Colin Kerr Donnelly (born 5 September 1959) is a Scottish runner who was the British

fell running Fell running, also sometimes known as hill running, is the sport of running and racing, off-road, over upland country where the gradient climbed is a significant component of the difficulty. The name arises from the origins of the English sport o ...

champion three times and finished second in the World Mountain Running Trophy.

Early life

Donnelly is a son of Raymond Donnelly, a sometime racing cyclist. Colin attended

Eastwood High School, Newton Mearns Eastwood High School is a comprehensive, non-denominational school located centrally in East Renfrewshire to the south of Glasgow, Scotland. It is one of the successor schools to Eastwood Senior Secondary School which opened in 1936 in Clarksto ...

and was a member of the Cambuslang Harriers. He 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 The Ben Nevis Race is a mountain race that takes place annually, from the foot of Ben Nevis (the highest mountain in the British Isles) to the top, then back again. The course is 14km long and includes around 1,340metres of ascent. Up to six hu ...

and in 1980 finished a close second in the

Three Peaks Race The Three Peaks Race is a fell race held annually on the last weekend in April, starting and finishing in Horton in Ribblesdale. The course traverses the Yorkshire Three Peaks. The present distance is about 23 miles (37 km). The first kn ...

. He graduated in Arts from the University of Aberdeen.

Running career

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. He won the

British Fell Running Championships The first British Fell Running Championships, then known as Fell Runner of the Year, were held in 1972 and the scoring was based on results in all fell races. In 1976 this was changed to the runner's best ten category A races and further changes t ...

three consecutive times from 1987 to 1989 and in 1988, he won the

Snowdon Race The Snowdon Race ( cy, Ras Yr Wyddfa) is a ten-mile endurance running competition in Gwynedd, from Llanberis to the peak of Snowdon. Contestants must make the five miles up the Llanberis Path to the summit ( above sea level) and return down. Cur ...

. Also in 1988, he set a record for the traverse of the

Welsh 3000s Welsh 3000s are the 15 Furths#Furth mountains by country, Welsh Furths (or Welsh Munros). These are mountains in Wales that are over , and which are on the Scottish Mountaineering Club's (SMC) official list of Furths . Geographically they fall ...

with a time of 4:19 which stood until 2019 when it was beaten by

Finlay Wild Finlay Wild (born 8 September 1984) is a Scottish runner and mountaineer who has been a British fell running champion. He has won the Ben Nevis Race eleven times. Early life and professional career Wild was born on 8 September 1984 in Thurso.J ...

. Donnelly has also won the

Welsh 1000 m Peaks Race The Welsh 1000m Peaks Race takes place on the first Saturday in June each year. The 32 km route is also known as the Snowdonia Summits Marathon as competitors have to reach the top of all the 1000 metre peaks in Wales. *Carnedd Llewelyn 106 ...

many times. Donnelly finished second in the short race at the World Mountain Running Trophy in

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

. As a veteran, he won global titles at the World Masters Mountain Running Championships in the over-40 category in 2001 and as an over-60 runner in 2019. He held the course record for the Buckden Pike Race from 1988 to 2022, and still holds the Shelf Moor Race record, set in 1989. He continued to win races as late as 2017, thirty-eight years after his first Ben Nevis win.Durham Fell Runners: Cronkley Fell Race 2017 Results.
/ref> He has completed the Bob Graham, Paddy Buckley and Ramsay Rounds, as well as the South Wales 2,000ers.

References

External links

Calum Muskett on Vimeo: Colin Donnelly – Welsh 3000ers record
(not filmed during the record run itself but on the route the following year). {{DEFAULTSORT:Donnelly, Colin 1959 births Living people People educated at Eastwood High School, Newton Mearns Alumni of the University of Aberdeen British fell runners British male mountain runners Scottish male long-distance runners Place of birth missing (living people) Sportspeople from East Renfrewshire