Author: The Author

Thirty one years after Aberdeen AAC’s initial 1972 effort, there was a reunion for runners, drivers and organisers.   Sadly Alastair Wood had died only months before, but his wife Jean and son Duncan were present.   Martin Walsh wrote an article for ‘Leopard’, the Aberdeen magazine.   Here is an excerpt:

“Memories were rekindled.   The little world of each dormobile, with its two running mates and two dedicated drivers, came back in a series of vivid snapshots.  

For the runners the imperative had been to push themselves as hard as possible during the five or ten minute bursts, keeping just enough left in the tank to finish each two hour session.   Beyond that, the hope that the body would somehow survive until Land’s End.   The drivers’ job was to maintain the exact speed demanded by the runners, while map reading, negotiating traffic and effecting runner exchanges on the dot.   Sometimes, to protect a runner from the elements, a driver was expected to drive so closely that the runner’s pounding arms were actually inside the open rear door of the van.   And woe betide the driver who got his speed wrong.

After each session, having taken whatever abuse the runners hurled at them, they fed their charges, astonished at the monumental quantities of food disappearing into such emaciated bodies.   Five vans – five little worlds passing each other like ships in the night.   Brief moments of connection at the start and finish of each session and then the inexorable drive south, sometimes passing a lonely runner battling up a hill in the middle of nowhere.   Not exactly a spectator sport, but in the minds of all the participants, an epic personal drama.

Images from the relays.   April 1972, John o’Groats, cold wind from the Pentland Firth: Alastair Wood starts it all off.   Same year, somewhere north of Inverness, night time, runner on the road, headlamps disappear into a ditch!   Total darkness.   Run with arms outstretched.   Road Junction.   Terror …. Which way?   How long can he maintain speed?   Will anyone ever find him?

     Corryairack Pass – a sneaky shortcut – but no chance of van accompaniment.   A strong guy will have to run it alone.   Give it to Don Ritchie.   But no one bargained for snow.   20 miles, sometimes knee deep.   Don quietly heroic.

     The wee small hours, northern Britain, a lonely mountainside: the skirl of Gordon Casely’s bagpipes.   A huge lift in spirit.

     Somewhere in the north of England, 1973, freezing: canal bridge opening to passing coaster, no time to waste.   “I’ll just swim it,” says Peter Duffy, champing at the bit.   Quick thinking drivers narrowly prevent him.

     Clever shortcut through English town, 1982: runner to detach from mother van, co-ordinator to guide through – but overtaken by greyhound runner.   “Ah’m nae waitin for him,” says Peter Wilson.   “Turn left, turn left! gasps rapidly receding co-ordinator.

     Somewhere in Devon, 1973 and again 1982: everyone exhausted, behind schedule, near despair.   Throw everyone into two vehicles, cut down the running interval.   Miraculously the speed picks up, everyone feeding off each other’s encouragement or abuse.   One runner clocks 18 mph down a hill in Devon.   The last 150 miles pass in a blur of euphoria.   Runners join hands to cross the final line at Land’s End – the record in Aberdeen’s!

Footnote: On the last relay, two photographers accompanied the team – Frank Woods and Monty Orr.   Frank donated to the participants a dozen wonderfully evocative photos of the event.   A personal favourite perfectly captured the spirit of the enterprise – a lone runner in the headlights of a van at dusk against a brooding mountain.”

(The 1994 Guinness Book of Records states that the Jogle record was broken in 1990 by Vauxhall AAC in 76:58:29.   However, although the Dornoch Bridge shortcut was not open until 1991, they had the advantage of using the Kessock Bridge, which reduced the distance run by at least 10 miles. (The Kessock Bridge was opened in July 1982, several months after AAAC’s April 1982 run.)   Since they only outpaced us by 25:39, it can be argued that the 1982 Aberdeen AAC team remains the best ever. Vauxhall AAC are free to disagree.)

Colin writes: After the successful completion of the 1982 relay, I wrote a short essay trying to describe what a typical Jogle session actually felt like.   (This was later slightly fictionalised in my book ‘Running Shorts’.   [This might be reproduced in full later on.   BMcA] It focused on a section Don Ritchie and I did over Shap in the middle of the night.   Here we are bashing on towards the top.

“Last half hour of our stint, past Shap village, and the real hills have appeared – long relentless drags winding over the fells.   The temperature has dropped with the gain in altitude and a cutting Arctic wind whistles into us, piercing our sweat- stained tee-shirts.   A grey cheerless place and an insane time to be running.   There is an air of unreality about it all – the pool of light sliding along the tarmac behind the floodlit vehicle, the lone figure struggling to keep up, pursued by the shadows of night.   Tiredness eats insidiously into your whole body but can be ignored if the incentive is sufficient – and we really want to reach ‘Halfway’ before handing over.    Every five minutes is a flat out effort – thirty seconds to loosen up and get into full stride behind the van, and then fighting uphill at maximum tempo, fists punching rhythmically, oxygen sucked hard from the icy air until ‘three minutes gone’ is called; then an attempt to maintain pace until ‘Thirty seconds’, when the comfort of the windbreak is brusquely removed as the van accelerates, leaving the runner alone to stride out of the darkness to his team-mate before bouncing up the step and crashing heavily on to the bed.   Purr of engine, reek of exhaust fumes, gasping for breath, throbbing in the head, dryness of throat, sour smell of perspiration – these are the sensations of a leaden-legged Jogle runner nearing the end of the session.”    

1982 Team At The Finish:

Mike Murray (aged 23), Colin Youngson (33), John Robertson (24), Peter Wilson (25), Graham Milne (33), Alastair Wood(48), George Reynolds (21), Fraser Clyne (26), Donald Ritchie (37), Graham Laing (25)

“At 12 noon exactly, on Saturday 3rd April 1982, ten runners rushed off down the road heading south from the John O’Groats Hotel, Britain’s most northerly building.   But this was no local race – nine of the runners halted at the first bend – and only one, Fraser Clyne, Aberdeen Amateur Athletic Club’s best cross country runner, continued onwards at around 12 mph.   This was the start of an attempt to break the record for the End to End Relay, certainly one of the most peculiar (and gruelling) events in the athletics calendar.

Preparations had been going on for months – finding the shortest road route (avoiding motorways), identifying short cuts through awkward city centres, devising a computerised pace schedule, organising sponsorship  and selecting runners and drivers.

The main sponsor, Access, had injected thousands of pounds into a fairly sophisticated operation, and had stimulated a lot of publicity which was to continue before, during and after the run – what with receptions, press releases, interviews, articles, photographs, pipe bands, radio and television coverage, it would have been embarrassing to fail!

The tactical system, based on experience gained from the club’s two previous J.O.G.L.E. attempts was very important.   The fact that Aberdeen’s 1963 record had withstood several assaults proved that they knew what they were doing.   There were to be five Dormobile vans, each containing two runners and two drivers, as well as co-ordinators, press and sponsors’ cars.    Each van was to be responsible for a two hour spell the runners splitting it up as they thought fit.   (Anything between 20 minutes and five minutes had been tried in Aberdeen’s three Jogles)   If everything went to plan and no one dropped out through injury, this system would give eight hours ‘rest’ between sessions – time for washing,  eating and sleeping as well as driving about 80 miles to the next change over point.  

Unfortunately there was a severe headwind the whole way so that the athlete was forced behind the van most of the time – rather  suffer from carbon monoxide poisoning than fall behind schedule.   In fact Aberdeen maintained record breaking speed throughout.   Fraser Clyne and Peter Wilson were ten minutes up at the end of the first session; Graham Laing (who must be close to a Commonwealth Games marathon place on this form) and Graham Milne sped over the notorious Berriedale Braes with apparent ease; Mike Murray and Alastair Wood continued rapidly to Golspie; Don Ritchie and Colin Youngson kept up the good work over the hilly Lochbuie shortcut to Bonar Bridge; and George Reynolds and John Robertson pushed hard up and over the long drag of the Struie to Dingwall, where Innis Mitchell (Inverness Harriers and VPAAC – an ex-JOGLER himself) revived the combatants with home brew and cake. 

Dawn on Sunday 4th January saw the cavalcade pass through Ballachulish and Glencoe in a downpour.   The ‘Reporting Scotland’ TV crew filmed the section from Loch Lomond to Glasgow where a local expert led the way on a bike for twenty crazy minutes up one way streets, over parks, through a carwash, etc – trying to cut corners on the way to Cambuslang, the A74 and England.

On the second night at the top of the Shap summit (the halfway mark in the Jogle) Aberdeen were an hour up on schedule – but by breakfast time on Monday fifth, they were only just ahead.   This was a shock but it was a relief to learn that the cause was not runner collapse or vehicle failure – the route simply omitted ten whole miles of road.   The strain was beginning to tell by now – lack of sleep and sore muscles were  affecting both runners and drivers but morale was high because the communication system was excellent (CB radio contact between vans was a godsend) everyone was seen to be trying suitably hard and the relay was progressing steadily in a controlled fashion.  

By now the athletes stomachs had adjusted to the workload and vast amounts of several foods were consumed: cornflakes, peaches, glucose, milk, bread, jam, scrambled eggs (heavy on the salt), yoghurt, orange juice, strawberry milk, shortbread and potato crisps was a fairly typical diet.  

Colin and Don, Shropshire 1982: Dehydration was easily overcome.

Now that the running/resting routine was second nature, participants began to snatch moments of relaxation from the grind – enjoying hot baths in hotels, visiting restaurants or even searching out ‘real beer’ pubs.   [Click on the picture above and count the glasses!]      The route passed through Hereford and over the Severn Bridge into the last night.   There was an organisational ‘hiccup’ when the occupants of one van slept in and missed their turn but others came to the rescue and even the switchback Bickleigh to Crediton section was negotiated quite well.   Shortly afterwards the ‘sprint’ began: the most gruelling (but exhilarating) part of the whole relay.   Two vans (each with five runners) alternated for an hour each and the speed increased rapidly as team mates encouraged each other to push to the limit. absolutely flat out before collapsing into the van again.    A weird sense of elation  was widespread despite the wear and tear on the muscles and the drain on stamina reserves.  

The procession crossed Bodmin Moor and went through Penzance in the rush hour before rolling on to the finish.   Weary but exultant, all ten runners completed the final yards together finishing at the Lands End Hotel precisely 77 hours 24 minutes and 08 seconds after leaving John O’Groats (one and three quarter hours inside the 1973 record).   Champagne, photographs, presentations and a civic reception in Aberdeen – all very gratifying but nothing to the joy of being able to stop!

On the way north, some people (mainly pressmen) were talking about trying it again!”

A note about the runners:

Mike Murray was well known as a middle distance track runner and member of the elite British Milers Club with pb’s of 1:53.4 and 3:50.58

Colin Youngson was a three time Scottish marathon champion with a pb for the distance of 2:16:50

John Robertson was a member of many good teams with a marathon pb of 2:28:21

Peter Wilson won the Scottish marathon championship in 1983 and he had a pb set in London of  2:20:05

Graham Milne was a club stalwart for many years with a marathon pb of 2:21:27 and many more inside 2:30

Alastair Wood is a Scottish not just Aberdeen legend.   Six times SAAA Marathon champion, GB internationalist on track and road with a pb of 2:13:45.   Even at the age of 48 for the 1982 Jogle he was indispensable.

George Reynolds was Scottish Marathon champion in 1984 and had a pb for the distance of 2:20:41.

Fraser Clyne five times Scottish marathon champion with a lifetime best of 2:11:50

Donald Ritchie is another Scottish distance running legend but specialising in the ultras – 100 miles and more, 24 hour races, etc – where he was one of the best in the world.   He had a marathon pb of 2:19:35

Graham Laing another top class athlete over several distances, winner of the 1980 Scottish marathon and a placer in the top six of the London Marathon with a pb of 2:13:59.

(Those who could not/did not make the team would make very interesting reading.   It would maybe not be an Aberdeen B team but might well have another four or five top runners who would walk into another club squad.    BMcA)

Before AAAC’s final Jogle, Colin Youngson wrote the following hint sheet for inexperienced participants.

“An Idiot’s Guide to JOGLE THREE

(you do need to be an idiot to attempt it!)

• DON’T eat absolutely enormous meals on the two days before the start – you’ll only add extra weight wich may be hard to shift
• DO drink lots of fluid during the relay, being sure to include glucose, salt and potassium (Bananas?   Dried Fruit?)   Yoghurt is an easily digested fuel
• Don’t be rigid about the ten minute sessions.   be prepared to share hillwork and switch to five minute stints when tired.   Remember the idea is to keep up speed not end up dead before halfway.
• Use the van as a windbreak if there is a headwind.   Get the driver/navigator organised to tell you or press the horn at half time in your stint, or when there’s a minute to go – it’s a real incentive.
• If runners overlap, they don’t need to touch hands at takeover.   This can be done by one running straight up the step into the van while the other, cautiously checking for dangerous traffic, takes off down the side of the van.
• Try to have the occasional shower/bath/meal out.   A ‘pint’ a day helps morale and sleep (as well as containing valuable minerals!)
• Get sleep while you can – before someone gets injured and the rest periods are automatically ‘chopped’ too six hours or less.
• Remember – 150 miles out, the final ‘sprint’ begins, and we can easily recoup any losses in the middle part of the run.
• The target time per mile is about 5:30 to 5:35, so don’t run sub-fives all first day unless your name is F. Clyne or G. Laing.
• Massage those aching legs with olive oil, embrocation, etc.   Do gentle stretching exercises and don’t run in racing shoes all the time.
• KEEP CALM – WE CAN BEAT THE RECORD.
• Suggestion to tactics committee: how about trying to avoid the mid-race slump in speed by going over to one and a half hour sessions in the 200 miles before the last 150 mile ‘sprint’?

The 1982 Route

The club was back in action the following year with a new determination which is well shown in the report below.

(Captain Steve Taylor wrote  this article for the Road Runners Club magazine.)

“Never again!” was the unanimous opinion of ten sweat-stained and weary runners at the end of last year’s unsuccessful attempt by Aberdeen AAC on the John O’Groats to Land’s End Relay record.

However with the usual unpredictability of the athletic animal, ten of us, along with drivers and officials found ourselves heading north on Friday 6th April in the new familiar Commer Highwayman Motor Caravans.   As the rain and wind buffeted the convoy, there were no more than the usual recriminations and from the drivers, clear indication that they considered us ‘off our heads’.   However our sponsors, Aberdeen and District Milk Marketing Board, had been exceedingly generous in the financial outlay, and we were determined not to let them down.

Saturday, 7th April dawned cold and clear, with just a hint of snow showers in the surrounding Sutherland hills, but the gale had blown itself out.   It was decided that the order of running would be  : Peter Duffy and Derek Bisset; Alistair Neaves and Martin Walsh; Alastair Wood and Rab Heron; Steve Taylor and Colin Youngson; Innis Mitchell (an Aberdonian ex-Scottish Schoolboys cross country champion who was to win ‘blues’ from both Strathclyde and Glasgow Universities) and Joe Clare (Royal Navy and Blackheath Harriers stalwart who had run 2:18 for a marathon after starting seriously in athletics with the Aberdeen club).

This year the Time and Distance schedule had been computerised, and another innovation was the route deviation over the Forth Road Bridge, which saved a few miles.   The routine was as before, with four vans on two hour stints and one van on one hour only.   At 12 noon Pete Duffy set off with a fresh wind at his back.   An hour later – disaster.   Derek Bisset cut his foot during his stint and was to be a passenger for all but a few miles of the whole run.   A quick re-organisation and Teams Four and Five were amalgamated to form a three man team.     The result of this was to reduce the rest period between runs to a desperate six hours.   However the spirits remained high, and the first 100 miles, including the crossing of the snow covered Struie Pass, were completed approximately 25 minutes inside the schedule which was based on a time 13 minutes inside Reading’s record.   The next mishap occurred at Inverness, when a breakdown in communications resulted in a van failing to link up; consequently the combined team were four hours on the road, followed by two and a half hours by Van 2.   By now it was snowing fairly steadily, but the underfoot conditions were quite good.   By 11:00 am on Sunday, the runners were going through Perth and still pulling up on schedule.    On the approach to the Forth Road Bridge there was a bitterly cold wind blowing down the Firth.   The end of Princes Street in Edinburgh was reached in an incredible one hour twenty minutes ahead of schedule.   It was here unfortunately that Van 1 had an argument with a pedestrian barrier and was to be out of commission for the remainder of the run.   Nine sweaty bodies were now squeezed into the remaining four vehicles, not without the usual grumbles – all good natured, of course!   Further south on the stiff climb to the summit of the Devil’s Beeftub the pace was maintained, but the runners were now preparing  to enter their second night with the daunting prospect of crossing a snow covered Shap in the early hours of Monday morning.   By Gretna the team was one and a half hours up on the schedule, and this was the high point of the run.   The conditions on Shap were worse than we at first feared and a temperature of twelve degrees below freezing began to take a heavy toll on tired legs.   By the change-over  just outside Kendal, the time on hand began to dwindle and from then on it was to be a battle of sheer guts to keep ahead of schedule.   Later we learned that it had been the coldest April night in the area for 50 years!

The third day brought its inevitable problems, and despite the bright sunshine the average was dropping drastically; a situation further aggravated by a five minute wait at a bridge on the Manchester Ship Canal.   As the runners swung off the main road just south of Hereford, the gain on schedule was now a perilous 31 minutes and the worst of the night was yet to come.   By the Severn Bridge there were still 210 miles to go and things were beginning to look black.   By Crediton on the final morning – the low point – the schedule showed that we were now 20 minutes behind the record and with only 116 miles left it was hurriedly decided to make a drastic change in tactics.   Two teams (one of four runners and one of five) were quickly organised with each man on a very short stint.   As Okehampton was reached, the watches showed that the rot had been stopped, and in fact a few precious minutes had been pulled back.   By now with 97 miles to go, and in bright sunshine, weary limbs began to take on a more springy action, and as the two teams changed over on the steep climb out of Okehampton, there was a decided air of optimism spreading through the whole party.   By the 800 miles point, just south of Bodmin, the 5 minute 3 second per mile pace of the last 60 miles had pulled the red and white vested Aberdonians  back on to their schedule, and it now became apparent that the record was going to be beaten.   The distance done by each runner was now little more than a glorified sprint, and hills were easily demolished in this way.  

Local news bulletins had alerted the population to the success of the ‘Northern Invaders’ and the flashing headlights and the honking horns provided the extra incentive to get to the finish.   At 7:05 pm the four men on the road together were joined by the remainder of the team, who joined hands and did a delighted jig over the line to the strains of Amazing Grace played on the bagpipes by co-ordinator Gordon Casely.   It was a proud moment for the Aberdeen club as referee Bill Donald announced the time – 79 hours 8 minutes 8 seconds.   Almost 32 minutes inside the previous record.

The team was given a reception by the Chairman of the West Penwith Rural District Council, who delighted the party by telling them of his close association with the Gordon Highlanders, Aberdeen’s own regiment, during the war.   Then it was off to Penzance to a hot bath and a bed.   The record had been achieved largely due to: the knowledge gained  from the previous year’s run; the efficient organisation by the co-ordinators; and of course the overwhelming generosity of the sponsors, who catered for every whim of the runners”

*****

Rab Heron later wrote

“TOUCHING THE BLOOD or COMING THROUGH:

notes for a brief epic novel of pedestrianism on the High Road (and other sundry places in South Britain) in the company of disreputable Coachmen and Sundry Footpads and Broken Men.

·         Great Meaning but no purpose.

·         Free tracksuits – bring your own shoes

·         “We anticipate no communication problems between five motor-homes and one link car….”

·         Sore legs after the first session

·         Good at the beginning; good at the end; a bit of a drag in the middle.

·         Chafing, as in sand in the jockstrap

·         Invading small quiet hotels and monopolising the bathrooms

·         The A9 Munros rising up to greet a cold pink dawn

·         The rolling English road

·         Drunk on the first pint of ale in Tewkesbury

·         The side of the van all over the bloody street in Edinburgh

·         The Pipes, The Pipes

·         Crapping in a nice front garden in a quiet and furtive manner, somewhere

·         Tatties with eggs mashed into them and lumps of cheese

·         Yoghurt any time of the day or night

·         “Ninety seven mile to go!” quoth a Devon roadmender

·         Didn’t see the Loch Ness monster

·         Jamaica Inn

·         The partners – Youngson (1972) and Wood (1973) – thanks for the memories and the laughs”

The Jogle is one of the toughest tests of collective endurance that could be imagined.   It is a ten man relay race against the clock between John O’Groats and Land’s End requiring ten good athletes, an efficient back up team, determination  and team spirit in abundance.    The great Aberdeen teams of marathon and distance runners of the 1970’s and 1980’s were probably unique in numbers and quality when they tackled the event and set records.   Colin Youngson ran in all three record breaking runs and his introduction to our coverage of the event is below.   He remarked that the team of 1983 contained a 3:50 1500 metres guy, a 2:29 guy, a 2:21 guy plus six Scottish marathon champions and the world’s greatest ultra runner!   It was probably inevitable that they got the record.

“The first attempts at setting records between John o’Groats and Land’s End occurred in the 19th Century.   By 1880, both runners and cyclists succeeded in setting times between the two points.   The advent of rules governing End to End attempts by the early 20th Century set the pace for the present day.

Since 1959 many teams have tackled the euphemistically abbreviated JOGLE (or LEJOG, depending on the direction chosen).   For example Cambridge University broke the record at one point, and this has been written about by Roger Robinson, who used to run with Mel Edwards in the 1960’s.   Roger is not only one of the very finest of athletics journalists but was also an English and later New Zealand cross-country international and a World Veteran marathon Champion.

By 1967, Reading Amateur Athletic Club, at the time European team marathon champions, broke the Jogle record in 79 hours 40 minutes.   Ron McAndrew was one of their best runners.”

I’ll record the actual relays separately below for ease of access to the individual attempts and they will be in the words of several of the participants – mainly Colin Youngson but Steve Taylor is responsible for the 1973 report, Martin Walsh did the Postscript and there are contributions by Rab Heron and others.    

The Links below are in chronological order from left to right and the ‘Helpful Hints’ should be read, as it was written, before the 1982 account.

Jogle 1972   Jogle 1973    Helpful Hints 1982    Jogle 1982   A Typical Jogle Session   Postscript

Alastair Wood

 Aberdeen made their first attempt, north to south in 1972, starting on Sunday 9th April.   Donald Ritchie remembers Steve Taylor and Alastair Wood chatting about the possibilities during Sunday runs.   Most people were incapable of speaking or thinking during those knackering sessions!   Steve was captain of the team in 1972 and 1973 and arranged sponsorship from the Evening Express.   We turned up at Aberdeen Journals on the Lang Stracht for a publicity meeting.   Particularly chic tight fitting red tracksuits were handed out.   These were mainly used as pyjamas during the actual relay!

After our attempt started the John  O’Groat Journal reported that each pair of runners was accompanied by a dormobile with a driver and co-driver.   Messages from the Lord Provost of Aberdeen and Provost Mowat of Wick were sent with the team to the chairman of Penzance Council, conveying best wishes from folk at “the northern end” to “those dwelling in the vicinity of Land’s End.”   “The system employed by the team throughout the long run was a combination of time and mileage turns – three spells of 20 minutes for each runner, with intervening 20 minute rests in one of the escorting vehicles, and then repeating the process after 60 miles”.   In actual fact we quickly realised that the best system, apart from during the last 100 miles, was for each pair of runners to share two hours of five minutes on, five minutes off.

The article continues: “The first man off, Alastair Wood, sprinted away from the John O’Groats House Hotel promptly at 4:00 pm, the time keeper’s signal being immediately translated publicly by the Provost giving a blast on the team’s “trumpet” – a horn  once carried by a railway track look out man and used for warning workmen that a train was approaching.

A Scottish and British Internationalist, Alastair Wood is holder of the world 40 mile record.   he is a lecturer on the staff of Robert Gordon’s College of Technology, Aberdeen.   The second man to take the road was Graham Milne, a former Springburn (Glasgow) Harrier.   He is a teacher in Robert Gordon’s College.   Number Three was Steve Taylor, a former three and ten mile champion and Scottish Internationalist.   He is on the advertising staff of the ‘Press and Journal and was the paper’s head organiser for the race.

Caithness has a special interest in the runner who became the fourth man out – Alexander Keith, a Royal Air Force cross country team regular, who comes from Castletown although he is now a Senior Aircraftsman based at Waddington, Lincolnshire and works as a survival equipment fitter.   He joined Aberdeen AAC last year.”   (Sandy became a regular British marathon international in the late 1970’s)

“The other six members of the team were Donald Ritchie, a marathon runner and engineering student at Aberdeen University; Colin Youngson, a teacher in Glasgow who ran cross country and track for Scottish Universities; Peter Duffy of Ashton-Under-Lyne, Lancashire, an exciseman and fell runner currently based in Wishaw; Robert Heron, a Scottish Universities international cross country runner and post graduate student at Aberdeen University; Martin Walsh, ex-Cambridge University track runner, now a marine biologist at Torry Research Station, Aberdeen; and Alistair Neaves a twenty year old apprentice watch maker and track runner.”

This was a very good team with Wood, Taylor and Keith outstanding, but we lacked understanding of the specific difficulties posed by this gruelling event.    We had to maintain ten and a half miles per hour to beat Reading’s record.   At first, all seemed to be going fairly well but our chosen route proved a handicap – cutting through Glen Quaich slowed us down, as did sending poor Din Ritchie on a solo struggle over a snowbound twenty mile stretch on the Corryairack Pass.   Then it became clear that we had an extra six miles to do that had not been accounted for.   Vans broke down, runners slept in and the so-called co-ordinators (including the abnormally enthusiastic and energetic Mel Edwards) succumbed to sleep deprivation.   Injuries took their toll but young Neaves performed heroically as did Martin Walsh, the fastest hirple in the north, who maintained the pace despite suffering due to a steel pin in his left leg which had been inserted after a bad motorcycle accident.   As exhaustion hit, and dreadfully stiff legs, things became so bad that they began to seem hysterically funny.   Rab Heron and I fantasised about a Kestel hovering overhead actually being a vulture, waiting to pick at our skinny bones.

In the end, despite a valiant attempt to speed up over the last hundred miles, we finished  45 minutes outside the record, in 80 hours 25 minutes 53 seconds.   This was the second fastest team time and the fastest north to south, but we were very disappointed.

When I came to live in Lenzie the club already had close links with Springburn Harriers and regular inter club fixtures were held on the country and occasionally we met up in an inter club on the track – my first ever inter club was at Springburn where I ran the Three Miles against Springburn and Garscube.   They were a considerably good club at the time and to give an indication of this, I’ll set out the athletes here who were in the Scottish rankings for ’66.

* In the Senior Mile, as in all endurance events at the time, the athlete splitting Dunky Middleton and Eddie Knox was Ian Stewart who went on to win the European and Commnwealth 5000 metres titles as well as the International Cross Country Championships.

In the Junior Age Group, Eddie won the SAAA One Mile in the time noted above from Robert Linaker (4:22.9) while Robin Souter won the SAAA High Jump with 6’0″ from Alex Peggie of Montrose (5’9″)

George Jarvie won both the Schools and the SAAA Championships for the One Mile and Nickie Souter won the Schools Championships (the SAAA Championship was not held because of poor support).

A lot of the Springburn endurance success was down to Eddie Sinclair’s training – some said that he worked the boys too hard but there was undoubted success over a very long period.   His top men at this point were Eddie Knox who won the Junior International Cross Country Championship, Dunky Middleton who won the British Indoor half mile championship and Harry Gorman but the list was almost endless and included, as well as George Jarvie and Nickie Souter, such as the Beaney brothers, the Picken brothers and the  Lunn bothers, then there were other outstanding athletes such as Johnny Buntain, Davie Tees, Billy Minto, Stewart Gillespie, the great Adrian Callan  and of course Graham Williamson.   They were always a force to be reckoned with but for some reason they were not the ever presents that they should have been in the Edinburgh to Glasgow eight stage relay.   They used English based  – well not ‘real’ Scottish athletes  – at times such as John McGrow of Longwood Harriers, Peter Knott of Portsmouth (?) and Ian McIntosh of Ranelagh Harriers in some of the major events.   Longwood was Derek Ibbotson’s club and had lots of top distance runners such as Ibbotson, McGrow and Denid Quinlan but McGrow was the only one who seemed to have any Scottish connection.    The thing is that they did not need the Anglos because their own strength was such that they would have given any club in the land a run for their money.   I’d be interested to hear what the connection was between any of the Anglos and Springburn.   They always attracted a number of Scottish athletes from other clubs quite legitimately with Mike Bradley joining from Paisley Harriers (Mike was a GB 1500 champion) and Colin Falconer from Forth Valley being among joining in the late 1960’s and then of course Alistair and Doug came on board in the very late 60’s and early 70’s.

The rankings for 1981 when I left were vastly different with only four male athletes appearing.   Graeme Williamson was fourth ranked in the 1500 metres behind John Robson, Frank Clement and Gordon Rimmer with 3:46.4, Graham Crawford was twenty eight in the 5000 metres with 14.51.68 and in the marathon Alistair McFarlane was eighth with 2:21.01 (run in Glasgow in October) and Doug Gunstone was twenty second with 2:26.52 (fourth in the SAAA Championships in Edinburgh).    Alistair was one place ahead of Don McGregor in the rankings and also had two more times in the list for that year – 2:22.18 which he ran in London in March and 2:22.25 which he clocked when finishing third in the Scottish Championships in Edinburgh in June.

Apart from the trails that we used to run on there were the various open races held in the area at the time from the Springburn Cup, to the Marathon Club Twelve Miles and the Kirkintilloch Highland Games Ten Miles (which was universally recognised to be the longest ten miles in the civilised world).   Some of the roads have been so messed about by road works that they are no longer runnable as proper races and I’ll have to go out and have a wee look at them to see for myself how they have changed.   Anyway, this is how they were – all interesting, all testing and with a degree of overlap.

The Kirkintilloch Games 10 Miles started at Adamslie Park (the Rob Roy FC Park).   Coming out of the park after a lap of the track the runners turned right and headed out past the town centre on the low road all the way to Inchterf and turned left up Antermony Road.   The three mile marker was held up there and one year I came through with Ian Donald of Clydesdale and the time on the car at the side of the road was well inside 15 minutes and the temptation to drop out with a pb was great!   Anyways. the trail them just made a big semi circle round via Milton of Campsie and Lennoxtown to Torrance, up the big drag to the roundabout where it was left again and into Adamslie and once round the track.   10 miles?   I don’t think so.

There was the year when I jogged out from Lenzie, knocked myself out on the race and won the handicap prize which was a big box with a water jug and six highball glasses nicely packed.    See running back to Lenzie carrying that lot?   And trying not to break it?   Part of the attraction was the notion of having a Highland Games in Kirkintilloch  (My Heart’s in the Hielans my heart is not here, my heart’s in Kirkintilloch a chasing the deer…).

The Scottish Marathon Club was a fine organisation run by secretary Jimmy Scott and his committee of fine men such as Jimmy Geddes, David Bowman and others.   It organised a whole series of races over the summer with a championship that included specified races – the Scottish Marathon was one that HAD to be in there, the Clydebank to Helensburgh was another and the Springburn 12 was yet another.    This one started outside the Springburn clubhouse at the bottom of the hill with the start being in line with Crowhill Road.   The race progressed straight up past the Littlehill Golf Club and round to where there is a very sharp uphill turn to the left and over the railway bridge into Crosshill Road.   It then went right round that back road past what we called the Barrage Balloons (where these were moored during the War) and where the Golf Driving Range is now.   Down Cole Road to the Torrance Roundabout, right across the road and in to Kirkintilloch.   We then turned left up Campsie Road to Milton of Campsie via Birdston and then left again and back to Lennoxtown (where there was a watering point – a rarity in the 60’s) and down to Torrance.    Back up to that bloomin’ roundabout then right along the main road to finish just before Colston Road.   Another hard, hard trail to race although pleasant enough to run.

Jim Bremner was a very good guy, one of the nicest chaps you could ever meet and a member of Springburn Harriers.   He was a very good 800/1500 runner and he came out with us on some of the Sunday runs but always doubted his ability to complete it.   That was his one fault – excessive modesty about his own ability.    Well, one year in the Marathon Club 12 I came off the Torrance roundabout and crossed the road to head for home while Jim who was a few yards behind me(40?50?) stayed on the other side of the road but looked much fresher than I felt.   He caught up with me on the other side of the road until we came to Bishopbriggs Cross where he had to cross the road in two directions and I only had to cross in one.   As we got up past the pub on the left he started to catch me big time.   I saw a car in front and swung out well before it kind of inviting him in to the inside which invitation he accepted.   Then as we came up the hill  and he started to pass me I cut him off at the back of the car – he had to stop almost dead.   Quiet unassuming Jim was so annoyed that he came back and rook about 20 yards out of me in the finishing straight!  Lesson:   Don’t try to cheat if you’re not good at it.

The Luddon Half Marathon was an excellent race and one of the best sponsored in the country – thanks largely to Hugh Barrow and his team at Strathkelvin.   It started at the Monklands outside the Baths and headed to Eastside before turning sharp right and heading out towards Twechar before coming back up to the Campsies then it was round to the Torrance roundabout, across the road, up the Cole Road, past the Open Prison at Lowmoss, round the back road to the top of Gallowhill Road and down to cross the Lenzie – Kirkie Road at the Baths and across the grass to the finish.   It was a hard race  over a varied course and to keep the spectators interested there was a Street Mile which, on the invitation of Hugh Barrow, I organised for the BMC.

There was the year when I was running in the race and having been brought up in the days when there were designated feeding stations, I was seriously irritated by the number of times that wives, girl friends and no doubt lovers as well, were standing roadside handing out drinks to their chosen runner.   Eventually when I saw a woman giving a guy a sponge at the road down into Torrance I snapped!   As I passed I grabbed the sponge: she said “But it’s only for him”: I sucked mightily on the sponge – which had been soaked in very soapy water!   The taste of soap does not aid running.

The Street Mile started at the off license in Lenzie and came straight in the road through Lenzie to finish in front of the Baths.   This attracted many very good athletes and the prizes were good.   There were races for Senior Men and the Senior Women and Under 17 Men ran against each other.   The ingenuity in the prize list was wonderful to behold with meals for two at a restaurant in Bishopbriggs at one end and the winner of the Under 17 Men’s Race getting his weight in mince and tatties at the other.   He didn’t have to take them all at once and the winner, Glen Stewart,  made several journeys to collect his goodies.   Liz Lynch (as she then was) won the Women’s Race in the first year and Yvonne Murray the year after.   If you ask me nicely face to face I’ll tell you about the relative expenses!

I always ran the the women against the Under 17 Men to add an element of unpredictability to the event and give the top women a really hard race.  They appreciated the chance to race against the U17 Men such as Glen, Frank McGowan, Bobby Mooney, etc, in all three such races that I organised at three different venues each year.   In 1986 I was appointed Scottish Staff Coach for 5000/10000 and went on an already arranged three week holiday just before the Commonwealth Games.   I asked Lachie Stewart to organise the Street Miles at Stirling University that year and when I returned from holiday and went in to the Village the first person I met was Liz Lynch.   Wee and in a red tracksuit she started by saying that she could have won the 3000 metres the night before (Yvonne was third) and then started complaining that the Street Mile at Stirling had separated the Women from the U17 Men.   She had brought a friend over from Alabama University otherwise she would not have had a good run!   Never mind, she won the 10000 metres in the Games!

The first Springburn Cup race that I took part in was a Relay Race with teams of one Under 15, one Under 17, one Under 20 and a Senior Man.   That finally fell away because so few clubs have strong (or indeed any) runners in all four age groups at the same time.   There were subsequently three other trails that I know of for the trophy now renamed the Jack Crawford Cup.    The one I ran most often came out of the back gate at Huntershill into Avon Road, turning left and making for Crowhill Road where we went under the bridge and through the cross before turning very sharp left up Kirkintilloch Road to Colston Road then up Auchinairn Road to Springfield Road and into Avon Road before going round again.   There were three laps of that one.

Living in Lenzie for 15 years, it was inevitable that I did some training at some point with Springburn.   Getting involved in the sport in the 1950’s with all the inter club fixtures and at a time when you knew every runner you saw training or running down the street, it was inevitable that I already had a lot of friends in Springburn.   Tom O’Reilly and Eddie Sinclair were particularly good friends as were Danny Wilmoth, Moir Logie, Harry Gorman, Dunky Middleton, Nicky Souter, Eddie Knox and others.   Not long after arriving in the area I was invited on a Sunday morning run from Ian Young’s father’s foundry at Eastside in Kirkintilloch – I quite enjoyed the run but it was spoiled by being asked not once but three or four times to join Springburn.     That finished the Sunday training with Springburn – Tom O’Reilly, Danny Wilmoth and others had trained with us at Clydebank without being harassed in that way and they would never have behaved in that manner.   I didn’t need the hassle and it was many years before I went back to Huntershill which was a totally different environment.   I’ll pass on a couple of stories at a time but for now it’s the race with Dave Andrews and one of Eddie Sinclair’s bon mots.

Springburn Vets: Bill Ramage, Tom O’Reilly and Tony White after winning the Scottish Vets at Dalkeith.  

The result of the race which had 74 finishers was: 1st C McAlinden  28:52; 2.   G Eadie  29:41; 3.   J Irvine   29:42; 4.   J Milne  29:58;  5.  TP O’Reilly   30:09; 6.   W Ramage   30:14; 7.   T White   30:19;  8.   C Meldrum   30:23; 9.   W Russell   30:38; 10.   C O’Boyle   30:45

The runs with Alistair and Bill are described on the previous page.   I started training at Huntershill on a regular basis when I started going in with Alistair and sharing the driving – on occasion I jogged over from Lenzie and back again after training which fairly added to the training mileage.   The facility was great – the dressing rooms were right next to the showers which meant that there were no draughty corridors to negotiate as at so many club HQ’s and the cafe afterwards was a bonus.   The perimeter of the playing fields was on really good, flat grass and you could do all sorts of sessions on the grass – steady runs which were kinder to knees and ankles than the roads, fartleks, timed reps, up and down the clocks were all possible.   In fact anything that you could do on a track could be done possibly more profitably on the grass.    Chris Robison once said to me that if he could train on good grass he would never train anywhere else.    Springburn would have suited him down to the ground.   One incident that I remember is the year that I ran in the Springburn club veterans 5000 metres track race.   They had a lot of vets at that time and the field was a big one.   I ran as a guest and at the start, looking along the start line thought that I could win it with Dave Andrews being the only real threat.   The gun went, I sat in for two laps then went to the front with Dave on my shoulder.    Eventually I got clear by about 20/30 yards until with three laps or so to go Graham Crawford came in from a road run and came up beside me and offered to pace me but I declined his offer so he dropped back a bit, ran with Dave for a bit which coincided with Dave catching up by the start of the last lap.   He passed me in the back straight but I got him again halfway round the last bend but he wasn’t finished.   He pushed past me in the finishing straight so close that our fore arms rubbed against each other, well do I remember it.   We both knew that that was it.   I wasn’t going to get him and he was a good winner – it would probably not have been appropriate if I were to win another club’s championship.     Dave was a super guy and a good athlete.

Other memories include one with a line that I have used many times since then.    Eddie Sinclair and I got on very well together and when we moved to Lenzie he was our postie and we often had a blether of a morning.   Just after Graham Williamson had left him to train with George Gandy, I was running round the grass at Huntershill with him when the two Grahams came up behind us.   As they passed Eddie changed the subject of the conversation and said, “Aye, they used to just get sore legs but now they all get injuries!”    Many a time I’ve used that line about hypochondriacs or bottle merchants in the sport!   Then there was the time a young lad came through the grounds – it was at the point when Graham W was running really well and on television quite a lot.   The lad asked for an autograph but didn’t have a pen or pencil.    Graham borrowed one from Jack Crawford and then the lad didn’t have any paper “But never mind: just sign my arm and I’ll trace it when I get hame!”    The first encounter I had with Eddie was at an inter club track fixture at Mountblow in Clydebank.   The track was alongside the railway line and halfway along the finishing straight was a tunnel under the railway line.    At the start I looked at the opposition and thought that I should win.   I went to the front but after two of the 15 laps (a 300 yard track) I heard someone running right behind me, just where I couldn’t see him.    So I dug in and worked hard.   No matter what I did, the spikes were right behind me.   We lapped everyone else in the field then at the start of the last lap this wee guy in a yellow vest shot past, built up a lead and then slipped off the track in the finishing straight and disappeared under the railway.    It was Eddie – as a professional athlete at the time he shouldn’t have been in the race but jumped in like Wilson of the Wizard just after the start!    I got the verdict but was knackered for the One Mile that I was down to race about half an hour later!   We became good friends after that.

One of the races that I remember well was the 12 lap paarlauf with the teams seeded so that they were all equal and this was also good fun but the time that it took to run a 12 lap relay was so slight that we went for the usual run after that – normally Alistair, Doug and I ran together but on one occasion  a young Jim Cooper (Cooperman) came with us and suffered more than he expected to!    That race had many good men in it – George Turnbull, Conrad Dietrich McAndie, Tommy Malcolm and others including Bernie Fickling.   Bernie gave me, shortly before he died, a book that he had been given by his parents as a Christmas present in 1949 when he was a boy and for which I will always be grateful.   The book is still an athletics classic – “The Science of Athletics” by F.A.M. Webster originally published in 1936 and reprinted in 1948.   I read it, made some notes and brought it back for him and he refused to take it insisting that it was a gift.    Another book incident: at the Clydesdale Harriers club presentation in the very early 2000’s I was given a book by one of my friends who had seen it in a second hand shop.   It was “Funny Running Shorts” by Dave Bedford and Geoff Wightman and had a dedication inside to Adrian from Robert and Alison.   It could only be from Robert and Alison Chalmers to Adrian Callan who was in hospital seriously ill at the time.    I always got on well with Adrian and kept inviting him into the BMC races that was putting on in the 80’s when his running was at a low ebb and he was good enough to say in a regular Springburn club newsletter at that time that I had helped keep him in the sport at a time when he was going through a bad patch.   Then in 1986 when he won the SAAA Championship and was a sub 4 minute miler he was not picked for the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh that year.   As a protest he asked me (as SAAA Staff Coach for 5000/10000 metres)  to take back the official trophy that went to the Scottish Champion.   I refused saying that I had actually argued the case for his inclusion and suggested that he take it to Bob Peel in Monteith Avenue who had been President of the SAAA.   I believe that he did this.   I had a lot of time for Adrian and regarded him as a Springburn Harrier even at the end of his career when he was running for another club.

Then daughter Liz started training with Strathkelvin Ladies which was organised by two formidable athletes in Molly Wilmoth and Aileen Lusk.    They had been top notch athletes who were now into coaching the girls and Liz went twice a week for a time until we moved to Killearn.   Her particular friend at Strathkelvin was Sally Ann Sword and they travelled to several meetings together such as the West District Cross Country Championships at Bellshill.   Sally’s career went on much longer than Liz’s though.   Sal’s Dad Graham is still a very good friend and was timekeeper at the four Loch Katrine 12K Races that Liz organised in recent years.   He is one of the best  known and most respected officials in the country now.   Other girls at Strathkelvin at the time included Claire and Marlene Gemmell.

One of the biggest compliments I was ever paid was to be asked to speak at a Springburn presentation evening.    Apart from Tam Hoy singing ‘Sam the Skull’, that evening was remembered for Harry Gorman’s introduction which was more a wind up than a eulogy!   While I’m on about Harry – how about Harry and vinegar, or Harry Springburn at Helenvale?   Neither is about training at Springburn but they are nice wee stories.   I said that Eddie S was our postman when we got to Lenzie and one morning I was talking about a particularly good run by Harry the night before.   Eddie told me that Harry’s form had been in and out for some time and they didn’t know what caused it.   They thought about everything and tried various remedies before coming up with the answer.   Apparently Harry liked fish and chips with lots of vinegar and they discovered that he was allergic to vinegar.   he went on eating his fish and chips but laid off the vinegar   –    and his form developed the consistency that eventually made him the runner he was!   There used to be Glasgow Transport Sports at Helenvale Track in the east end of Glasgow on a Tuesday night.    The quality of the Two Miles Team Race was always good and not too many clubs were invited.    The top team this year was Motherwell YMCA and although McCafferty wasn’t running they had a good team with Alex Brown being their top man.    Going in to the last lap it was Alex and Harry jousting for the lead and the win.   The lead changed four or five times in a very competitive lap and Dunky Wright, the commentator, really lost the place in his excitement.   The commentary was something like “And it’s Brown in the lead closely followed by Gorman of Springburn who now takes the lead.   It’s Gorman, no it’s Brown battling back into the lead.   It’s Alex Brown, no it’s Harry Springburn (and he repeated it without realising it)…………”it’s Harry Springburn…”    I don’t know who won because I was struggling along further down the field but Harry has always been Harry Springburn to me since then!    There were a lot of Tuesday night meetings at that thime and in the Kilsyth Rangers Sports at Kilsyth, a Springburn runner called Knox (not Eddie) was on the programme as Konx which struck me as a much better name!

I have lots of good memories of training and racing with Springburn Harriers and the link continued for many years – eg when Clydesdale Harriers had a tribute evening for George White and David Bowman, Danny Wilmoth gave me thirteen sets of the old ‘Scots Athlete’ magazine.   The evening had representatives of Vicky Park, Garscube, Springburn, Vale of Leven, etc and each table of eight had a single magazine at each place as a starting point for conversation if any were needed.   It was an excellent evening and twelve sets of the magazine were given away that night.   Danny had contributed much more than he knew to the success of that night.