The club during Coronavirus

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This page has now been archived, following the full revocation of all coronavirus specific rules and guidelines in March and April 2022.

The club during coronavirus

Like every sports organisation, we cancelled organised group training sessions, in March 2020. But our membership rallied together and put on an amazing series of virtual challenges and supported each other. Have a look down this page for links and details of activities our members got up to. We think it really highlights that being a member of a club is as much about the community you become a part of, as the things it does.

As lockdown eased, we were amongst the first Scottish clubs to publish a coronavirus exit plan, under the Scottish Athletics framework. We resumed small-scale group training in August 2020, then began welcoming new members from our waiting list, in September. We’ve began staging small, club events, to give a taste of competition, and hope to organise more as we go. It’s all kept under review as rules and restrictions change: The latest club plan is accessible below.

We were then nominated for, and eventually won Scottish Athletics 2020 “Impact and Innovation Club of the Year“.

 

Club coronavirus plans

Pandemic rules and restrictions have all now been removed.

Details here for posterity/reference.

What we got up to during lockdown

Running is a sport we can continue – within the applicable social distancing rules and regulations – on our own. Just because we couldn’t train together, it didn’t mean we couldn’t rally around to support and motivate each other right through the crisis.

It’s training, just different!

Here’s some of the things we’ve been up to,  and we’ll be sure to keep this page updated as we go with things as we go! Stay tuned to our news page and social media pages for more details!

A huge and heartfelt thank you to all our members for their amazing ideas, contributions, enthusiasm and support throughout. It means a lot to each and every member, and has made drawing this page up a pleasure, even in these difficult times.

Zoom home training

We’ve Oscar’s Online Zoom home cross-fit sessions three evenings a week! Participants have been donating to charity too, supporting the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice. If you prefer Yoga, Kelly is running a weekly Yoga session too. Details generally on our members’ Facebook group, but please get in touch with us to find out more.

Virtual racing

Just because we can’t race our favourite distance just now, doesn’t mean we can’t get out there and challenge ourselves, and each other: there’s loads to keep us motivated.

We are absolutely loving the Scottish Athletics organised virtual races taking place through this crisis, and really grateful to everybody at our governing body who helps make them happen. We were the biggest club, by participation, in the first virtual relay event. Not content there, in the second 15 minute challenge we won overall club in the club distance challenge and a total of seven categories!

In the 1 mile virtual time trial, our Ladies came 2nd Master’s team, and we were again the biggest club by participation with a whopping 77 members taking part. We’re eagerly awaiting the next challenge now!

In the meantime, our members are able to take on our own Strava segments we’ve setup and added to our club championship, to help take the place of some of the cancelled races. They’re publicly available, and full details on our news page.

Social Media

We’re big fans of social media, and also have our popular club members’ forum too.

Our accounts have been buzzing with members virtually supporting each other, tackling our training plan, or just getting out for a run for the first time in a while. It’s great to have a supportive network. You can find us on the following places:

Support

We’re also:

  • Posting weekly training updates from our coaches, to help keep structure and motivation going.
  • Writing to members every month with a round-up of what’s been going on. Not everybody is on social media or checking our forum, so we thought an update email would help.
  • A fantastic series of “Meet the Bellas” interviews has been run over on our private social media page, allowing members to get to know each other a bit better, virtually!
  • Enjoying hosted quizzes!
  • We had a great Zoom talk from Iain Reid Physiotherapy, about strengthening for runners.
  • Members are volunteering at a local food bank in the Pollok area, helping with unpacking donations and sorting logistics. Many thanks to Rhoda for coordinating! Their brilliant efforts are helping 100+ lockdown-impacted families.
  • Holding meetings online to keep the club ticking over. We had a huge turnout for our 2020 AGM, which featured various presentations and videos, which you can watch online. Plus our coaching group, Trustees and the coronavirus sub-group, are regularly meeting via Zoom.
  • Enjoying great memories from our 20th anniversary birthday bash back in January! We had great fun, and Scottish Athletics published a fantastic article about it on their website.

Loads more on our news page!

Resources

Videos and Selfies!

It’s not all about running just now – many of us are finding motivation hard in the lockdown. Having fellow club members to support and encourage each other has been brilliant. It’s also about having lots of fun along the way. Club members have been creating a few videos through the crisis which you can catch on our youtube channel, and are embedded below!

We hope you like them!

Huge thanks to the many members involved in organising and putting these together, with a particular thank you to Laura, Leanne and Kevin. We’ve even had a spot of local newspaper coverage!

The Seven Golden Rules of Running Etiquette

Our very talented members Marty and Alan put this fantastic video together

Group Selfies – of a sort!

Our first foray into club-wide participation was a selfie challenge during the Scottish Athletics virtual relay. Members snapped a selfie, and they were brought together by Laura in a set of seven super selfies!

Home made race numbers featured in a few too, as well as lots of great pics with members sporting their club tops!

Read more about the event, and all our selfies, on our news page.

SneakerBellas

As part of the 15 minute time trial challenge, our ‘Bella twist’ was a shoe relay video featuring loads of members.

Bellas Breaking Free

After a busy weekend of running, many of us needed to get on with our housework 😜.  Some of our talented members got together to create a fun video of everyone doing their household chores. We really can’t wait until lockdown is lifted so we can ‘Break Free’ !!!

Many thanks to Laura, Kevin and Leanne for coordinating everything, and to Marty and Alan for the soundtrack.

Bella Baton Bonanza!

This time we joined up with our local rivals Bellahouston Harriers to create the 💜BELLA BATON BONANZA💙 .

We miss seeing our competitors at local running events, and thought this would be a great way to link in with them and pass a virtual baton during lockdow.

A lockdown activities highlights reel

During our 2020 AGM, Club President Richard Leyton presented a video report of the year, which you watch here. At the end of the report, we featured a special video ‘Bella Twists’, which pulled together what we’ve been getting up to through lockdown, and tried to capture the spirit of club members throughout! We hope you like it!

Bellas climb Everest!

We love virtual challenges, and the hill challenge put it to clubs to accumulate the most ascent. Together the club climbed higher than Everest is above sea level!

Push up party

We challenged club members to do some pushups as part of the 2nd club relay challenge!

Saturday Night Shuffle

It continues…

We’ve not stopped there, we’re publishing new videos on our youtube channel, and you can catch our updated “Bella Twists” video on our Awards night post, and our Jimmy Irvine Bella 10k 10 year retrospective.