A great night was had at Rouken Glen Park on Monday 23rd June, for this year’s President’s Cup 5k race. This is a ‘handicap’ event meaning starting times are staggered based on recent performances in 3k, 5k or 10k races. This usually results in a closely packed finishing area which was again the case this year. After a baking hot weekend, it was cooler…much cooler ,with a strong wind howling around the park. Nonetheless, a fantastic 72 members participated, notwithstanding around 30 others helping get the event on and providing great support around the course. And it was congratulations to Angus Cochrane & Mandy Morgan who claimed victory with the chasing pack close behind! Many thanks to everyone who helped on the night and during the build-up.
Racing
It was the West Highland Way Race on Saturday 21st June 2025. A summer solstice challenge to test the hardiest of souls. Milngavie to Fort William, 95 miles, over 14,000ft of ascent and warm conditions, even at the 0100hrs start! Step up Bryan Mulgrew. His second time in the race and looking to better his previous attempt which was a very impressive 22.5 hours Bryan set off from Milngavie with 250 others heading north to Drymen, up the east side of Loch Lomond, past Crainlarich, Tyndrum and Bridge of Orchy, before heading through Glen Coe and up to the finish in Fort William. An absolutely incredible feat by Bryan, who powered his way through those miles to finish 7th overall, with a massive PB of 19:11:44, ‘shaving’ a mere 3 hours from his previous attempt! And all aided by a fantastic Bella support crew. Take a bow sir!
It was a scorcher on the evening of Friday 20th June 2025, for this year’s Bellahouston Harriers ‘Brian Goodwin 10k’ at Pollok Park. The mercury was sitting around 27°C for this annual highlight, and our Harrier friends did not disappoint with a very well organised event from start to finish, with a brilliant atmosphere! It was the classic course starting at Cartha Rugby Club, through the main park thoroughfare before turning onto Haggs Road. Again, we enjoyed the benefits of the nearside lane closure all the way on Haggs and Dumbreck Roads, before turning back into the park at Cartha. Two laps to complete, and great support around the course too. Well done to the 33 Bellas who ran and to those who volunteered. Our top 3’s for this Club Championship race were: (M) Tony Connelly (33:10), Grant Murphy (34:22), Sean Coyle (35:06) – (F) Sarah McSharry (43:05 PB), Flora Henry (46:24), Kirsty MacFarlane (47:12). A great PB by the ever improving Sarah, and some great results for Stuart Macdougall (35:13, 2nd MV40), Paul McNairn (36:26, 3rd MV40), Terry Nimmo (1:08:41, 2nd FV60) and Gerry Scullion (42:17, 1st MV60). This was Gerry’s first outing in his new age category! It was then to Cartha for a burger and beer / soft drink, which given the heat was more than appreciated! Thankyou again to the Harriers, volunteers, officials and Perfect Timing Scotland. Full results at https://results.perfecttimingscotland.co.uk/Results.aspx?CId=20065&RId=1214
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!
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.