Before we go on to the results, let’s look at the Programme, provided by Alastair Macfarlane.   

 

The results of Scottish athletics ‘best kept secret’ were sent to us by Joe Small (Monkland and Clyde Valley) and we reproduce them below.  Produced by Roneo or Gestetner duplicators they give all the splits for all the runners at 5, 10, 20, 25 miles and the final result.   All were at the very least good club endurance runners  and at best there were international representatives – and several of the ‘club’ runners not selected for the race were also international athletes in their own right.   There was only one woman in the race – the redoubtable Leslie Watson (Glasgow Herald photograph above) who was 45th in 2:53:22.   Some who were well known for other events include Bobby Shields who was an international hill runner with a Ben Nevis victory to his credit, Hugh Barrow, GB and Scotland miler and world age group record holder for that distance, Willie Russell who became a good ultra marathon runner. And then there is Gordon McGregor of Bellahouston who went on to be a pole vault coach and Tommy Lucas who became a sports psychologist and worked with football players, boxers and competitiors from other sports.