2024 was the 6th running of the 3 race babcock 10k Series, formerly the Polaroid Series. 12th May saw the first race at the Shettleston 10k, Glasgow Green. Over 20 Bellas ran on a lovely warm morning on a fast, flat course. Our first three gents were Tony Connelly 33:01 (6th), Oscar Coetzee 33:36 (10th, 1st V40) & Kenny Osborne 34:58 (11th) with the gents also taking a fantastic mens team gold! For our ladies it was the top trio of Rebekah Russell 37:23 (3rd FSnr), Grainne McGrath 40:20 (11th FSen) & Cathy Wood 43:41 (19th FSen). A great morning of running for all of our Bellas. Next up was Dumbarton on Thursday 23rd May, in entirely different conditions with heavy rain on a more undulating suburban route. 22 hardy Bellas raced, with the top three gents being Oscar Coetzee 32:58 (8th, 1st MV40), Calum Borthwick 33:05 (10th) & Bryan Kerr 34:34 (20th). So two straight MV40 wins for Oscar to help the gents team take bronze! Our ladies first three were Rebekah Russell 36:32 (4th FSen), Poppy Bowie 42:05 (14th FSen) & Alice Howe 51:02 (33rd FSen). So it was onto Helensburgh on Thursday 30th May for the final race of the series. What a contrast in weather from Dumbarton, with lovely Spring sunshine although a brisk headwind for the first half. 23 Bellas ran with our top three gents being Oscar Coetzee 33:15 (8th, 1st MV40), Ross Horgan 33:24 (9th) & Kenny Osborne 34:29 (14th). A clean sweep of MV40 golds for Oscar and team bronze for the gents! Our top three ladies were the formidable Rebekah Russell 36:48 (3rd FSen), Kelly Taylor 39:13 (7th FSen) & Cara Thom 45:11 (22nd FSen). Brilliant running from our ladies to also take team bronze! Helensburgh also served as the Scottish Athletics West District 10k Championship with the team competition rising to four members. With Bryan Mulgrew 35:23 (22nd) our gents were West District team runners-up. Lyndsay Kennedy 48:39 (30th FSnr) was our number four lady meaning West District ladies team 3rd. Congratulations to the outstanding Oscar Coetzee, the overall series and West District MV40 winner, 3rd placed gent overall and 3 team awards. The amazing Rebekah Russell had a fantastic series too, finishing ladies runner-up with two 3rd place FSen finishes as well as Helensburgh team bronze and corresponding West District awards! 11 members completed the full 3 race series with fantastic performances throughout from all of our Bellas. A real purple patch in another great babcock series. Well done everyone! https://babcock10kseries.co.uk/ Images courtesy of Daren Borzynsky
Racing
Endurance was the name of the game this week with lots of testing events. Cat MacDonald was first lady at the Goatfell Hill Race on Arran on Sunday 19th May. On Thursday 23rd, 22 hardy Bellas raced the second of the Babcock 10k race series at Dumbarton in monsoon conditions. Our gents top three of Oscar Coetzee 32:58 (8th, 1st MV40), Calum Borthwick 33:05 (10th, PB) & Bryan Kerr 34:34 (20th, PB) took the mens team bronze. Great running too from Al MacLachlan 41:44 (2nd MV60) with Rebekah Russell 36:32 (4th FSen) first Bella lady home. There were outstanding efforts by Jordan Davidson & Graeme McNay on Saturday. Jordan completed the West Highland Way Ultra (25:53:19), all 96.5 miles with over 22,500ft of ascent. Graeme meanwhile ran the Cateran Trail Ultra in Perthshire, at 56 miles with 7,500ft of climbing. Very well done to Craig Ross (1:29:26, 4th MV40 ) & Louise Ross (1:41:52, 2nd lady, 1st FV40) at a hot and hilly Kirkcudbright Half Marathon on Saturday. The rain returned for the Edinburgh Marathon Festival on Sunday 26th. In the Half we saw great runs by Ruairi Barfoot (1:19:32), Tom Thorne (1:37:29), Anton Soderqvist (1:50:18), Emily Jackson (2:01:49) & Lucy Mackay (2:06:51). The Marathon followed with great running from finishers Chic Forsyth (3:16:16), Harris Millar (3:23:02), Cathy Wood (3:42:51), Sam Dickson (3:54:38), Conor Cross (3:56:08), Hayley Drysdale (4:17:58), Gerry Hanlon (4:28:03) & Lynn Stuart (4:56:38). A great week, well done everdone!
You may have noticed Bellahouston Road Runner, Andy Tomlinson in the media of late following his gaining entry to the Abbott World Marathon hall of fame after gaining his 6th ‘star’ upon completion of the London Marathon in April 2024. A few weeks down the line, Andy has been reflecting upon his achievement which for most of us is beyond comprehension, never mind doing it while managing Cerebral Palsy. Starting his journey in Berlin 2021, Andy completed New York, Boston, Chicago, Tokyo and London by 2024. 6 world Majors in 24hrs 47min 25sec, averaging 4hrs 7min 54sec, with a PB of 3hrs 45min 53sec in Boston. Quite incredible and a credit to himself. We at BRR are very proud of our fellow member. Andy may well be a record breaker after his efforts and his achievements were recognised globally in the media. Our own Siobhan Dunn penned a fantastic BBC piece on Andy which is available here
What a night at Bellahouston Park on Wednesday 15th May for our President’s Cup 5k Race. A fantastic 74 members ran in this annual ‘handicap’ event with each individuals start time calculated against their recent 5k /10k race performances. This ensures that everyone has a chance of winning, and also involves a very busy finish line! It was fantastic to be holding the event in Bellahouston Park again after a couple of years at Rouken Glen, although a fine substitute. We were blessed with a fine spring evening, with good running conditions on a reasonably flat course. Congratulations to our champion on the night, Graeme Pert;, who was cheered on by our army of volunteers and supporters. Overall, there was some fantastic running and several PBs, with 44 members finishing within 30 seconds of their predicted finish times. Testament indeed to the hard work put in by our stats team. Our President, Emer Campbell, commented “This was another superb night for the club. Huge thanks everyone who helped organise this event, the volunteers, supporters and of course congratulations to Graeme”
A massive well done to everyone who raced the Allan Scally 5k relays this weekend. What glorious weather for running! Everyone had a blast and there were some terrific times, plus lots of PBs. Wasn’t it wonderful to be racing in Bella teams again. The awesome Deborah Gray won 1st prize in the Ladies V50 race. Our men’s A team were an impressive 8th and the Ladies team finished in 9th place, both in a very strong field. We’re also delighted that a new club men’s 5k record was set by the flying Tony Connelly. Tony smashed the men’s 5k record in a superb time of 15:26. Absolutely amazing Tony, we knew you had it in you!! Well done! Great effort team Bella and it’s an exciting start to our road racing season! Many thanks to Shettleston Harriers for the organisation.
A super 60 Bellas took on the National XC Champs in Falkirk on Saturday . It was a fantastic day again at Callander Park and we assembled one of the largest club squads for this year’s Nationals! A HUGE well done to all our runners with amazing performances all round. Our Ladies team came home in 8th place and the men’s team came home in 11th place – top running team . We’re delighted to see such great enthusiasm for this year’s cross-country races. We topped the day off with a BIG Bella bake off. Indulging in some amazing home baking was a perfect way to celebrate the end of a successful XC season. Thanks to everyone who baked and took part. A special mention needs to go to the six club members who completed all of the cross-country races this season. Our cross-country performances are going from strength to strength. Now it’s on to the road season, and we’re already looking forward to some more team racing in the upcoming road relay races.
The Bella team had a fantastic day out today at the Renfrewshire AAA county 5 mile road race championships. Despite challenging conditions there were top performances and lots of PBs . It was fantastic to see so many of us smiling and enjoying the day, whilst we braved the windy weather. We had one of our best turnouts for the race, with a tremendous 68 Bellas signing up. A huge well done to everyone who ran! Thanks for making it a top day! We picked up a few prizes too. Our ladies team won 1st prize in the team competition and our men’s team finished on the podium as well, in 3rd place. A huge well done to Rebekah Russell who was 3rd lady in the individual competition. Top running again Bellas!!
What a fantastic day out we all had at the weekend. We’re were there for the West District Cross Country Championships at Balloch Castle . It was terrific to see 42 Bellas racing together again at the first West Champs since 2019! There were wonderful performances across the board and it was especially good to see some club members getting their first taste of cross country racing. To top the day off, our cross country Queen, Cat MacDonald ran a magnificent race to finish a superb 2nd place in the ladies race. Awesome running Cat!! #ProudToBeABella
We were back at the Emirates indoor arena today for another club track event. We’d previously been there in January 2020 for our 20th Birthday event. We had a fantastic time, with a series of mile and 800m races with brilliant performances from all members! Fab club spirit throughout the whole morning Well done everyone
Bellahouston Road Runners, Bellahouston Harriers and West End Road Runners got together last night, for a fantastic evening of one mile track races at Hutchesons’ Grammar School track. The conditions were ideal which helped produce several great performances and many personal bests. Just as importantly, everyone had a great time running in a real race and socialising afterwards. Thanks to the organisers, all the volunteers and supporters, and of course the runners. Well done everyone! A few pics over on our facebook page post (thanks again to Kevin Queenan for the pics). We’ll update this post with a link to the results in due course. With racing and competition opportunities very limited, we’re excited to be able to showcase the benefits of being in a club, and clubs working together. Hopefully more events like this in near future.
Well done to all 52 Bellas who took part in the Scottish Athletics / Bella club champs 10k virtual event over the weekend!! Another great turnout from members making us the highest participating club again There were some very impressive times recorded by club members over the weekend of racing, however a special shout out to our very own Grant Murphy who WON the event finishing in an amazing time of 32.47!!! Fantastic effort – well done Grant!!! The club is very proud of you!!!!!!!! A big shout out also to Tony Connelly and Steven Lamb taking the 3rd and 4th spot on the leaderboard and securing the team title for Bella! Well done guys!! Thanks once again to everyone for getting involved and representing our amazing club!!! Full results on Scottish Athletics Website: https://www.scottishathletics.org.uk/62638-2/ – Well done to everybody who took part, particularly the other podium placed teams at Greenock Glenpark Harriers (2nd) and Garioch Road Runners (3rd)!
A cracking 46 Bellas braved the slippy weekend conditions taking part in the latest Scottish Athletics Challenge and once again finishing as the highest participating club in the country 🥳 We organised Covid friendly 10K club runs at Glasgow Green and Renfrewshire, and as it was a Club Championships event another 22 Bellas took part over the weekend, adding up to an awesome 68 members in total 🤩 Here’s a little collage featuring our hardy bunch 💜
Today would have been our 11th Jimmy Irvine race, marking a full decade since the event first kicked off As our 2020 couldn’t go ahead, we thought we’d create a wee retrospective to mark the occasion, with club members sharing some some of the reasons 💜 Why We Run!💜 Thanks to all the club members who sent in selfies and ideas, and to the many brilliant event photographers who’ve captured the energy and atmosphere of our races over the years, so we can look back and look forward to the next ones as well! If you’re inspired to get involved, we’d love to see you along at the club, check out our website for more.
Huge well done to all our Bellas keeping race sharp during lockdown and embracing last weekends Scottish Athletics virtual distance challenge !!! 💜 It was a hot weekend for racing, but that didn’t stop the 57 Road Runners take on the 15/30 min challenge. We were once again the highest participating club in Scotland!! 👏 and we were 1st overall in the main U17 and Above 15min and 30min Combined distance challenge – a whopping 301.97km! Full results over on the Scottish Athletics website. Of course, we were not just racing this weekend…. As a club, we love keeping in touch virtually through various means during lockdown – a firm favourite seems to be getting in front of a camera 💁🏻♂️🎥🤩 We have joined up with our local rivals Bellahouston Harriers💙 to create the 💜BELLA BATON BONANZA💙 . We also miss seeing our competitors at local running events and thought this would be a great way to link in with them and pass a virtual baton during lockdown Enjoy 💜💙
🥳Congratulations and a huge well done to all our Bellas who took on the Scottish Athletics Virtual Challenge – The one mile time trial – which took place from 8th – 11th May. 🤩 We were again the largest club by participation! A whopping 77 Road Runners took to the streets over the weekend to see how fast they could record one mile and there were fantastic performances all round 💜👏 We say it every time but it’s really hard racing yourself – amazing effort from EVERYONE!🤩 💜Among a host of great performances, our ladies masters team finished 2nd in their category with our other teams just outside the placings. Awesome job Bellas!! Not only has it been a busy weekend of running, we’ve all had a busy weekend getting on with our housework 😜. Some of our talented members got together to create a fun video of everyone doing their household chores. We really can’t wait until lockdown is lifted so we can ‘Break Free’ !!! 💜 Enjoy!! 🤩🎥 🧹 🧼 🎶💜