Report from Gerry There was a good turnout of Bellas for the west district cross country championships at Ardgowan Estate near Greenock yesterday, 13 guys and 5 girls. The course was one of the flattest courses I have known but that’s not to say it wasn’t testing, the tricky muddy conditions more than made up for the lack of hills and making it difficult in areas to keep on your feet. Fortunately the overhead conditions were good and much milder than the previous few freezing days. In the ladies event, over 6.4km, our girls put in a gutsy performance and our team were 7th out of 9 finishing teams. Romy Beard had an excellent run finishing 12th and just 2mins 40 secs behind the winner who is a high quality runner. It was really good to see us getting an improved turnout for the ladies team and we hope to build on this for the National Cross Country at Callendar Park in February. In the men’s event over 10km our guys put in a strong performance and we were 6th placed team out of 17 as well as 2nd placed men’s team in the vet category. Kieran Docherty was our first home, in an outstanding 16th position. One point learned from the race is to check the map of the route and look carefully at how the races finishes. As we turned a sharp bend into what I had expected was a final half mile + loop I was hearing shouts of “you’re nearly there”. I didn’t pay too much attention until I got around the corner and could see the finishing line less than 100 yards away. Though great to see the finish line a bit frustrating when you’ve been holding back a little for the final push. Still a great workout. Full results on the forum and will appear on the SA website Roll on the National Cross Country and hope to see a large turonout of Bella there.
Yearly archives: 2012
An autumnal day greeted the runners for the 3rd running of the Jimmy Irvine Bella 10K on Saturday 10th November. Over 500 runners took to the start line in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow. Music and commentary from club member Bryan Burnett got the runners set, with club founder Jimmy Irvine sending the runners on their way round the six and a bit miles within Bellahouston Park and the adjacent Mosspark Boulevard. In the men’s race Michael Deason from Shettleston Harriers led from the gun and finished the race 1st overall in a time of 31:52. Second place went to Jozsef Farkas finishing in a time of 32:08. The third man home was Chris Devenney from Kilbarchan AAC with a time of 32:19. The veteran prizes went to Cris Walsh from Bellahouston Harriers (M40, 34:52), Graham McGrattan from Greenock Glenpark Harriers (M50, 37:24) and Norman Baillie from Garscube Harriers (M60, 42:57). The women’s race was a close run affair with first and third only 31 seconds apart. First home for the ladies was Clare MacAuley from Bellahouston Harriers, with a time of 39:18. The host club Bellahouston Road Runners provided the ladies in 2nd and 3rd with Deborah Gray, glowing from a recent PB run at the Dublin marathon, finishing in 39:36 closely followed by Romy Beard in 39:49 and with that Romy’s first sub 40 min 10K run. Prizes in the veteran categories went to Ann Robin (F35, 41:12) from the host club Bellahouston Road Runners, Mary Western from Carnegie Harriers (F45, 42:08) and Denise Lindsay from ADAC (49:24). The team prizes for both men and ladies went to Bellahouston Road Runners who were well represented throughout the whole field. Men’s counters were Ciaran Dougherty, Mark Johnston and Scott Kennedy and the ladies team comprised Deborah Gray, Romy Beard and Ann Robin. There was also a prize for the Bellahouston Road Runners 2012 race series which included the 5K race in August and today’s 10K. These prizes also went to runners from the host club with Scott Kennedy taking the male prize and capping a very successful day, Ann Robin took the female prize. Well done to all the runners who took part today. Everyone who finished took away water, bananas and a goody bag, with some bags having surprise spot prizes. Everyone was cheered home by an enthusiastic support and commentator Bryan Burnett. After the race everyone headed to Mosspark Bowling Club to enjoy a celebratory buffet of sweet and savoury foods washed down with tea and coffee, followed by the presentation ceremony. Another highlight of the day saw Bellahouston Road Runners awarded the Club Accreditation Foundation Award from Scottish Athletics which completes two years of hard work. A massive thanks from all at the club to those who assisted with the event. Thanks to the runners for taking part, all the helpers from the club, their friends and family without which this event would not be able to take place. Thanks to our race sponsors Achilles Heel who provide […]
Full results are available here (click on link). Full race report to come. Any issues should be sent to races@bellahoustonoroadrunners.co.uk.
The entrant list for Saturday’s race complete with race number and the desk to collect your number and chip is available here (click on link). See you all on Saturday.
Latest race info follows… Event Timings 0900 Registration Opens 1000 Commentary and DJ at race start 1045 Registration Closes 1100 Race start 1130 First finisher. Race commentator and DJ will be at the finish to encourage you all home. 1130 Food and drinks available at Mosspark Bowling Club 1245 Presentation at the Bowling Club Registration Registration is at Mosspark Bowling Club on Mosspark Drive (G52 1LJ), and is open from 0900 to 1045. This is just off Mosspark Boulevard where the Women’s 10K finishes. Please check your number and check in desk on the lists available in the hall, with names displayed in alphabetical order (The entrant list with numbers will be available on our website at www.bellahoustonroadrunners.co.uk on Thursday morning, so you can note your number and desk ahead of time if you prefer), and then proceed to the correct desk where you will receive a number and timing chip. Registration will be very busy so please arrive early, and give yourself plenty of time to collect your number and chip. The start is a short walk from registration. Your number should be displayed clearly on your running top and your timing chip is to be attached to your shoe with the cable ties provided. Toilets Toilets are available at the Bowling Club and there will be portaloos in Bellahouston Park between the start and the finish. Course Details Course maps are now on the event webpage. https://www.bellahoustonroadrunners.co.uk/events/bella-10k/ Water Water is available just after half way on the course, and at the finish. Results Results will be available via our website shortly after the race. https://www.bellahoustonroadrunners.co.uk/events/bella-10k/ Series T Shirts Series t shirts should be collected at Mosspark Bowling Club at registration or after the race. T shirts are available to those who pre entered both the Bella 5K and the Jimmy Irvine Bella 10K through Entry Central in the same transaction. Post Race Refreshments Remember to head back to the bowling club for post race refreshments. We will have the usual sweet and savoury selection as well as teas, coffees and soft drinks. Thanks for entering the race, we look forward to welcoming you on the day from everyone at Bellahouston Road Runners. Please send any queries to races@bellahoustonroadrunners.co.uk.
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 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 […]
Results of todays relay race can be found here (click link). Big thanks to everyone who made the event possible.
This years Jimmy Irvine Achilles Heel Bella 10K race is filling up even quicker than it did last year! A big thanks to those who have already entered, we are absolutely delighted with the support so far. With three and a half weeks until race day and only 21 entries of the initial 500 entries allocated available we are happy to say we are releasing a further 100 places for the race. Please see all race details with entry details on the events page here. Preparations are in full flow and we are looking forward to a bigger and better experience for everyone taking part this year! See you all in November!
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 […]