On Saturday 7th February, it was the brilliant ‘Run ya Rocket’ Ardgartan Trail Race in Argyle. It’s a tough 21+ miles with around 3,500ft of elevation. The route is 90% off road and follows a loop of the Ardgartan Penninsula, with some tarmac, forestry trails and a nice open section that extends across to Lochgoilhead, before a climb to the Rest-and-be-Thankfull then a final downhill to finish. There was an outstanding run by Bryan Mulgrew (2:51:40) to finish 2nd with a course PB! A great tester for his West Highland Way race later this year. And well done to Laura Loddo too, in this challenging event. As always with such events, thanks to the organisers, officials and volunteers!
hill running
18 posts
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.
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!
Sometimes it’s important to take time out from hard training and racing, to just enjoy the sport of running. In Glasgow we’re close by to lots of stunning Scottish countryside. The club has plenty of trail runners, ultra runners, and hill runners who all love to get out amongst it. Our social media feeds were lit up at the weekend with some inspiring pics from members who were (quite rightly!) pleased with their efforts, so we thought we’d share them with you! We’ve also included links to Strava too to help with ideas. Simon Wells took the amazing featured picture for out on a run at Glen Loin/Ben Vorlich with Derek and Christie. It’s a favourite loop of theirs, and relatively easy to get to, and scenic right through the year. Huge credit to them though for taking this amazing pic when it looks so cold (Extra kudos for the Shorts Simon!) Elle, Alison, Terry, Lynn and Kelly were out near Helensburgh doing a recce of the From Hel’n Back hill racethat takes place later in the year, and took this super selfie with the backdrop towards the Clyde estuary. Of course some members just love running around muddy fields, and the Kilmarnock Harriers Roon The Country open XC was on on Sunday, and a few club members headed down the road to take part (and managed to win a case of beer as a spot prize!). Cat MacDonald had earlier continued her excellent cross country season, with the overall win of the Ladies event. Closest to home, the brilliant trails of Pollok Country Park are always a great option, and this weekend were the focus of the latest in the new South by Five series of races. The 5k trail race was certainly a muddy affair, although Jamie Wieland here in this pic by Bella and marshal Garry Smith was taken just before the heavy going section down past the North Wood pond. Anyway, always lots to inspire and enjoy in and around Glasgow, and great to see so many members getting out and about enjoying the beautiful Scottish countryside!
Whilst our training schedule, and the race calendar, form a large part of what we get up to, club members also organise and take part in a wide variety of informal and social runs, which are a great way to enjoy taking part, getting to know fellow club members better, and seeing parts of the city and region. We’ve a long-run group who head out at the crack of dawn around the south-side of Glasgow on Friday mornings, and another group that prefers a post-working day socially paced run. Members are also very regularly along at (or even organising) one of the many parkruns that now take place in and around Glasgow, as the consolidated results for the club show. The last couple of weeks a couple of different runs took place, which resulted in some great pictures and stories. Glasgow painted murals run Gordon Goldie devised the route, and members headed out last Saturday, around the centre of Glasgow to check out as many of the city centre murals as they could fit in. There’s plenty of details, and some fabulous pictures, on this post on our facebook page (facebook.com/bellahoustonroadrunners). A few of our favourite pictures from the run below. Gordon is already devising plans for the next themed tours of Glasgow for members! Dumgoyne and Earl’s seat hill run If hills and trails are more your thing, a group of members headed out into the snowy Campsie Fells on Saturday, and ran up Dumgoyne, and then onwards to Earl’s seat. It was a fantastic day for it, and the initial climb up Dumgoyne was soon a distant memory. A few pics from the morning on our facebook page. There’s already talk of the next run to Glen Loin in a few weeks time! Big thanks to Derek Rigmand for organising and leading the run.
It was a 6am kick-off on Sunday morning as Robbie Hayman and I made 2 and half hour journey north to Braemar for the start of Lairig Ghru race.As I left the house it was Glasgow liquid sunshine! The rain was bouncing off my car. The weather for the race was to be cloudy with sunny spells, but this was hard to believe as the rain didn’t stop for the full journey. We reached Braemar just before 9am and headed along to the Village Hall to register for the race and I spotted the first bit of blue sky, this was looking good. Once registered Robbie and I headed back to the car to collect our running gear where we bumped into David Stakes who was also doing the race. All 3 of us headed back up to the start line for the briefing before the race started. The start line was between to lamp posts in the middle of the main street through Braemar. I don’t remember much of the briefing as the 3 of us were all wishing each other good luck for the race. After the briefing finished 30secs later the race started as there was a car waiting to drive up the street. So we were off! Robbie and I had planned to go at a nice steady pace as we know there was a fair distance ahead of us. I checked my Garmin at the first mile at it was showing 7.30 pace so I said to Robbie that this pace might be a bit fresh so early on and he agreed. Mile 2 then dropped to a 7.10 quickly followed by mile 3 hitting a 6.50. I think someone forgot to tell Robbie that we weren’t doing the London Marathon. 😯 We then hit our first hill climb on the trails and I looked at my Garmin and it was showing 7.10 pace, it was then I though this going to be an interesting run. As we made our way along the trails for a few miles Robbie mentioned if you looked up often enough the scenery looked brilliant and I couldn’t agree more. The views were stunning. A few rivers had to be crossed along the way before we hit the Boulder Field! The path at this point started to get a wee bit more twisty then we came up to the start of the Boulder Field. Robbie was leading the way and he looked a lot more comfortable about running over the top them than I did. At one point I looked to my right and seen another runner pass by me and he looked as if he was floating over the top of the boulders, and I also thought he was doing this wearing a pair of Flip Flops. My feet and toes on the other hand were killing me as I think I was playing boulder football. Looking ahead there was Big Robbie just striding over the top of them […]
There are just some days when it is good to be alive and Saturday was one of them. Blaenau Ffestiniog was the setting for this year’s first counter in the British Hill and Fell Running Championship: a ten mile race with an accumulative height of just under 9,000m. On Friday night I had rested in a trailer park in the Denbighshire flatlands. That left me with a short drive in the morning through the Conway valley into the unfolding drama of Snowdonia. Blaenau itself is a small former quarry town hemmed in by massive slate tips and the Jerusalem Congregational Church. After a few hellos to Glasgow runners (including Kenny Richmond, formerly of this parish), the race started in the main street to the sounds of a Welsh heavy metal band and cow bells. A sprint through the town led 360 souls to barge over the railway footbridge and in to the wilds. A combination of paths and quarrymen tracks weaved in and out of old workings. Further up, the ground shifted between being sound, brutal bog and slate surf. The beautiful sunshine didn’t prepare me for the strong winds cutting across the first peak at Moelwyn Mawr (770). The prize for getting out of the wind was jumping big drops and a scrambling round the ridge to Moelwyn Bach (710). That was absolute fun. The descent form the Bach was a steep one, and refreshments at Llyn Stwain Reservoir were a relief. Trouble with relief however is it makes you relax, and I then had to dig in and climb steadily up Craig Stwaln and Moel-yr-hydd (648). A few folk passed me at this point, and I clutched to the old hymnal for inspiration. The final descents were a chance to savour the echoes of industry and dreams of a nice bath. There were a few stubborn undulations to punish my lack of training near the end but nothing was going to stop me enjoying such a wonderful day. For the record, Finlay Wild of Lochaber secured a Scottish victory in 1.13, yours truly was 316th in 2.08. Durisdeer next. David Stakes Youtube Video by Huw Jenkins – read his report: Campbells Cottage – Huw Jenkins blog
Report from Gerry An outstanding performance by our ‘A’ team (Bryan, Matt & Mark, Greig, Grant & Andy) got us third position in Saturday’s (9 Feb 2013) Devils Burden’s relays. The day was quite a contrast to the recce held two weeks ago. A good temperature for running, no wind though still a bit tricky underfoot and a mist that would make it a challenge to navigate through the trickier legs of the race. For our A’ team, Bryan had an excellent first leg over mainly good tracks finishing in 6th. Mark and Matt took on the 2nd leg, the longest and most demanding one, and made up a few positions before handing onto Greig in 2nd position. Greig held this position on a steep uphill section before passing onto Andy and Grant for the final ‘downhill’ leg. They were overtaken by one team but held onto 3rd position. Well done to the team. Our mixed team of Emma (making her return to racing after over a year’s absence), Jim & Ciara, Elsie, Gordon & Stuart managed to navigate the course well and put in a good performance. Our ‘B’ team (Gerry, Barry & Andrew, Graham, David & Chris) had less success on the course with navigation problems resulting in a DNF. Despite this all seemed to enjoy the experience of the hills. It wouldn’t be fitting to report on the Burden’s without making mention of the great spread provided afterwards for hungry runners. The homemade soup was excellent and the variety of home baking was just what hungry runners and supported needed after being outside on a winter’s day. This ends a great eight days for Bella, with our men (Greig, Russell, Scott and Peter) taking 4th team place at the masters cross country the previous Saturday in Nairn and both men and women taking 3rd team prizes at the Renfrewshire 5 mile road race on the Sunday. Well done all. We now look forward to one of the biggest events in the callendar, the Scottish National Cross Country championships at Callendar Park, Falkirk on 23 February where we will be well represented in both the men’s and ladies event. Here’s hoping our teams can continue to spread the word that Bella Road Runners do well whether hill, road, country or ultra.
Report from Grant. A good turnout of 5 Bellas made the trip up to Menstrie for one of the last remaining Hill races of the year. Myself, Steve, David and Barry were joined by Stuart who had been given the morning off nappy changing duties for a wee blast in the Ochils. The race starts with a fairly steep but runnable climb into Menstrie glen before dropping back down for a couple of burn crossings to get the feet nicely cold before a surprisingly brutal slog up Dumyat. There is no time to admire the view as you turn and descend back the way you came on a steep tussocky descent which at least offers a nice soft landing if/when you faceplant. You cross back into the glen along a narrow footbridge which we had been pre warned would be slippy. Despite this warning I took a hefty fall on the bridge nearly sliding into the river. As I pulled myself up the runner behind me shouted “are you alright maaa……” followed by a thump as he fell in the exact same place. Take home lesson: x-talons and wet wood not a good combination. The rest of the race followed a narrow muddy path which I ran down doing my best Bambi impression. Then a sprint finish back down to the village green. Unfortunately you cross a road coming on to the green and in my efforts to chase down the Westie in front of me I didn’t notice a car pulling out in front of me until the last minute. With all the adrenaline pumping I briefly considered doing a commando roll over the bonnet before remembering I am not Daniel Craig and instead went for the safer option of the emergency stop. Definetely the 1st time I have nearly been ran over by a Jag in a hill race. I resumed a half hearted sprint to the line mainly happy to still have my legs intact. Stuart and Barry followed not far behind, with Stuart coming out on top in a sprint to the line. David was next in about 72mins, closely followed by Steve who took about 5 mins off his previous years time. A fine post race spread of tea and biscuits was provided, and if there was a team prize for post race biscuit consumption I’m pretty sure team Bella would have taken it. Results
Report from Al Sunday morning, 21st of October, I woke early with a fair amount of intrepidation about a long looked forward to race called ‘Run of the Mill’ in the Ochils. Over the year, I’d done quite a few races in the Ochils, The Law Breaker and Dollar, and had come to really like the steep but runnable terrain. After fueling up on silly amounts of pancackes, and a few hours of pre-race faffing, I headed off north to Alva. Late morning the weather was getting better and better and the mist on the hills lifted above the tops. It was sunny, warm and still. That, with the lovely autumn colours, made the 102 runners that gathered at the bottom of Alva Glan rather pleased that they’d decided to get up for one of the few remaining hill races of the year. Having lacked some zip in my cross country efforts the day before, I wasn’t too confident about how I’d do, but my warm up went well and I decided to give it a really good crack. One of my goals was to beat my pal Gary Fraser from Ochils hill running club. He’s a verteran of over 100 hill races and an incredible decsender. At Dollar and Ben Venue this year, he’d whizzed past me in the closing stages. I was going to beat him this time. Needed to get further head of him on the ascent – that would be the plan. It was good to see Mark Johnston and Matt Williamson at the race start. The race began, and a fast leading group with Mark and Matt in it shot out ahead. The course begins with a straighforward 150m climb then a fast easy descent over 3km down towards Tillicoultry and the beginning of the Law Breaker hill race route. After tracking Gary for a while I felt the pace was a bit slow and pushed on faster, overtaking a bunch of guys on the stretch to Tillicoultry. Now the ascent. The first bit is super steep up the Law Breaker route. Some, included me, managed to keep running on this bit. This tends to be the best bit of my race and I steadily overtook more runners until I got to 8th place. Matt was about 150m ahead of me at this stage and a over the course of the next 40min remained about the same distance ahead until I lost him completely on the descent. With the bulk of the ascent done (which seemed to take forever) we had the traverse of the summits to do – Andrew Gannel hill, Ben Cleugh and Ben Ever. On one of the descents between these tops I came flying off my feet and landed with a squelch in the mud. No harm was done but I was now covered in black stuff. The descent was physically really really hard. I felt like I’d used up all my energy going uphill and spent the whole descent thinking […]
Report from Sandy Four Bellas went through to the Pentlands last weekend for this long classic – me, Gordon, David and Grant. The race is 16 miles, 1890 metres of ascent and 16 hills. I had wanted to do this race for ages, but somehow despite this singularly failed to train for it. I think it is fair to say that the week before the race me and Gordon were quite scared – we kept looking at each other and whenever one of us mentioned the word ‘skyline’ the other would say ‘let’s not talk about it!’. This was my longest race and I wasn’t sure what it would be like. Gordon was worried about pacing, due to his tendency to race off like a maniac at the start and pay for it later. The race was very busy, with 257 people starting (not everyone finished…) meaning that the start was so congested there was no chance of anyone apart from the leaders racing off – we were all stuck doing a frustratingly slow walk / shuffle for the first 10 minutes. The race itself was lovely (if anything that involves so much pain and desperation can be called lovely). It was sunny but cool, perfect running weather, until we got to Carnethy, about a third of the way into the race, when the rain started pouring down (Gordon claims he didn’t experience any rain at all during the race, he must have been either moving too fast or running in his own world…). Due to a self inflicted nutrition failure the wheels came off my bus about 3 hours in, after trudging through some incredibly life force sapping deep mud on Black Hill. I experienced what I think must be my lowest, dignity free point ever in a race, when I fell on the downhill, got cramp in my leg, and had to beg a passing runner for a sook from her camelbak while rolling around on the ground. The passing runner happened to be someone who had made the mistake of following me at Ben Venue the previous weekend (obviously thinking that as I had a Bella vest on and it was a Bella race that she would be in safe navigational hands) and as a result taken the worst line ever off the hill. Despite this, she took pity on me rather than running off laughing. I then crawled (literally) up Bell’s Hill while belatedly trying to force some energy type things down my throat. I was so tired I actually contemplated just sitting down, but thought I had already embarrassed myself enough for one race. The race got much easier from here, and I managed to keep putting one foot in front of the other, even managing a vague sprint to the finish line (nearly knocking over one of the finish line posts in the process, I must have been a bit delirious and not running in a particularly straight line). Bella results: Grant finished in […]
Last Saturday saw the 42nd (I think) running of the classic wintry Carnethy 5 hill race over the scalloped Pentland hills south of Edinburgh. The popularity of the event (it fills up online before it opens) didn’t stop a large squad of nimble fingered southside road runners from entering the event. The race was notable for the quality of the field, the placidity of the weather (the week before we were battered off the hill during a recce) but also for the individual achievements. Whether it was Greig Glendinning dipping under an hour for the first time, Gordon Clements’s remarkable first timer bulldozing run, Grant and Elsie Macdonald’s continued excellent form, Barry ‘the jeggin’ Edwards daring to step on a hill, Sandy ‘hill-lover’ Brindley embracing the hills oncemore or David ’funny-man’ Stakes showing his darkhorseness [add to dictionary], the joy of running was all around us. Whether puffing up hills or charging along roads, running form and fitness are fickle and fleeting; it is on days like these with a tingle in your spine, you know truly that your running days are golden… Report from Chris Results
On Saturday I headed through to Holyrood Park and Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh to compete in the Great Winter Run 5k and then watch a feast of top quality Cross Country action with Kenenisa Bekele topping the bill. The 5k started on the road next to Arthur’s Seat went uphill for two kilometers, levelled out for one and then back downhill for two. The first kilometre was sheltered and I found myself out in front. We were then met by a fairly strong headwind and I held onto the lead until two kilometres. At that point Adam Priestley from Corstorphine AAC and Sean Gaffney from Inverclyde AC both came past me and then got about 50 metres ahead. I was feeling tired, but dug in and hoped for the best. At about 3.5k I caught Sean and moved back into second place. At 4k I passed Adam and had the amazing feeling of only having the pace car and 1k of running between me and a win. I managed to hold on and for the first time in my life had the incredible feeling of breaking the tape at a race. Neil Thin of Edinburgh AC came through to take second place. My split times should give a flavour of how hilly the course was. The first mile was run in 6:03, the second in 5:52 the third in 4:49 and the last 0.1 mile in 4:52 pace. The third mile was the first time that I have broken five minutes for the mile. After the race I met up with Stewart Roberston and Bryan Burnett to watch the cross country. It was very entertaining and we witnessed the race event of Bekele being outshone in a cross country. To finish of the perfect day after the races had finished we headed to The Royal Mile for a few beers. Report from Russell
Chris Brotherston has just sent in his race report from the 2011 Ben Nevis Hill Race: It seemed like a big ask with all that ascent using only two blistered feet, the rain plummeting from the heavens and the gallus mountain clothed in dank mist. This was it……the Ben Nevis Hill race, the thing you hear about as a kid and think to yourself “wow, these guys must be superhuman”. And then as you stand at the start line you see the super human athletes such as Finlay Wild (no relation to the humble Oscar or his long suffering wife) and Angela Mudge (whose dog is even faster than you) or Stuart Mathieson (just being pseudo sycophantic there Stuart). But they are in the minority the rest of us are human; some carrying injuries while others carry hangovers and overhanging bellies. But, that’s hill racing with its motley assortment of craggies on the crags, sloppers on the slopes…..and the illiterate alliteraters…. Anyway, back to the hill race……….and in a hill race everything is about feet….how many feet of ascent and descent…how are your feet…..what are you wearing on your feet……did you keep your feet (no I gave mine away to a passing tourist who got in the way on the bloody zig zags!)…wow what a feat (!). Anyway back to the hill race….it starts as most race do and then finishes. In between there are a hell of a lot of feet (4370 feet of ascent, 1000 runners feet and 500 incredible feats). To some it is running up and down in an incredible 1 ½ hours, to others it is completing it in just under four hours, while all those in between have their own personal goals. An experience it was; an achievement it was; an emotional experience it certainly was; a joyous pleasure…..well I think I will leave that feat to the imagination……. Wouldn’t change it for the world though…. More details, results and… FEATures (boom *tisch*) about this famous hill race at http://www.bennevisrace.co.uk/
After last year’s gale force winds, the weather gods were slightly kinder to the 95 runners at the Bella Ben Venue Hill Race today, with a torrential downpour on the start line and only 30mph winds on the ridge to contend with.But the weather did not stop some fast racing, with the lead changing hands many times between the top group before Matt Sullivan (Shettleston) & Peter Devenport (Bellahouston) used local knowledge for a good line on the final downhill on the open hillside from the ridge into Gleann Riabhach, and managed to pull away from the others. Matt held off Peter to win in a time of 1 hour 10 mins for the 8 mile course, but if Peter had not been forced to stop and tie a shoe lace in the run-in, the finish could have been even tighter. Finishing close behind this pair were the Shettleston duo, Tom Owens and Jethro Lennox.In the ladies competition, Jacqui Higginbottom (Carnethy) used her speed (& long legs) on the steep trail section to overcome Shona Robertson of Westies, while Ellie Homewood, also of Westies finished in third.In a tightly fought male vet race, the eventual winner was Bruce Smith (Carnethy) from Will Manners (Strathearn) and Alan Gilkison (Westerlands). In the ladies vet competition Fabienne Thompson of Carnegie held off the Carnethy pair, Joanne Anderson & Joan Wilson.The teams prizes were split to the east & west of the country, with Shettleston winning the men’s (Matt Sullivan, Tom Owens, Jethro Lennox) and Carnethy winning the ladies (Jacqui Higginbottom, Fiona McKinnon & Joanne Anderson).Being a new race, not everyone took the optimum route today, and I’m sure everyone knows of places where they can shave off a few seconds in the big race next year, but spare a thought for the runner who took a very non-optimum route, and ended up at Kinlochard, resulting in a 12 mile taxi ride back to the finish!Ben Venue is one of the SHR championship races in 2011, so with this being the first race over the full course, we are keen to learn from your experience, so please send any comments or suggestions for improvement to benvenue@bellahoustonroadrunners.co.ukThe race doubles as a fundraiser for the Lomond Mountain Rescue Team, so many thanks to all the runners, marshalls & helpers who helped raise £500 for team funds.Hope to see you all next year! Results available as either a PDF (link) or Excel (link)