It was the Great Scottish Run 10k & Half Marathon on Sunday 5th October. The stormy weather gave way to blue skies and a bit of a breeze for a great event. Excellent support and a new start at the top of St Vincent Street for a record field this year. We had around 100 Bellas running and marshalling! It was an early 10k start, but great running from our 6.2 milers, with our first 3’s being: Ross Horgan (32:35, 15th), Grant Murphy (33:10 PB, 20th), Ross Wood (44:44) – Lauren Rice (43:04), Rachel Fraser (44:41 PB), Alex Shaw (49:39). Then, it was the Half Marathon, where we had around 72 Bellas running. Some amazing PBs achieved and too many great runs to mention. Our top 3s were: Ruairi Barfoot (1:14:52 PB), Ross Gale (1:15:38), Jordan Davidson (1:16:05 PB) – Rebekah Russell (1:25:49, 3rd F35-39), Rhona Fraser (1:30:48, 1st F45-49), Cara Thom (1:31:56 PB). In addition, Al MacLachlan (1:33:56) was 1st M65-69. Elsewhere, Claire Wharton qualified for the British & Irish Masters Cross Country after trials at Tollcross Park! Lynn Stuart ran a brilliant PB at the Chester Marathon, Flora Henry was second lady at the Barry Buddon 10 Miler in Carnoustie, and Poppy Bowie was first lady at the Brisbane Road Runners 20k! Very well done ladies!!
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It was The Kyles 10 Miles on Saturday 13th September in Tighnabruaich, another ‘long’ championship event for us. And it was the Kyles for smiles with Bryan Mulgrew (58:44) winning, while the ever improving Cara Thom (1:11:47) was the winning lady. We also had Leanne McIntosh (1:15:36) finish a great 1st FV40, and the amazing Shirley Wieland (1:23:44) 1st FV60! A brilliant haul of prizes! There was also one of our ‘short’ championship races at the ‘Flat n’ Fast 5k’ in a wet Linlithgow on Saturday. Great running from Ross Horgan 15:37, Josh Evans 15:50, Bryan Kerr 16:25 PB, Jethro Browell 16:54, Bruce Carse 17:27, Jay Cowan 17:34, Jamie Robinson 17:44 PB, Jamie Wieland 18:31, Lewis Milligan 19:36, Cathy Wood 19:55 and Flora Henry 21:10. Well done everyone, including the returning Ross, who was 19th overall! On Sunday we had runners at the Cumbernauld 10k, with Triss Gabert running a nice 39:25, while at the ‘Kenny Phillips Round Cumbrae 10 Miler’, we had Josh Evans (57:39, 8th), John McKenzie (1:06:22), Ronnie Hart (1:06:28), Jamie Wieland (1:06:48 PB) Katie Blackett (1:11:24, 6th lady) and Brian Young (1:26:32). Sunday also had some international events including the Vilnius Marathon, Lithuania, where Ben Law (3:34:16) & Mark Worton (5:02:57) completed their marathons debuts! And at the Copenhagen Half Marathon, one of the ‘Super Half’ events, Andrew McCulloch (1:35:34) was our pick of the bunch.
It was the last Friday in August this week, so time for ‘3k on the Green’ at Glasgow Green. This is an excellent monthly event billed as ‘The best wee race in Scotland’ and the £2 entry fee goes to charity! This event (29th August) also doubled as a ‘short’ Club Championship race with a healthy fourteen Bellas taking part. The weather was fine for our runners who produced great results: Grant Murphy (9:20, 1st & PB), Josh Evans (9:33, 3rd), Jordan Davidson (9:48), Stuart Macdougall (9:52), Bruce Carse (10:10), Jamie Wieland (10:49, PB), Dean Dempsey (11:01), Barry Edwards (11:14), John McKenzie (11:19), Rhona Fraser (11:55, 3rd lady), Al MacLachlan (12:05), Katie Blackett (12:23), Louise Ross (13:00), Lynne Hamilton (14:40). Many thanks to the 3kotG organisers and volunteers! Read the race report here https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Avr7YrdFo/
There was a fantastic performance from Pauline Wright at the Reykjavik Marathon on Saturday 23rd August. Overcoming injury, on a tough course, in windy conditions, to produce a brilliant PB of 3:43:19! And great running too from Stewart Penny at the Dunoon Ultra to finish 10th overall in 4:32:41 covering 30.2 miles with 981m of ascent. Saturday also saw the latest running of the Tom Robb Memorial Trail Race, our final Off-Road Championship race this season. 7 miles through the picturesque Carron Valley Forest. A great showing with Alan Moss (47:38), Rebecca Croney (58:41, 2nd FSnr), Victoria Curley (58:45), Brian McQuade (1:03:16), Alice Howe (1:07:05), Sue Campbell Senior (1:09:35), Roz Wilson (1:09:44), Megan Parkinson (1:10:49), Fiona Birrell (1:11:02), Lynn Stuart (1:14:02), Rhoda Yarmahmoudi (1:16:14, 3rd FV60). In Glasgow FrontRunners OUTrun 5 Mile Race at Kelvingrove Park on Saturday, we had Benjamin Nurse (29:42, 3rd), Jamie Wieland (32:24, PB), Cathy Wood (35:10, 3rd FSnr) & Stef Boyle (42:21). On Sunday 24th, Poppy Bowie, tackled the 21.1k Surefoot Trail Race at Mt Coot-Tha, west of Brisbane. 1,112m of elevation to contend with, but a brilliant run to finish 3rd lady in 2:18:03. Great training for that Deaflympics marathon, which will hopefully be a wee bit flatter! Closer to home, Cathy Wood ran the Forth Bridge 10k in 43:13, taking 3rd FSnr.
Sunday 17th August was a busy Club Championship race day on the east and west coasts. First off was the Scottish Half Marathon on a warm morning! Very well done to our magnificent seven of Tony Connelly (1:11:22, 10th), Callum Dickson (1:22:20, PB), Lyle Robertson (1:24:40), Andy Hallam-Whitehill (1:43:58), Flora Henry (1:49:05), Claire Galloway (2:15:12) & Camilla Dyer (2:50:17). Tony was only a second outside of his PB, and only a minute from the 14 year old club record. There was a big PB from Callum too! In the west, it was another biggie at the Paisley 10k. The heat was building for this one, with a record 3,500 field participating. A brilliant 47 Bellas ran in these testing conditions so well done everyone! Our amazing top threes were (M) Oscar Coetzee (33:27, 3rd MV40), Grant Murphy (33:30), Bryan Kerr (34:34) (F) Deborah Gray (40:14, 1st FV40), Rhona Fraser (41:52), Lauren Rice (43:05). A great PB of 38:34 for Liam McNally too!
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!
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!
It was the fourth Stride Athletics 5k ‘Flat ‘n Fast’ at the West Lothian Cycle Circuit in Linlithgow on Saturday 19th April 2025. Another large field for what is becoming a go-to event for speedsters from all over Scotland! A total of six 5k races on a course consisting of 5 laps x 960m, plus a finishing straight. Brilliant running on a windy day from Tony Connelly (15:16), Ross Horgan (15:21 PB), Bryan Mulgrew (16:06), Jordan Davidson (16:49), Paul McNairn (16:49 PB), David Jarrett (17:02 PB), Alan Moss (17:59), Cathy Wood (19:35 PB), Veronica Fusaro (20:22), Flora Henry (21:27), Laura Templeton (24:44). Tony and Ross were very close to beating the club 5k record of 15:12 (held by Tony himself!).
Easter Sunday 20th April 2025, saw the latest Run Lanarkshire Monklands Half Marathon & 10k, after a break in 2024. The course start / finish was at St Ambrose High School, Coatbridge, and featured an extended undulating route around and through Drumpellier Country Park. The weather fine and cool. It was a successful day for our Bellas, with Oscar Coetzee winning the HM in a fantastic time of 1:13:10, while Stuart Macdougall took third place in 1:19:07! Both Oscar and Stuart raced in the MV40 category. The amazing Deborah Gray goes from strength to strength, and was the first lady to finish in 1:30:31. Deborah raced in the FV50 category. Great performances too from Sandy MacDonald (1:31:01), Martin McNulty (1:36:04), Claire Galloway (1:59:32), Andy Tomlinson (2:00:01) and in the 10k, Ben Lamont (49:38). Very well done everyone!
Saturday 12th April saw the latest of our Off-Road championship races at Drumchapel parkrun. It was a lovely morning with solid running on that tough course by our dynamic dozen! Well done everyone including our ‘podium’ trio of Jordan Davidson 1st, Stuart Laurence 2nd, Claire Wharton 1st lady. As always, thankyou to Drumchapel parkrun and all the wonderful volunteers! Well done to the 16 Bellas who ran the Dumbarton AAA Clydebank 10 Mile race (doubling as the West Dist 10 Miles) on Sunday. Nice conditions and great results too with the pick of teh bunch being Tony Connelly (52.36, 2nd), Oscar Coetzee (54:15, 3rd, 1st MV40) and Claire Wharton (1:10:25, 2nd FV50). Another ‘long’club championship race complete! Lastly, it was beautiful Paris in Springtime on Sunday for one of the world’s biggest marathons. As always, we had some bellas participating. Very well done to David Boag (4:44:13) & Jane Galt (5:20:14).
Our latest ‘long’ club championship race took place at Strathclyde Park on Sunday 30th March, at the 61st Tom Scott 10 Mile Road Racer. The event also doubled as the Scottish Athletics 10 Mile Championship! We had another great turn out with 44 Bellas participating in the starting field of 327, almost 12% of the total! The route was the ‘classic’ Tom Scott, so mainly flat with some moderate inclines on the north side. It was a bright, dry morning with a fairly strong WNW wind blowing down the loch. So, some tricky conditions battling the ‘breeze’ particularly the first two miles, and returning back up the far side of the loch. It was also surprisingly warm in the sun on the opposite side with the breeze following behind. As always, there was great running from our Bellas, who always look forward to this event. Our top 3 men were Oscar Coetzee (55:12), Bryan Mulgrew (56:59) & Stuart MacDougall (57:51). Oscar was 5th in the MV40 age category after a strong run. Bryan ran brilliantly after being unsure of starting after a recent injury. For our ladies, it was Deborah Gray (1:07:16), Cathy Wood (1:10:19) & Jen Conway (1:10:41). Deborah was also 5th in her FV50 age category, and a great run by Cathy in her 10 mile race debut! And well done too, to Mhairi Hill, the sole Bella for the ‘Round the Loch’ 6k, finishing 2nd FV35 in 29:37! Congratulations to the winners throughout the field. Another great race organised by Law & District AAC. Thanks as always to all of the volunteers, marshals, officials, medics, sponsors and Perfect Timing Scotland.
It was the 40th Inverness Half Marathon on Sunday 9th March 2025, that also served as the Scottish Athletics Half marathon Championship. It was also one of our ‘long’ club championship events. The event was as popular as ever, and this year was blessed with fine, warm weather making it a greater challenge for the runners on what is a tough, undulating course. There was an incredibly close finish to the race with the first three men finishing within 3 seconds of each other in just over 65 minutes! Thirteen Bellas competed and acquitted themselves with aplomb. Ross Horgan finished in a fantastic 22nd place, registering a PB of 1:10:19, agonisingly only 2 seconds from equalling our 14 year old club record! Our remaining athletes also done very well, namely: Calum Borthwick (1:13:02), Angus Gray (1:14:18, PB), Ruairi Barfoot (1:15:16, PB), Kelly MacDonald (1:25:34, 24th lady, PB), Ben Law (1:28:40), Jonnie Felton (1:39:06), Flora Henry (1:41:16, PB), Victoria Curley (1:43:40), Joni Lindsay (1:50:37), Martin Murphy (1:51:42), Mark Worton (2:04:03), Megan Parkinson (2:10:36). Well done everyone!
The annual Cambuslang Harriers ‘Down by the River’ 10k took place on Sunday 9th March this year, with 18 Bellas running. It was a beautiful spring morning for the race that extends out and back along the River Clyde Walkway. This was a ‘medium’ club championship event and we enjoyed some impressive results, notably with the evergreen Oscar Coetzee finishing second in 32:57, closely followed by Kenny Osborne who finished 4th, first MV40, in a new PB of 33:25! Our fantastic V50 ladies trio of Claire Wharton (43:07), Katie Mathieson (43:46) & Tomoyo Fujiwara (46:22) finished in first, second and third respectively in their age category! Outwith these results there were great performances and PB runs for David Jarrett (35:41, PB), Simon Wells (37:30), Poppy Bowie (41:47, PB), Kenny Crawford (41:48), Cathy Wood (41:51), Alan Digweed (42:25), Jonny Moran (42:27), Dave Ferguson (42:57), Veronica Fusaro (43:29, PB), Laura Templeton (52:07), Catherine Laurence (54:56), Della Lansley (58:47) & Terry Nimmo (01:00:33). Another great event organised by Cambuslang Harriers. Thanks to all involved, especially the volunteers, officials and timers.
The Kirkintilloch Olympians Neil McCover Memorial Half Marathon ran on Sunday 9th February, in damp, chilly weather, but this didn’t stop our Bella contingent on what is a tough, undulating course. This was our first Club Championship ‘long’ race of the season. Bryan Kerr was 3rd in a fantastic PB time of 1:15:58. Poppy Bowie finished 2nd lady in 1:35:17, proving that her recent 2nd place finish at the Buchlyvie 10k was no fluke. Our remaining finishers produced fantastic results too: Grant Murphy (1:16:16, 4th), David Jarrett (1:26:36), Cathy Wood (1:38:23, 3rd FSnr), Veronica Fusaro (1:40:17, 2nd FV40, PB), Tomoyo Fujiwara (1:42:32, 1st FV50), Pauline Wright (1:45:05), Andy Tomlinson (1:47:15), Wallace Gray (2:10:52) & Louise Gray (2:13:43). Our top three of Poppy, Cathy and Veronica won ladies team prize and similarly, it appears that Bryan, Grant and David took the mens team prize. Very well done everyone! It was also simultaneously the Kirkintilloch Olympians 12.5k race, with Stuart Macdougall (45:16), Brendan McGuiness (50:35), Anne Campbell (1:00:20) & Kirsteen Waddell (1:22:32) all running. Another great outing for our athletes!