Author: The Author

The Lopers obviously learned a lot from each other.   What they learned from past experience was put into the mix of conversations on the hoof and qualified, modified, altered and added to as a result.   Where had the information come from?    Each has said his bit on the page about Coaching but we have to look at the clubs that they came from.    There are, to my mind at least, two kinds of runner that Scottish harriers respect:   there are the one club men like Bill Scally of Shettleston, Colin Martin of Dumbarton and, dare I say it, me at Clydesdale, and there are those who love the sport and always join the nearest club to where they live at any point.    If we look at the Lopers we get differing pictures.

I have been a member of Clydesdale Harriers since 1957 but was also a member of the British Milers Club, the Scottish Marathon Club and the Spiridon Club of Great Britain.   The club had the benefit of input from Ian Donald whose Shettleston background added to everybody’s store of information, Allan Faulds whose experiences in Stirling and Exeter increased the info bank and Bill Wheeler from Portsmouth also gave a new dimension to training.    So, although a one club man, there was a variety of perspectives to be included.

Bill had a longer experience of athletics than any of us and a variety of clubs had contributed to his education.    In his own words: “I started with Edinburgh Eastern Harriers and moved to London where I did not run for a while.   I later joined Cambridge Harriers who trained at Bexleyheath and because I worked as a civilian for the Metropolitan Police was allowed to train at the Duke of York track at Chelsea.   (This was a real hotbed of athletics and it was one of the tracks favoured by Franz Stampfl’s group which included Roger Bannister, Chris Chataway, etc and must have been a real learning experience.   BMcA)     I moved back to Edinburgh and rejoined EEH where Charlie Fraser and Jimmy Devlin were the leading runners at the time (the early 50’s).   We trained on the old Meadowbank with runners from most of the other Edinburgh clubs.    I had started the long Sunday run with Cambridge and introduced it along with 400 metres rep sessions on the track.   I then moved to Newcastle and joined the Gateshead Congers Harriers, not to be confused with the Gateshead Harriers.   It was a tiny club but a good training group and with a nucleus of three won lots of team prizes around the North of England.   The Road Runners Club had a good North East Branch and organised plenty of races around Tyneside and Teesside.    With Gateshead Stadium as a track base and thriving track and cross country leagues it was a great place to be.   The club eventually ran out of members and folded.   Rather than join the mighty Gateshead I joined Gosforth Harriers.   While in England I had run for Edinburgh AC in the Edinburgh to Glasgow.    I moved to Cumbernauld in 1966 and then to Kirkintilloch where I joined Springburn Harriers.   I moved to Durham in 1977 and after initially rejoining Gosforth  which was 20 miles away, transferred to Durham City Harriers.”

Despite racing in the Edinburgh to Glasgow for Edinburgh AC and Springburn he only ever had the one medal as a member of the most meritorious club performance outside the first three teams.    That was in 1956 and the picture that appeared on the cover of the ‘Scots Athlete’ magazine for January 1957 appears above with Bill third from left in the back row.

Lots of clubs but lots of travelling and always it was the local club that he joined.   The athletics education that he picked up must have been considerable.   And all this was put in to the mix between 1966 and 1977 on the long Sunday runs, on the shorter midweek runs and in cars travelling between races.   Bill of course went on to become a Senior Coach – I would suggest that he had learned at least as much from this wide range of experience as he did from the coaching courses!

Alistair’s experiences were different and added another dimension to the discussions.    Alistair had an interesting background in that he was initially a member of the St Modan’s  club in Stirling who became a professional athlete for a number of years before coming back into amateur athletics and joining Springburn Harriers when he moved to Lenzie.

In my book of biographies of Clydesdale Harriers from 1957 – 2007 I say of Allan Faulds that there are two kinds of athlete that other Scottish athletes respect – those who are one club men who stay with their first club throughout their career and those who make a point of joining the local club wherever they happen to be at any time.   Allan always joined the local outfit and that included Stirling, Exeter, Clydesdale, Perth Strathtay, Fife and of course the University clubs.   oug was also in this group and ran at various times for Dundee Hawkhill Harriers, Highgate Harriers, Edinburgh Athletic Club, Springburn Harriers and Fife AC as well as several University clubs.   What a wonderful range of experiences on which to draw when organising his own training!

As far as I was concerned, I was always a one club man but mixed with several original thinkers on athletics from the excellent but unorthodox Cyril O’Boyle to the thoughtful and considered David Bowman via such as Jock Semple within the club and also talked to anyone who would stand still long enough.   The range of experiences within the Lopers group was vast – and then you count in the conversations with the ‘guest’ or ‘honorary’ lopers!   You couldn’t have found a better group to work with or learn from.

The Famous Four came from a variety of clubs and backgrounds and all had previous careers as runners but is is fairly interesting to note that almost all of their personal best performances came during the 1970’s – the longer distance ones at least that is.    My own best times at One Mile/Two Miles etc came from the 60’s and Alastair’s at 800 were in the 60’s.   My collection of Scottish Athletics Records Annuals goes no further back thena the year I arrived in Lenzie and I’ll put in a page about the Springburn club strength separately but the first entries I can find for the Lopers were in 1969 when Doug appeared as a Junior in the Senior 3000 metres where he was eighteenth with 8:36.8 and the 10000 metres where he was twentieth with 31:45.4    At this point he was running for London University and Dundee Hawkhill Harriers.   On the same page as his Senior 10000, is a list of Six Miles times where Brian McAusland is ranked eight in 31:36.   In the Junior rankings Doug was seventh in the 1500 metres with a time of 4:01.5, second in the 3000, and second in the 5000 metres with 15:13.0.

The main standard distances for endurance runners were the 5000 metres, the 10000 metres, the 10 Miles and the Marathon.   I have these in tabular form first with comments and  pb’s at other distances are noted below.

*   Alastair had by far the widest range of top rate performances.   He had a pb of 1:57 for 800 metres and 4:03 for 1500 metres (at Huntershill!) and the other times right up to the marathon as above.   All of the times here were run in winning races except for the 10 miles where he was second in the Brampton – Carlisle in November 1976 with the stand out being the marathon win in 1979 in his lifetime best of 2:18.   This would bear out his contention that he had a good attitude but maybe suggests that he had more than a wee bit of speed.    Many have the attitude but not the speed, some have the speed but not the attitude – he had both.   It is maybe interesting to note that he could have had a successful and more comfortable career running shorter distances – how many sprinters would make good 800 metres runners but are content to win prizes at local level?   How many good track runners are reluctant to make the step up to the marathon?    Very few in the Twenty First Century I think.

*   If Brampton 1976 was a good day for Alastair, it was better for Springburn (two team prizes) and better yet for Bill Ramage.   Bill was nineteenth in the time above but won second vet plus second handicap and as a member of Springburn teams that were also placed he took awards as part of the third club team and second vet team!    Some days stand out in your memory.   Some of Bill’s pb’s are in the table above – add One Mile 4:37.   He says that he was not a good marathon runner but not bad up to 15 miles.   In the days before metrication he ran all the Highland Games road races over non standard distances.   Some of his best races were in the early 60’s in the North East of England with the best ever being the Morpeth – Newcastle on 1st January 1960 over “13 miles and 4 furlongs” – as it said on the race certificate) in 1 hour 14 minutes 58 seconds which was not much more than a minute behind the winner – Ian Breckenridge of Victoria Park best road 10 at Redcar.    Like all Scots at the time, he (and we) sought good class races – Alastair and Doug went to Harlow, Sandbach, Rotherham and many other venues south of the border and I even went as far as Boston.

*   My owns track pb’s were early in my career and mostly in the 1960’s over Imperial Measure Distances and on grass or blaes tracks.   They are roughly comparable with the above, eg the Three Miles best was 14:45 which is slightly slower than the 15:00 dead quoted above.   .

*   Doug was a very good runner over all distances – especially in excess of 3000 metres and represented Scotland twice in the International Cross Country Championship: once as a Junior in 1970 and then again as a Senior in 1974.   That he had a tremendous competitive attitude was without doubt – two wins in the SAAA 10000 metres and one in the now discontinued 10 Miles Track Championship say it all.   When the track ten miles championship was discontinued only one Scot had won it in a faster time – Lachie Stewart, Commonwealth Games 10000 metres winner in 1970.  In the Association of Road Runners list of All Time 10 Mile Track Times, he is fourth Scot ranked and has the 72nd and 73rd fastest of all time.   Find it at www.arrs.net/AllTime/AL_O10M.htm    The best 1500 metres time I can find for him is the 3:59.9 that he ran at the Bell’s Indoor Arena when finishing third in the SAAA Indoor Championships in 1975.   The 47:47 for 10 Miles on the road was when he finished fourth in the Tom Scott in 1975.       He also had top ten placings in the National Cross Country Championships when it was contested by many high class athletes and his victories on the roads were seldom if at all comfortable wins against poor opposition.   Finally he is mentioned in the Highgate Harriers website in the interview with Bob Slowe (what a name for a runner.)

Alastair and Doug warming up at Coatbridge

The issue of how many miles to run for a good endurance career is a thorny one and one that is raised a lot these days.   At Scottish level, Ian Stewart and Liz McColgan are both saying folk don’t run enough.   In the pages of ‘Athletics Weekly’ Ian McMillan and many others write frequently on the topic and of course old farts go on ad nauseam if you stop long enough in their presence!   So what did the Lopers do about miles?    Abilities ranged from Alistair’s 2:18 and Doug’s 2:19 to Bill and I running in the 2:30’s.   Since Alistair was the quickest over the distance and also fastest 800 metres runner then we should start with him.

Coming from a track background where 7 miles was a ‘long’ run, he arrived in Lenzie and in his own words “Things changed when I arrived in Lenzie and Mr Ramage must take some credit for that….. Looking back at my diaries I see that during the years 74, 75,76 I averaged 70 miles a week for the three years and these laid the foundation for any future achievements.”   So we are talking about 70 miles a week for three years: 52 x 3 x 70 = 156 weeks at 70 miles = 10, 920 miles!   Almost 11000 miles in three years.   That was the groundwork for the years of very high performance.   He won the 1979 Scottish marathon lifting the scalps of guys like Colin Youngson and Don McGregor and his run in included the following average weekly mileages:-

January  62 mpw; February 74; March 62 (missed three days because of injury); April 91; May 69 (including easing down and recovering for the marathon in June.)

Some statistics: he only missed 3 days training in that five month period; From 1st January to 25th May he did 173 sessions in 145 days then ran a pb.    He ran 13 races in the period ranging from 3000 metres on the track to the Clydebank to Helensburgh 16+ which he won.   His longest run was 2 hours 10 minutes (19.5 miles) which he did the day after winning the Helensburgh race.   He says “It sometimes concerns me when I hear about people doing 12 week marathon preparations that they have read in magazines when it is really a year round preparation and probably several years that are required.”  

It should of course be noted that when he talks of the preparation required he is talking about the preparation required to RACE marathons  and not just to run them.   I would think it is probably possible to run a marathon inside 3 hours on a 12 week prep if you have a serious running background.    I know that three Clydesdale Harriers ran in the Shettleston Marathon about this period and Allan Faulds who was doing about 45 mpw was fifth in 2:41, I was doing 65-70 mpw and was seventh in 2:45 and Bobby Shields who was doing about 100 mpw was outside three hours.

Doug was very similar to Alistair in his approach to his athletics – the only real difference that I would note is that Doug seemed to race much more.   He says:

“I agree with most if not all that Alistair says – especially about the need to have the pace if not the speed.   My background  was very traditional at least for the time I grew up in in that I started at about 16 running cross country in winter and track (which meant 800/1500) in summer.   The country built up your strength and the track your speed.   This meant that you soon found easier days running at 6 minutes a mile came without any difficulty.   By the time I was running marathons I was not doing a huge mileage averaging 70 miles weekly.   The split between the days was easy: 16-18 on Sundays running steadily but not slowly, approximately 10 miles per day Monday to Thursday with a shorter recovery run on Friday.   A race on Saturday with a warm up and cool down (where did warm downs go?)  would make up the 70-ish.   Of the mid week sessions one would be on the track eg 20 x 400 in about 70 seconds with 50 seconds  recovery.   One of the other nights would be a fartlek or an acceleration run.

The races would vary in distance.   In winter the cross country/road racing season which involved races from 2.5 miles up to 7.5 .   I feel strongly that the short races maintained your speed over what were sometimes challenging underfoot conditions and the fast short road races eg the Nigel Barge, the Glasgow Uni 5, the Springburn Cup kept you running fast on good road surfaces before you started your build up to a Spring marathon.   Spring would include a couple of longer races  probably a couple of  10 milers and one a bit longer but some of my best marathon preparations included a few track 5000’s.   I also believe longer track races are good not only for developing/maintaining speed but also mentally strengthen you.   Ask today’s marathoners how many track 10K’s they have run in the past three years (I’m still very proud of my track 10K record!)

To summarise, I was always prepared to run shorter distances at faster than 5 minute miles – I’m not sure this is the case nowadays.”  

I was a lot slower than that but I think I did what I could and have no ‘if only’ moments about the marathons I ran.   In 1981 as a 43 year old vet I ran a 2:41 in April and a 2:45 in June.   My miles that year were averaging 73 mpw in January, 69 in February, 69 in March, 74 in April, 88 in May and 67 in June including the easing up before the race.    I had first done 100 a week in 1964 but in the 70’s the highest I reached was 92 but the average was high overall.   My own miles in 1973, 74 and 75 were as in the table below.

Allied to the miles as a method or aid to preparation was ….THE DIET.  This was called either the Carbohydrate Loading Diet or the Glycogen Depletion Diet depending on your point of view.   It was a way of organising your diet in the week before the race to gain maximum benefit from it that had been used by Scandinavian skiers and adapted to marathon running by Ron Hill among others.   If you were a Glycogen Bleedout  follower you had the usual 20+ miles run on the Sunday before the Saturday race to deplete the body’s stores of glycogen and the kept them artificially low by not consuming any sugars or carbohydrates until the Thursday of the week when you went back onto the NORMAL diet.   The body having been starved of them, stored carbs and sugars in big quantities which were at their peak on the Saturday of the race.    If you were a carbo loading man you simply ate loads of carbohydrates in the days immediately before the race.    I did the Diet in its seven day purity several times and thought that it worked although you felt pretty dire at times from the Sunday to the Thursday.    Bill also tried it a couple of time as did Alistair.   Alistair has this to say of the Diet: “I did the diet and remember it being horrendously difficult during the low carbohydrate phase.   It was difficult to know how much the Diet affected performance and how much was down to good preparation.   Later on instead of doing the full week’s diet I would stay off carbs for maybe 36 hours  and then load for the last couple of weeks before the marathon.   This seemed to suit me better.”     As I remember it Doug also did a three day version of the diet.

We were all really surprised and saddened to hear of Bill’s death in Durham in August 2009.    I had known him for some time before we met up again in Lenzie in the late 1960’s and were, I suppose the original Lopers!   We had run in the same races – we competed at Airdrie, in the Tom Scott, the Clydebank to Helensburgh and many more on the road and track.   We were of a very similar standard with him beating me one week and me getting the better of him the next.   Scottish athletes have great respect for two categories of runner – the whole hearted club man who sticks to one club and for the guy who always joins the local club and does his bit for the sport.   Bill, travelling as he did for his job, was in the second category. Starting with Edinburgh Eastern Harriers, he moved to London and joined Cambridge Harriers; when he returned to Edinburgh he rejoined Edinburgh Eastern; when he went to Newcastle he joined the Gateshead Congers (NOT Gateshead Harriers) and when they folded he joined up with Gosforth Harriers.   On returning to Scotland, he joined Springburn Harriers.   (While in England he had run for Edinburgh AC in the Edinburgh to Glasgow Race).   When Walter Ross started up the Scottish Veteran Harrier Club Bill was one of the very first members and an enthusiastic member.   The picture above shows Bill in a Scottish Vets vest leading Ron Hill up the finishing straight.

Bill filled many roles in the sport, a good class runner he went on to be a Level Four Coach; he worked on many committees – club committees, Scottish Marathon Club and so on.   He was a real source of information on subjects athletic and a good companion on road runs with a great sense of humour.   He was a super guy and it was a real blow to hear of his passing.

Back to The Lopers

DOUG GUNSTONE  –  BRIAN McAUSLAND – ALISTAIR McFARLANE – BILL RAMAGE

1969  – 1980

My wife and I moved to Craigenbay Crescent in Lenzie in June 1966 and at the time I was the only runner in the Craigenbay estate.   Not long after, Alistair McFarlane moved in to Craigenbay Road and then Doug Gunstone arrived, also to Craigenbay Road, to complete the trio.   We all lived within a few hundred yards of each other and a lot of good running was done.  Bill Ramage of Springburn lived just off Gallowhill Road and he was a stalwart until 1977 when he moved  to Durham.   It was a well known group and Colin Shields had an article in the ‘Sunday Post’ under the heading of  ‘The Lenzie Lopers’ which inspired the title here.   This is a simple account of the group.

Bill Ramage beating Ron Hill – who even signed the photograph

When I arrived in Craigenbay Crescent, the first thing to do was sort out some trails – every runner has a couple of trails that he uses to check out fitness and for the bread-and butter daily training.   The about-six-miles loop started as they all did from the front door and I quickly set check times for the first mile or so so that I knew the pace was right – the end of the Crescent was 40″, the junction with Garngaber Avenue was about 1’15”, the top gate for Woodilee at the Spider Bridge Road was about 3′ and the junction with the main road at the foot of Bothlyn Avenue was just outside 5′.   As time went by the time for the trail was whittled down but the starting check marks were usually kept.   Everyone has a 10 mile trail – mine went round by the Gadloch, Lowmoss, the Torrance roundabout and back in past the Rob Roy football park and over Hillhead.   There was also the run out along the main Cumbernauld road from Kirkintilloch as far as St Agatha’s School then the long loop round the back to Woodilee Farm Buildings then straight home through the hospital.   I enjoyed the running on my own and only made it across to Clydebank once a week – no car and relying on the train was not easy.   I was also running quite well with the club team having Ian Donald, Doug Gemmell, Phil Dolan, Allan Faulds, Ian Leggett  etc.    In fact, according to my training diaries, I hardly ever ran less than 3000 miles a year and many years covered 5000 miles in training and racing while living in Lenzie.   Bill Ramage was the nearest athlete that I knew and we started running together.  The Scottish Veterans scene had just taken off under the enthusiastic  drive of Walter Ross and Bill was one of the top vets in the country.   For instance in the Scottish Veteran Harriers Club seven and a half mile road race /at Ballahouston on 29th February 1976 he won by almost two and a half minutes from Graham Stark (ESH) a former Scottish One Mile Champion with other Scottish Internationalists such as Gordon Eadie, John Milne, Bobby Calderwood, Ben Bickerton, Gordon Porteous, Ronnie Kane and  Andy Forbes behind him.   He told me that a guy called Alistair McFarlane, an ex-professional was moving into the area and joining Springburn Harriers.

When Alistair moved into Craigenbay Road it added a lot with Bill now coming across from Gallowhill on a Sunday morning for the long run instead of meeting on the road.   I was running marathons in the 2:30’s/2:40’s at that time but when Alistair ran one, I was second fastest in the estate!   He was a seriously good athlete who had run for St Modan’s in Stirling, become a professional athlete and then returned to the amateur ranks with Springburn Harriers.   When Alan Simpson set a GB Professional record for Two Miles, Alistair paced him through the first mile.   Then I returned from holiday one year to find a note from him behind the front door saying I was now the third fastest marathon man on the estate – Doug Gunstone (SAAA 10 mile and 10000 metres champion) had just moved into Craigenbay Road as well.   That was the start of a wonderful running scene – whatever you wanted you could get.   A  7 – 10 miles any night?   Someone would come along.   A set of 300’s on the old railway line?   Somebody would join in.   Fast 200’s on the grass inside Woodilee?  Again there was someone or even two someones quite keen to take part.   I was far and away the slowest of the bunch with Alistair having a marathon pb of 2:18 and Doug also being inside 2:20.   Bill, I think was slightly slower than my 2:30+ times.   Didn’t matter, we all got along really well and enjoyed running each other’s company.     As I remember it, Doug was the statistician with times and distances at his fingertips.   Virtually every Sunday, he would have the times and places certainly of the first twenty finishers and the first half dozen club teams and they would be dissected, compared with last week’s/last year’s times and just as significantly what it meant for future races.    Doug also tended to push the pace along a bit right at the start of the runs but when he tobered up a bit, Alistair was just limbering up and kept the pace going nicely.    I was just the ham in the sandwich.

Doug Gunstone in the SAAA Marathon

Apart from the runs, the abiding memory is of the conversations on Sunday about last night’s ‘Two Ronnies’ or even ‘Scotch and Wry’ with Bill Ramage being very enthusiastic about ‘A Bouquet of Barbed Wire’.   He was also I remember the first of us to see ‘Blazing Saddles’ and we were regaled with the plot – or selected highlights – on that particular Sunday.    We kept the Sundays going even on Christmas Day when we were maybe a bit later (10:00?)  and kept it to an hour so that we could enjoy the day and know that we had not lost any training ground to the opposition.   Virtuously self indulgent is maybe the phrase!

We educated each other on these runs – analysing races before they happened, dissecting them afterwards, talking about training methods and so on as well although none of us had a coach as such – and there is a bit about coaching and the Lopers’ more mature thoughts, plus the pb’s at standard distances and a bit about their backgrounds at the links below.

The Sunday runs were legendary.   We met in Alistair’s house in time for an 8:00 am start.  I had a poached egg on toast with a cup of tea beforehand, Alistair had an egg switched up in milk and I don’t think Doug had anything.  Tracksuits were left in the front room and off we jolly well went.   The runs were never less than two hours and on occasion three hours were done.   We went as far south as Barrachnie to do a bit of the Allan Scally trail and back via Coatbridge; we went as far North as Fintry (!) with the cattle grid in the Campsies causing an anxious moment; as far West as Springburn and Petershill and as far East as the far side of Cumbernauld.

There were guest runners of course: when the Irish marathon man John McLaughlin stayed with Alistair, he was in the pack, we also had Don McGregor when he was with Doug and Phil Dolan turned out when he had overnighted with us.   Other ‘guests’ included Bob Lunnon (a 2:15 marathon man), Rod Stone (Irish internationalist), Jim Lawson, Eddie Knox (World Junior Cross Country Champion) and Bill Scally of Shettleston.   There were other regulars at various times.   David Lang of many clubs – Shettleston, Glasgow Police, Cambuslang, Forres, etc – moved in to Woodside Crescent on the other side of Garngaber and he became a regular for a short time.   Then we started heading to Bishopbriggs every Sunday to meet up with Hugh Barrow of Victoria Park and Tom Donnelly of Bellahouston.   Several Springburn Harriers including Jim Martin and Graham Crawford joined in from time to time  Word got out about the group and at one time, probably about when Colin wrote his article, a photographer from the ‘Sunday Post’  came out one Sunday for a picture of the threesome but that week of all weeks, Doug had a very bad cold and couldn’t cross his threshold even for the picture.  It was a pity because as far as I know there is no picture of the group at any time.

The scariest runs before Doug came along – aye and maybe after – were when Bill took us out to Cumbernauld and then back along the Stirling motorway.   The hard shoulder seemed safe enough at that time but it is a wonder that we were never accosted by a passing Police Car!   Talk about dicing with death!   I know what I’d say if I were driving along a motorway and saw some guys running gently along the edge of the road.   One of the best runs was the one where we went over the four golf courses from Crow Wood to Lenzie.   Hayston was another that we frequented from time to time.   If we were running in a Championship or open meeting at the track at Coatbridge, Palm Gunstone would drive us out, we’d warm up, race, cool down a bit then run back the 7 miles or so to Lenzie.   Prior to Hugh and Tom joining the Lopers, the runs began with a run up through the grounds of Woodilee Hospital and off out in the direction of Twechar, Cumbernauld and Kilsyth.   After we started the runs by heading out past the Gadloch and in towards Bishopbriggs that way and a whole new swathe of country and roads was opened up.    Tom worked as a Physiotherapist in a hospital in Glasgow and one Sunday he spoke to me about an old Clydesdale Harrier in the hospital who had both legs amputated.    His name was Willie Howie:.   I knew Willie and was quite shocked and as soon as I returned I phoned another Harrier in Clydebank who was equally concerned.   He phoned Willie’s wife and asked if he could speak to Willie – and was told he was out for a walk!    It was a different Willie Howie from the one we had in mind who is alive and well at the age of 94!

Alastair winning the SAAA Marathon

We very often travelled to races together despite being in different clubs and the longest trek we made was to Rotherham in 1976 for the AAA’s Marathon Championship which doubled as the Olympic Trial…What a trip that was!    We hired a car and took turns driving down the day before the race but after the race, Palm, who had come along did all the driving.    The night we got there we were allocated ‘digs’ with locals so Doug and Palm and I settled our kit at our separate billets and then I accompanied Bill and Alistair to the one they were sharing.   We should have suspected something when we got in and there was a fur coat and high heels behind the front door where they guy was living on his own.   “I had the meal ready for half past seven and it’s now almost nine o’clock, don’t blame me if it’s spoiled!”   It was kind of tough and when he enquired if I found it hard I commented that it was fine, I just had a weak right wrist.   “We all know what causes that!” was the comeback.   Anyway, Alistair and Doug ran well, Bill ran OK and I didn’t (I was about 2:57 or something) before throwing up on the pavement.      We were given a questionnaire to complete which included a query about when we first urinated after the race.   We stopped at Harry Ramsden’s in Leeds on the way home and when we returned to the car Palm who was in charge of all four forms had to ask each of us in turn whether we had or had not!   I was never asked either before or after as often by any woman when I had last had a pee!   I’ll restrict the story telling to that and say nothing about the shag pile carpeting or the floor to ceiling mirror or the giant jar of Vaseline in the guy’s bathroom!   Or his choice of reading material!

Where are they now?    Well Bill went to Durham, courtesy of his employers, I moved to Killearn when the children came of secondary school age and continued my athletics career as a coach rather than as a runner and served as President and Secretary of Clydesdale Harriers: Doug’s employment took him back to Fife and in 2009 he ran his forty first consecutive National Senior Cross Country Championship and was also President of Fife AC.    Only Alistair remains in Lenzie where he has moved across to the posher side of the tracks.   Alistair also did some coaching of Senior athletes and was Captain of the ‘Scottish Marathon Club’ and editor of its magazine for many years and is currently President of the Scottish Veteran Harriers Club.

[ Bill Ramage ] [ The Lopers Miles ] [ Their pb’s ] [ Their Antecedents ] [ Training at Springburn ] [ Kirkie Race Trails ] [ Springburn, 1966 ]

Stage One: Striding Out.

You’re a skinny young boy who really enjoys all sorts of sport. Yet, no matter how hard you try, genuine sprinting speed, robustness and agility are lacking – so you’re rubbish at football (a natural hacker) and too fragile for rugby. Never mind. Every opportunity is taken to rush down to the park and rush around enthusiastically with your friends. At weekends or in the school holidays, apart from running home for lunch, before hurrying back to the park, it can be virtually non-stop from dawn to dusk. Cricket, rounders, football, tennis, putting. What else? Table tennis, hockey, golf, cycling, climbing hills. Everyone walks everywhere. No lifts from parental taxis in the self-reliant, unafraid 1950s. Pity you never do well in the annual school sports.

Dad says that he had some success in mile races before the war and afterwards in cycle time-trials. He’s even thinner than you, with boundless energy. So you make a real effort to impress in the primary school hundred yards, clawing the air desperately as everyone else sprints away from you. Too slow, alas. Then, one summer, boys from your street are taking on lads from another in what, nowadays, might be termed a multi-events challenge. After hours of competition, the score is tied at three-all. What trial can be devised to decide the champion street? Someone suggests a ‘marathon’ – running twice round the outside of the park, an enormous, ridiculous distance! (In retrospect, maybe one and a half miles.) Everyone must start and whoever finishes first will clinch the glory for his team. They charge away as usual, while you trot along behind. Then something mysterious happens – they all slow down and, keeping the same steady pace, you pass every single one. In fact the second lap is a solo performance and your mates shout, “Well done!” or “You must be mad!” as the imaginary tape is broken. You have never heard of genetic inheritance, but at nine years of age, certainly have something to think about.

At Secondary School, the Sports deserve a capital letter. There is a properly-marked 440 yards grass track and a wooden mini-grandstand for guests and posher parents. Several days before, heats are run, and you manage to battle through to the First Year 880 yards final. Sadly, you finish eighth and last on the great day. In Second Year, your time is fifteen seconds faster, but the result exactly the same. Third Year, however, will be different. At 15, you are permitted to enter the Junior Mile. Dad race-walks from his work in the city centre and spectates on the final bend, upwind of grandstand gentry. The gun is fired and you launch into full racing stride! Yet a crowd of athletes and rugger heroes barge away from you. It is impossible to go any faster, but you bash on regardless, despite being last after one lap. This position is maintained at half-way, goading your exasperated father to bawl “Come on, you lazy sod, you can do better than that!” causing shock and chagrin amongst the seated select! Miraculously, one-pace runners can make progress: most of the strongly-built optimists crumble and you plod through to a respectable third place in five minutes five seconds. Dad forgives you and strides back to work. Maybe, one day, you will be a proper runner!

Before subsequent Sports, “sneaky training” is discovered. You are already fairly fit, from regularly taking part in a range of sports, but decide to build up for the school mile. Early diaries note remarkably brief sessions: ten-minute jogs on the playing field; a few hardish laps; and sometimes, before the evening meal, flat-out pavement time-trials round the block, using a normal watch, starting on the minute then, about four minutes later, gasping under a street-lamp, trying to squint at the moving second hand to see if the record has been broken. Add an occasional competitive two-mile road run with school athletes and there is a feeling of increased fitness: leg muscles supple, breathing controlled – a general glow. In both Fifth and Sixth Year, you actually win the Senior Mile and do well in track races against other schools. You find more pleasure than pain in pre-event nervousness, the warm-up routine, the hard effort and thrill of racing, the satisfaction of success derived from coming first or setting a personal best. Then you discover cross-country.

This is a much tougher prospect. You have to cope with mixed terrain, bumps, mud, obstacles: bad enough at training speed, over three or even four miles, but horrendous when you try to run fast. That lack of agility does not help. Initial experience of championship racing is gruelling, as you slip, stumble and pant while trying to overtake at least some of the faster starters and strain to maintain effort to the temporary exhaustion of the finish. Close rivals identify themselves, some of whom will be uncomfortably competitive for years. School awards ‘full colours’, which transform you into a peacock in a fancy blazer. Some girls admire this.

Coping with disappointment must be learned, although resentful outbursts cannot always be suppressed, even if you feel ashamed afterwards. But there is enough progress to keep you hooked. Running potential should be explored further.

Motivation so far: curiosity, testing yourself, beating others, improving times, prestige.

Stage Two: Gaining Speed.

You glean so much information about running during five years at university. For a start, the cross-country men form a proper club, with first and second teams, hopefuls and older chaps. There is a real tradition, a history. Previous members ran for Scotland or even Britain. Ahead stretches an excellent programme of races against different pairs of universities, culminating in championship events: Scottish Unis, BUSF, East District and the National itself. Plus the amazing Edinburgh to Glasgow Road Relay. Train or bus travel is fully subsidised.

By the mid-1960s, there are complex recipes for training (but which ingredients will prove healthy for you?) For example, aerobic and anaerobic running; sand-hill sessions (soon discarded as a form of torture which fails to improve fitness for anything else); and weight-training (similarly dumped since skeletal older guys remain much faster). The training week takes shape around academic studies. You gradually start to get out every day of the week, if only for a wee jog.

Wednesday afternoon is the club run (six or ten miles), and as fitness increases, you manage to hang on a bit longer to faster men and to outpace other ‘freshers’. Tuesdays or Thursdays might be the day for reps: either twenty times 220 yards (brisk but controlled) or four times 660 (lactic acid up to your brain). There are races nearly every Saturday, over many types of terrain. You discover that easier courses suit you, while mudlarks enjoy sticky, tricky land. Yet to gain a ‘blue’ is an achievable aim, so you try hard anyway. Giving up is a crime. After races, whatever the result, it is time for beer-drinking and badinage. Nonchalance is mandatory; swollen egos will be satirised mercilessly. By the end of First Year, you feel strong enough to take your Sunday morning hangover along to the long run, which is organised by the city’s best distance athletes. This pack session is fast from the start, and the normal loop is fifteen miles. Devil take the hindmost: when you are dropped, don’t expect anyone to wait for you. More sarcasm than sympathy is offered, which hardens resolve for future improvement, until you can be the revengeful, merciless, sadistic one!

Only about forty miles per week is averaged, but as the months pass, you do get better, as is proven during the short summer track season, when you concentrate on doubling up (one mile and three mile races) and post new best times. Then you enjoy the track events at Highland Games before going camping, youth hostelling and earning cash by working at a summer job. Due to the resilience of youth, injuries are seldom encountered. When they do occur, you simply rest a couple of days and then try to jog back to fitness. Physiotherapy is unavailable (and will continue to be absent or ineffective until the 1980s or later).

Your university first team is friendly, determined (in a cavalier fashion) and quite successful, but certainly not the best. You decide to increase training, hoping to compete properly with stars from bigger cities. Progress is not ceaseless. Sometimes you overdo the training and pick up some infection; or fall over in the mud; or hurt some muscle or pull a hamstring. You produce good, bad and average performances, goodness knows why. It is all experience and your training diary is frequently reviewed, to locate the magic formula for guaranteed success …..

By Third Year, you are a senior university runner – full blue, SU representative, club captain. Apart from the usual competitions, you take part in longer track races (including the Track Ten) plus occasional Highland Games road or hill races. Then, at the age of 21, it is legal to attempt your first marathon, which you complete cautiously but quite well. It is clear that road is your preferred surface; and it may be that in future the marathon may be your best event. But you are well aware that fitness over 5000m (yes, race distances have gone metric) is key to speed at everything from 1500m to 26 miles 385 yards (sorry, 42 kilometres 195 metres).

Swotting for that degree stalls athletic improvement but during your final, post-grad year the trend becomes favourable once again. When you leave university and start work, can you really produces what some call ‘lifetime bests’ (as if these can happen some other time) or have you run these already?

Motivation: ambition, improvement, achievement, targeted rivals, trying very hard not to let the team down (especially in the E to G), exploring different events.

Stage Three: To the Peak.

Work/Life balance is always hard to achieve. 70 (or more) miles per week can be an awkward factor to include, on top of marriage, a young family and work. Teaching is difficult (as with running, years of experience will improve your effectiveness) but you start building fitness with a new team in a big city.

Pack runs are shorter but harder. This is a top Scottish club, with several very serious and successful runners. Can you keep up? After a year’s increased training, you can. They drink less real ale, but sarky banter continues to be a survival skill.

You enjoy trying many local races for the first time, especially hilly Highland Games road races, over odd distances like fourteen and a quarter miles. The team wins championship medals and so do you, despite ‘hitting the wall’ (a strange, weak, slo-mo sensation) for the first time.

Then you move abroad for ten months, accidentally choosing to work in a country with fewer decent runners compared to Scotland. Self-motivated, you discover that training alone is no barrier to improvement. Many victories are recorded, including marathons.

Once you return to Scotland, a different city and the best club in the land, personal bests continue to get faster. Eventually, after a year of serious, good-quality training, which includes repetitions (short, long and hill), fartlek, steady recovery sessions, many races and seriously competitive long Sunday runs, you break through and win a significant marathon in a fast time. You will always rate this performance the best of your career. International vests ensue. Ambitions are achieved. Then you train too hard and get sciatica. Physiotherapy is ineffective and you are never quite as good again. So it goes. Get over yourself.

Nevertheless, over the next ten years, despite having to train more cautiously, you maintain a good level and run well enough in most races in several countries. You move back to your home city and continue to train mainly on your own. Club success there is especially sweet. Then marathons start to give you up, as battered legs cannot keep up high mileage. You concentrate on shorter distances but occasionally try out slower ‘adventure’ events like the Lairig Ghru race. In the National CC, you try to ensure that no one in front is older. The veteran category approaches, as your fortieth birthday looms. Can you be successful in a different way, against age-group rivals?

Motivation: Addiction. Appreciating the privilege of fast, co-ordinated motion, often in pleasant countryside. Masochistic enjoyment of ridiculously tough races. Championship success. International experience. Fulfilment of potential. Improved self-image. You have become a real runner, still nervous before races but tactically aware, bolder, stronger, more confident, better able to cope with the highs and lows. These are life skills.

Stage Four: Young Veteran to so-called Master.

This summary of your running experiences was meant to be like a four-stage relay. Perhaps the final leg should be divided into several sections, as you get dramatically slower and eventually require the use of a zimmer. Some day you will drop the baton. In “Watership Down” by Richard Adams, when a rabbit dies, the others say, “One of our friends stopped running today.”

As a new vet, you find fresh championship challenges exciting. Maybe you can be a Scottish or even British champion? Possibly win European or World medals. Better late than never.

The marathon makes its final appearances. You race everything over track, country and road, from 1500m (outdoors and even indoors) up to 25k. The medal collection expands to a vast, rusting phenomenon. You try to treat age-group success with irony and a sense of proportion but it is fun and rather satisfying. Better than bowls. According to your flattering friend the age-graded results calculator, you are almost as good at 45 as you were at 28. Then the slide gathers speed.

Injuries affect worn-out limbs and tendons. The answer is reduced mileage, which means reduced stamina and speed. Eventually you have to change your running ‘style’ consciously, to a lower-impact patter. Avoidance of injury is paramount. Yet the marvellous British and Irish Masters International CC, every November, just after your birthday, often allows you to wear some sort of a Scottish vest in different age-groups. Baron de Coubertin was right – merely taking part is very important.

Never compare current times to real personal bests. Run as well as you can every year, setting short-term, achievable goals and trying to get round new courses. Do what you can on the day and laugh about it with younger runners. Match strides with medium-fast women!

You may not live extra years, but you will have enjoyed better health and explored your physical limits most thoroughly. Running continues to be the finest sport in the world. Enjoy your luck.

Motivation: New championships to chase; age-group rivals become friends for life; even older guys are role-models; continued adrenalin and intensity in races, despite much slower times; keeping fit enough to drink beer; the joy of still taking part; just being able to get out in the open air every day, in all weathers; spotting birds, squirrels, deer, flowers; living in the moment.

Some great tales from Lindsay from the Sea of Galilee and NYC marathons!   Bottom of the page.

This page has a straightforward purpose: to share stories and incidents that Scotland’s endurance athletes, teams and coaches have experienced in the course of their athletic carers.   Given the amount of travelling, the number of miles covered in training and racing, given the rather broad range of competitors and ‘hingers-oan’ then these tales are legion.   Send in your own and we’ll add them to the page.   For example, if you want the humorous anecdote, there is the story of a runner in the West District cross-country relays at King’s Park, Stirling, who while running in third place hurdled a barbed-wire fence near the end of the race.   Unfortunately he caught his under-carriage (I hesitate to refer to them as ‘crown jewels) on the fence.   One of the runners beside him at the time said, “You should have heard the language he used – and he’s a BB officer tae!”    Barbed-wire and male appendages feature in several such tales – the one about the runner who caught the latter on the former in the County Championships and was taken to the hospital A&E Department where he was received by the woman doctor but he refused to tell her what was wrong – too embarrassed – but fortunately he was accompanied by a less squeamish club official and he just had to grin and bear it!

Then there are the stories about particular incidents during races – the chap who was knocked down in the Edinburgh to Glasgow and immediately picked up and taken into a house at the roadside from which he escaped through the window to carry on with his leg of the race.   The National used to be held at Hamilton race course and most times consisted of a long straight with a huge loop at one end with a massive hill involved and a small perfectly flat loop at the other end.

 One runner was caught stopping at the start of the small loop (just before actually turning into it) bending down to tie his shoe lace but turning through 360 degrees while doing it so that he was facing back the way he was going and trotting off to continue the race having gained 20 or 30 places and had a wee breather into the bargain.

I’ll start with some already contained in the website and use one from the Maryhill Ladies AC page about the time when a young PE teacher called John Anderson was taking four girls down to the British cross-country championships in the early 1960’s.   They travelled in a dormobile type vehicle and after they had set out it started snowing and the snow got thick and it became evident that they would have to pull over and spend the night in a lay-by.   No motorways and no service stations at that time.   John, beingan enthusiastic type, let the women have the inside of the van and he said he would take his sleeping bag and spend the night under the vehicle.   It wasn’t a good idea and eventually he had to knock on the door and ask if he could get inside the van.   Far from being in PJ’s or anything, the runners were all in overcoats, it was so cold    Eventually they all dozed off for a couple of hours or so.   In the morning Leslie Watson and Cathy Kelly jogged off for help and came back with a tractor and the van was towed clear and they set off for the championship.   Eagle-eyed John saw a cinema with a queue outside it.  He immediately decided that they were going to the pictures!   He disabused them of the notion that they were going to see the film: the walls of the cinema would be lined with heaters and they were only going in long enough to be properly warmed through.   He paid for them to get in, they warmed up and then back into the van and off to the race where they acquitted themselves nobly!    Hugh Barrow has another John Anderson tale.   In his own words, “I remember sitting in the middle of a packed mini bus driven by John Anderson heading over Shap towards RAFCosford in the 60s.   In the front as ballast Doug Edmunds, in the back for music Moira Kerr, also The likes of Dunky Middleton and Hamish Telfer I think.   John never known for his conservative driving had the foot to the metal and this was making big Doug nervous.   As John took the shortest route round a blind bend Doug asked him what would happen if we met his brother coming in the other direction– to which John answered it would be ok as he would also be on the wrong side of the road.

Alistair Lawson:     Alistair was a good runner who for a time was a member of Dumbarton AAC and ran in the Glasgow to Fort William Relays in the 60’s and 70’s.   He travelled the world climbing in the Drakensbers, the Andes and various other mountain ranges and is a committee member of the Scottish Rights of Way Society.
Once upon a time, when the world was still young, I was with a bunch of hikers up in the Peruvian Andes. We were making our way into the heart of the mountains by following a “quebrada” (= glen, in Scotland). The floor of this glen was around 13,000 feet above sea level, though we were still very much at the foot of the amazingly high surrounding mountains. During the day, a couple of members of the party, who were suffering from the altitude, had dropped further and further back and, by the time we were thinking of stopping and setting up camp, had not been seen for some time. The rest of us felt someone should go back and accompany them the rest of the way, and, as I was known to be a runner, I was “volunteered”. Going down the glen seemed, of course, as though it should be a dawdle, so off I went at a modest jog. Within half a mile, I was puggled, short of breath, gasping, and the oxygen-starved leg muscles were ready for a walk. The moral of the story? “Altitude beats Attitude”. Needless to say, I have been puggled on many other occasions, before and since, most of them at sea level, in Scotland, with the benefit of 100% atmospheric pressure. Well, there you go.

Jim McLatchie who was a first class track runner and quite early in his career he was talked by Dunky Wright into running on the road in the Nigel Barge Road Race.   The Motherwell YM runners were there in strength and Jim was running with them well into The race.  As they belted along, Andy Brown turned to Bert McKay and asked, “What’s McLatchie doing here?”   Bert’s reply was “I think he’s going to kick our arses.”   Andy: “But he’s no a road runner.”   Bert:    “Today he is!“

Allan Faulds tells of the time before he and Liz were married and he went out for a run from her parents house in Scone.   As he disappeared round the corner, Liz heard one wee boy say to the other, “There’s a man running.”   To which his pal replied, “Aye, fancy that, he’s got a car!”

I remember travelling to the AAA’s marathon in Rotherham with Alastair Macfarlane, Bill Ramage and Doug Gunstone and we were put up in accommodation provided by ordinary householders.   I was in a teenage girl’s room which was more sweetly secnted than any I had ever experienced but Bill and Alastair were in the flat above a newsagent’s shop.   When I went round with them to drop off their luggage before going for a meal we were met by a chap who asked where we had been and said that the dinner had been ready for 7:00 pm and it was now nearly 9:00.  Behind the door was hanging a fur coat and not far away were a pair of high heels.   Now women around.   We went up to their room, with en suite, to clean up and get ready.   In the middle of the room was a pile of men’s magazines (eg ‘Playgirls’ – big girls for big boys!).  I went into the bathroom and was amazed – lilac shag pile carpeting and the throne of mercy was in a corner facing a floor-to-ceiling mirror with a family sized jar of vaseline on the shelf at the side.  You can probably imagine the comments passed (like a Bessarabian brothel was one) before went down for the promised dinner.   The last word I will say about this was when I had trouble getting the fork through the pastry, I had some difficulty and in reply to his comment that it was tough because we were late, I wriggled a bit and said no, the difficulty was down to my weak right wrist.   His comment was “Well, we all know what causes that!”

Jim Russell sent this one about the Edinburgh to Glasgow.

“In the 1974 Edinburgh to Glasgow Bellahouston had built up a gap over Aberdeen of 3 minutes 33 seconds by the third changeover. Aberdeen then started to close the gap on each of the following stages till they got to the final changeover. 18 year old Graham Laing took over chasing a 64 second gap to Jimmy Irvine 39 year old and running his 16th and final E-G. Graham gradually closed the gap along the Edinburgh Road and Alexandra Parade till as they approached the Wills factory he was on Jimmy’s shoulder. Instead of going straight past Graham who must have been feeling the effort he had put in to close the gap ran with Jimmy and as they turned off the Parade he asked “How far to go”. The reply from Jimmy was silence. Down the hill they went together and as they reached the corner at the bottom Graham asked again “How Far”. Again the reply was silence. On they went and as they turned on to High Street Graham again asked the question and again the reply was silence. Down High Street they went and as they started to turn the final corner onto Ingram Street Jimmy sprinted as hard as he could and told Graham “600 yards”. Having taken Graham by surprise Jimmy opened a gap and hung on for all he was worth along the busy street eventually coming home 3 seconds ahead. A case of experience and craftiness over youth.”    [Incidentally when Jim read this story his comment was that he remembered it well and he should not have run in it at all.   He had been feeling ill all week – and he was ill for two days after it!]

I remember one of the trial runs for the 1970 Commonwealth Games marathon when Bobby Lochead of Springburn was looking for some diluting orange juice to make up his bottles for the race.   At that time the runners in the SAAA Marathon could provide their own bottles of drink and write the stations at which they wanted them left.   The usual practice was to make up a pint of concentrated orange juice with water, add a tablespoon of sugar and a teaspoon of salt.   Bobby was a qualified so when he came back with lime juice saying he couldn’t get orange but the main thing was ‘the sodium ions’ I didn’t argue.   The first mouthful he got during the race was spat out – it tasted foul apparently!    So much for chemistry and marathons.

Incidentally I attended a British Endurance seminar before the Atlanta Games where an American nutritionist was talking about the official drink for the Games.   Because of the US Food & Drug Act it couldn’t contain salt: eh?      Then when I described to her the old drink (juice + teaspoon of salt + tablespoon of sugar) and asked how it was different from the official drink, her reply was simply, “It’s cheaper!”

Another from Hugh Barrow: “On a beautiful sunny March afternoon in the late 60s the VPAAC Cross Country Championship was taking place over the traditional course in Milngavie.   As the field meandered over the fields near Milngavie Golf Club they had to traverse several stone dykes where behind one a romantic couple were making the best of the good conditions.   Such was the endeavour of the runners they didn’t break stride as they vaulted the dyke and the couple — and such was the intensity of the moment, neither did they”.

More from Bellahouston, this time from Iain Burke.   “Andy Daly and Peter Fleming meet up on a Sunday morning in the 80’s leading up to the Glasgow Marathon.   A long run is planned – 20 mile plus at race pace or faster.   After about 18 miles they get to East Kilbride and Andy keels over.   No worries, he tells Peter, “My granny lives just up the road.”   They head up to Andy’s granny’s where she puts him to bed with tea and biscuits.   Peter heads off and carries on back home.   A couple of hours later, Andy’s up out of bed and finishes the run.   You couldn’t make it up!”

Another Andy Daly tale:   We had booked a trip to Essonne in the mid-80’s.   I was coaching George Carlin and took my daughter over to watch the race.   Andy had run in Barcelona for a Scottish squad the week before an done 2:20 for the distance.   When he turned up I asked if it was not kind of close to be doing another 26.2 miles.   But he had paid Stuart Easton for the trip and he was going.   We eventually got to Essonne and on the morning of the race I was talking to George about the race and how he was going to run it when Andy came in and asked if I would pull him out after the first of two laps.   I just refused – even at that time of the morning, hours before the race, there were gendarmes with whistles and batons keeping cars off the route of the race.   Looking menacing they were.   So the race started and after the first lap Andy was running third, when I shouted at him going into the second lap, he replied that he was fine, no worries Brian.   The winner won, second and third came in, then fourth, fifth and sixth and my daughter (aged 12) was concerned about Andy.    He eventually came in looking all in – in 2:24!   Two marathons in 4:48 just seven days apart.     He went for a run the next morning though and then the boat coming home was up-and-down all the way across with just about everybody on board being physically very sick.   George was talking about a prize for the Golden Huey Bag Award.   When we got to Dover, t

 the only guy picked by customs to be searched was Andy.    He came back on to the bus looking awful and I asked if they had found anything to be told, “Brian, I wasn’t even smuggling the contents of my stomach back in.”

We used to go warm weather training in the early and mid 90’s, usually to Alfa Mar.   One year we had arrived and were in the front of the hotel when Ewan saw this guy and recognised him immediately as world record holder Wilson Kipketer.   He went over and asked if he could get his photograph taken with him and Kipketer obliged.   It turned out that he was there n his own with his coach and he started to talk to the guys regularly and became quite friendly.    I was only there for ten days although the squad were there for a fortnight and the night before I left I was packing bags when two of the group came to the door and invited me down for a drink.   We went down and joined the whole group at the table and there was Wilson K sitting next to an empty chair which I grabbed.   he wasn’t drinking so I just offered to get something for him, to which he replied, after reaching to a distant ash tray and picking up a fag end, “Not until I have finished my cigarette.”   A wee bit later and the conversation died down to be ended by Mark saying to the world record holder, “Have you heard of Cambuslang Harriers?”   He was, I am sure, joking, but he was given a bawling out just the same.

Colin Youngson has replied to a specific request for his own running memories with a typically wonderful essay which is a bit long for the page here but you can get it by following this link   For now, this extract from running at University will have to do.   He has served his apprenticeship at school and is starting to take the sport seriously:

“Only about forty miles per week is averaged, but as the months pass, you do get better, as is proven during the short summer track season, when you concentrate on doubling up (one mile and three mile races) and post new best times. Then you enjoy the track events at Highland Games before going camping, youth hostelling and earning cash by working at a summer job. Due to the resilience of youth, injuries are seldom encountered. When they do occur, you simply rest a couple of days and then try to jog back to fitness”

You have to read it!

Now one of the best tales I’ve heard for a long time come from Mel Edwards who sends this one.

“One of the most exciting and satisfying days of my life was back in October 1967.

I had just won my debut marathon in Harlow, Essex in 2.18.24 which was a course record and would place me 4^th in the UK rankings for the year, and was heading for the train to Liverpool Street en route to Southampton where I was working at the time.    The train was packed except for one carriage which had a solitary occupant who was staring gloomily out of the window, chin on hand. I think this is what put passengers off selecting this one because every other one was full.   So I bit the bullet and entered to be met with a glower. I sat down and read my AW. Finished it and decided to say something. “Been up to much today?” Response, with a gloomy look “I’ve just done a marathon”. “Oh” I said “I did that one as well. How did you get on?” Reply “ I was last”.

Back to the window, chin on hand.  I thought, what a blooming shame. You’ve run 26 miles and you’re depressed.   Then I had a brainwave. “What position were you?”    “Last, I told you”.  “No” I said “What actual position were you? They posted the results on the board” “98^th…last”  I thought “Got you!”  “Do you remember Tom Dradey the race organiser gave us a briefing on the course on the start line?”    “Yes”.  “And do you remember he said he was delighted he had a record field registered and on the line of 110 runners?”   His next words were “Eh, Ah, Ooh”   “Yes” I said “12 dropped out. You had the guts to finish”   Well, I couldn’t get him to stop talking all the way to Liverpool Street. All about his family, his work, his running. He’d had a fraught week because he was worried about the marathon AND his budgie was off it’s food!    We said our farewells at Liverpool Street, and I wished him and his budgie all the best. My lasting memory of him was him going “Tsk, tsk, 12 dropped out” and raising his eyes to the heavens.

I never met him again, but he put the seal on one of the best days of my life.”

Mel winning the Junior National 1963: best cross-country race I ever saw!

Jim Russell sent three more – the first two are Andy Daly tales.   The first one is about a holiday mishap.   Jim says: “Andy was on holiday in, I think, Majorca and on the day before flying home he was out for a training run.   He turns a corner forgetting that in Europe they drive on the other side of the road.   He is caught a glancing blow by a car and sent flying.   He is then taken to hospital where he is X-rayed and told that he has only suffered bruising to his foot and elbow.   After flying home the next day he goes out for a 10 mile run.  Nearing the end of the run and going along Barrhead Road he has a couple of blackouts from the pain in his foot and elbow.   Arriving home he goes straight to hospital where he is again x-rayed and told he has fractures in both foot and elbow which must have been hidden previously by the bruising.   Only Andy would have thought of going for a run after being knocked down by a car.   The time for his run was 58 minutes!”

The second one is about training nights.   “Club night during winter and we’re going out for a road run.  It’s cold, raining heavily and most are wearing some sort of waterproofs.   I have a full waterproof tracksuit and others have waterproof jackets, but not Andy.   Stating that it’s not cold he is just wearing shorts and a string vest.   Then on another club night, this time during the summer, we are out in Pollock Estate (now they call it Pollok Park) and going along the side of the River Cart when we run into a swarm of midges.   A few of us get some in our mouths and there is a spate of coughing and spitting to clear our throats, I even throw up.   But again Andy has to be different and swallows them saying they’re pure protein!

And finally for now, Jim has one of his own involving Jim Brown.   “While still Juniors a 2000m steeplechase was arranged at Scotstoun to help get qualifying times for the AAA Championships at Kirkby Liverpool.   When we got to the first water-jump, Jim, who was running in his first ever steeplechase, had a few metres lead on me.   He got on to the barrier OK but came down into the water on both feet and came to a complete stop.   Meanwhile I was in mid air trying to avoid coming down his back with half-inch spikes.   Luckily he got going again before I could hit him.   Later on we were both running in the steeplechase in the Inter Counties at Dam Park in Ayr.   Before the race I jokingly said to Jim could he make sure he landed with one foot at the water-jump so that I did not rip his back open.   Needless to say, we came to the first water-jump and again Jim had a few metres lead on me, and yes, again he landed on both feet, coming to a stop while I frantically tried to avoid him.   Luckily he again got going before I hit him or a great career might have come to a sudden end!”

A really good one now from Lindsay Robertson (abpove) who won the Sea of Galilee Marathon twice.

At the 1985 SOG, a couple of days or so before the race a guy came up to me and asked if I would like to go jogging with him the next morning. I casually checked out what sort of standard he was – I had never heard of him. ‘So, what’s your best time.’ ‘2:10’.

Internal expletives!!!!    The next morning we duly met before breakfast and after cheerful greetings set off for a jog. A minute later I was thinking ‘You look like you’re struggling’ so enquired again ‘What did you say your best time was again?’ ‘3:10′.   Huge sigh of relief!!!

On the way out to Israel in ”84, on the El Al plane I saw what I thought was an extremely boring film. On the return flight, I was in fine spirits as the Captain announced a lunch was about to be served, followed by what sounded like an exciting, all action film. The meal lived up to expectations, but after the lights dimmed and the film started, I was horrified to find the film was the same stinker I endured on the way out!   I often can’t be bothered complaining but I was straight out if my seat and up the aisle in search of a steward. An impasse was quickly reached, I was told this was the the first time El Al had screened this film. I said they had shown it on the way out, it was absolutely rotten and in any case, they had announced they were going to show the block buster. A man seemed to appear from the shadows and said Excuse me Sir, you are Robertson? Yes’ ‘you won the race?’ Yes’ ‘Just sit down sir, we’ll sort this out’

Soon after a Jumbo load of people saw the film screen suddenly go blank followed shortly thereafter by the start of a completely different film!

At Heathrow I just missed a shuttle to Edinburgh, but the captain of the next one turned out to be a runner I had met a couple of months previously. He had said to me if I was ever on a flight he was piloting to let him know via a stewardess. I did, and spent the rest of the flight in the cockpit. I was glad I had missed the earlier flight!

Also from Lindsay is this one from the Sea of Galilee in 1985.   “The day before coming home I arranged to go out with a couple I had met the year before.   Jim Doig went to bed early because he was going home early the next morning.   I waited ages in reception, I think a road had been closed due to an accident.   Eventually, well after midnight, the phone at reception rang and the guy at the desk said it was for me.   A groggy sounding Jim as at the other end, asking whait Wanted.   I asked him what he wanted because he had called me.    He said he hadn’t called me he had been woken by the phone and here was I at the other end.   Never got to the bottom of that!    My friends eventually turned up and out we went.   In a pub/club Eli spotted someone he knew, a former winner of the Eurovision song contest.   Eli called across for the man to come over.   I remembered the singer and the winning song and asked him if he was still singing.  He sort of coughed and sprayed a mouthful of his drink before explaining that he was a big star!”

Thanks Lindsay, and for this one which comes from the New York City race in 1986.   “At the NYC Marathon post-race party, I got talking to a girl who initially said that she wasn’t sure if she knew me well enough to dance???  Later however, as the evening was winding up, I was cordially invited to follow her.   Not wanting to offend, I duly tagged along, intrigued by the prospect of a nice hot chocolate or even an interesting stamp collection.   Out into the lobby, into the lift, up, up, up.  The lift stops, she gets out, then suddenly someone appears at the lift entrance, dressed as a US football player.   Gary Fanelli, a celebrity figure who ran the race dressed in New York Mets uniform and played catch with spectators on the way round, seemed to take up the whole doorway.  I can’t remember if he got in, but by the time I had thought what’s this?   Oh, it’s Gary Fanelli, etc, the doors closed and the lift took off.”

And he never did get to see the stamp collection!

Colin Youngson has also written a piece to add to the ‘Experiences’ page called ‘Running Every Stage:   How do yours compare?’      Link to Colin’s experiences    here

When I started running in the 1950’s, based in Clydebank, Scotstoun was the home of Victoria Park AAC and had been since their inception in 1930.   There was a good cinder running track, a capacious stand and it was surrounded by football, hockey and rugby pitches giving a good, grass, perimeter for warming up and where very good training sessions could also be done.    But it had not started life as a sports ground.   Developed by the Glasgow Agricultural Society as a Show Ground in the late 19th century, it was used as a venue for sports from the start of the 20th century.   As far as athletics is concerned, given its rural location, the ground was initially used for cross-country purposes but before starting on that there is an interesting article written by Hugh Barrow that we could look at.

“Watsonians is one of the great names of Scottish club rugby so it seems right that they came calling at Scotstoun in the early years.   However it wasn’t Watsonians F.C., nor was it Watsonians C.C. – it was Watsonians C.C.C. that made an early impact at Scotstoun which at that time  was almost in the country to the west of a rapidly expanding Glasgow.   Just as well because it was the Watsonians Cross Country Club that arrived at The Showgrounds in the early 1900s for the Scottish Championships.   At that period along with the likes of Heriots they produced distance running teams of note.   Between 1903 and 1913 the Scottish Cross Country Championships were held at Scotstoun on nine occasions and on two occasions a Watsonian J Ranken won the individual title.  On the occasion of his second win it was recorded in the Glasgow Herald that “Ranken won for the second time running with the leading group for most of the race, but making his break for home as he crossed Gt Western Rd for the second time and opening a winning gap over the final stretch of ploughed land between Anniesland  and Scotstoun Stadium”   Ranken failed to win his hat trick of titles when on the one occasion in the decade that the event went to Edinburgh, being run from Hibernian’s ground at Easter Rd.   In 1907 Scotstoun hosted the International Cross Country Championships which was the predecessor of the World IAAF Cross Country Championships of today.  The event was held over a four lap course of 10 miles and a crowd of 2000 turned up to spectate.   A magnificent trophy for the event that became known as the Lumley Shield had been presented by Fred Lumley who owned a sports shop in Glasgow that in recent generations has become Greaves Sports.   At the presentation dinner the the secretary of the Scottish Union said “it was very handsome and I am only sorry that so far as Scotland is concerned we have probably seen the last of it for a number of years”  —  and he was right.   Reports of the day described how runners streamed over the fields to a small cross roads at Anniesland Cross before running down Crow Rd to finish on the track at Scotstoun.  The winner was A Underwood of England leading them to victory in the team event.   Ranken like so many of his generation fell in the First World War whilst serving in the Dardanelles. Scotstoun had really entered a new century which was to see it develop as one of the country’s most recognised sports grounds and become home to some of the great club names of Scottish sport.”

Scotstoun Show Ground – probably in the 20’s

A fascinating article with many interesting points!   However as far as Scotstoun was concerned it was –

“In the Beginning: Cross-Country”

The first Scottish Cross-Country Championship was held in 1886, it came to Scotstoun on 14th March, 1903.   The ‘Glasgow Herald’ report on the race read: “For the fifth time in 18 years Edinburgh Harriers have won the cross-country championship, and though the running of the team generally did not disclose a high level of pedestrian development, it was nevertheless good enough to beat the favourites Clydesdale Harriers, by a substantial majority of points.   There is and always has been very keen, but friendly, rivalry  between these clubs, and Edinburgh’s Harriers on Saturday had distinctly the better of their opponents.   The winner of the individual championship was PJ McCafferty, of West of Scotland Harriers, and his victory was as decisive as that of Edinburgh Harriers in the team contest.   McCafferty is Irish by birth and has been selected run for his ‘nation’ in the great race at Hamilton on the 28th.”  

Losing the championship did not upset Clydesdale too much but running at Scotstoun seemed to please them: the biggest club in Scotland, they had no fewer than five sections in Glasgow and had been holding runs and races all over the city since 1885 – Maryhill, Thornliebank and Cathcart being most visited.   They were also the organisers behind an Open Handicap and Team Race that was very well supported every November.  After several years at Maryhill, they brought the race to Scotstoun in season 1904-5.   The race was held on 19th November 1904 and the club handbook reported on the race as follows: “The Grand Open Handicap and Team Contest, with which we included an Open Hundred Yards Race, was held at Scotstoun Show Ground and proved a great success, though the Sprint did not fill as well as expected.   Going through the ground for the first time, Sam Stevenson, James Reston and PC Russell were leading, running neck and neck and they finished in the order named, S Stevenson winning by 20 yards from Reston with Russell a little behind.   The Handicap resulted as follows:   1.   Alex Cross, Clydesdale Harriers;  2.   RR Lambie, Clydesdale Harriers;  3.   Jas Somerville, Motherwell YMCA Harriers.   Seventeen Teams entered for the team contest which was won by Edinburgh Southern Harriers with a total of 12 points , Bellahouston Harriers being second with 36 points, and Hamilton Harriers third with 43 points.”   The race was not reported on in the ‘Herald’ the available space being given to another attempt to cast doubt on the times of Alfred Shrubb’s famous race at Ibrox – there had been an attempt to discredit the timekeeping which had failed, and the new accusation was that the distances had not been accurately measured.   Back to the race, there were four laps and the sprint had been introduced to entertain the crowd who had paid to enter while the runners were out in the country.   After the race, the presentation of prizes would be held the following Wednesday in the Harriers club rooms at 33 Dundas Street, tickets priced at three pence each.   The programme for this event in 1906 cane be seen  at this link. 

Clydesdale followed this with a Five Miles championship race at Scotstoun on 17th December.   The venue was becoming a fixture in cross-country running.   Have a look at the dates of the National Championships:

14 March, 1903;     5 March, 1904;     4 March, 1905;    3 March, 1906;     8 March, 1908;     7 March,1909;     5 March, 1910;     4 March, 1911;     3 March, 1912;     1 March, 1913

By the start of the War in 1914, more national championships had been held at the Show Ground than anywhere else in Scotland.   Compare the top four venues – Scotstoun 10, Hampden Park 3,   Tyncastle   3,   Musselburgh Race Course 3.   The Clydesdale Harriers Handicap and Team Race went on using the venue right up until the start of hostilities.  Such was the high opinion held of the venue that the International Cross-Country Championship was held there on March 23rd, 1907.   The report was short but for such an occasion deserves to be quoted.

“CROSS COUNTRY RUNNING.   International Championship at Scotstoun.   The fifth annual competition for pride of place, the possession of the Lumley Challenge Shield, the individual championship gold medal of the nations, and the certificates to members of the winning team was decided in Glasgow on Saturday afternoon.   Peculiar interest was imparted to the event by the inclusion for the first time of a team of athletes representatives from France.   England, as in past years, had a run away win, securing the international win with the smallest aggregate of points since the first race which was run at Hamilton Palace Park in 1903 when their figures were 25 points.   Each nation sent twelve men, and of these the sic first counted for places by their individual positions in the race, those with the lowest total winning.  The day was a perfect one for such a contest which was over a distance of nearly ten miles round the track on the Glasgow Agricultural Society Show Ground, Scotstoun, out on to a part of the surrounding country, up hill, over fields, and including fence leaping and water-jumps.   There was an attendance of fully 2000 spectators, and the interest was from first to last of the keenest, though England’s men had the race in hand from the start   The contest then resolved itself into one between the other nations, and in the end Scotland ran up to the winners, with Ireland and France equal and Wales fifth.   The racing of the individual winner was of a high order  as can be seen from his time.”

England had six in the first seven, the interloper being Scotland’s Tom Jack from Edinburgh in fifth place.   Individual first three (all English) were A Underwood (54:26 3-5th), Geoff Pearce (54:48) and S Welding (54:50).

Unfortunately, after 1918 the area was very built up and new venues had to be used – the Handicap and Team Race went to Rouken Glen, and the National tried a variety of venues such as Rouken Glen and Musselburgh Race Course before settling on Hamilton in the mid-20s.   And Scotstoun became a track and field venue that would host some of the best meetings in Scotland and see some of the best athletes in the world come to Danes Drive, to the home of Victoria Park AAC.

VPAAC Membership Card and Recruiting leaflet

Ronnie Whitlock: International runner who became an international official, with the club display at Scotstoun

Reports say that the track and stand were in place by 1915.   The War would of course have influenced use at that time and after 1918 there were several local clubs that would have used the track.  The major tracks in Glasgow at the time were at the football clubs with Hampden, Ibrox and Parkhead being among the best in Scotland, capacity for spectators in the tens of thousands and regular sports meetings such as the big ones organised by Rangers, Queen’s Park, Celtic Football Clubs, the Glasgow Police Sports, and the smaller ones such as St Peter’s AAC or Maryhill Harriers own Sports.    There were also some smaller arenas such as the one at Helenvale  in the east, and Westerlands in the west of the city which also had regular meetings.   For these reasons the track was probably less well known or used until the formation of Victoria Park AAC in 1930.   Another possible reason for the track being omitted from the track championship rota has been suggested by Alastair Shaw who trained and coached there and that is that the track was slightly banked.   A new club with all the impetus that and drive that new clubs have, with a good track to train on was a welcome addition to the whole area of the west of Glasgow and the surrounding area.   The club and the track prospered – existing clubs felt the draft and the track was a large part of the attraction.   In one spell of about 18 months in the 1930’s Clydesdale Harriers was losing a member a month to Victoria Park and the reason given was that they felt that training there would improve their athletics.   I have seen the letters.   The club was ambitious and successful right from the start and the track and grassy perimeter helped with that success.   The track had been noticed before then by the Scottish Schools and the Inter-Scholastic Sports, pre-cursor of the SSAA Championships were held there in June 1936.

It was after the second war however that the venue became well known.   Victoria Park was one of the very top Scottish clubs throughout the 50’s and 60’s and hosted many fixtures there.   There the inter-club matches, there were triangular fixtures, there were challenge matches.   Edinburgh Southern, Shettleston, Heriots, Jordanhill College,  Clydesdale Harriers, and all the best clubs came to Scotstoun and all were soundly beaten at one time or another – for instance there were three triangular matches against Clydesdale and Shettleston in the mid-50s.  VP won them all with the score at the one they hosted at Scotstoun being VPAAC 84, CH 36, Shettleston 26.   They won the 100 yards, 220 yards, 440 yards,880 yards, Two Miles, 440 yards hurdles first and second races, 4 x 110 relay, 4 x 440 relay, high jump, javelin and long jump!   The club was a big club and it was doing just about everything right: a lot of focus is on the road runners at that time but the track and field men should not be ignored.

But the venue was not only used by the one club.   The Scottish Schools Championships had begun as the Inter Scholastic Sports back in 1900 but became the Scottish Schools Championships from 1948.   The championships were held alternately in the East and West of the country with Westerlands being the regular track in the west.  These were for boys only with the girls championships not starting until 1953.   For the first few years the two events were held on separate days in the calendar but it soon became clear that it would be easier for the schools to have the same date to work to for both so in 1955 the boys championships were held at Goldenacre in Edinburgh and the girls at Westerlands.   The policy then was to have each championship on the same date but with one in the east and one in the west.   Thus in 1956  the girls were in Dunfermilne and the boys in Westerlands, in 1957 the girls at Westerlands and the boys at Goldenacre, and so on.  Westerlands was always the favoured venue in the west.   Scotstoun was not involved until 1968 when the Scottish Universities championship was being held at Westerlands.   It was the boys who went there that year but in 1969, the girls were at Westerlands and the boys at Scotstoun – the first time that both championships had been in the one city.  In 1970 the girls were at Scotstoun, the following year it was the boys turn.   Scotstoun was a regular championship venue for the first time.  It continued to be so until boys and girls championships combined at Grangemouth.   The track received some criticism in the 70′ – at one time the wind was blowing dust from the track all over the place and it was more than once remarked that the track was not one of the fastest in the country.

Hugh Barrow, VPAAC miler and international runner, winning the Glasgow Schools 880 yards at Scotstoun in 1961

The schools were not the only group to start using the track for championship meetings.   While the men had been holding district championships for decades, the women had no such event until the 1950’s when they began what they called the West Trials – trials for choosing the team for the Inter-District Championship – but in 1959 they were called for the first time the Scottish Women’s West District Championships and were held at Scotstoun..   These were usually held  in May with the date fluctuating.  In 1959 the Championships were on 18th May and the following Saturday Scotstoun hosted the actual SWAAA East v West Championships.

All through the 50’s and 60’s Scotstoun was buzzing.  Not everything was perfect – the track was not the fastest although several records were set on it and Charles Bannerman recalls that there was a significant step up from the track to the infield and high jumpers with a long run up had to find a way to accommodate that in their approach.    Scottish Schools training days were held there – Hugh Barrow and John  Anderson remember one that John organised in the mid 60’s when the coaching staff included Alex Naylor, Eddie Taylor, Sandy Ewan and Michael Glen plus Vic Mitchell, Mike Lindsay, Peter Warden and Menzies Campbell all to assist the young athletes plus athletes Graeme Grant, Hugh Barrow, Sandy Robertson and Don Halliday as ‘coaching assistants’.

There were naturally several initiatives organised and run by Victoria Park – arguably the top track and field club in the country and one that could match pretty well all of the English outfits.   Note this cutting.

With the advent of all-weather tracks, Scotstoun became much less popular and less used for championships or official meetings, the preference being for Meadowbank, Coatbridge, Grangemouth, Pitreavie and latterly Crown Point.   In 1973 Ron Marshall in the ‘Glasgow Herald’ spoke of a rumour that Scotstoun was to be upgraded to all-weather status.   Nothing came of it, and in 1976, the ‘Herald’ reported on 17th May, after the Glasgow International Mile, as follows: “Danie Malan (South Africa) had just two observations to make immediately after winning the Glasgow International Mile at Scotstoun on Saturday.   First, he could not recall when he had last run on a cinder track in a major city, and second he opined how unusual it was to have no lap times announced or even called from the edge of the track.”    It was to be another 20 years before Scotstoun would be upgraded.

Colin Martin (Dumbarton) wins his county championship at a flooded Scotstoun

Then in the mid-90s it underwent a massive regeneration with a superb all-weather  track laid.  In 1999 the British Milers’ Club held its first ever Grand Prix in Scotland at the venue and records were set in every event with a sub-4 minute mile (3:59.64) being run by Andrew Graffin , the best-ever BMC women’s 1500m run by Ann Williams of 4:10.84 and Michael Hassan ran the fastest U17 800m of 1999.   It was the GP Final for the year and all the best athletes from England, Ireland and Wales were there to boost their points and so their prize money.  Scotstoun showed that afternoon what a good track it was and what fine facilities the revamped stadium could provide.    It was held again at Scotstoun in 2000 and 2001 and the well-known British coaching officals – Frank Horwill, Brendan Hackett, Norman Poole, Mike Down and more were all present at one or all of these meetings.   Scotstoun went on to host National Championships, International meetings and all sorts of coaching and training days and enjoyed something of a rebirth from the start of the twenty first century.

The Scottish Senior Track and Field Championships came to Scotstoun at the start of the new century and stayed until 2007.   The stadium saw Senior Championships, Combined Events Championships (2002), Combined East and West Championships (2005 and 2007), Masters Championships (2006) and Under 20 and Under 23 Championships (2006).    There were three GB international matches – on 2nd July 2000 Great Britain & Northern Ireland took on the might of the USA, on 29th June 2003 it was Great Britain & Northern Ireland v USA v Russia, and on 5th June 2005, the same three nations took part in another triangular fixture.   There were also international meets with stars from all corners of the globe appearing at the track.

The venue is now about 100 years old and has hosted first cross-country and then athletics   After 84 years, it is still the home of Victoria Park – but they now share it with Glasgow Warriors rugby club who seem to be the dominant partner.   The rugby team require sole use of the stadium for various fixtures with temporary stands set up on the track thus locking the track for training for weeks on end – usually at the start of the summer season.  If the Warriors want an extra stand put up for a cup or league match, then they usually get it and the athletics has to take second place on these occasions.   It’s not clear how this will work out but athletics has survived and prospered at the stadium from the nineteenth century overcoming all obstacles – no doubt it will continue to do so, although the days of proper international meetings or national championships have probably gone now that an artificial grass surface has been laid on the infield making throwing events impossible.   A famous venue.

At the start of the 21st century Scotstoun was under threat from an unexpected quarter – and there was little help coming from the governing body.   Read about it   here

The Pavilion at Westerlands.

The original pavilion at Old Anniesland: ladies accommodation on the left

Glasgow University in my time always provided well for athletics.   There was the huge grass area at Garscadden which was used for all sorts of sports and for a number of years was the start of a cross-country route that went up along the Forth & Clyde Canal bank to the Great Western Road Boulevard using the grass island in the middle until, halfway between Drumry Road and Kilbowie Road in Clydebank it crossed on to the hilly land around Braidfield Farm and Drumchapel before heading back to Garscadden the way it had come.   There was also Westerlands  in Ascot Drive at Anniesland Cross.    Of the two, Westerlands was by far the better known.    It was a wonderful facility which as well as hosting University championships at all levels, held county, District and National Championships as well as many invitational events.

The original GUAC training ground had been at the University Recreation Ground on the ground that now houses the Zoology and Chemistry buildings: on the west was the Western Infirmary, on the east was a path from the South Front roadway.   It was clearly not big enough to support a club with had rugby teams, tennis, cycling, cricket and athletics competing for the available space.  Various venues were investigated before Anniesland was settled upon.   The “University Grounds, Anniesland” were opened for use in October 1913.    As indicated by the photograph above, the University has been using grounds away from the Recreation Grounds for some time and Old Anniesland had been leased before the purchase of their own ground.

The new Pavilion, the one we all knew which is pictured at the top of the page, was officially opened on 16th May 1926 by the University Rector, Lord Birkenhead.   The Principal, Sir Donald McAlister donated a flag (unfurled by Lady McAlister) and the flagstaff on which it was erected was one of the masts of the old Clyde passenger ship PS Benmore gifted by Mr Samuel Galbraith.   The ‘Glasgow Herald’ reported the occasion –

“The annual sports meeting of the Glasgow University athletic club, held at Westerlands on Saturday, was note worthy in two respects.   It was the first occasion in which the Lord Rector had joined the students on the athletic field, and the opening of the new pavilion marked the successful close of a movement begun 15 years ago to place Gilmorehill on a footing worthy of the other traditions of the University.   In his undergraduate days at Oxford the Earl of Birkenhead was a keen athlete, and no doubt his acceptance of the invitation to be present on Saturday was influenced by this fact, but his participation should have its effect in stimulating the activities of the students while also imparting a human touch to his office which might be emulated by his successors.   His presence was reflected in the attendance which was gratifyingly large,  and the club exchequer should benefit accordingly.”   

The next big improvement was the cinder track, an issue first brought forward officially in 1955.   After gaining the necessary approval, there was a delay of three years while drainage improvements were carried out and in 1960 a 440 yards track was marked out on the grass at the University ground at Garscadden while the work was carried out.   Red ash  was chosen over black ash, which was used on most cinder tracks around the country including Meadowbank and Ibrox, because it  offered a faster surface than the black, better recovery and easier maintenance.   The track was officially opened on 15th April 1961 in a match between the Achilles and Atalanta clubs, the meeting sponsored by the ‘Glasgow Herald’ which reported as follows:

“GROUND RECORDS AT WESTERLANDS: Achilles defeat Atalanta.   Seven track and field ground records were broken at Westerlands on Saturday in a meeting sponsored by The Glasgow Herald, which followed the official opening of Glasgow University’s new blaes running track by the principal, Sir Hector Hetherington.   The meeting consisted of a 16 event match between Atalanta and Achilles, which the latter won by 55 points to 47, a five event women’s contest which the Scottish Women’s Athletic Association beat a Scottish Universities team by 29 – 6, and two invitation events.”  

The invitation events were a 100 yards race in which MG Hildrey won in 10.2 seconds from G Cmela (London AC) and A Meakin (Thames Valley), and a mile which Graham Everett won from T Ceiger (Achilles)  and S Taylor (Manchester AC) in 4:12.8.   The records were set in the shot by D Harrison (Achilles) with 52’9″, JM Parker (Achilles) in the 120 yards hurdles with 14.9 seconds, MC Robinson (Achilles) in the 440 yards hurdles with 55.4 seconds, D Stevenson (Achilles) and JR McManus (Atalanta) both cleared 12′ 5.75″ in the pole vault, CJ Bacon of Achilles threw the javelin 203′ 11″, Graham Everett in the Invitation Mile and the SWAAA Women’s 4 x 110 yards relay team.   The best race of the afternoon was however one not yet mentioned – the Three Miles match race between Alastair Wood and DM Turner in which they ran together until the back straight of the last lap when Wood  moved clear to win by 50 yards in 14 min 16.6 sec.  Another familiar name on the programme was Adrian Metcalfe (Achilles) who  won the 100 yards in 10.6 seconds from A Millar of Atalanta.

The track was an instant hit with athletes and officials alike – a good track, an excellent ‘perimeter’ for warming up purposes, right next to a good train station and on many bus routes as well as being well away from the crowds in the city centre.    Athletes from a variety of cubs had always trained there with permission from the University but now it became THE midweek training venue, particularly at lunchtimes when many of the country’s best athletes gathered for joint sessions.   The real accolade came with the SAAA Championships in 1963 – a warm windless afternoon which did nothing to assist the marathon runners at all.   It made for a good day out for the spectators, for a change the sprinters had the sun on their backs, and the field eventers could have had no complaints.   It was Jim Alder’s first marathon and he started a bit too fast for the conditions but for all that was three minutes up on Ian Harris at 20 miles – but finished 7 minutes down in second place.   Inside the arena on the track Ming Campbell won the 100, 220 and 440 while a previous winner, WH Welsh, looked on; Graham Everett won the Mile, Fergus Murray beat Andy Brown and Bert McKay in the Three Miles, John Linaker beat Tom O’Reilly in the steeplechase, Crawford Fairbrother won the high jump from Davie Cairns, David Stevenson won the pole vault – in short all the big names of Scottish athletics were there.

The next step for any forward thinking athletic club was the installation of floodlights.   The rugby section was the first to push for these and they had their lights for training by June 1949.   However it took some hard thinking before the lights were finally installed on the main rugby pitch and the running track in 1966.   The official opening was on Tuesday 18th October of that year with a challenge rugby match and an invitation mile race.    The rugby featured many real big stars of the game – it was a University Select v Hawick match after all – and among those on the field were Sandy Carmichael, Colin Telfer, B Lockhart, CS Calder and D Deans.   There was also a good invitation mile at half-time which was won by Hugh Barrow of Victoria Park in 4:14, almost three seconds in front of Graeme Grant of Dumbarton AAC and Duncan Middleton of Springburn Harriers – both GB internationalists over 800m – with Dick Hodelet, Jim Brennan and Mike McLean in the supporting cast.

It was in September 1963 that the first Glasgow University Open Road Race was run over a testing course which started and finished at Westerlands.    Good links, close to Glasgow, hard course, excellent changing facilities, good catering, staring at 3:00 pm almost every runner was home clean and washed in time for tea – it was all that a runner could want.    It was an instant hit.   The venue was still used during the week for training by GU athletes, it was available for training purposes at lunch times by other athletes provided they had a users pass.   The groundsman usually checked the pass if you were a new athlete in attendance – and sometimes when you had been coming for ages.   The track was of a quality to be used for SAAA Championships and in addition to domestic functions, there were international fixtures and such events as Atalanta v Cornell University v a Scottish Select.   Atalanta was a team of combined Scottish University athletes which met from time to time for bigger fixtures such as against the combined Oxbridge team, Achilles.   The Pavilion?    Well there were changing rooms on the ground floor as you went in as well as the Bar and then down below there was more changing and showers – lots more changing.   On Race Day, entries were taken and numbers issued just inside the front door.   It was at a time when athletes arrived fully dressed, changed at the ground and after the race could and would shower before going into the Bar for whatever was on offer while they waited for the results.  None of this rushing in already stripped, running the race and then racing to your car to head off home.   Much more civilised and much more fun.

Rugby teams on the night of the first floodlit meeting

There was often a hockey match or two going on while the runners ran around the perimeter (the far side was just over 300 yards long) warming up before jogging round the corner for the start in Crow Road.     The race finished on the track – see Alastair Douglas’s story about Ian Hamer defeating Nat Muir – before the athletes went for a cool-down jog and then showered.    It was ideal for the post-race fun and frolic with many a quiet and dark nook for private conversation and the track was just there for the Chunder Mile

It was spacious, warm and welcoming.   It had all you would want in a race headquarters and more besides.   When the University had to sell it and  Garscadden for housing developments, a lot was lost.   Nevertheless they kept investing in athletics with a large share in the funding for the Kelvin Hall indoor arena and the big, well-equipped Garscube Sports complex.

Westerlands was however known for other events – many indoors.    If you were an athlete and a party animal, Westerlands was your spiritual home.   The Discos were famous and the various ‘track events’ after dark on the evening of the Uni Road Race would have been unthinkable at any other athletic venue in the country.    The famous beer fuelled mile races have been mentioned a lot and the impression has maybe been given that they were male only.   Not true.   As evidence, I quote from an article by Doug Gillon which took up almost a full page of the ‘Herald’ one Monday morning in the mid-90’s.   Only the name has been omitted to save some blushes!

“The university-educated among the spectators – and that represented the majority at Westerlands on Saturday night – soon deduced from the two tables parked in front of the track and laden with beer that this was no ordinary athletics event.   Though the annual 4.8 mile Glasgow University Road Race, held earlier in the day, was ostensibly the main attraction, and had been climaxed by record-breaking runs from Glen Stewart and Phil Mowbray, there were substantially more spectators for the quaintly-named Chunder Mile.  

Neither Stewart nor Mowbray lined up for the second race – perhaps they simply knew they were on a hiding to nothing.   By the light of day  [Miss X] is an outstanding runner.   The British cross-country internationalist proved it by winning the women’s event in the afternoon, albeit more than five minutes down on Stewart, but in the dark of the night she can intimidate even the best men.   It is part of student tradition that race protagonists return at night, but the males among the 20 who lined up again on Saturday were clearly unprepared.   Each competitor then drank one pint of beer before each of the four laps (Female dispensation: 4 x half pint).   The combination of ale, interspersed with flat-out running, is apt to disturb the stomach’s equilibrium – hence Chunder Mile.   Phil Ross from Alness set a world record of 5 min 27 sec in 1989 on the same Glasgow track and never spilled a drop.   It was as well that Nature cast a cloak of clinging mist over proceedings, though the druggies and non drinkers now evening habitués of the dilapidated  Westerlands grandstand, were bemused by the surreal scene: males running naked, one in drag, but the women, to the continuing disappointment of male on-lookers, tending to be rather more demurely dressed.  

[Miss X], a third year medical student on a seven year medicine and sports science course, quaffed her quota of four half pints with relish, finishing in 6:01 more than half a lap ahead of her closest male rival.   Jeers of derision from her monstrous regiment of supporters, at male weakness, mercifully drowned the noise of their wretched discomfort, and prompted suggestions that the lithe [Miss X] should be handicapped, ie pints not halves.   This is not however an area in which the Scottish Athletics Federation has locus to adjudicate.”

The article goes on  to report on the race but the extract above gives the atmosphere of the thing!   On at least one other occasion, one woman was reported to have run in black lacy undies and boots.   Inside the Pavilion?   Well, Mr Allman proving that he was well named, the chap in the kilt spending  a large part of the evening showing everyone what Scotsman wore under the kilt, the can-can (performed by men and women in separate groups, the women appropriately clad).

It was all typical student high-jinks but the focus was Westerlands!    And to think that the political clubs in the Union thought ‘building the only living human pyramid in history’ was a bit of a jolly jape!

The Westerlands Cake: at the farewell party in December 1997 after 72 years

Helen Champion, President of the University Sports Association, and Des Gilmore

Scottish athletics suffered a real blow when the club moved from Anniesland to Maryhill  – there was a perimeter, there were excellent dressing rooms and meeting rooms, and all sorts of things but where there was an atmosphere of a single unit, a ‘wholeness’ about Westerlands, there was none remotely similar at the new venue.   In addition all the various idiosyncratic stairs and linked dressing rooms in the basement, the bar right inside the front door – all gone.   We should be grateful that a new facility was built and so much money lavished on it but there was intense regret at the passing.   The athletic club had a farewell party though, and a special cake was baked for the occasion – see above!

The potted history at the start was mainly from “GUAC: The Story of the First Hundred Years.” published by the Glasgow University Athletic Club and written by RO McKenna in 1981.   It’s a very good and very detailed read.   If you can get hold of a copy, do so.   You won’t regret it.   The builders moved – the end of an auld sang –