SCOTTISH DISTANCE RUNNING HISTORY

The hill running fraternity is composed entirely of very fit men and women – they have to be to even contemplate most hill races held across the country on pretty well 12 months of the year. Carnethy in the snow, anyone? They run because they love the hills and the company and because they have to be very fit to run in almost any of the races, they all respect every other competitor. Athletes come from England, Ireland, Wales and further afield to run on the Scottish mountains and challenges and many of them stay and end up representing Scotland in international fixtures. Not all these runners are champions but they have in common a love for the hills, the country and endurance running. A woman who typifies all these qualities is Shelagh King, formerly of Clydesdale Harriers but currently running for Gala Harriers, who has been taking part since 1958 and is still to be seen running in hill and mountain. She has won prizes but would never have bothered the WMRA International runners although she is friends with many of them. A wonderful woman who enjoys the sport and typifies so many of them. Read about her at this link

Colin Youngson, above running in the E-G, has had a marvellous career as a road runner, but is at least equally important as a symbol of the golden age of road running in Scotland. For an overview of his entire career go to this link He has run in them all – Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay, Edinburgh to Glasgow and London to Brighton ultras, SAAA Marathon, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Moray, Aberdeen marathons . . . the list goes on. There is a new group of photographs dealing with his career at Graham MacIndoe’s Facebook page “Scottish Running in the 80’s and Beyond” which is well worth a visit.

The latest hill runner’s profile is that of Helene Diamantides, Scottish international hill runner, multi record holder for many events and one who has run all three ‘Rounds’ in the same year. This is a much more detailed coverage of this extraordinary runner and can be read here. As usual there are links to other pages at the foot of the page.

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