Colin Donnelly

Colin Donnelly (born 5 September 1959^[1]) is a British runner who was the national fell running champion three times and finished second in the World Mountain Running Trophy.

Donnelly showed some talent as a youngster, winning the Galloway and Renfrewshire Schools under-19s cross country championships. His first hill race was at Ben Lomond in 1978. The following year, he won the Ben Nevis Race and in 1980 finished a close second in the Three Peaks Race.^[2]

The peak of Donnelly’s running career was in the late 1980s. In 1986 he had another victory at Ben Nevis in one of the fastest times ever recorded for the race.^[3] He won the British Fell Running Championships three consecutive times from 1987 to 1989^[4] and in 1988, he won the Snowdon Race.^[5]

Also in 1988, he set a still-standing record for the traverse of the Welsh 3000s with a time of 4:19 and he has won the Welsh 1000 m Peaks Race many times.^[6]

Donnelly finished second in the short race at the World Mountain Running Trophy in 1989^[7] and as a veteran, he won the over-40 title at the Masters World Mountain Running Championships in 2001.^[8]

He still holds the course records for the Buckden Pike Race, set in 1988,^[9] and the Shelf Moor Race, set in 1989.^[10] He continued to win races as late as 2014, thirty-five years after his first Ben Nevis win.^[11]

References

1. Bill Smith, Stud Marks on the Summits (Preston, 1985), 395-96.
2. Bill Smith, Stud Marks on the Summits (Preston, 1985), 395-96.
3. Hugh Dan MacLennan, The Ben Race (Fort William, 1994), 166, 189-91.
4. Steve Chilton, It's a Hill, Get Over It (Dingwall, 2013), 164-65.
5. The Fell Runner, Sep 1988, 22.
6. UKClimbing: Interview: Colin Donnelly, a Fell Running Great.
7. WMRA: World Mountain Running Trophy 1989.
8. WMRA: Masters World Mountain Running Championships, 2001.
9. Barlick Fell Runners: Buckden Pike Fell Race Winners.
10. Glossopdale Harriers: Shelf Moor Fell Race.
11. Scottish Hill Racing: Killin Highland Games Race, 2014.