It was another big city marathon on Sunday 4th May, following the epic races in London and Manchester the week before, with our latest marathon marvels tackling the 43rd Belfast City Marathon! It was another warm and sunny day in the historic city where the Titanic was built, and the locals came out in numbers to cheer on the participants, whether full marathon or relay teams. We had a fantastic four representing BRR and they did not disappoint! First home for us was the incredible Jordan Davidson in a big PB of 2:46:22, followed by Lauren Rice who also PBd (by 23 mins) finishing in 3:18:01! Both finished in the top 50 males / females. Lucy MacKay, running only a week after London, finished in a brilliant 4:26:02, placing 4th FV60 and completing her 7th Belfast Marathon and 77th marathon in total! Andy Tomlinson was close behind in 4:28:04, an incredible effort, overcoming a number of injury issues on the lead up to the event. Congratulations to you all, and enjoy your recovery!
marathon
Well, what a week! A bit of a marathon / ultra extravaganza! Congratulations to Anne Campbell on a great Boston Marathon on Monday (21st) in pretty warm conditions for 3:43:21. Great work by our mountain goats on Saturday (26th) at the ‘Devil of the Highlands’ 42 mile race, on the WHW from Tyndrum to Fort William, with 6,500ft of ascent. An amazing run of 5:56:55 by Bryan Mulgrew, who finished in 7th place with a great effort too by Kenny McDonald in 9:51:41. Bad luck for Del Rigmand withdrawing injured after 17 miles. The 45th TCS London Marathon took place on Sunday (27th). A world record field of 57,000+ in very warm conditions but an amazing event as always. Fantastic running by our Bellas: Johnny McBeth – 2:26:39 PB Ross Horgan – 2:30:17 PB Calum Borthwick – 2:42:15 Angus Gray – 2:47:48 Iain Murphy – 2:47:13 PB Mark Young – 3:00:07 Kelly Taylor – 3:04:13 Liam McNally – 3:15:01 PB Chic Forsyth – 3:17:33 Gavin McGowan – 3:33:11 Sarah McSharry – 3:33:37 PB Anthony Houston – 3:41:09 Pauline Wright – 3:51:53 Laura Wilkinson – 4:17:13 Shirley Wieland – 4:32:45 Wallace Gray – 4:39:10 Angela Eadie – 4:44:30 Alison Brown – 4:56:47 Garry Smith – 7:00:37 Johnny was only a few seconds away from a new club record. Congratulations folks, great efforts in tough conditions! The Adidas Manchester Marathon also ran the same day, with even more brilliant Bellas lined up: Ruari Barfoot – 2:40:22 PB Kenny Osborne – 2:44:22 PB Jamie Robinson – 2:56:01 PB Craig Ross – 3:12:45 Rhona Fraser – 3:16:24 PB Louise Ross – 3:19:54 Robert Jefferies – 3:24:20 PB Gregor Crawford – 3:26:55 Jennifer Lamb – 3:29:31 Ross Wood – 3:33:46 Steven Lamb – 3:38:21 Christie Lamb – 3:38:22 Jonny Moran – 3:44:12 Harris Millar – 3:45:53 Leanne McIntosh – 3:48:57 PB Alex Sutherland – 3:56:23 Gerry McDonnell – 3:58:22 Jamie Wieland – 4:08:53 Brian McQuade – 4:19:39 Tommy Burridge – 4:20:32 Marty Campbell – 4:21:17 Lucy Mackay – 4:43:20 Nicola Barrington – 6:05:13 For those who PB’d, or first timers, extra well done! A great effort by Marty, recovering from a knock after a push and still finishing. A big well done and thank you to all of the friends, family and club~mates of our Bellas who were at these events to support and cheer-on our runners.
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).
On Saturday 5th April, Stephen McQuade tackled the Devilla Forest 8 Hour Challenge. The aim was to complete as many 4.36 mile laps as you can muster in the 8 hour limit (although there was dispensation to finish a lap if it started prior to that time). The weather was fine and dry for this inaugural ‘NU Limits’ event and Stephen bagged 5th place after 12 laps in 8:22:02 for a grand total of 52.5 miles! What an amazing effort, and supported by his brother, Brian, who covered over 20 miles himself! The following day, Neil McSeveney finished 3rd (46:00) at the Edinburgh 13.1 Kilomathon. A great route from Ocean Terminal to Murrayfield in great weather. A fantastic performance! And lastly, well done to one of our newest members, Aryan Davani, on completing the Brighton Marathon (4:47:43) on Sunday too. Tough going in warm conditions in what is the UKs third largest marathon.
On Sunday 15th December, the latest edition of the Generali Maratón Málaga took place in Andalusia, Spain. The route crosses the beautiful city of Malaga, and passes by some of its main monuments, through part of its historic centre and along the seafront. It has been held since 2010 and is recognised as part of the official calendar of World Athletics. Conditions on the day were almost perfect. Congratulations to both Sean Coyle (2:39:12) and Ruairi Barfoot (2:48:11) who ran exceptionally well to record outstanding performances. Lots of hard training and preparation paid off on the day. Well done!
On Sunday 24th November, Siobhann Dunn, ran the Florence Marathon, producing an excellent performance to finish in a time of 3:30:56! It was a fantastic route around the heart of the renaissance city and very well supported. Siobhann overcame recent illness to power around and set herself up for her next challenge at the Shale 50k Trail Ultra on the east coast of Scotland on 8th December! Ben fatto, Siobhann! On Sunday 1st December, Mark Young and Stevie Bell competed in the Valencia Marathon. The Romans named the city for valour and strength and that’s what Mark and Stevie displayed. Mark recorded a PB time of 2:47:43, battling recent injury and warm conditions. Muy bien hecho, Mark! And, the legend that is Stevie, completed another tough marathon, possibly his 26.2 swansong. Well done sir! The recent winner of our Jimmy Irvine 10k also ran at Valencia. Ryan Thomson, of Cambuslang Harriers recorded an unbelievable time of 2:15:47! Congratulations Ryan! #cambuslangharriers
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
(I’d thought of this title before acknowledging the third sport and watching the Cubs win the play-off, Go Cubs!) Chicago trip was off to a good start, sat behind Scott Overall on the plane (retrospective hats off to Scott for finishing 13th overall in 2:18). Electric atmosphere upon arrival, runners welcomed with open arms. Pre race preparations had been interesting, whilst training may not have gone to plan I’d nailed the carb loading; living off little other than rice & pasta since leaving home 5 years ago. Expo negotiated, secret service closed down the city for Obama’s arrival as we attempted to leave the convention centre, American efficiency at its finest. Race morning arrived, with the stunning Chicago skyline as the backdrop I lined up in Corral A alongside fellow Bella Michael Lancaster. Rendition of the National Anthem and the gun was fired, 52 seconds later the Bellas were off on their comprehensive tour of the Windy City. Through the loop and headed north to the zoo before returning downtown and completing the first half, surprising lack of congestion and through without issue in 1:32. Headed west and things started to become troublesome, cramps from ~15m put any ambitious hopes of GFA to bed. Worth a shot and still, this was a marathon debut in Chicago and absolutely nothing was going to spoil it. On we continued through little Italy and towards China town, heading south and through 20m. Came to a halt with hamstring cramp at 21m, soon back underway and the crowd density increased dramatically towards the finish. A 2.5m straight took us to 500m to go, up “Mount Roosevelt” (we should show them the Sherbrookes) and along the finishing straight with arms aloft, proud to be wearing a purple vest and bringing it home in 3:24. I’ve watched my parents run a lot of marathons and, with the exception of seeing Kev smashing it at the mighty Wrecsam Marathon, little compares to Chicago. Phenomenal race, thoroughly enjoyed and one for your bucket list. A heartfelt thank you to the club for the support, advise and reassurance over the summer months, especially to Louise. There’s nothing quite like running in a Bella vest. Post-race celebrations continued long into the week, taking in all the city had to offer. The thought of a marathon terrified me, now impatient for the next one. DH In the days leading up to the race I found this from @coachbennett on Instagram, one worth pondering: This was never about the Marathon. The true marathon was the journey to get here. Getting on those daily starting lines. To start another Recovery Run. Another Home Run. Another Speed Run. Another Long Run. Over and over again. Day after day and week after week. You don’t need a race to prove you are a Runner. You need a race to celebrate you are a Runner. So, enjoy your Party. I hear they’re going to shut down the streets of Chicago for you. And you deserve it. […]
Bruce Carmichael sent in this race report… After missing out on London earlier this year with hamstring problems I randomly decided to enter the Reykjavik marathon to give me a goal once my injuries had cleared up. Little did I know that I would be beset by injuries all year and so I headed off to Reykjavik on Thursday with only 4 rather meager long runs and a couple of MP sessions behind me, all crammed in over the previous 3 weeks. I had also managed to re-activate my hamstring trouble the week before the race with an ill judged parkrun. After spending a relaxing Friday at the Blue Lagoon (not the chippy) followed by the most expensive plate of pasta I’ve ever eaten, race morning came and the signs were promising. It was an early start, 8.40, and it was bright and sunny with little wind to speak of. As I made my way to the start I thought I better come up with some kind of race strategy. I was definitely not going for a PB but I figured I would be able to go through halfway in 1.22 and try and hang on for 2.45, although I fully expected the wheels to come off due to the lack of miles in my legs. Both the half and the marathon set off at the same time and I soon found myself in a group of 4 who were ambling along at just the right pace, unfortunately they were all doing the half and after 11.5 miles the course split and I headed off myself, almost literally. I passed one runner after 12 miles and made it to halfway in 1.21, feeling not too bad. Over the next 5 miles there was no one in sight and I at times I thought I’d gone the wrong way, fortunately the odd high viz vest came into view which eased my concerns and let me focus on my pace, which was definitely getting faster, despite numerous vocal attempts to slow myself down. At the 17 mile point I finally caught another 2 runners and hoped to hang on to the back of them and get a breather, but they were slowing slightly so I just pushed on and attracted the attentions of a steward on a bike who led me home for the last 9 miles. Around this stage I had fully expected to be struggling and I was concerned about the distinct lack of runners to keep me going, it really was feeling like a very hard training run. Once I got to 20 miles I was still managing to hold roughly 6 min miles and I tried to use a spot of amateur psychology to get me through the remainder of the race. The race was 22 miles, only 2 to go, stay strong, don’t disappoint the cyclist by slowing down. I made it through the first section in one piece, now the race was 24 miles, only 2 […]
From the pen of Henry, comes his tale of a first ever Marathon… Having moaned, moped, grumbled and complained my way through the training for my first marathon, I was surprised to find myself looking forward to the race on Sunday. I’ve made no secret of my goal of sub 3hrs, and although this was always going to be a stretch, nothing in training had left me feeling it was impossible. The early morning rain had stopped by the time we got to Blackheath, but it was still a chilly 4-5C, cloudy, and with an occasional gust of an icy northerly wind. Great for running but not ideal for spectators or standing around waiting for the start. There are loads of toilets so queues weren’t bad at all. Just as well, because I made no less than 4 toilet visits before the start. I was rather bemused by the notices for female urinals. Obviously, I have no idea about such things, but I shall say this: I didn’t see anyone look desperate enough to use them. Joining me in pen 2 of the Blue start was Craig Taylor from Portobello, who I’d met on the Jog Leaders course last year, and Bella David Lockhart. We made a procession round to join up behind the championship and elite starts and I spotted fellow London Marathon Golden Ticket winner Hamish. Friendly faces really helped settle the nerves, and after handshakes with these guys and a countdown from astronaut Tim Peake, we were off. I’d expected streams of runners to go past me in the first mile or two, but the speed was dictated by the crowd who were only pushing each other, not the pace. I enjoyed a comfortable mile settling in, waving to Fiona and Danielle on the sidelines, and chatting to Hamish before he urged me to go on and I remembered I had a race to run. There was a bit of space on the pavement and I picked up the pace and caught up with Louise. Ever the coach, she checked I hadn’t done my usual and gone off too quickly. We then merged with the Green start runners alongside the 3hr pacer. I was high-fiving the kids, and enjoying the local shouts of “Well done ‘Enry” thinking that I’d better enjoy this all now as I’ll not be feeling like it 15 to 20 miles down the road. London’s an extrovert’s paradise, and the crowd support is worth several minutes to someone like me who energises on people. Down the hill we went, steel bands playing and a public address blaring out “Welcome to Woolwich”. Time for the first gel and I’m running comfortably and feeling confident. The next few miles, I’m trading places with the pace group and scrambling for water at the water stations. I see Al Maclachlan just up ahead at one point and am looking forward to one of his pearls of running wisdom, but when I look again he’s disappeared. Only later do I […]
With perfect running conditions, today’s London Marathon saw Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge run one of the fastest marathon runs of all time, setting a new course record of 2:03:04. In the ladies race an amazing recovery after a heavy fall saw fellow Kenyan Jemima Sumgon win in 02:22:58. It was also a quite remarkable day for Glasgow area marathon runners, with Kilbarchan AAC’s Callum and Derek Hawkins finishing 1st and 3rd of the British runners in the men’s race, and Shettleston Harrier’s Tsegai Tewelde finishing 2nd. Rio now beckons for Callum and Tsegai, and hopefully Derek too. Our own club had 25 club members taking on the course, and some fantastic performances ensued. Particular mention to our first gent home Russell Whittington (02:43:54), Henry Merriweather (03:03:33) and Louise Ross (03:15:31, also our first lady home), with fantastic debut marathon performances, and Shona Donnelly running a great PB of 03:23:41. Tomoyo Fujiwara – as she builds up to her Comrades race next month – ran a superb 03:30:20. Great to see Bryan Burnett getting a chance to take part this year, and trust you got a huge shout out on the finish line! Full results below. A huge thanks to all the family and friends who’ve supported our runners through the last few months of training, as well as out on the course today, or later this week when they need a hand getting up or down some stairs, and a huge congratulations to everybody who took part! Look forward to seeing you back at training soon: Enjoy the celebrations and recovery! photo from Virgin Money London Marathon media library.
Report from Lucy. Thank-you so much to lovely Sandy who made the long journey to Fort William to be a supporter at the Lochaber marathon on Sunday. Was a dreicht day for standing about, but Sandy was always smiling and enthusiastic, and altogether a wonderful supporter. Really helped to get us round. Race was great. Ran with Suzanne, who, like myself, was running her 2nd Lochaber. Last time I ran it was 2001, don’t remember much about that race, apart from it being windy and rainy (much as it was on Sunday). We stuck together for most of the race, was great to have the company (sorry for talking mince, Suzanne. Sorry also for singing. Poor you). Really enjoyed the race. Was chuffed to run 2nd half one minute faster than 1st half. Lochaber doesn’t have the crowds, bands, famous sights or incredible wall of noise London has. It does, however, have:spectacular hills to admire (for many a mile), rousing sound of bagpipes at start and finish, shower at the end(unfortunately mine was cold, but it was good to be clean), post-race best cup of tea EVER, lovely filled roll and a Ben Nevis whisky miniature (my husband quaffed it when we got home, his reward for driving me there and back). Also, a shiny medal in a plush velvet box. Very well done to Suzanne, who ran her first sub 4 hr marathon. John Gilhooly 3:03:57, David Lockhart 3:36:16, Lucy Mackay 3:53:41, Suzanne Motherwell 3:55:49
Report from David Boag Walking across Place Saint-Michel, towards the Metro, which will take me to the start, I could see a group of bleary eyed revellers sitting in a nearby cafe and clearly they were coming to the end of their own marathon – though more of the drinking variety! Twenty years ago I might have been sitting there with them (who am I kidding – more like five years ago!) wondering why anyone could possibly wish to run over 26 miles on a Sunday morning! Anyway, it was bitterly cold for the start of the 37th Marathon de Paris; the Arc de Triomphe was an imposing, majestic back drop to the start, as almost 40,000 runners gathered to go through their personal pre run rituals. Shortly after 9am my particular group set off down the Avenue des Champs-Elysees – surely one of the best starts to any marathon in the world! I’m never quite sure how the old body will hold up, so I started off looking for around 3hrs 45 mins and if things went well maybe a new PB. The first 5K was not as busy with runners as I remember in previous years, which allowed me to hit target pace from more or less the start, so much so I felt that I had to slow down as we approached Place de la Bastille. The crowds here are brilliant – totally in your face! Shouts of ‘courage’ and ‘bravo David’ send you on your way to Bois de Vincennes, where understandably the crowds thin out a bit. Time to knuckle down, after the opening excitable stages, and focus on maintaining target pace – at this point I also passed a ‘running’ Tour Eiffel… I wonder how he got on? Anyway, made sure I kept taking food and drink at every 5K stage and things were going well as we left the park to head back to the city centre. We hit half way just before we reached Bastille for the second time… the crowds are still as noisy! A change to previous years and we get some lurid sports drink here, it looked like blue Aftershock…fortunately it didn’t taste like it! We cut down to the Seine, past Notre Dame, and the river is on our left for the next 7 Km or so. A few tunnels to head through that give a bit of shade and quite frankly play havoc with the Garmin, so this calls for even more focus on keeping a steady, constant pace. The Tour Eiffel comes into view on my left – it’s not moving this time – awesome! To my right is the Trocadero and things, I sense, seem to be shaping up well, though I have done enough of these to know not to take anything for granted! In my head I keep telling myself to get the ‘third’ 10 K out of the way and then see how you really ARE coping! I get through 30Km and […]
Report from Bryan. So why did a pasty white Scotsman decide to run a marathon in a hot, humid and as it turns out windy island……answers on a postcard! That’s the very question I was asking myself a week ago on Sunday. I haven’t had much racing during 2012 and was somehow talked into signing up for the Palma de Mallorca marathon….still trying to work out how that happened. My build up appeared to go well with a good finish at the Stirling 10K and Dumfries half marathon during September. The only thing I couldn’t control when I got to Palma would be the weather conditions. This preoccupied my mind during the preceding couple of days, with me constantly checking what the predicted conditions would be- I was assured rain. The rain came on Saturday night and finished about 4am Sunday morning. Standing on the start line, it was 18 degrees, a bit of cloud and very windy….could be worse, it wasn’t as humid as it had been the previous few days. Getting nearer the start time I could feel the adrenalin begin to kick in, it may have been the 2 large coffee’s and high5 drink full of caffeine I had taken, I’m not sure but whatever it was it was starting to work. We were off at 9am and I worked my way through the group of people who clearly should not be near the front of a race and quickly got into my stride. I went through the first mile in 6.11….well done give yourself a tick, just 25 and a wee bit to go. The race started in the shadows of the Cathedral La Seu on the Autovia de Llevant and headed west to Porto Pi before turning and heading back to Palma. As I turned at the 5K and headed back to Palma, I got some shouts of encouragement from runners heading to the turn…”on yerself Bella”, it certainly put a spring in my step. As we approached the 10K point I had picked up a few running companions. A couple of Spanish fella’s sat in behind me and although there wasn’t much talk, mainly as my Spanish would have made things complicated, it was good having the company. We went through 10K in 38:26 and I was still feeling good. After the 10K mark runners turned into old Palma town. The course became more undulating, with narrow streets and some tight turns but it did bring some welcome shade from the now more present sun and a break from the coastal wind. A temperature read-out at the 10K showed it was now 20 degrees and 70% humidity. As me and my 2 Spanish companions made all the twists and turns around Palma, I was certain the pace was quickening, although my Garmin wasn’t giving accurate readings due to the narrow streets and poor reception. I decided that the pace was faster than I wanted so let my amigo’s take the lead…..this may have been […]
Report from Bruce. Before this race Geoffrey Mutai had announced his intentions to have a go at the world record – and with a flat course and a cold but sunny morning things were looking good. With the Siegessaule glinting in the sunshine and the motivational music pumping it was hard not to get sucked into the mood on the start line. A great start – 3.06 for the first km, and it didn’t even feel that hard. You’d better watch out Mutai! Oh no, wait, turns out that marker was way off as everyone’s GPS watch started beeping a minute later. Oh well, back to business. Plan A was to get under 2.40, plan B was sub 2:41.24 (i.e. a PB) and plan C was sub 2.45. Of course, there’d be no need for a plan D. All was going well, the crowds were out in force and although it was sunny there was plenty of shade along the route. Having km markers was great, they were just flying by, and I’d fallen in with a couple of guys who had non-committal “somewhere between 2.40 and 2.45” target times and we ran together, trying to eek out a wee bit of chat here and there. It was at about 11-12km that things started to get really tough. These legs did not feel like they were about to kick into another gear. I was still technically on track for plan A, but that was definitely slipping. By the time I got to halfway I was definitely onto plan B. I’d arranged to meet Nina just after halfway but hadn’t really counted on the pavements being about 10-deep with supporters. Oh-oh! Luckily we spotted each other, and a seamless handover of gel and a drink was executed. Buoyed by seeing a friendly face and some energy gel safely ingested it was only a matter of time before I would push on again. I hoped. Just another km, then I’ll start pushing…..OK, I’ll wait til the next one….. don’t worry about all these folk coming past, I’ll catch them in a minute….the legs won’t feel so tight and hobbly in a while…. It’s when things aren’t going well that the little things start to get to you. I wasn’t really enjoying the plastic cups of water – only filled to halfway, you spilled half of that when grabbing it from the aid station volunteer, and then had only a wee splash to try and get in your mouth, most of which just ended up being flung uncoordinatedly into your face/up your nose. I reckoned only one sixteenth of a cup was getting into my system each time. The injustice of it all! By the time I’d snapped out of that sort of ridiculous whiney thinking, I’d stopped looking at my splits altogether (I could sense it was not good news). I was definitely in plan D territory. What was plan D again? Oh dear….. OK then, I’ll get to 37km and it’s […]