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
race report
Report from Craig. Saturday 3rd November saw 200 runners line up at the new start line for the Glen Ogle ultra marathon. Starting and finishing just outside Strathyre it follows a hilly but amazingly scenic out and back 33 mile route. I did this race in 2011 and know the course well so I went up with a race plan this year, hoping if I stuck to this that I could improve on my 3rd place last year. The start line for the course had moved this year as the route was a bit short in 2011. The newly added mile at the start of the course was straight uphill so when the race started I set off at a very slow pace and eased my way up the hill. As we reached mile 1 I moved into the lead and just continued to run at my own pace over the next 2 miles which were very steep uphills. Miles 4-6 have some good descents, my plan before the race was to take advantage of these and as the course zig-zagged down the hill I looked back up and couldnt even see the runner in second at the top of the hill! Miles 7-12 take you up over the Glen Ogle viaduct. There are a few very steep climbs early on but its mostly just gradually uphill. Despite a fast start my legs felt strong so I kept going at what felt like an easy pace but in reality I was hitting sub 6:30 miles so I knew I would be opening a good lead over the rest of the field. I was caught in a small blizzard during this part of the race, there was already some snow on the hills and path which made the course even more scenic but thanfully it didnt last too long. I passed checkpoint 2 and ran into the 8/9 mile forest loop. The start of this loop is very much downhill so again, I put the foot down and put in some quick miles. Unfortunately the last sections in the forest feature some long, steep uphill sections. I stuck to my plan and decided to run very slowly up these, even walking at a couple of sections. Unlike most races, walking is quite common in ultras to save energy in your legs. It also gives you a chance to refuel so at mile 18 I took my first energy get. I cruised through the rest of the forest section and stopped for a cup of water at the checkpoint before heading back down the Glen. I had made the decision not to carry anything other than 2 energy gels on me and only left a drop bag with a bottle of Red Bull, another gel and 5 jaffa cakes at the last checkpoint at mile 26. As I approached an undulating section at mile 24 I began to feel hungry and my energy levels were dropping. I made steady progressed and reached […]
Report from Gerry. We had five complete teams and one incomplete team taking part in the Scottish National cross country relay championships at Cumbernauld on Saturday, 27 October. This is the biggest relay event in the Scottish calendar and so you get large numbers of teams taking part and some very high quality runners participating. In both the men’s and ladies races each runner had to run over a testing 4km course with some inclines and a bit of mud to add to the fun, well it is cross country after all! We were glad to have a fine day for running, spectating and hanging around while waiting our turn to run. For the ladies we had one team competing (Louise, Judith and Rose). They put in a very creditable performance finishing 45th team out of 60 teams. In the men’s event our teams positions were, out of 103 finishing teams: ‘A’ (Kieran, Craig, Bruce and Bob) – 20th ‘Vets’ (Russell, Mark, Greig and Liam) – 35th overall and 7th in the vets category ‘C’ (Andy, Rankin, Gerry and Peter) – 56th ‘D’ (John Gilhooly, Stewart, Ollie and John Newlands) – 80th and a incomplete team of Andrew, Tony and Chris. Well done to all and we look forward to the next cross country action which will be individual events rather than team relays.
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 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 […]
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 […]
Report from Hamish. The VALT is the biggest triathlon in the country with 13,000 competitors taking part across two days, over distances from super sprint to Olympic plus, and in categories from elite to age groupers to corporate relays. It all happens around the ExCel centre in London’s Docklands, and with waves of athletes moving through every 30 minutes, some starting, some finishing, others mid transition, all in amongst an EXPO selling every conceivable piece of triathlon kit known to man, it’s an exciting atmosphere. It’s all about mass participation, and with a handful of celebs and even the Branson family in attendance there’s a real buzz in the air. My race was the Olympic distance (1500 swim/40k bike/10k run) for SVM age groupers. Having entered last year and found the swim a bit of a slog, I knew my big challenge would be to nail a better swim, setting me up for the bike and hopefully a strong finish. Our age group was first away on Sunday morning, start time 6.30am. Saturday had been a perfect sunny day, but there was definitely an autumn chill in the air when the doors of the Excel opened at 5.30am and around 100 of us shuffled in hoping the Costa would be open (it wasn’t). With over 20 waves of all types racing that day, the transition area is simply massive; row upon row of bikes, towels, shoes, drinks stretching seemingly for miles. As we sorted out our kit, the main topic of conversation was whether it would actually be light by 6.30, let alone sunny. By 6.15 we were all gathered at ‘swim despatch’, but with little sign of the dawn, the organisers decided to wait for another 20 minutes…not the best thing for jangling nerves! However, we were soon filing down the steps and leaping lemming-like into the black docklands water. I’ve done a few mass swims now but it’s still a bit daunting when 100 swimmers strike out en masse. You do get a bit of physical contact for the first few minutes, and a couple of kicks to the head followed by a lungful of Thames water certainly woke me up. After a few hundred metres I found some similar paced swimmers and we drafted along together, meaning the rest of the swim flew past, over 5 minutes quicker than last year. I’m pleased to say I also avoided swimming into a rescue canoe like last year – result! Transition is known as the ‘4th discipline’ and while I’ve always been a bit sceptical about the seriousness with which some take it (practising taking off your wetsuit seems a bit extreme to me) I have to admit it is pretty impressive just how fast some people can get out of their wetsuits and onto their bikes. As I fumbled with clips and velcro I made a mental note to be less sceptical next time… The bike leg is two laps on closed roads around London, taking in some […]
Report from Craig. For those of you who dont know, Dumfries is my home town and I have ran the half marathon twice before. They were both a disaster and resulted in two of my worst races, so I thought it was about time to go back and give it another go. With 42 miles in my legs from the previous weekend and a disappointing parkrun time the day before I settled into the front/middle of the pack on the start line. In my last couple of half marathons I have set off a bit quickly and felt like I suffered later in the race so today decided to go off at a steady pace, especially knowing the undulating nature of the course. By mile 3 I was sitting just outside the top 10. I was concerned about trying to race so quickly after such a long run the week before so thought this would be a good place to stay. Maybe it was my new trainers or maybe a moment of madness but I decided not to settle, to have a real go and see how close to the leaders I could get. The front three had set off at some pace and were nowhere to be seen. As I moved up to 8th I could see another group of three runners in the distance followed by the purple Bella vest of Brian Lamb in 7th. I knew Brian had ran well at the GSR so I would be doing well to get near him let alone those in front. Miles 4.5 – 6.5 are mainly uphill, some steep and some not so bad but I steadily chased down those in front. As they say, what goes up must come down and a nice 5:28 mile between 7-8 saw me move into 7th as one of the runners in the second pack dropped back. My legs felt really strong and any thoughts of fatigue from the River Ayr Way ultra were well out of my mind. By 9.5 miles Brian had caught up with the runners in 4th and 5th and I made an effort to move with him and we went by them together. At mile 10 I edged ahead of Brian. Having spent the whole race chasing other runners I suddenly found myself in 4th and became conscious that if I slowed slightly then those behind me were going strongly and I would drop back. Mile 10-11 had a few more uphill sections and I began to feel the first signs of tiredness. That soon disappeared though as I got my first glimpse of the runners in 2nd and 3rd – although they looked far too far ahead to catch. Mile 11 was a fast downhill mile, I could hear Brian’s footsteps behind me and knew I would have to push if I was to hold him off and take 4th place. Little did I realise we had both made up good time on the 2nd and […]
Report from Craig. All week at work I had been looking forward to a long lie in my bed so on Saturday 15th September when my alarm went off at 5am I was less then happy. Maybe the people at work were right, maybe I was mad. After all how else could I explain getting up at that time on a Saturday morning to go for a 41 mile run?! I dragged myself out of bed and after a quick shower and forcing down some food I headed down to the Citadel in Ayr. I collected my race number and boarded the bus along with another 80 or so runners which would take us to the start of the race. Eventually we arrived at Glenbuck and it felt like we had been dropped in the middle of nowhere. At 9 oclock the horn went and the race started. The first 5 miles or so were into a strong headwind along trail paths. I decided to set off at a steady pace and see how long I could hold it for. There were two runners just in front but I decided not to try and keep up with them and quickly I was on my own as the runners behind me were already a good bit back. I passed the first checkpoint with ease and felt great. I had been full of the cold a couple of weeks before and I felt like the extra time off was really going to benefit me. By 7 miles I had almost caught up with the two leaders, I could see them not too far in the distance but a wrong turn followed by a quarter of a mile scrambling through nettles, long grass and a burn that I could hear but not see due to the long grass (I know it was there as I fell in it a couple of times) meant that soon they were out of sight again! Miles 8 – 18 were almost like cross country underfoot. There was plenty of running through fields with mud up to my ankles and splashing through puddles. By mile 18 though I could see 2nd place again and passed him as we went through the checkpoint on a good road section at 19 miles. By mile 23 my legs were feeling heavy and I was beginning to struggle a bit. My times were still steady and I caught the race leader who was also struggling. I ran with him for a couple of miles but he was really struggling by this time and as as we ran/walked together we were overtaken by the eventual race winner. By mile 28 after negotiating my way through a section of bushes where the path had been washed away by a landslide, I decided that I had to run my own race and left the runner I had been with for the last few miles, his hip was in a bad way and to be honest […]
Report from Nea The 4Th race of the Hebridean half marathon series took place in the scenic island of Barra on Sat 30th June. 4 Bellas made the journey, myself, John Sandbach, Sandra Houldsworth and Louise Gray. With Sandra being the cheerleader after nursing 2 broken toes in a fall during the Benbecula half. The weather was a bit damp for the start with a light wind (which in the Hebrides is usually around 50mph!). The race was started by Father John Paul MacKinnon from the island Parish TV series, he gave a rousing speech and wished everyone luck!! He should have thrown in a couple of prayers for good measure knowing about the poor souls that were about to tackle the 340ft hill at the 11.5 mile mark! A local girl held the Olympic Torch for the start, I thought about grabbing it and taking it round the island but decided against it as this route is bad enough without the extra baggage! The race started on the West side of the island in Castlebay and followed a clockwise route round the island. Andrew Laycock from Kinross Road Runners settled into the lead after the 1st mile followed by myself and Joshua Low. The first 4 miles are fairly flat for the Heb series, passing some of the most beautiful beaches in the Hebrides, then the route turns to the east into the wind and the hills! At the 5 mile mark there is a steady climb of 170ft, with the leader in sight and still hearing Joshua Low’s footsteps behind me, I wondered if I had went off too fast as I could see the local coastguard jeep being used as the lead vehicle, I have only ever seen a lead vehicle upto the 1st mile!! I was keeping a close eye on my pace as the hard bit was still to come, having experienced THE hill in the previous year on which I lost my heart and soul and struggled to conquer it!! With the beaches left behind and the hills beginning, the leader was only a couple of minutes ahead but I still hadn’t shaken off Joshua Low in 3rd. So onto the hill, in the previous year I had been given good advice – “To leave a good bit in the tank for the hill”!! I felt OK at the bottom of it as I started the climb, my legs started to feel heavy as soon as I took the 1st step of the 340ft climb and I had a quick look behind me to see Mr Low bearing down on me having closed the gap significantly. The baby steps I was taking on the climb were hurting and they hurt even more when I slipped back into 3rd position. With a position lost the head went down just as well as I didn’t want to see how much of the hill I had to go!! The end of the climb was in sight and […]
Report from Bruce Nine Bellas made the journey out to Gourock for the first running of the Frank Sinclair 10K race on its new route, which promised to be ‘flat and fast’ (don’t they all?). Registration was at the newly opened Gourock outdoor swimming pool, which looks really good. Poor Jane got a fright at the registration desk when she asked, after being handed number 107, if there was only 100 people running. The answer was ‘no – there’s only 21 people entered so far!’…… Not a good sign! They ended up with a total of 46 entrants, and before the start on the promenade runners were asked to remember their race numbers, as the rain was starting and the numbers were likely to disintegrate. The route was actually quite nice, out and back along the coast with a wee loop through the park at Lunderston Bay before heading back and was flat as promised. Some km markers might have been useful though! After running what felt like a really good race I was surprised to see my time at the finish was a bit slower than I was hoping for. All of those with Garmins soon confirmed that they had clocked it at 6.33 miles. Ooops! This mistake was acknowledged by the race organisers afterwards and they reckoned they’ll have it right for next year. The race was won by a country mile by Stephen Trainer of Greenock Glenpark in 32.41, and the Bella results are below, complete with mis-spelt names and thanks to the wonders of excel I have calculated our actual 10k times, just to add to the sense of injustice! I think there’s a few could-have-been-PBs in there: Pos Name Official Time Unofficial actual 10k time! 2 Bruce Carse 35:07 34:27 5 Craig Reid 35:51 35:10 12 Peter Callaghan 38:48 38:03 17 Alistair Maclachlan 39:49 39:03 18 John Gilhooly 40:01 39:15 32 Christopher Doak 44:59 44:07 34 Jane Wild 45:52 1st Lady 44:59 36 Keith Gibb 46:08 45:15 40 June Winter 47:51 46:56 This would have been a pretty good race if it weren’t so low-key, and a bit on the long side. Easily fixed in the future I’m sure. Still, big well done to Jane for winning the ladies race – you do realise this means you HAVE to go back next year to defend your title? Results
Report from Matt of the 55 mile Cateran trail race on Saturday, 19 May. So the Cateran Trail race was really my first serious race this year. Having had a decent season last year, my body final said enough is enough at the end of September last year and I picked up a bit of an injury ( a pain in the butt- to use the technical term). A wee lesson learnt on the number of ultra races it is wise to do in a year! This frustratingly lasted a number of months and I only managed to start training in earnest about Feb/March.. Having looked at the racing calendar the Cateran was the main race that caught my eye, but by time I was on the mend the race was full. I contacted the organiser who put me the waiting list, in the mean time I trained assuming i’d be racing. A few weeks later I was in! The race is a 55m loop starting and finishing in Glenshee, it’s a waymarked course taking in 7450ft of ascent. Terrain varies between road, farm track, single track, muddy fields, bog- oh and some of the highest stiles I have ever seen! I had never set foot on the course before Saturday, which many of the other racers found odd, but for me part of what I enjoy about a race like that is running somewhere new and not knowing what is around the corner. It’s all part of the adventure. Another part of the adventure was the fact that entering late meant there was no room at the inn (or hotel) where most others were staying. Thankfully they had a suitable square of grass outside for me to pitch my tent- ( a tree outside even had a plug in it to let me charge my phone- luxury to me). On the morning of the race conditions were pretty much perfect, nice and cool, dry and not too windy. After a quick race briefing warning us about the potentially aggressive cattle on the course we set off. The first few miles took us over some farm tracks and some pretty muddy, sh***y fields and I thought “yeeh ha this is a proper trail race” A few of the ultras i have done have had a bit too much road for my liking. At this stage I was just running steadily along with a few others wondering who the guy was way out on front. I wasn’t too concerned though as in a race like this, as far as i’m concerned the race doesn’t really begin until about 30m. Our first check point came close to a nice pad by the name of Dalnagair Castle before a road section took us onto a more agreeable off road trail towards Loch Shandra. I chatted to a few other runners and enjoyed the Perthshire countryside until we hit out next check point at 15m (still not an angry bull in sight). At the check […]
OK the pain is starting to fade so I suppose it would be rude not to rustle up a little race report from last weeks 53mile Highland Fling race. I’ve been struggling to put this race into words but fellow Bella Chris Brotherston once told me the best way to write a race report is to pour yourself a glass of red wine and stick on some Elbow in the background. however it is 9 o’clock in the morning on a bank holiday monday so I am going with a bowl of muesli and Radio 4 as an alternative. So the race: The fling always seems to be ran in amazing weather and despite the rest of the country being drowned in rain conditions in Milngavie for the start of the race were perfect- sunny and cool and aside from the runners, not much wind. Davie, Brendon and Tommy had kindly offered to join Elsie on support duties. They dropped me at Milngavie for registration and headed off to plan how many cake shops they could visit on route to Tyndrum. After a one line briefing from the race director we were off. The first section to Drymen is fairly flat and uneventful, these early miles flew by and before I knew it I was in Drymen to see the happy faces of the support crew. Brendon had them drilled like a well oiled F1 pit crew, water and unwrapped clif bars were thrust into my hand without me having to break my stride. As I left Drymen a fellow runner mournfully looked back at them and commented “my crew haven’t turned up today” I was about to feel sorry for him and offer him a bar when he sped off into the distance and I didn’t see him again. The next big obstacle in the race is Conic hill, given that I faceplanted 3 times coming of Conic Hill in a hill race a few weeks ago I was a bit nervous coming down in road shoes. However this time I stayed on my feet and made it down to the 20mile checkpoint at Balmaha in one piece. Here more food and water was thrust in my hand and I set of for Rowardennan. I had been keeping up a decent pace till this point however my stomach was starting to gurgle a bit and I had to slow the pace a bit over the next section to avoid a bottom explosion. Unfortunately on the descent into Rowardennan a runner had fallen and broken an arm, Davie Weatherhead had sprung into action and was diverting runners around the fallen runner while she was attended to. I continued on and pushed through the checkpoint grabbing some food from Elsie and Tommy without stopping. There is some lovely hilly but runnable forest track coming out of Rowardenan I tried to keep the pace up here knowing the dreaded rough section out of Inversnaid was still to come. The checkpoint at Inversnaid is […]
Beautiful spring weather welcomed 500 runners to Fort William for the Lochaber Marathon on Sunday, 15 April. An out and back course along the shore of Loch Linhe was the challenge and 6 runners from Bellahouston Roadruners were up for it. The course is fairly flat, undulating in places. Basically you run towards Corpach and continue on until you reach 13 miles, then turn round and run back. The snow capped mountains give a scenic backdrop and the fact there are only 500 runners and few cars means you get a clear run. Although there is a sneaky wee steep hill in the last mile. Bellahouston highlights included PBs for Greg Glendinning ( 2.41 and 1st MV40) and 2.59 for Nea Macinnes. Thanks to Danielle, Brendan, Susie and Peter for their excellent support around the course. Bellahouston Times Greg Glendinning 3.41 Nea Macinnes 2.59 John Gilhooley 3.09 Frans Roelefse 3.14 Tomoyo Fujiwara 3.33 David Boyle 3.39 Full results Above report from David And some additional reporting… from Tomoyo I enjoyed running this race, beautiful view and plenty of water station there. It was my 19th marathon and I had my first experience “I took a wrong turn” at 25 miles, as I did not see any runners in front of me. However the guy who was running behind me (actually he was walking when I passed), he shouted and rescued me!!! I wonder if this guy ignored me….am I still running now?? Lucky me, I guess! I will try hard again at the Edinburgh marathon next month to get sub 3:30!!! Thank you for all your support. And more from Nea ….. Phew, that was close! Ran 2:59:46, new PB by 10 mins. Perfect running weather on lovely flat course, until the last mile when little hills come out of nowhere and feel as if you are climbing Ben Nevis itself! I thought I had 90secs to spare and cruise to the finish until Brendan started running beside me in the last mile screaming at me and looking worriedly at the stop watch on his iphone. My garmin was showing that the finish must be round the corner, but alas it was round the corner, up the hill, round another corner and then the final straight (0.25miles longer than I thought!). In the final straight just as the legs wanted to fall off I had Brendan screaming behind me and Peter screaming in front of me – there was NO way I was not going to finish under 3 hrs!! Great support from Danielle, Suzie and the Sadistic Duo – Brendan & Peter! I know I could not have done it with out your support – BRILLIANT!!!! Well done to all Bella’s on the day and Greg getting 1st V40!