Report from Gerry. Saturday (23 Feb) proved to be a grand day for us Bellas, with the Scottish National Cross Country championships taking place at Callendar Park, Falkirk followed by a celebratory get together and meal later, open to all club members, at Mother India’s in the west end. For the first time we put on a bus to take us from Bella ski centre to Callendar Park and back. This seemed to go down well developing a good team spirit for the day ahead. Things looked ominous as we boarded the bus with snow starting to fall and cold conditions setting in. Little did we know that by the time we reached our destination we would be set for the finest of spring days, a clear blue sky overhead and fairly mild conditions. With a few call offs, always to be expected at this time of year, we still had a good turnout of 16 guys and 6 girls to take part in the men’s and women’s events. We also had excellent support from club members not taking part on the day (Robert, Tammy, Brian, Elsie, Jackie, Graham and Chi) First off were the girls (Louise, Judith, Sarah, Sabina, Rose and Maree) to tackle two laps (5 miles) of a tough but excellent test of cross country running. We were lucky that the cold conditions leading up to the event meant that the ground was generally firm so allowed for quite a fast course. All appeared to adapt well to the course, putting in sound performances and our girls team finished in 22nd position out of 25 competing teams. For Maree this was her first outing at cross country so well done you. The final race of the day was the senior men’s event over 7.5 miles, three laps of the hilly course. With over 500 guys on the start line, all quite nervy and ready to run, it feels that something special is about to happen. It is. Unlike previous years there was no lead up to the gun to announce the event and some of the main contenders. So the start gun went suddenly and off jolted 500 runners in what felt like a stampede, well an orderly one, with the ground below shaking with all these feet pounding it! The 16 Bellas taking part were: Kieran, Greig, Matt, Ciaran, Craig, Grant, Mark, Brian, Ollie ,Iain ,Gerry, Peter, Barry John, Allan, David and Bryan. The team of 6 counters (Kieran, Greig, Matt, Ciaran, Craig and Grant) put in a very creditable performance finishing eighth place overall of 30 counting teams. So well done guys. After returning home it was a quick turn around to get back out for the all important food and to join up with others who hadn’t signed up for the race earlier. In total 29 turned up for food. Just shows that food is more popular than running in our club! The meal began a little later than expected and in slightly more cramped […]
Monthly archives: February 2013
Report from Gerry An outstanding performance by our ‘A’ team (Bryan, Matt & Mark, Greig, Grant & Andy) got us third position in Saturday’s (9 Feb 2013) Devils Burden’s relays. The day was quite a contrast to the recce held two weeks ago. A good temperature for running, no wind though still a bit tricky underfoot and a mist that would make it a challenge to navigate through the trickier legs of the race. For our A’ team, Bryan had an excellent first leg over mainly good tracks finishing in 6th. Mark and Matt took on the 2nd leg, the longest and most demanding one, and made up a few positions before handing onto Greig in 2nd position. Greig held this position on a steep uphill section before passing onto Andy and Grant for the final ‘downhill’ leg. They were overtaken by one team but held onto 3rd position. Well done to the team. Our mixed team of Emma (making her return to racing after over a year’s absence), Jim & Ciara, Elsie, Gordon & Stuart managed to navigate the course well and put in a good performance. Our ‘B’ team (Gerry, Barry & Andrew, Graham, David & Chris) had less success on the course with navigation problems resulting in a DNF. Despite this all seemed to enjoy the experience of the hills. It wouldn’t be fitting to report on the Burden’s without making mention of the great spread provided afterwards for hungry runners. The homemade soup was excellent and the variety of home baking was just what hungry runners and supported needed after being outside on a winter’s day. This ends a great eight days for Bella, with our men (Greig, Russell, Scott and Peter) taking 4th team place at the masters cross country the previous Saturday in Nairn and both men and women taking 3rd team prizes at the Renfrewshire 5 mile road race on the Sunday. Well done all. We now look forward to one of the biggest events in the callendar, the Scottish National Cross Country championships at Callendar Park, Falkirk on 23 February where we will be well represented in both the men’s and ladies event. Here’s hoping our teams can continue to spread the word that Bella Road Runners do well whether hill, road, country or ultra.