Report from Greig The challenge is to complete at least three of the five Western Isles Half Marathons – Stornoway, Harris, Benbecula, Barra or Skye in any one year. This is the longest running series of half marathons in Scotland and 2012 saw the 23rd event. It is a hugely popular race series, with increasing entries every year. In particular, the Barra race, which is only able to support limited numbers, sells out the day entry is opened every year. The series starts with the Stornoway half marathon and ends with the Harris half marathon, which traditionally involves post race celebrations, both locally and on the ferry! 3 Bella runners completed at least the minimum 3 races Myself, Nea MacInnes, John Sandbach. First up for the Bella challenge was the 2nd race in Benbecula. Despite it being a circular route it had the usual stiff headwind for about 12 miles (always described as “perfect running conditions” in the local press) and talk of a strong challenge from the Heb 3 host club Stornoway, I did enough to grind out my 3rd Benbecula Half win followed by Nea clinching 2nd with a fine PB after a good race with a couple of runners from the previously mentioned local club. John Sandbach picked up a “Heb PB” for his first counter and the bravest run of the day was from Sandra Houldsworth who with a couple of miles still to run had a nasty fall and despite the blood oozing from numerous wounds still managed to finish and was then promptly whisked to hospital where she discovered she’d also broken 3 toes. 7 days later in Skye it was the heat that took its toll on the runners, I finished 3rd followed by Nea 4th and Robbie Hayman 5th to win us the Skye team prize and John in 85th adding another time towards the series. Next it was onto Barra where Nea and John were joined by Louise Gray. Nea had another fine race on Barras famously brutal undulations, battling so hard with a runner for 2nd place to his surprise he almost caught the leader finishing just 10 seconds behind. Louse also ran well coming in 3rd v40. Finally it was to Harris for the fifth and final race in the series. Nea was series leader having already completed his 3 races, I had to finish my final counter in under 1.27 to overtake him and at last win the thing after being runner up 3 times in the previous four years. And with John Sandbach (like Nea) having already completed his 3 races we were also in with a chance for a first ever Bella series team win breaking the usual Edinburgh stranglehold (Portobello, HBT, Corstorphine). On the day it was pretty grim. You get taken on a fleet of buses out to Borve and run back the 13.1 miles in an easterly direction back to Tarbet. The theory is despite the first 10 miles being almost constant climbs, […]
race reports
Report from Bruce from race on Sunday, 27 May with further comments from Tomoyo. After having a worried eye on the weather forecast for most of the week beforehand, like most I was dreading running yet another hot marathon. The day got off to a bad start with us leaving the house a little bit later than planned, getting caught in a diversion getting onto the M8, having underestimated how long it took to drive to Edinburgh City Centre and then realising that the ‘London Road’ start was actually quite a long way from the old Regents Road start. Oh dear. So after a panicked warm-up scurry to the baggage truck, flinging on some factor 30 all that remained was to fight my way through the crowds of spectators to the start pen. By that point I didn’t actually care that I had 26.2 miles to run. Victory was mine just for making it to the start line. Once the race started the crowds thinned out quite nicely, and (as usual) I set off too fast at sub-6 minute miling and ended up 3.5 minutes ahead of my target by halfway. I spent the rest of the race waiting for my legs to seize up – but thankfully it never happened and was able to hang on. And luckily the weather never got quite as hot as it looked thanks to a cool sea breeze. My low-tech anti-Garmin device (race pace band printed off the Runner’s World website: http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/pacing/javascriptcalcs3-v2.asp) worked quite well until the latter stages, by which point I’d flung so much water over myself to keep cool that it had turned to a gooey pulp. Oops. It wasn’t like I was paying attention to the plan anyway, so it didn’t really matter. After a seamless hand over of hydration juice and a gel from Nina at the 23 mile point, I was able to relax and soak up the atmosphere as the realisation that I was going to beat the 2:45 target sunk in. All that remained was a quick dash up the finish straight for 7 minute PB, encouraged along by a big shout-out from our own race commentator Bryan and the impressive crowd. The nice weather brought out a decent crowd of spectators on a pretty inaccessible route for spectators – special thanks to Gerry, Louise and Mrs (Geordie Jim’s wife) Robinson for the shouts of support, they were much appreciated. So all in all, a great day out! Here are the results I could find on the EMF site before it crashed, I’m sure I saw more Bellas than this though: Pos Gun Chip Name Category 18 2:41:33 2:41:24 Bruce Carse SENM 220 3:07:28 3:07:10 Neil McEwan SENM 236 3:08:31 3:08:12 Jim Robinson V50M* 307 3:11:53 3:11:35 Robert McEwan V55M** 1220 3:38:07 3:35:02 Tomoyo Fujiwara V35W 2132 ? 3:51:46 Lucy Mackay 2907 ? 4:02:29 Sarah Gillies * PB, 5th in MV50 category and all important London Good-for-age place ** 7th in MV55 category Race report […]
Report from Suzanne on the Brathay Windermere marathon. On Sunday 20 May I ran the Brathay Windermere Marathon. It starts just outside Ambleside in the Lake District, and the route takes you round Lake Windermere via Hawkshead and Newby Bridge. This is not a fast course, in fact I was stuggling to find any flat sections. The first half is on closed ‘B’ roads and the second half takes you up towards Windermere on the A952/A591 which does get a little busy with traffic, but the drivers were careful. Most of the course is ‘hilly undulating’ interspersed with some bigger hills between, 1-3 miles, 7-8 miles, 13-17 miles and a ‘mountain’ at 22 miles. The ‘mountain’ has a viewpoint and an ice-cream van at the top should you wish your efforts to be rewarded with a double nougat or a 99 cone. Despite the hills the course is beautiful and there is great support all the way round – helped by the glorious sunshine we had. If you enjoy a challenge and taking part in a beautiful hilly marathon, with a good local atmosphere then this is for you. If you are chasing a PB then probably best to avoid. There was about 800 participants. http://www.brathaywindermeremarathon.org.uk/ First woman: Nicola Shaw at 3:15:46 First man: Mike Jeffries 2:45:30 (Swaledale Road Runners) First and only Bella – me at 4:06:32!
Saturday saw the 1st race in the 2012 Scottish Ultra Marathon Series, the D33 in Aberdeen. The D33 is a friendly, low key, no frills, race described on the website as: “No entry conditions apply, if you think you can then enter and do it. If you get half way and find you can’t, phone registration with your race number, tell them you are a loser and take the bus home. Support, there is none required but if you want your mum to meet you half way with a jam sandwich then thats ok with us.” The course is a flat scenic route along the deeside way path from Duthie park to Banchory and back. It is an easy to follow path and there are plenty of flapjack wielding marshals on route so the perfect ultra for the hungry or navigationaly challenged. 4 Bellas made the trip up for the race. Jane Galt and Jane Wild running in their 1st and hopefully not last ultra posted excellent times of 5hrs47 and 5hrs24 respectively. However the ladies performance of the day came from Rebecca Johnson who set an eye watering early pace and managed to hold on to finish first lady in a course record of 3hrs59. I failed in my intention to treat the race as a training run for the Highland Fling, what with the incredible support on the course I got a bit excited and ran round in 3hrs53 finishing 4th. Hope I’m not too broken for the fling… The race also gets top marks for having Brewdog beers at the finish line and some classy medals “hand branded from wood reclaimed from Hurricane Bawbag”. If you are thinking of dipping your toe into the murky water of Ultras I would highly recommend this race. Do it. Results Report from Grant.
7 ladies and 16 men from Bella took on the challenge of the longest cross country race on the race calendar – the National XC championships at Falkirk on Saturday, 18 Feb. As ever, this race attracted pretty much all of the best runners in the country, so competition was fierce throughout the pack. The ladies had the pleasure of a snow storm as they lined up for their start, but that was quickly forgotten one they got stuck into all the hills and mud. The race was won by defending champion Freya Murray and the Bella ladies came in 11th team overall out of 28 teams: 68 Romy Beard Bellahouston RR 36:03 70 Claire Wharton Bellahouston RR 36:10 83 Elsie Downham Bellahouston RR 36:53 98 Emma Bryson Bellahouston RR 37:08 101 Ciara Baxter Bellahouston RR 37:18 111 Julia Harris Bellahouston RR 37:51 141 Sarah Gillies Bellahouston RR 39:46 11th Bellahouston RR (319) 68,70,83,98 The men’s race was also won by a defending champion – Derek Hawkins. Bella men’s team managed 9th place overall out of 33 teams: 42 Kieran Docherty Bellahouston RR 43:34 70 Greig Glendinning Bellahouston RR 45:19 96 Russell Whittington Bellahouston RR 46:25 104 Craig Reid Bellahouston RR 46:37 115 Mark Johnston Bellahouston RR 47:02 142 Scott Kennedy Bellahouston RR 48:10 159 Gerard Scullion Bellahouston RR 48:48 165 Bruce Carse Bellahouston RR 49:02 179 Grant MacDonald Bellahouston RR 49:18 205 Thomas O’Connell Bellahouston RR 50:05 291 Gordon Clements Bellahouston RR 53:01 295 Andrew Hardman Bellahouston RR 53:05 305 Barry Edwards Bellahouston RR 53:35 364 John Newlands Bellahouston RR 56:04 393 Alex Lawther Bellahouston RR 57:24 443 Chris Brotherston Bellahouston RR 1:00:37 9th Bellahouston RR (569) 42,70,96,104,115,142 My personal favourite bit was the Trench of Doom(?) at the far end of the golf course, which was not unlike falling into a big hole and trying to scramble out the other side, times three. And to top it all off, our own Bryan Burnett provided the live commentary on the day, displaying his usual shameless bias to cheer on all the Bellas taking part – thanks Bryan! A great day out with some brilliant performances – well done everyone. Results Report from Bruce
Saturday 1st August saw the 23rd running of the Ardbeg Isle of Islay Half Marathon. Most of the purple posse started their journey from Chez Glendinning (Danielle, Greig, Nick and I) on the Friday afternoon in the Bella Bus (aka Glendinning Jeep) with an advance party already scoping the island (Alasdair McLeod & family). On the boat over to the island stomachs were churning, there was more chop in the sea than a Kung Fu movie. Fine dining Cal Mac style let us down with a severe lack of Mac Cheese which we were all looking forward to as our pre race meal. Once safely on dry land the Bella battalion made their way to base camp at the camp site. To my horror as a first time camper gale force winds were battering the island, and attempts at pitching tents was more like flying kites. The wind was so strong it cut through Team Glendinnings tent like a hot knife through butter. This gave us an issue with the sleeping arrangements but before we could start the discussion of who was sleeping where, Glendinnings were headlights in the distance, off to find a B&B somewhere on the island, securing the very last one! Not planned, honestly! Captain Nick and I decided we would tough it out and settle in for the night. The only mildly scary event of the night was me jumping out my skin when a hedgehog decided to try out my tent and the only casualty was Nicks flapjacks which the local seagulls lapped up after Nick thought it a good idea to leave outside his tent. Onto the race and first pit stop was to pick up 5th Bella Brendan from the boat. He had left Glasgow at 4:00am (!) to make his way here. With 4 members on the team this could have been a little tricky. Nick, Greig and Alasdair were assured their place but that last place was up for discussion until I stepped up to fill in the team sheet, decision made. The race started in Bowmore on a cool but windy day. The first 7 miles were into a strong headwind and six of those were uphill supplying negative splits all round. We had a job to do, being defending champions of the team prize. Team Bella faired well with Alasdair finishing 2nd, Nick 3rd, Greig 5th, myself 8th, with Brendan the only one securing a PB, which was quite a performance given the conditions. The team prize was ours for the second year. The prize giving was one to remember and I wish I could. There was plentiful supply of whisky, sandwiches and lots of crumpet! The organiser was encouraging us to drink as much as we could. Prizes were extensive, with a prize given for 1st couple, and a prize given for the guy who decided to propose to his girl half way round. Before we headed back we stopped off in Ardbeg distillery to sample yet more […]