We’re excited that with the Covid restrictions having been amended this week, we’re now able to resume group training from next week (15th March). We’ve written to members, but we’re also making our plan available on our website for others to reference. Here’s the letter to members from our Coronavirus coordinator Emer, and club President Richard. Our full club coronavirus plan (v10) is available too. If in doubt, our club Coronavirus plan page at bellahoustonroadrunners.co.uk/coronavirus always has the latest version, as well as links to many of the activities and initiatives we’ve been running to keep members motivated! Members can find details for how to sign up for training on the members forum. Thanks to everybody involved in making this possible, at Scottish Athletics, sport Scotland and – of course – at the club.
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The club was delighted to receive some awards from the Glasgow Sports Council at the weekend, for both the club itself, and two of its members. Our lead coach Gerry Scullion won “Community Coach of the year”: Gerry worked tirelessly through lockdown to motivate and encourage members with weekly training updates, tips and sessions. Club President Richard Leyton won “Volunteer of the year – senior” for his work through the lockdown helping the club operate and coordinate through this difficult year. In addition to these two individual awards, the club itself took “Club of the year” in recognition of the amazing work right through the club to support each other with challenges, coaching, support, and community efforts including helping at a local foodbank and raising money for local charity. With various social media videos gaining nationwide attention, the club was also delighted to take the “Social media presence of the year” award. The club is very grateful to all of its members, who have been fantastic right through the year and have all contributed in so many ways to help make the club much stronger through this experience. The club, and its membership, are delighted at these awards, and wish to express their thanks and gratitude to the Sports Council for Glasgow for their work throughout supporting clubs and organisations through this most challenging of years. You can find out more about the Sports council for Glasgow on their Facebook and twitter (@scglasgow1000) accounts.
Many thanks to the many members who joined us for our 2020 AGM, the very first one we’ve ever held virtually. We had at great turnout, and with all our content available to view on our YouTube channel, we’re delighted by the engagement and interest shown by club members into our governance. We hope by being open about our governance process, and outcomes, it’ll even interest and engage more of our members, and even a few potential members. A few of our presentations were pre-recorded, and we are delighted to share these with you here if you wanted to watch them. They’re also embedded below. Club President Richard Leyton’s report and club update is here (and embedded below), which contains a fantastic section with our lead coach Gerry, and Team Manager Leanne looking back over the last year of club training and racing, and gives a real taste of what the club has got up to. The ‘Bella Twists’ highlight reel is here (and embedded below), and we’ve shared it on our public social media – We hope it captures the enthusiasm club members have shown for continuing with club activities, just differently, right through the lockdown. If you like it, do please give it a like or better yet, an onward share. The Financial update from treasurer Kenny Crawford is here. There’s detail too in our Trustees’ Annual Report. If you want to watch the entire AGM(!), you can catch the full live stream recording here. Our previous annual reports are all available via bellahoustonroadrunners.co.uk/charity/ A few key takeaways to report from the motions that were discussed, and voted on: The membership supports, in principle, a change of training venue: As the President’s report detailed, this is something we’d been working on for some time, which will hopefully continue when restrictions allow. The membership, and club, fully endorses and supports the Run Equal campaign. Whilst gender equality in Scottish running events is well ahead of the UK, there are still unequal events (National Masters XC, and some county events as of 2019/20 season). We’ll be making more public statements about that in due course, and to encourage other clubs in Scotland to take a similar stand. Club members supported continuing the membership fee freeze (and longer-term deferral for impacted members), which the Board will keep under review pending a resumption of training/substantive costs. The fees themselves remain unchanged from last year. Members approved three new Honorary Lifetime Members, in Jane Wild, Oscar Wild and Robert McEwan, who have been important members in the development of the club. We’ll be posting a separate news item to welcome them officially as Honorary Lifetime Members. Thanks again to all our members, and we’d encourage them to get in touch with us on any point. Whilst the AGM is an important point in the year, club Governance is a continual process and really depends on members getting involved and helping out where they can: the Board can only do so much. Plus the club is […]
Club members should now have received formal notification of the club’s rearranged 2020 Annual General Meeting. We are hosting it virtual (using Zoom) on Thursday, 18th June, 2020. If you haven’t received the email, please check your membership, or contact the membership secretary – or another Trustee – if you’re uncertain. There is full copy of the agenda, and background to the AGM, on the club members’ forum. For background, a full copy of the 2018-19 Trustees’ Annual Report and accounts is available, and (with addresses redacted) is available our website. In summary, as well as a few standard AGM items, such as the financial update from the Treasurer, and the President’s report, the Board are proposing some important motions for members to review, discuss and consider, and cast their vote on: Reviewing and confirming our annual membership fees. This was scheduled to happen in any event, but the advent of the Coronavirus crisis means we wish to fully confirm with members. Supporting, in principle, relocation to a new training base within Bellahouston park Supporting and endorsing the Run Equal campaign, with a view to campaigning for full equality of gender at cross-country races. The Board proposes the club adopts the suggested Run Equal motions. Outlining the past and present relationship the club has with the Renfrewshire AAA, and how that may work in future. Supporting the efforts of the Board to engage with, and help creation of, a cross-country League in the West District of Scotland. Reviewing and approving the Board’s nominations for members to receive the title of “Honorary Lifetime member“ Review any member submitted motions that are received (together with two seconders) on or before the 15th March, 2020 Reviewing and appointing the Board of Trustees We’re hosting this virtually due to the Coronavirus crisis. We are endeavouring to use practices from our own experiences from working-from-home, but we really want to make sure this works both as a formal meeting we need to host as part of our charitable status, but also as a fun way to come together. Members who are unable to attend, but wish to be recorded in the Apologies, should contact the club secretary. The Board look forward to welcoming members on the 18th April to engage with this important annual event for the club.
Page Archived 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. June 2021 – Club group training has now resumed! We’ve updated our plan to version 13, and the general Scottish Athletics framework, for which we are very grateful. This covers the return to the levels framework, and that members in Level 2 areas can now travel to club training. We’re also welcoming guests along again, so if so if you’re interested in joining us, checkout our ‘Try Running with us’ page!Now superseded: Version 12, for the return to the levels framework in April 2021 Version 10 of our plan covered the return to group training after the December-March 21 lockdown Club Coronavirus plan, for the November 2020 Levels framework. November 2020 (now superseded) Level 3 letter to members (superseded when Glasgow enters Level 4) available here. 26th September 2020 update is available to download here: BRR_ Coronavirus Club plan and members info #6_ October 10 2020. More details for members, on the club forum. Our (now superseded) plan when the rules of six became effective in late September: BRR_ Coronavirus Club plan and members info #5_ Late September 2020 Our Glasgow local area measures plan (now superseded) BRR_ Coronavirus Club plan and members info_ September 2020-Glasgow local measures Our return to group training (now superseded by local measures – Sept 2020): BRR_Coronavirus Club plan and members info_ August 2020 – News announcement here. Our original plan (July 2020, now superseded): final-2020-07-26-BRR_ Coronavirus Club plan and members info – News announcement here. 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 […]
🚨Update: As a result of the COVID-19 situation, the AGM has been cancelled along with club training (see specific announcement). The AGM will be re-arranged later in the year. 🚨 Club members will this week receive formal notification of the club’s 2020 Annual General Meeting. We’re hoping as many members as possible can make it along, after training on Monday 30th March, 2020, in order to support the club. If you don’t receive the email before the end of February, please check your membership, or contact the membership secretary – or another Trustee – if you’re uncertain. Whilst non-members are welcome to attend and listen, only current members will be invited to speak and to cast a vote. There is more detail and background on the club forum, available to members. A full copy of the 2018-19 Trustees’ Annual Report and accounts is available, and (with addresses redacted) is now available our website. In summary, as well as a few standard AGM items, such as the financial update from the Treasurer, and the President’s report, the Board are proposing some important motions for members to review, discuss and consider, and cast their vote on: Supporting, in principle, relocation to a new training base within Bellahouston park Supporting and endorsing the Run Equal campaign, with a view to campaigning for full equality of gender at cross-country races. The Board proposes the club adopts the suggested Run Equal motions. Supporting the efforts of the Board to engage with, and help creation of, a cross-country League in the West District of Scotland Reviewing and confirming our annual membership fees. (The Board is proposing these rates will be unchanged) Reviewing and approving the Board’s nominations for members to receive the title of “Honorary Lifetime member“ Review any member submitted motions that are received (together with two seconders) on or before the 15th March, 2020 Reviewing and appointing the Board of Trustees We’re using a different – but we think convenient and enjoyable – venue this year. This will allow us a bit more time for members to ask questions and engage in the decision making than we had in recent years with a tight venue availability. We also hope it’ll mean everybody gets to sit down. Whilst the Board are invariably pleased to be able to boast say “the club’s AGMs have been standing-room only the last few years!“, we’ve come to realise from our own experiences it’s really only fair, particularly when timing meetings straight after a hard training session, that we really all should have a better chance of a cup of tea and a nice sit down whilst listening to all those exciting motions. Members who are unable to attend, but wish to be recorded in the Apologies, should contact the club secretary. The Board look forward to welcoming members on the 30th March to engage with this important annual event for the club.
Bletha 7 was published at our recent 20th Birthday bash. This edition of the Bletha features Bella purple Paris gilets going underground Helen does Kath man do the Bella trial SJ RD QPR our premier president, our country queen and our country supports Bella Read it here!
The club celebrated its 20th anniversary on Saturday, with a packed day of events for members. A few pictures from the day’s events below. The day kicked off with an exclusive booking of the prestigious Emirates arena indoor running track. This was the first time many members had ever run on this fantastic resource. The focus of the morning was a series of 1 mile race heats, enabling members to challenge themselves at a short but tough race distance. There were great performances and a good few personal bests right across the club. The session concluded with a fun relay event, with team members each running a 200m lap: huge fun, if a little chaotic! A brilliant and delicious home-made Birthday cake was the centrepiece of the post-race lunch spread put nearby. Formally cut by club founders Jimmy and Sandra Irvine, and a marked by a few words of thanks to everybody who helped make the day happen, and to everybody who has been involved with the club over the years by current club President Richard Leyton. The afternoon then had a full itinerary of training talks with a detailed training overview and Q&A with our coaching convenor Gerry Scullion, a presentation from Glasgow Triathlon Club’s lead coach Vicky Begg on sport psychology and mental preparation for training and racing, and a presentation and Q&A on training plans and approaches from coaches Louise Ross and Henry Merriweather. Many thanks to everybody involved in making the event happen, with special note of thanks to Kevin Queenan, Gerry Scullion and Michael Lancaster for overseeing the overall arrangements. A bit more detail about the day on the club forum for members, our Birthday news post, and loads more pictures on our membership Facebook group. Thanks for the pictures used here from Gordon Goldie, Kevin Queenan, Cormac Smith and others.
The club membership voted to introduce honorary Lifetime membership of the club at the 2019 AGM, in order to properly recognise individuals who have made a significant and valuable contribution to the club, community and sport of athletics in Glasgow. Jimmy & Sandra Irvine Founders of our club, we are delighted to recognise both Jimmy and Sandra as our inaugural Life Members for their outstanding contribution to both the club, and athletics in Glasgow. Lifetime membership was awarded by the membership at the March 2019 AGM Jane & Oscar Wild Jane and Oscar are both long-term members of the club, who joined at Jimmy and Sandra’s invitation in its first year. Oscar was our first President, and instrumental in moving the club to our first long-term base at the Ski Centre, and leading coaching groups for many years. Jane was a key coach and committee member, and has led many social efforts, most recently the successful Litter picking projects in our local community. Oscar and Jane also delivered our hugely popular, and important, Coronavirus lockdown Zoom workouts. Lifetime membership was awarded to Jane and Oscar by the membership at the June 2020 AGM. Robert McEwan Robert also joined in the Club in its first year, and later went on to serve as our third President. During his tenure, we celebrated our 10th anniversary and also introduced the popular Bella Jimmy Irvine 10k. Every subsequent running of the event has built upon the foundations that Robert put in place. With an impressive running career (including 20 marathons at sub -3 hour pace), Robert has also made a huge impact at the club in supporting and coaching members. Lifetime membership was awarded to Robert by the membership at the June 2020 AGM. Richard Leyton Richard’s contribution to Bellahouston Road Runners during his Presidency of the Club cannot be underestimated, Notwithstanding his own impressive running CV, his time, motivation, commitment, strategic vision and IT expertise have all helped to propel us into a very strong position going forward. Richard put in a huge effort to guide the Club in attaining charitable status and oversaw us throughout the Coronavirus pandemic. His wider achievements are many and include bringing parkrun to Scotland; being voted Volunteer of the Year 2020; and latterly playing a significant part in establishing the West District XC League. Lifetime membership was awarded to Richard by the membership at the June 2023 AGM.
Yesterday a group of club members took part in a festive run around the Glasgow subway stops, starting and finishing at Ibrox, and going anti-clockwise. We had great fun, in ideal conditions, and took loads of pictures, some selfies, and a few videos, a selection of which are below, and on our Facebook page. Running doesn’t have to always be serious or hard work: Having a laugh with friends is every bit as important as pushing for a PB, or tackling a personal challenge! Many thanks to Gordon Goldie for organising the run, and for the support he and Lynne Goldie provided along the way. During the first part of the run, we were accompanied by Colin Mearns, a photographer at the Evening Times, who was taking pictures to accompany an interview with club president Richard Leyton regarding the 10th anniversary of parkrun in Scotland, which he helped start. We’re delighted parkrun has grown so successfully since it first started in Glasgow in Pollok park: Many thanks to all the volunteers and core team members across Glasgow and Scotland for their brilliant efforts growing the footprint, bringing free, weekly, 5k timed events to their local communities. Amazingly, the pictures even made it on to the Front Page! A special mention to Colin, who seemed to pull off an impressive feat of endurance and logistics dashing around Glasgow to catch us, with a couple of large cameras around his necks, to capture some great pics. Catriona Stewart‘s article is on page 3 of today’s paper, and available online here: https://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/17323393.glasgows-parkrun-founder-reflects-on-10-years-of-5k-phenomenon/ Wishing everybody a very happy Christmas and a brilliant and successful 2019!
This year’s Jimmy Irvine Bella 10k took place on the Armistice Day centenary. The runners paid their respects with a minute’s silence at the start line. But the club wanted to go bit further this year, and so invited race participants to make a small donation to a local good cause. Thanks to the generosity of our runners and volunteers we are delighted to announce that we have raised £597.58 for the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice which has just opened in Bellahouston Park. The beautiful new, purpose-built hospice will provide 21stcentury palliative care to the people of Glasgow in an innovative, peaceful setting in the park. Club President, Richard Leyton visited the new hospice to present a cheque and thank hospice staff personally for supporting this year’s event. “The club tries to give something back to the local community,” Richard said, “so we are all really chuffed that our runners and volunteers have been so generous, and that we have been able to use the race to raise funds for such a good cause.” “The hospice clapsticks proved very popular with some of the younger volunteers on the water station, bringing a smile to many a struggling runner’s face as they ran past!” Next year’s race will be held in November 2019. Subscribe to https://www.facebook.com/bellahoustonroadrunners/ for more details as soon as they are announced.
This article was originally posted on 7th April. 2018, but is kept up to date to reflect the results each year. Saturday 17th February 2018 saw the second Bellahouston Mob match at Pollok parkrun between Bellahouston Road Runners, and Bellahouston Harriers, with a fantastic 134 club members completing the distance, many more supporting their club or helping with the event. The first took place on 4th March, 2017, with 98 runners. Whilst inter-club races, and “mob matches”, are not new, they do appear to have fallen by the wayside a little, certainly in the Glasgow area and elsewhere in Scotland. We’re hoping that the great reception to the event in both years so far, and the hugely positive comments from club members that we’ll be able to encourage other clubs to give the format a try, and hope that what follows here can help with that. The actual result felt secondary to the atmosphere and camaraderie on the day: We’re hoping it painted a positive and welcoming picture of what belonging to a running/athletics club and local community can bring, and that prospective new members might be encouraged to join our respective clubs. We’re mindful though that given the event we are taking part in is staged by parkrun volunteers, it’s important that we recognise the work they do to put the event on, and work with them to minimise the impact the mob match can have. Our club also has two of the current Pollok core team, as well as the previous Event Director, amongst it’s members, which helped with considerations/awareness of issues.
Club founder Jimmy Irvine has unveiled the t-shirt design for the 2017 running of the ‘Jimmy Irvine Bella 10k‘, which takes place this Sunday in Bellahouston park. The T-shirt was designed by Bella Road Runner, Greame Pert who said: “I hope the t-shirt shows Jimmy’s enthusiasm and enduring commitment to running. Jimmy does not make it to club as often as he’d like but is still running.“ Graeme added, “I spent time with Jimmy and Sandra, looking through their old photos and found a great one of Jimmy starting a leg of the London to Brighton relay in 1959. His club mate is exhausted as he passes the baton to a sprightly eager Jimmy who is just raring to go. Jimmy is a great ambassador for running, our local hero and worth celebrating. His photo is centre of 2017 club T-shirt” Current club President, Richard Leyton added “Everybody who’s seen the design, and heard Jimmy’s story behind it loves it. We’re all really looking forward to seeing it out and about on the streets of Glasgow over the coming weeks and months.” For entrants on Sunday, details are on the event website at bellahoustonroadrunners.co.uk/events/bella-10k/ – We’d remind the runners who didn’t receive their number in the post, or who wish to use the changing facilities, that registration and changing are at Glasgow Club Nethercraigs (G52 1TQ), approx 1 mile from the start. The event is sponsored by Achilles Heel, and supported by Tunnocks.
The most recent Club Championship races were the Rouken Glen 10k on Thursday 8th June and Roon the Toon 10k in Kilmarnock on Sunday 11th June. At a very wet Rouken Glen, congratulations to 2nd place Ciaran Dougherty, 4th place and 1st vet Bruce Carmichael and 1st v55 Jim Robinson. The mens team narrowly beaten to the team prize by Giffnock North. On a windy Kilmarnock Sunday, yesterday was the ladies turn to bring home the bling. West District Medals and team prizes for the Ladies team of Louise Ross, Cat MacDonald and Shona Donnelly. Louise was first v40 and Shona first v50. Congratulations! Well done to everyone who took part in both races particularly those who PBd. Next Club Championship races are the Brian Goodwin 10k this Friday 16th June and the Presidents Cup 5k Handicap on Wednesday 21st June. [Photo Tom Ferris]
The Board of Trustees is elected from within the membership at the Annual General Meeting. Their task is to ensure the club is operating appropriately, to it’s charitable objectives and obligations. They produce an annual report that is available on the Charitable Status and documents page. The Board of Trustees consists of the following members, and any designated role/title they currently hold: Chair: Emer Campbell Club Secretary: Catherine Laurence Treasurer: Kenny Crawford Membership Secretary: Stuart Laurence Welfare Secretary: Jane McNeilly Operations Lead: Kevin Queenan Trustees: Rhoda Yarmahmoudi & Tom Ferris Ladies Captain: Leanne McIntosh Gents Captain: Alan Moss Email addresses exist for most roles. We have removed them from this page on the advice of our governing body. If you’d like to get in touch, please contact the club secretary in the first instance, who will redirect your enquiry. We’re grateful to members who have served as Trustees or Committee members in previous years, and for members who have or are helping with various roles within the club, including: Membership Secretary: membership@bellahoustonroadrunners.co.uk Welfare Secretary: welfare@bellahoustonroadrunners.co.uk Race Director: races@bellahoustonroadrunners.co.uk