then became a challenge just to complete the distance. I want to take this opportunity to say thanks: for support on the day – Emma, Dougal, Matt, Robert, Joe, Peter (& Daniel), Louise (& Anna), Neil, Danielle & the relay teams for my chaperones for the last 12 miles – Craig & Brendan for a life-saving massage after the event – Matt for company on my long training runs – Emma, Stuart, Dougal, Brendan, Davie, Greig, Peter & Jackie for advice from the ultra gurus – Robert, Joe & Stuart And of course, well done to the relay teams: the ladies (Emma (the other one), Jane, Lynsey & Jackie) successfully defending the trophy the boys (Brendan, Marcos, Dougal & Greig) for beating Bella’s course record but being robbed of the trophy by some mob of interlopers from south of the border on a cross-border pot hunting raid. P.S. Huge respect to the guys in the club who have completed and are obviously good at ultras
A massive shout out and very well done to our very own Tracey Murphy who completed the Marathon Des Sables at the weekend. Tracey finished the 6 day, 151 mile race in 204th position overall, and 12th female. Described as the toughest footrace on earth, competitors have to carry everything they will need for the duration (except tent) on their backs. Mid day temperatures reach 120°F and the running or walking is on uneven rocky, stony ground as well as 15-20% of the distance being in sand dunes! Tracey was raising funds for the Motor Neurone Disease charity.
Congratulations to Kenny Richmond who broke two club records at recent races. At the Balloch To Clydebank Half Marathon Kenny improved his PB and the club record at that distance finishing in a time of 1:10:27. Following on from that, Kenny also broke the club record and set another PB for 10 miles at the Tom Scott Memorial Road Race at Strathclyde Park finishing in a time of 53:06. Well done Kenny, any more to come we wonder?
Well done to the Bellahouston Road Runners Men’s team who finished in 7th place in the National Road Relay’s held in Livingston on Saturday 3rd April. This was an improvement of two places from the previous year. The Bella ‘A’ Team was made up of Alasdair McLeod, Mark Johnston, Matt Williamson, Russell Whittington, Scott Kennedy and Colin McGill. Well done boys.
Maps of the course in Bellahouston Park have now been added to the Events pages, or are available here. We look forward to seeing you on the day.
Bellahouston Road Runners was well represented at the annual National Cross Country Relays, in Cumbernauld. Out of 100 men’s senior teams (plus 20 part teams) and 63 women’s senior teams (plus 11 part teams), we fielded a whopping five men’s teams, and two women’s teams. The rain kept away for the duration of the races and the Bella Brollies (this years prize for completing the club championship) were in attendance, but not required until the post race walk back to Cumbernauld High School. With the conditions so much better than last year there were PBs aplenty as the purple posse put in some credible performances. Emma and Matt recorded the fastest Bella times and Club Captains Jane and Brian did a sterling job but everyone did well in a great turn out from the club. Women’s13 Bellahouston RR “A” Claire Thompson 17 17:18 17:18Emma Birnie 10 16:52 34:10 Jane Simpson 13 17:20 51:30 42 Bellahouston RR “B” (V) Jane Wild 57 20:20 20:20Jacqueline McGuire 50 20:10 40:30Julia Harris 42 19:21 59:51 Men’s19 Bellahouston RR “A” Alasdair McLeod 39 14:58 14:58Marcos Sanz Gomez 34 15:26 30:24Matthew Williamson 28 14:41 45:05Liam Conway 19 14:55 1:00:00 31 Bellahouston RR “B”Neil Farnell 44 15:10 15:10*Grant Edmondson 40 15:36 30:46 Craig Ross 34 15:08 45:54Russell Whittington 31 15:16 1:01:10 48 Bellahouston RR “C“Brian O’Donnell 60 15:55 15:55David Weatherhead 51 15:53 31:48Andrew Birnie 47 15:54 47:42Brendan Moriarty 48 16:08 1:03:50 77 Bellahouston RR “D” *Peter Goodwin 76 16:34 16:34Robert McEwan 70 16:29 33:03Ewan McDonald 78 18:31 51:34Ian Goudie 77 18:49 1:10:23 Bellahouston RR “E“Norman Boyle 118 19:53 19:53Douglas MacGregor 114 20:46 40:39Mike Devlin 105 23:09 1:03:48 Thanks to Ian for the race report, and well done to all the participants. Full results available at the Scottish Athletics website.
As the day wore on, and the clouds got lower & lower, Bella emerged as top Scottish team (& 11th overall) in this years British Fell/Hill Relay Championships at Kirkland Leaps in West Cumbria on Sun 18th Oct. The championships are a 4 leg relay with legs 1 & 4 run as solo, and 2 & 3 run as pairs. Maps & checkpoints for Legs 1,2 & 4 were provided beforehand which allowed us to run the routes on the Saturday (in beautiful sunshine!) to find the best lines & identify some landmarks. Leg 3 is the navigation leg, with map supplied 500m after the leg start, so with 20 metre visibility adding to the joys of the deep bogs, high heather & tussocks it was a real test. In total 7 Scottish clubs entered teams making up a total field of 148 teams. The teams consisted of some of the top hill runners, road runners & triathletes in Britain. But fast runners don’t always know where they are going, resulting in drama at the end when the top 3 clubs were disqualified for missing a checkpoint on the last leg. But no such drama for the 2 Bella teams, as everyone climbed well, descended well & navigated (almost) flawlessly. The boys team are still kicking ourselves, missing out on a top 10 spot, with slight navigation errors on legs 3 & 4. But thats what will have us going back for another shot next year, in the Lomonds of Fife. A final mention for the best sprint finish of the day has to go to Stuart on the last leg for the Mixed Team, after flying down the final steep descent, crossing the field and lunging for the electronic dipper box on the line. The photo evidence shows the monumental effort – and the Race Face Award for 2009/10 is already closed! I cannot recommend these events highly enough, the sense of team spirit is 2nd to none, and the bad weather only added to the fun and to the decibel level of the supporting Bella team members. The Devils Burden Hill Relay at the end of January uses a similar format, and your next chance to come along to an event like this, go on, you know you want to…. Representing Bella were: Bella Boys Team (11th) – 1. Matt, 2. Mark/Marcos, 3. Andy/Dougal, 4. Kenny Bella Mixed Team (73rd) – 1. Katie, 2. Brendan/Davie, 3. Emma/Dave, 4. Stuart Full results here: http://www.sportident.co.uk/results/2009/BritishFellRelay/BritishFell&HillRelay2009Results.pdf Cheers to Andy Birnie for the Race Report
Bella were, as ever, well represented at parkrun. The weekend saw the 44th running of the Glasgow parkrun event, and the first running of the Edinburgh parkrun. A great day for the Bella Posse at the Glasgow parkrun today, Sat Oct 17. Scott Kennedy who seems to have caught the parkrun bug, in between running marathons, took a further 8 seconds off of last week’s course PB to finish third in 17:44. Jane Simpson continued the fine form which made her Bella Member of the Month by going one better than her second place last week to win the women’s event in 19:30, taken a further 24 secs off of last week’s course PB! Club President Robert McEwan retained his place as best age grade %, by achieving 79.01% with a time of 19:08. Bruce Carse also earned a new PB and John Sandbach and Sandra Houldsworth both took part in the Pollok Park event with excellent first runs. Position Athlete Sex Run Time Age Grading % Age Category Personal Best 3 Scott KENNEDY M 17:44 76.41% SM35-39 New PB 5 Bruce CARSE M 18:15 70.87% SM30-34 New PB 10 Al MACLACHLAN M 18:42 78.88% VM50-54 13 Robert MCEWAN M 19:08 79.01% VM50-54 16 Jane SIMPSON F 19:30 75.90% SW30-34 New PB 45 John SANDBACH M 21:45 64.67% VM40-44 1st run 53 Linda KENNEDY F 22:01 69.19% VW35-39 66 Murdoch RODGERS M 22:49 69.69% VM55-59 80 Sandra HOULDSWORTH F 23:58 61.89% SW30-34 1st run Last week’s winner Carnegie Harrier Andrew WRIGHT was the first athlete across the finish line today. He completed the course in 15:49 and posted an age grade score of 83.35%. A total of 193 runners completed the course. Over in Edinburgh: Some 204 runners completed the inaugural Edinburgh parkrun in a Baltic, sunny and surprisingly wind free Cramond foreshore…………. and of course Bellahouston Road Runners were represented at the historical event. Strong performances from Richard Leyton and myself earned us both all time PBs. Richard took 16 seconds off of his best 5k time to finish in 48th position in 20:43, an age grade % of 64:04%. I proudly displayed my Bella vest as I finished four places ahead, in 44th place with a time of 20:19 (wava 73.75 %) some 19 seconds better than my previous best 5k time. Running legend Neil Renault (Edinburgh AC) led from the start and was first over the line in a time of 14:59, an age grade of 86.1% and in a day when loads of cyclists and triathletes took part, it was fitting that the first woman home was Rachel Ramsay of Edinburgh Road Club who completed the course in 20:48, 71.31%. Thanks to Ian Goudie for the race reports, and a huge thanks to the teams of volunteers that made both the Glasgow and Edinburgh parkrun events such a success on Saturday.
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…
Great report on the recent Melbourne marathon, from Alan Scott, proving that Bellahouston Road Runners is a club with a decent range! Perfect conditions for the marathon at 7am this morning. We started next to the Rod Laver Tennis Arena (home to the Australian Open) and headed up and into the city centre before heading south along St Kilda Road. We then turned into Albert Park to complete a circuit of the Melbourne Grand Prix Course. I had set off with the 3hr 30min pace runners but from here found myself gaining on the 3hr 20min bus as we headed north along the bayside. Sally was perfectly placed to give me my second gel and we headed out to the furthest point of the course. I then started to pull away from the 3hr 20min mob, a mistake as I would later learn. Round about the 30km mark we merged with the slower participants in the half marathon. We then spent the next 10/15 mins weaving through them. The two groups briefly seperated as the marathoners headed up the only ‘hill’ on the course alongside the Tan (think Melbourne’s equivalent of Glasgow’s Bellahouston Park, London’s Hyde Park, New York’s Central Park or Tokyo’s Imperial Palace). At this point I was struggling and was swiftly passed by the 3hr 20m guys. But from here it was less than 4km to the finish at the MCG where we had to enter the stadium and complete a lap on the hallowed turf. According to my watch I managed to duck just under 3hr 21mins, much quicker than I had ever imagined and almost 35mins knocked off my previous PB. With such perfect weather conditions I would definitely recommend this marathon to anyone. Alan
Photos from the 2009 Ben Venue Hill Race are starting to appear. Check back for further pictures, or post a comment with links! Pictures in the forest of all runners from Alasdair McLeod: http://www.flickr.com/photos/43183046@N05/sets/72157622514811606/ Above the forest by Ian Nimmo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottishhillrunners/sets/72157622387565595/ And from the finish by Chris Upson: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisupson/sets/72157622392072319/ The weather looks lovely!
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
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!