There was a brilliant turnout of Bellas at the Renfrewshire AAA 5 Mile Road Race at Greenock on Sunday. We had 39 finishers from the 108 strong field! It was surprisingly mild for Greenock in early February, and thankfully no snow, hail, flooding or driving rain, just some grey drizzle and the challenge of a cold blustery wind, particularly at Battery Park. There was great running as always from Team Bella, with several medals claimed for: Kenny Osborne (26:49, 2nd MV40) Colin Hughes (32:08, 1st MV60) Louise Ross (32:31, 3rd lady, 1st FV40) Deborah Gray (33:11, 3rd FV50) Al McLachlan (34:20, 2nd MV60) Jane McNeilly (34:29, 2nd FV40) Shirley Wieland (40:40, 2nd FV60) Emma Queenan (41:50, 2nd FU20) Murdoch Rodgers (47:01, 1st MV70) In addition, our gents team (top 6 of Tony Connelly, Ross Horgan, Kenny Osborne, Bryan Kerr, Angus Gray, Stuart Laurence) placed third, while our ladies team (top 3 of Louise Ross, Deborah Gray, Jane McNeilly) placed second! With thanks to Inverclyde AC for hosting another great event, and of course to the brilliant officials and volunteers for making it possible. Over at the Glasgow Winter Warmer 5k at Glasgow Green, also on Sunday, Rachel Fraser finished first lady with a great PB of 20:34!
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It was fantastic to see so many Bellahouston Road Runner volunteers helping out with marshalling at the recent GSi Events Ltd, Mens and Womens 10k races in Glasgow on Sunday 16th June 2024. The Club has regularly turned out at these particular events over the last number of years and it’s always a great day out. We had members at the start and throughout the course to help ensure things ran safely and smoothly, to pardon the pun! Seeing so many people being cheered on and enjoying themselves on a great city course was wonderful. Our members also regularly volunteer at other great events including the Bellahouston Harriers Brian Goodwin Memorial 10k, the Great Scottish Run each autumn, cross country league and of course parkrun. It’s a great way to spend a few hours and get to know fellow club members a bit more. It’s also a great way to stay involved if you are between races or are injured, or if you just fancy cheering the runners on! So well done everyone, and “…thanks marshall!!”
The club recently got together for one of its biggest, and certainly most anticipated, awards night! Every year we celebrate the performances, achievements and accomplishments of our memberships over the preceding twelve months. Last year we held it virtually, but we were delighted to be able to hold a traditional evening at Sloan’s again for the first time since 2019. Full details on our members forum, and over on our Facebook members group you can catch a copy of the premier of the celebratory video of the last year, as well as a collection of photographs from the evening. A huge part of our club year is the Club championship, so a huge well done to everybody who completed the criteria, and – of course – to the many winners of the categories! A particular shout out to the banner award winners! Member of the Year: Kevin Queenan Most Improved Female 2021: Siobhann Dunn Most Improved Male 2021: Alan Moss Ladies Club Champion 2021: Rebekah Russell Gents Club Champion 2021: Tony Connelly Many thanks to everybody who helped made the event possible! Particular shout out to Kevin for his epic organisation, Susan for handing out the awards, Richard for hosting, and Craig for the photos!
We’re excited that with the Covid restrictions having been amended this week, we’re now able to resume group training from next week (15th March). We’ve written to members, but we’re also making our plan available on our website for others to reference. Here’s the letter to members from our Coronavirus coordinator Emer, and club President Richard. Our full club coronavirus plan (v10) is available too. If in doubt, our club Coronavirus plan page at bellahoustonroadrunners.co.uk/coronavirus always has the latest version, as well as links to many of the activities and initiatives we’ve been running to keep members motivated! Members can find details for how to sign up for training on the members forum. Thanks to everybody involved in making this possible, at Scottish Athletics, sport Scotland and – of course – at the club.
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)!
🚨Further to the news today about the new national lockdown, unfortunately all club group activity/training is suspended from midnight, until at least the end of January. This includes Monday/Wednesday training sessions, and all sessions/groups operating under the club umbrella. Full details on the members forum: https://forum.bellahoustonroadrunners.co.uk/t/club-training-suspended-in-january-2021/4075 We’ll continue virtually as before so do be sure to sign up to the latest virtual challenges, stay in touch and support each other online, and don’t hesitate to reach out if you need a hand, or have an idea! Cheers, Richard, on behalf of the Board of Trustees
We’re delighted and honoured to report that we’ve won the Scottish Athletics Impact and Innovation Club of the Year award 💜🥳💜🎉💜 – Congratulations to everybody at the club who have been spectacular right through the year. Thank you too for the lovely messages we’ve received, a few of which we have shared below. Our website is regularly updated with the things we’ve been getting up to during Coronavirus, but through the course of the last twelve months the award considered, we also celebrated our 20th birthday, staged perhaps our most successful Jimmy Irvine Bella 10k, saw medal winning performances, national XC and half marathon titles, and lots more besides. We’re very grateful to Scottish Athletics staff and volunteers too, who’ve been fantastic right through lockdown, and the last year. We’ve also learnt so much from other clubs, including the other shortlisted clubs Nairn AAC and Linlithgow AC, and the many others. The state of grass roots running is in great shape just now, thanks to the hard work of so many right across the country. If you’re interested or inspired, we’re delighted to be operating a waiting list, but so are many other clubs across the country via the #keeponrunning campaign, of which we’re a proud part. So pleased that the hard work put in by @bellaroadrunner has been recognised by this award tonight. The club has pulled out all the stops keeping its members going through this difficult time. https://t.co/AdW0m8CtTj — John Mackenzie (@john8mackenzie) October 10, 2020 Tuned into @scotathletics #4jawards to cheer on @bellaroadrunner and all others who work and perform so hard for Scottish athletics. Joined our club 2 years ago and it has had a huge impact in my life – would recommend to anyone. #MentalHealthAwarenessDay pic.twitter.com/qYa2IoKH1x — Thomas Burridge (@TomBurridge) October 10, 2020 Absolutely brilliant 👏#morethanjustarunningclub #MentalHealthAwarenessDay — Anne Campbell (@annecayrshire) October 10, 2020 For various reasons, I've not been able to train and take part with the club as I'd have liked in the past couple of years. The club were so innovative during the pandemic – especially in the early days, making every club member feel included. You're amazing @bellaroadrunner!💜 https://t.co/ZLeIAe0nvZ — David Lockhart (@DJL78) October 10, 2020 Congratulations! — Cambuslang Harriers (@CambuslangH) October 10, 2020 Fantastic to follow the @scotathletics awards last night! We have great memories of our own night on the shortlist a few years ago! Special congratulations to @JigglyJoggers for flying the @jogscotland flag and also to local club @bellaroadrunner for your successes! #4Jawards pic.twitter.com/DJzFpdtYKB — The Runbetweeners (@runbetweeners) October 11, 2020 Amazing guys – well done !! — GallusRunning (@GallusRunning) October 11, 2020
Delighted to report that we have been shortlisted for a National Award! The ‘Impact Club of the Year’ is a big annual club award from our Governing body Scottish Athletics. In a very contested field – there’s really so much going on in clubs right across the country – it’s brilliant to even be on the shortlist, particularly in a year of record nominations. The other clubs short-listed are Nairn AAC and Linlithgow AC. It’s a fantastic testament to the brilliant work by our members who have, right through the year (particularly during Coronavirus) been driving initiatives, pitching in to help, and supporting each other in person and virtually. Everybody at the club is proud to see us short-listed, so fingers very much crossed! The awards event is online on youtube, so subscribe to Scottish Athletics channel and mark the 10th October in your diaries! Well done again to everybody at the club for their hard work, and for making it such a special place! REVEALED! Club and coach short-lists for our 4J Studios Annual Awards
We celebrated our 20th anniversary back in January, and Scottish Athletics put together a lovely piece to mark the occasion for the early 2020 issue of PB magazine. Delighted to say it’s now available online, and brings back some really happy memories of a great birthday party. Hope you enjoy the piece, and the story of the club over our first two decades, and what we’ve been up to – and hope to get up to in the future! Purple patch now stretches to 20 years . . . Many thanks to Stuart Miller for the article, all at Scottish Athletics, Gordon Goldie for the amazing pictures, and everybody who’s been involved with the club over the years!
We’re pleased to publish our 2018-19 Annual Report. We’ve tried to make this year’s report – our second – a celebration of what the club has been up to over the course of the year, as well as including all the details we’re required to include about our policies and finances. It’s available to read here, and we hope you enjoy reviewing it. It covers from August 2018 to July 2019, which is the club’s formal reporting period. Many thanks to everybody at the club who contributed to this year’s report, and looking forward to reporting on the year in progress. All of our required documents, and previous annual report, is also available on our website
For the third straight year, we’re delighted to report that Scottish Athletics have just announced that the Bellahouston Road Runner Ladies team secured the Scottish Half Marathon Team Gold at this year’s Great Scottish Run. A huge congratulations to Cat MacDonald, Ann Robin and Katie Mathieson! Well done to Edinburgh AC who were just in 2nd place for Silver, with Garscube Harriers taking Bronze. We’re delighted for our Ladies, who’ve won this prestigious prize for the third straight year, and bringing it to an amazing five years on the podium. Congratulations too to Ann Robin, who also secured Silver in the W40! Well done to everybody who took part on the day. The club had an amazing 60 members complete the Half marathon, and 6 taking part in the 10k. On top of that, 40 club members volunteered over the course of the weekend to help make the event a huge success.
Just a note to remind members that this autumn/winter, the club will be meeting at a different venue on alternate Wednesdays, starting 17th October (full list of dates below). Full details of the background for this training variation on the member’s forum. All other dates continue at Glasgow Club Nethercraigs, as usual. We will be meeting from 6.15pm at St Francis Community Centre, Cumberland Street, G5 0SE. We’ll then proceed to a session on Glasgow Green at 6.30pm, after announcements, for a structure training session. The training venue, and specific session, is always indicated on the front of our website, so it’s easy to check in advance. We have recently started a Whatsapp club announcement group which we will publicise this on (as well as any training cancellations or urgent news). Please sign up if you’ve not already done so. Details on how to do so are on the forum. Please speak to a member of the board, or coaching group, if you’ve questions or concerns!
The club is currently consulting with members, so that it can draw up a strategy to take it forward over the next few years, and we want to ensure it fully reflects our members views. We’d like to ask all members who haven’t already done so, to take a few minutes to add their thoughts, ideas and suggestions about the club. An email has been sent out with the online consultation form (if you’ve not received it, please check your spam folders!), and can also be found on the club forum. We’ll be running some after-training discussions shortly too. The deadline for responses is 1st December. Thanks very much for taking the time! Danny Phillips & Richard Leyton
This month’s Bletha is now online! Copies are available at club. Stories include: Gold run, Shona & Ann for Scotland, Jimmy T, Haddayaway man. four do thirty, pool and beer, Same a keeper. Coach mark, on the Terry bus. And much much more! Read it here!
Hot off the press: Bletha is now online, and hard copies are available at club. Stories include: Good Win for Bellas! PB Geeks, Beer and chocolate, Yogis, Bellasupport; M10K4, Wilds in the Fintry, Flash, Golden Vets, and Who would rather be sailing? And much much more… Read it here!