Bellahouston 4k Cross Country

31st January 2010

Results | Men's race photos | Women's race photos

A bright sunny afternoon for the Scottish Athletics 4k Cross Country at Bellahouston Park. The men's race was won by Dan Mulhare of Inverclyde, followed by the trio of Shettleston Eritrean athletes: Tewoldeberhan Mengisteab, Tsegezab Woldemichael and Tsegai Tewelde.

The women's race was battled out by Elspeth Curran (Kilbarchan) and Sarah Inglis (Lothian) on Lap 1, but Elspeth pulled clear on Lap 2 to prove a clear winner. Sarah faded in the final kilometre to finish 5th, whilst Jennifer MacLean (Edinburgh AC) paced herself well to finish 2nd, just ahead of Rosie Smith (HBT) in 3rd place.

One Small Step

Last night I stepped outside to take this photo of the full moon. And today I've annotated the image with the landing sites of the 6 successful Apollo missions, dating from Apollo 11 (20th July 1969) to Apollo 17 (11th December 1972). The only one of the moon landings I actually remember watching was Apollo 14 on 9th February 1971, whilst incarcerated in the children's ward of Cumberland Infirmary.

Apollo 13 was the one unsuccessful mission, immortalised in the Tom Hanks line - "Houston, we have a problem", after one of the Service Module oxygen tanks exploded en route to the moon.

GR11 Blog

I've just created this GR11 Blog to document my travels in the Pyrenees,
and to plan a solo attempt on the entire GR11 in July 2010.

My last trip to the Pyrenees was in August 2008:
Photos | More photos

Scottish Vets Relay

24th January 2010

Photos | Results

Today I went and watched the Scottish Vets Relay down at Strathclyde Loch. My right adductor was super sore after the Devil's Burdens Relay yesterday, but I was keen to go and try out my new Nikon 18-200mm VR lens that I'd been planning to buy for ages. The weather was pretty dull and grey, so it was a good test of the lens in poor light conditions.

The race started at 11am, and as I was driving out past Easterhouse in pouring rain I was in two minds whether to pull off at Glasgow Fort and turn around and go home again. But I persevered down the M74, and by the time the race started the rain had all but fizzled out.

Stuart Kerr finished the first lap in the lead for Kirkintilloch Olympians. On Lap 2, Ian Stewart of Carnegie moved up from 4th to 1st by overtaking Kirkintilloch, Kilmarnock (Scott Martin) and Carnegie B-Team (Iain Taylor). On Lap 3, David Millar ran the fastest lap (18:02) to overhaul Carnegie's Tommy Lawrence and gain the lead briefly for Irvine AC. Then on Lap 4, Andrew Wright once more took the lead for defending champions Carnegie Harriers by overtaking Alex Allardyce of Irvine AC. Keith Haining clinched 3rd place for Kilmarnock Harriers, with Carnegie B-Team 4th and Kirkintilloch Olympians 5th.

The women's race was won by City of Glasgow, followed by Helensburgh AAC, with Claire Heasman of Helensburgh running the fastest women's leg in 22:31.

Devil's Burdens

23rd January 2010

Yesterday I took part in the Devil's Burdens Relay for the 10th year in a row, but for me it wasn't the best of days. Since 20th December, I've had an adductor strain that was only made worse by attempting to race Leg 1. I guess I'll be out of action for a while now, and expect to hand back my Carnethy 5 entry, and will probably defer London Marathon until 2011.

Anyhow, we did manage to get 6 almost complete Westies teams around the course, ably assisted by John Bell of Springburn and 2 speedy East Kilbride juniors, courtesy of Don Reid.

Race Results

Scottish Hill Racing on Facebook

There is now a Facebook Page for Scottish Hill Racing.

Stuc a' Chroin

9th January 2010

A rather murky hike up Stuc a' Chroin with JD, climbing Beinn Each in each direction.

More photos...

Stob Ghabhar (almost)

4th January 2010

A hike up Stob Ghabhar and Stob a' Choire Odhair from Victoria Bridge.

Actually the weather turned pretty manky on the ridge to Stob Ghabhar, so we turned round before reaching the summit. The descent back to the col was down steep rock-hard névé and required some care. After that the re-ascent to Stob a' Choire was a tiring plod in soft deep powder snow.

More photos...

Snowy Mamores

3rd January 2010

A great hike in the Mamores above Kinlochleven.

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Greenmantle Dash

2nd January 2010

My 9th Greenmantle Dash in a row. I hadn't raced for more than 2 months and was suffering with strained adductors and groin pain, so I just faffed around taking photos rather than racing properly.

After the race I went for a jog back up the hill with Andy Kitchin.

More photos...