Bella Awards Night With a Gallus Besom

The Bellahouston Road Runners Club Awards were held recently in Cafe Source at St Andrews in the Square. It's always the event of the year for the club and sees the awarding of the prizes for the club championships. A few years ago only a few people would complete the eight races required to fulfil the championship criteria and only one or two of the elite runners had any chance of winning. However last year I successfully campaigned for mementos to be awarded to everyone who achieves the criteria and this year I convinced the club to include a super veteran category in the championships. This year I've been the club statistician and I’ve made it my mission to ensure that as many people as possible completed the championship and despite some stick, I’ve constantly laboured the championship throughout the year. It was therefore with some pride that I announced that the number of Bellas qualifying this year was 44, 31 Bella Fellas and 13 Bella Belles, far surpassing anything that the championship has ever achieved. New Club President Robert McEwan asked if I would hand out this year’s mementoes, club umbrellas, together with the certificates which I had created providing information on every individual’s performance over the year. I was honoured to oblige.

Congratulations to Claire Thompson and Colin McGill for winning the championship for the second year in succession, to Gerry Scullion and Emma Birnie for winning the veteran prizes and to Norman Boyle for winning the inaugural super vet championship.


The First Ever Bella Road Runners' Super Vet Champion Norman Boyle

They were joined by:

Bella Fellas
Alasdair McLeod; Scott Kennedy; Greig Glendinning; Nick Reid; Andy Birnie; Kenny MacBeth; Russell Whittington; Brian O'donnell; Peter Gallanagh; Alastair Maclachlan; Bruce Carse; Brendan Moriarty; Joe Sheridan; Mark McGoldrick; Andrew Rooney; Andrew McDonald; Jim O'Hara; Tony Cairns; David Boyle; Gavin Greene; Ewan McDonald; Keith Gibb; Tom McMillan; Scott Johnson; Richard Leyton; Chris Doak; Stephen Bell and of course my good self who managed to race more than anyone else completing 17 championship events.

Bella Belles
Claire Wharton; Jane Simpson; Pauline Wright; Karlyn Forsyth; Katie Padgham; Louise Ross; Lynne Andrew; Linda Kennedy; Jackie McGuire; Louise Gray and Jane Galt.



One pleasant surprise on the night was to discover that one of our runners is married to Muriel Gray, the journalist and broadcaster. We seemed to ‘hit it off’ when we were introduced and she was wonderful company during the dinner as we exchanged anecdotes and jokes.