Glasgow Frontrunners 15th Birthday and OUTrun

“We still haven’t forgiven you for Diana”

Miss Bella Houston was in fine form in August at OUTrun …again! While forgiving Liverpool for stealing Glasgow’s chance of Eurovision, she berated the lone Paris Frontrunner for the Princess of Wales’ demise in a Paris tunnel…she has a long memory, that one!

This was one of two visits by NFR to our friends at Glasgow FrontRunners this summer – once for their 15th birthday, and then for the 10th in-person version of OUTrun.

For their 15th birthday they partnered with the Commonwealth Games Foundation to produce a movie of their history, highlighting the inclusive nature of the club and how for many people it has become their family, not just a club.

The movie was launched on Saturday night at a fabulous event at St Luke’s church in Glasgow, where prominent members past and present spoke about their love of the club and its continued importance in their lives before the premiere of the movie itself.

Representatives of all Frontrunner clubs were invited - NFR were represented by former club Chairs Allen and Russell, and representatives from Aberdeen, Nottingham, Birmingham, Edinburgh and a new Frontrunners club in Bristol also attended. Lively chats confirmed that all the clubs share a similar inclusive ethos to that exhibited by the Glasgow team in the movie.

GFR and visiting Frontrunners also attended 3 local parkruns, setting up cake stalls and offering Frontrunners cake to all participants, which was a neat way of giving back to the parkrun community who have always been so welcoming to members of our clubs. After all, cake is what running is all about.

OUTrun is the annual 5-mile race in Kelvingrove Park, but it so much more than a race. It is a fundraiser for local LGBTQIA+ charities, a celebration of queer culture, and the biggest meetup of UK and Ireland Frontrunner clubs in the country. This year Liverpool Frontrunners brought no less than 40 members north of the border, complementing contingents from virtually every club.

The race can’t begin until Bella Houston, in her own telling more famous than Taylor Swift, has opened proceedings by insulting all visitors. Newcastle get it in the neck for Cheryl Cole, Liverpool for stealing Eurovision, Edinburgh for being posh, and Manchester for forgetting to turn up in previous years! She also puts the poor BSL interpreter through her paces by getting her to perform sign language for acts of debauchery that left even the audience shocked. All part of the fun, before a female piper led everyone to the start.

5 hilly miles later it was all over – bar the cake, sales of which raise money for amazing national charity Time for Inclusive Education. Jordan of the organisation always inspires the runners with tales of the amazing work his team have been able to do for educating young Scots, part funded by OUTrun. This year he even completed the race himself, a promise that finally caught up with him.

The rest of the weekend was one of celebration, with a meal, a ceilidh, a brunch, and of course Bella’s Bingo on the Sunday evening at local queer bar Delmonicas. The famous Bella dolls were up for grabs, but for the second year running Liverpool Frontrunners took one home, leaving NFR empty handed.

Roll on 2027…