Author: The Author

Fraser Clyne in the Commonwealth Games, 1986

Fraser Clyne from Aberdeen was one of the very best marathon and long distance runners Scotland has produced with representative honours and championship medals on the road, on the track and over the country.   He travelled the world as did many of his contemporaries in search of good races – perhaps more than most – with a penchant for excellent racing in the Unites States where he was second in their national marathon championship in Sacramento in 1985.  A real student of the event his historical and statistical knowledge  is said by those who know him to be vast.    “He is basically”, says his friend Colin Youngson, “a serious focused guy who has been known to laugh.   His appetite for horribly hard training is legendary.    This was one determined, ambitious, tough athlete (with long relentless legs!) who deserved every single success and ended up much better than a few equally or more talented runners.   He occupied the position in Aberdeen AAC which Allister Hutton occupied in Edinburgh Southern Harriers – simply the best on very nearly every team occasion.”    Given the feats achieved by this obviously intelligent athlete one has to wonder why Scottish Athletics has not sought to use some of his knowledge and experience in any capacity/   Given the dire state of the event at present he would certainly have something very useful to say!

Unlike some of his contemporaries who never raced a Scottish Marathon Championship he won it on no fewer than five occasions with a record equalling three in a row.   The wins were in 1992, ’92’, ’94, ’96, ’97 and to add to the statistics, he was inside 2:20 for the distance no fewer than 22 times.    From Oakland and Sacramento in the States to Fukuoka (Japan) and Melbourne (Australia) he carried the Scottish flag and brought credit to the country.    His best time of 2:11:50 is still fifth on the Scottish all time list (well, fourth as far as I am concerned  –  the four ahead of him include Paul Evans!)   This page will be completed gradually because of the amount of information to be amassed so we will start with his replies to the Scottish Marathon Club Questionnaire as published in the June 1985 issue.

SMC QUESTIONNAIRE

Name: Fraser Clyne

Club: Aberdeen AAC

Date of Birth: 23rd August 1955

Occupation: Chartered Town Planner

Personal Bests: 29:23 (10000m in 1983), 63:52 (Half Marathon 1984), 2:11:50 (Marathon, 1984)

How did you get involved in the sport? I started running in my second year at Aberdeen University (winter of 1974/75).   Until then I played football in the local amateur leagues but I got tired of being kicked off the park every week so I decided to try athletics.   I got a great deal of encouragement from people such as Tony Millard, Steve Taylor and Ron Maughan who were in the University Hare and Hounds team at that time.   The first race that I competed in was the Edinburgh to Glasgow Road Relay!   I had only been running a matter of weeks but I was given the fifth leg to do.   It was a disastrous performance, the team actually finishing in last place!   Nevertheless I wasn’t discouraged and in December of 1975 I decided to broaden my athletic horizons and joined Aberdeen AAC.   This was an important move as I was soon introduced to Mel Edwards who has been a valuable source of encouragement and advice throughout the past decade.

What exactly do you get out of the sport?   In my career to date I have been a member of three clubs – Aberdeen University, Aberdeen AAC and Glasgow University – and at each one I have enjoyed the social side of the sport as much as the competitive element.   I have great memories of Aberdeen University’s annual tour of Ireland, particularly the occasion when Steve Taylor asked for a bottle of sweet stout in a Galway bar – he was offered a pint of Guinness and told that if it wasn’t sweet enough he could add sugar!

Obviously in recent years I have had tremendous opportunities to travel throughout the world because of my running and that has been a tremendous bonus for me.   I have been to most European countries, the USA and Japan and as a result I have made good friends in these places.

Probably the best thing of all however is being able to go down to the club on a Wednesday evening and do a hard 10 with the rest of the guys then retire to the pub for the rest of the evening.

What do you consider your best performance?   Obviously my  second place at the US Marathon Championships in Sacramento in a pb of 2:11:50 stands out as my most satisfying performance to date.   But I got equal pleasure in finishing sixth in the national junior cross country championship in 1976 when Aberdeen AAC won the team award.   Winning the Scottish Universities cross country title in 1979 was also a highlight as were my two wins in the Oakland Marathon (1983 and 1984).

And your worst?   There are a few to choose from but probably the worst moment I had was finishing last in my international track debut in the 3000m steeplechase at Crystal Palace in 1980.   I wasn’t just last I was 100 yards behind the next closest finisher.   It was awful.

What do you do to relax?   I don’t have much free time but when I do I like to listen to some good music – Bob Seger, Eagles, Don Henley, Supertramp, Toto, Reo Speedwagon, etc.

What goals do you have that are still unachieved?  My main ambition at the moment is to gain selection for the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh.   If I succeed in making the team I would then aim to do as well as humanly possible at the Games themselves.   However if things don’t work out there will always be new targets to be met.   Running always gives you something new to aim at regardless of the level of competition you are involved in.   I would like to do some more road racing in the United States if I have the time.   The atmosphere at American races is tremendous and the weather is generally more conducive to fast running than here in Scotland.

I also have ambitions in the cross country season.   I have run for Scotland in four World Cross Championships (1981-84) but I would like to gain selection for this competition on at least another three occasions to take me past Alastair Wood’s Aberdeen club record of six appearances in the event!   I have twice taken third place in the Scottish Cross Country Championships and that is something else that I would like to improve on.

Can you give details of your training?   During the build up to a major marathon I run around 90-100 miles per week.   Generally this is made up of a long run on a Sunday (20-22 miles) and a series of steady runs during the week which vary in distance from 5 to 10 miles.   If I don’t have a weekend I do three ‘work sessions’ between Monday and Friday.   Normally these take the form of hill repeats, mile reps and 300m reps although sometimes I will do a series of 1200m reps or 800m reps.   The training programme remains constant throughout the year.   In the final seven weeks before a big marathon I cut back my mileage quite drastically (to around 30 miles) to ensure that I’m as fresh as possible for the race.

This was written in 1985 and already he is talking about international vests on the track and over the country and his second place in Sacramento etc.   And he wasn’t nearly finished:   he still had to win his first SAAA Marathon Championship.     And as far as passing Alastair’s record in the World Championships is concerned then he just failed to do so – mainly because of an act of Fate!    He ran in the World Cross in 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1986 and then the rules were altered and Britain was required to enter a single British team instead of the four home nations entering separate squads.   This has a really serious effect on Scottish Cross Country running – and I suppose on Welsh and Irish as well since the bulk of the population, the nature of selection and the actual selectors tend to massively favour England.   He did not have the opportunity to emulate his illustrious fellow Aberdonian.   At this point there was a real congregation of distance running talent in the North East and as a part-illustration of this I mention the coverage of his victories in the East District Cross Country Championships – in the 1981 race Colin Shields reports that “Fraser Clyne just outsprinted Youngson for the title“, and the same reporter on the 1982 East District Championship said “Clyne and [Graham] Laing outclassed their opponents to such an extent that they linked hands in a staged dead heat.”   However the race referee who didn’t like dead heats awarded it to Laing.

There is an interesting article by Fraser himself on the SATS Website at  www.scotstats.com where in the Blog section he writes about “My Favourite Race”.   You have to go right to the bottom of the page but the article is well worth the effort.

Fraser is also journalist who writes about athletics for Aberdeen papers and magazines and along with club mate Colin Youngson, Fraser wrote a history of the Scottish Marathon championship under the title ‘A Hardy Race’.   Just click on the title for access to it.

FRASER CLYNE MARATHON CAREER RECORD

FRASER CLYNE ULTRA CAREER RECORD                 

Just behind him is the Admiralty Arch as he strides out down The Mall

Colin Youngson writes this tribute to one of Scotland’s best ever but least known marathon runners. Dave Clark came to marathon running comparatively late in his running career but had an amazing and swift impact and Colin covers his career in detail.

David R Clark (Born 7th October 1943) developed rather late as a marathoner.   He first broke 2:20 at the age of 35 in 1978, and for the next nine years had an outstanding career.   Born in Aberdeen he went to Aberdeen Grammar School – as did Mel and I – and went straight to Aberdeen University from there.    Arguably he became the most successful Over 40 marathon runner Britain has ever produced.   When I joined Aberdeen University Hares and Hounds in October 1966 he had already graduated and moved South.   His team mates had included Scottish International runners like Mel Edwards and Bill Ewing, and I knew that Dave had won a ‘half-blue’ for cross-country running.    We first met after the British Universities Sports Federation Cross-Country Championships on Saturday 4th February 1967.   This was my very first trip to London and nothing had prepared me for Parliament Hill Fields!   After struggling through six miles of mud and hills, and finishing 77th from 270 (but second Aberdonian), I hope that I showered before we headed off downtown.   Our guide was spectator Dave Clark, who made us walk ‘miles’ through the strange city before introducing us to his favourite Indian restaurant.   There he encouraged us to sample curries hotter than hell.   When we failed to clear our plates he did so with relish.   Had he been born in India?   Did he have a cast-iron stomach?   Obviously a hard guy, despite his medium height, trademark spectacles and otherwise civilised demeanour.

Ten years later we met for the second time!   Dave was living in St Albans by then.   He fills the gap thus:

“I enjoyed running from an early age.   At school it was not only an escape from team games involving balls but something that I was surprised to find myself quite good at.   For most of my career I had survived on a theory based on the benefits of rest.   A training run on a Wednesday for a race on Saturday was enough.   However having done a 10 miler around 1970 and suffered in the last five, I was aware that longer distances needed proper preparation.   So it was in 1975 that, encouraged by team mates who felt I could do it, I got it into my head to run a marathon before I retired from the sport.   With a steady job in London the obvious way to increase the mileage was to use this journey to good advantage.   So it was out at 7:20 am, then on the train to West Hampstead, Cricklewood or Hendon, and a run into Piccadilly Circus (via a patisserie) , a quick shower and ready to go at 9:00 am.   Then in the evening, the same in reverse.   I also extended my Sunday morning runs with my Verlea team mates, finding parts of the county I never knew existed.   With confidence I tried an all-the-way-home run.   John Dryden (Shaftesbury Harriers) took me his favourite route through Regent’s Park, Primrose Hill, Hampstead Heath, Golders Green to near his house in North London, leaving me to finish the run on my own.   The route was as rural as possible and pathfinding was tricky but I made it and thereafter tried to do this run once a week if I had no serious race at the weekend.   This regime, with additional runs through Hyde Park at lunchtime, eventually led to (one) week of 130 miles.   But one of the first effects of this new regime was improved results at shorter distances – even when there was no easing up for the race.   One early success – possibly because of the rural nature of most of the training – was a fourth place in the Orion 15 in March 1976, only a minute behind the winner.   This is a wonderfully muddy cross-country course in Epping Forest which I have always loved.  

I had decided to make my marathon debut in Milton Keynes, the RRC Marathon in July, so the training was geared to that – the other races being part of the build up.   So I was not disappointed in tenth place over 16 miles in the Clydebank to Helensburgh in April or 52:35 in the Hampstead 10 in May.   By this time the temperature was rising and we were due to have a real barbecue summer.   My plan for the marathon was to acclimatise myself by running the Welwyn Half Marathon the previous weekend without drinking any water.    By ten miles I was in third place.   My memory of finishing is hazy.   I almost lost consciousness and was ill for the rest of the day, but later found out that I was fifth in 76 minutes.   But the message was clear, drink early and drink often!   This paid off the following week: the temperature was 33 degrees C (91 degrees F) but I loved it.   Running with a club-mate, we agreed to start slowly and run together as far as we could.   We were around thirtieth at 10K but still running steadily and seeing other runners drop out.   I was eighteenth at 20K, tenth at 35K and finished ninth in 2:34:53 , tired but elated.   The atmosphere was way beyond that of a normal road race – we were all survivors of a shared experience and I was hooked – the marathon was going to be my event.

Later that summer I was a very close second to Graham Milne in Inverness to Drumnadrochit Road Race and then sixth in the Achmony Hill Race about  an hour later.   This crazy regime continued until September when I ran the Ben race as a training run the week before the Poly Marathon at Windsor.   I was not too concerned about finishing 40th on Ben Nevis.   Having dropped from the first ten at the summit, I was inhibited from running fast downhill due to a desire to remain alive with a full complement of limbs.   I started the Poly full of confidence and felt very easy in fifth place in 53 minutes for 10 miles.   At 20 I hit the wall.   My eleventh place in 2:28:48 was respectable but in my first year I had learned a great deal about marathon running – and my own limits.   From then on the event was not only in the blood but in the brain as well, and every waking hour was spent on working out how to improve my performance.

At work there was one of these new devices called a computer and I arranged to come in early and wrote a program which would take my daily food intake and calculate its value in terms of carbohydrate, Fat, protein and dozens of vitamins and minerals.   I read running books – Arthur Lydiard was particularly valuable –  and discussed training methods with my club-mate John Steed.   We developed a method called ‘modelling’ which involved running three miles very easily as a warm-up, then a fast sub-5 minute mile, followed by 5 miles of tempo running at 5:30/mile, finishing with 100m sprint and a few warm-down miles.   This was intended to replicate race conditions and build an ability to sprint to a finish line when totally shattered.   I read Ron Hill on carbo-depletion and resolved to try it next year.”

1977 started well for Dave Clark with a fourth place in the Hampstead 10 in April in 49:53 (his first time sub-50) as a build up to the AAA’s marathon in Rugby.   On 7th May, 1977, representing Verlea, he finished a solid tenth in 2:21:54, two places behind Jim Dingwall who did have a cold.   This led to his first GB vest for a 25Km road race in northern France.   The GB team filled the first five places and Dave was fourth.   Then he turned up on 25th June for the SAAA Marathon in Edinburgh.   This was the year that Jim Dingwall broke my championship record by 45 seconds reducing it to 2:16:05.   Willie Day recorded a very good 2:17:56 and Sandy Keith 2:18:52.   After running with Dave for a long time I managed to get away to finish in 2:19:35 while he slowed a bit to fifth in 2:21:18.   And that, I suspect, is the only time I have finished in front of him in a marathon.   Not content, Dave actually recorded his first marathon win (in 2:22:50) on a return visit to Rugby on 4th September 1977.   He ended the season with a fourth place in the Northwood half marathon in 1:03:40 on a course which he hopes was the correct length and 34th position in the UK marathon rankings.

Dave on the left with GB team mates Greg Hannon (NI), Sandy Keith, Bernie Plain (Wales), Paul Eales (England)

at the Karl-Marx-Stadt marathon, 1/9/79

So far so good but there was a good deal more to come from Dave Clark.   In April 1978 he was second (1:42:52) in the prestigious Finchley 20 (beaten by a fast finishing Tony Simmons who, ironically, had not entered the Inter-Counties Championship, allowing Dave to collect the winner’s cup.   Both had been using the ’20’ as preparation for the AAA’s at Sandbach on 7th May which was the selection race for the Commonwealth Games and European Championships.   Simmons won but Dave, who had been second Scot behind Jim Dingwall, developed a foot injury and fell back to finish 29th in 2:20:26, still a personal best.   On holiday in Finland in the summer, he recorded 2:27:57 for fourth place in Jakobstad, and on returning to Rugby had to concede victory finishing second in 2:22:25.   On 14th October he was fourth (53:55) in the famous Paris to Versailles race over 16.3 km.   Two weeks later Dave finished second in the Unigate Harlow Marathon breaking 2:20 easily to record 2:17:55.

1979 was even better with Dave Clark showing real consistency at a high level.   On 3rd March for Aberdeen AAC, he was fourth (51:32) over a hilly course against a classy field in the Edinburgh University 10; a week later he ran a brisk 49:10 in the Tonbridge 10; and then on the 25th March produced another PB (2:16:01 for eighth on the Scottish all-time list) when, representing Great Britain he finished second in the International Essonne Marathon in France.   Dave wrote about this race in the SMC magazine.   He took an early lead but at 13km his GB team mate, Paul Eales, shot off and by half way was 350 metres in front of Dave, the French champion Kolbeck and Go Tchoun Sein, a Korean who had won the classic Kosice marathon.   The Korean escaped at 26 km but Dave Clark managed to move away from the Frenchman at 30 km.   Eventually Paul Eales slowed down allowing Dave to pass him.   He wrote “The Korean, Go, had gone and was nowhere to be seen.”     Go went all right – on to win in 2:13:34 but Dave had worn the British vest with distinction finishing well in front of good English competitors like Paul Eales, Barry Watson and Mike Gratton, although North Korea won the team race with Britain second.

Dave Clark showed impressive powers of recovery by running 2:18:29 for forty third in the world class Boston Marathon on 16th April 1979.   Jim Dingwall was fifty eighth in 2:20:18.   This was another salutary learning experience – at this time fields of thousands were unknown in Britain, and to be left in the cold for half an hour without one’s tracksuit  resulted in two hours of agony.   Back home the AAA’s marathon was at Coventry with Dave finishing tenth in 2:25:56, the time reflecting Dave’s caution in the sweltering conditions.   Then on 8th July, I learned only too well how Dave had improved.   The two of us were selected to run for Scotland in the BLE (Eire) marathon championship at Tullamore which was held at the same time as a triangular athletics contest between Scotland, Denmark and Ireland.   English and Welsh teams competed in the marathon too.   I believe that, running into a headwind, a large group of about 20 reached halfway with Graham Dugdale of England ahead.   After the turn the race speeded up and I was left grovelling to finish a miserable twenty second in an exhausted 2:30:42.   Dave, however, who had impressed me before the race with his immaculate preparation for the race, involving the use of a humidity meter, came very close to winning but eventually finished only second, only 15 seconds behind Ireland’s Pat Hooper whose time was 2:17:46.

A British vest and a Scottish one, plus three sub-2:20’s in less than four months.   Characteristically, Dave battled on remorselessly.    On 1st September, running for GB once more, he finished third (2:18:22) in the well-known Karl-Marx-Stadt marathon in East Germany.   Then he rounded off a great year with fourth place in the Paris to Versailles (52:36) and second in the Pol-de-Leon to Morlaix, France.   By now Dave Clark had become an experienced and well-respected international marathon runner.   He was ranked eighth in the Athletics Weekly UK Merit Rankings for the Marathon in 1979.   Surely this had been his finest hour?

Not at all.   Although injuries might have intervened to restrict Dave’s racing, he ran for Scotland in the Swintex 25km, and for GB in Le Quesnoy, France, in July before spending the summer in Switzerland and doing mountain races including twelfth place in the tough Sierre-Zinal 28 km race with 1900 feet of climbing.   At the international  30km at Lillois, Belgium, in August he wore the GB vest for third place in 1:36:20.   On 28th September 1980 he finished second (2:19:33) in the Berlin marathon, running by now to a highly controlled even pace regime of 16:30 per 10K.

On Sierre Zinal, 1983

1981 did not start well due to a number of injuries.   On 29th March 1981 he was 29th (2:21:37) in the first London marathon, then on 10th May, sixth (2:20:01) in the AAA’s, seventh 2:18:42 at Sandbach in June and on 27th September, third (2:20:10) at Berlin, again after another summer in France and Switzerland racing every weekend.

1982 produced Dave’s fastest times.   On 14th March 1982 he was seventh in a sizzling 2:15:06.   The event was the Romaratona marathon in Rome and the course may have been 120 metres short.   However Dave provided crystal-clear proof of his fitness on 9th May when he finished seventh once again, but this time in the London marathon, to record a permanent PB of 2:15:28.   Even in late 2010, this makes Dave Clark 14th on the Scottish all-time list  (plus 125th on the British one and 18th on the British M35 one).   Dave ran two more marathons that year: on 8th August he won the Col de Lumiere race in France in 2:22:22, and following a win in the Luton 10, on 26th September he recorded  2:18:36 for eleventh (for GB again with Jim Dingwall as team-mate) in Beijing, China.

1983 started with third place (2:19:14) in Hong Kong on 22nd January, won by Jim Dingwall in 2:15:48, followed by 45th (2:16:06) in London on 17th April.   Then on 29th May, fifth (2:18:19) in Geneva; on 3rd July a win in (2:21:51) in the Pennine marathon for which the prize was a trip with entry to the New York marathon.   Only two weeks later he won the Caithness marathon in 2:20:34.   Dave Clark was three months short of his fortieth birthday!   Not content to rest he finished seventh (2:24:27) in the Adidas British Marathon in Bolton on 21st August.   His veteran adventure was about to begin.   He would prove to be a true ‘Master’.

What a start!   On 23rd October 1983 in the classic New York marathon, Dave Clark finished 40th and first Master in 2:17:30.   This performance places him sixth on the all-time British M40 list, but certain of the people in front of him may well have benefited from short or downhill courses or substantial tailwinds but the NYC course is tough!   Of those around Dave, only Donald Macgregor (six seconds faster on the list) and Alastair Wood actually won a World Veteran title….

Dave Clark’s success continued for four more years.   By the time he had worked out that race promoters attended all the main events, and that it was relatively easy to pick up a promise of an invitation (with flight and hotel)  to a race of one’s choice by doing reasonably well and talking to the right people.   This resulted in some crazy choices such as Marseille (sixth in 2:26:49 on 11th March 1984) and Barcelona a week later (19th in 2:21:36).   On 13th May 1984 he was 48th in the London marathon recording 2:18:38, 32 seconds behind first Master, Barry Watson.   He followed that on 27th May with tenth in Geneva (2:20:02) feeling somewhat weak, having experimented with a vegetarian diet.   He was back for another go at the Pennine on 1st July but this time had to settle for second place behind the Northern Irishman Malcolm McBride.   On 23rd September he he took seventh place (2:20:27) in the Montreal  International Marathon, Canada, running with Graham Laing as a British team; and on 28th October seventeenth (2:21:04) in NYC winning $2,200.   Indefatigably Dave finished the year with a (possibly) short course fifth place 2:18:07 in Florence.   What is it about these Italian course measurers?

On 21st April 1985, Dave Clark ran 2:18:10 for 37th (and second Master, only six seconds behind Gunther Kopp of Germany who used to run with Victoria Park AAC’s Hugh Barrow in Glasgow).   26th May produced second place (67:49) in the first 22km Royal Sandringham Run in King’s Lynn, Norfolk.

Sunday, 9th June, 1985 was the day that Dave Clark became a World Veteran Champion, with a clear win in the IGAL 25km event in Lytham St Anne’s recording 80:03 with prominent ex-international athletes Allan Rushmer second (80:49) and Tim Johnston third (81:15).   Six days later the amazing Dave Clark finished fourth (2:18:51) in a marathon some distance away – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil!   20th July 1985 saw Dave win the Belgrave 20 in London recording a time of 1:43:41 (which is either first or second on the British All-Time M40 list.)   It was the first time in the 34 year history of the race that it had been won by a veteran.   Then he went off on a couple of so-called ‘holidays’ in the USA.   On 3rd August he was second in the Kelly-Shaefer race in New London; followed by 14th (first M40) in 2:18:57 in the Twin Cities marathon in St Paul on 6th October.

On 8th Match 1986 Dave Clark was forty second (and third M40) in in 48:11 in the 15km River Run in Jacksonville, Florida.   He flew over to Bruges in June for a third place finish in the popular international veterans 25km, then on 20th July he finished eleventh (first M40) in 2:26:04 in the San Francisco Marathon.   A fast 10K (31:47) gave him fourteenth place in the well-known but hilly Barnsley event on 28th September.   And then Dave finished the year in real style!

First on 12th October he won $3000 for thirty third (and first Master) in the Twin Cities marathon in 2:22:32.   Then Dave picked up another $3000 on 2nd November when ending up 65th (but first Master) in the New York City marathon (2:25:35).   This result hit the headlines as, at the awards ceremony Dave was presented with the award for the second M40 only to discover a few weeks later, that the ‘winner’ had not been seen by race cameras at key points.   He was told the result by a national newspaper while at work in London.

The obsession with racing continued into 1987 with a trip in March to the World Veterans Championships.   David had been flown over for the Tel Aviv marathon a few days later so he ran only the 10K (5th in 32:01) and the 8km cross-country as preparation.   He posted 2:27:36 for second place (and first M40) in the marathon.   In Spring 1987, Dave at the age of 43, rounded off his outstanding career as a world class ‘Masters Marathoner’ by finishing first M40 in the Boston Marathon in 2:21:37.     But there was one more: an obscure 2:46:06 in the Honolulu marathon in Hawaii, nursing a groin injury and finishing the race only by splashing the iced water offered at the drinks stations on to the aching tendon.

Thereafter injuries took their toll.   Dave Clark took up cycling – touring but also competing.   Nowadays he lives with his wife Genefer in Oxford, and is running once more – racing over rad and cross-country for his club, Herts Phoenix.   The M60 and M65 trophies have begun to take their place on his shelves – but not for the marathon.

Aberdeen is proud of him.   Thank goodness he didn’t win a ‘full blue’ or who knows what he might have achieved!

***

Colin’s profile of this remarkable athlete finishes here and it really amazes me that we do not know more about him.   Top class times on all five continents, GB and Scottish vests in both Senior and veteran events, on the road and in the Mountains,  and I didn’t know very much about the man at all.   I would hope that his inclusion here would help redress the situation somewhat and let more people know about his achievements.

David Clark – Marathon Career Record

Back to Marathon Stars

The Don, as he was known had a fantastic record in the marathon where one of his finest runs was that pictured above – although Hill eventually passed him to finish sixth to The Don’s seventh, it was one of the best ever races by a Scottish endurance runner.   He had a super career as a runner on all surfaces and over all distances – 25 sub 2:20 marathons for a start!   He continued this excellent running as a veteran and in the 45 – 49 age group he appeared four times in the world rankings with times of 2:19.1 for eleventh in the world all time list as well as 2:19:36 (16th), 2:23:00 (54th) and 2:27:27.

There are two articles below: one is Colin Youngson’s previously unpublished biography written with the co-operation of Don himself and below that again is the article that I wrote for the Scottish Marathon Club magazine of April 1984 – again with Don’s help and it may be that you can see his turn of phrase scattered throughout.   There is inevitably some overlap but they are very different articles.   Colin first.

While at George Heriot’s School in Edinburgh, Donald Macgregor was no good at rugby. So he tried running a mile on the track and, miraculously it seemed to him, won an inter-school event, breaking the five minute barrier just three years after Roger Bannister had broken the four minute one. At St Andrews University he improved in cross-country events and qualified as a teacher of French and German. By 1965, at twenty-five years old, he had: finished fifth in the Scottish National cross-country; run for Scotland in the International Championships; won the SAAA ten miles track, beating Alastair Wood; and decided to try the SAAA marathon.   In preparation he ran two weeks of 100 miles each. During the race, Donald kept up with the experienced and confident Alastair Wood, who eventually drew away up a long hill about nineteen miles. Wood won in 2.20.46 (his third championship record) while Donald struggled in to finish in 2.22.24 – a painful but promising debut.

By 1967, Macgregor had progressed to third in the AAA marathon (2.17.19) behind Jim Alder and Alastair Wood. This was after three weeks of ‘intense hot weather training in Vichy, France’. He ran ten to fifteen miles in about six minute miles; and, on alternate days, a speed session, such as fartlek, or two miles of short sprints and short recoveries, or 30×200, or 4×600, or four times a mile in 5.00 to 5.30 with a 200 fast non-recovery! About seventy miles per week, which led to good track speed and a personal best in the marathon.

In 1969, Donald represented Great Britain for the second of many occasions, this time in the famous Kosice marathon in Slovakia, finishing second (2.17.12) to Demissie Wolde of Ethiopia, who had been seventh in the Mexico Olympic event – an omen for Munich 1972?

By now, Donald was teaching at Madras College in St Andrews, and most weekends came through to run very fast with an infamous Scottish ‘training school’, based at ‘The Zoo’, a large house at 78 Morningside Drive in Edinburgh. Many of the runners had nicknames: ‘The Beast’ was Fergus Murray; ‘The Crab’, Martin Craven; ‘The Bear’, Chris Elson and so on. Most of the denizens were linked to Edinburgh University, which had an exceptional cross-country team, winning Scottish National and British University titles and breaking the Edinburgh to Glasgow record. Other International runners in the group included Dave Logue, Gareth Bryan-Jones, Alistair Blamire and Alex and Jim Wight.

1970 was the year when the Commonwealth Games were held in Edinburgh and the trial for the marathon was hotly contested. Donald Macgregor ran almost 4700 miles in training that year, the most he ever did. He was only narrowly outsprinted by Jim Alder (the 1966 C.G. gold medallist) and was delighted to make the Scottish team. In the Games event, Ron Hill of England rocketed away to a British record of 2.9.28 (still, more than 40 years later, a Scottish All-Comers best performance). Donald has written that Hill ‘ran like a god…no praise could be too high for his performance.’ Jim Alder was the bravest of silver medallists and Macgregor was satisfied to finish 8^th in a personal best of 2.16.53.

It was in the Olympic year of 1972 that Donald Macgregor, aged 33, reached his peak. In preparation for the Maxol Marathon British trial, as well as averaging ninety miles per week, he tried two consecutive 120 mile weeks, a month before the race. In addition this was his second attempt at the carbohydrate depletion/loading pre-marathon diet. In the Maxol it worked perfectly – he passed thirteen rivals during the second half, and finished in 2.15.06 to secure a surprise place in the British Team. Having recovered quickly, he managed ten 100 mile weeks, mainly at 5.30 per mile, and spent three weeks at altitude in St Moritz, coming down to sea level ten days before the Olympic marathon. In Munich on Sunday September 10^th, he paced himself very well and came through fast, moving from 30^th at 5k to 8^th at 40k. Ron Hill wrote in ‘The Long Hard Road’ “I glance round and get the shock of my life: there, head on one side (the left), black-rimmed spectacles, grimacing face, it’s Macgregor ….He’s ungainly but Christ he’s travelling, he’s like a man possessed.” They passed Jack Foster of New Zealand; then Hill’s desperate sprint on the Olympic track left Donald to cross the line 7^th in 2.16.34 – a very fine achievement, and one of which the modest Macgregor is rightly proud.

In 1973, Donald picked up his first SAAA marathon title from Jim Wight and both were selected for the Christchurch Commonwealth Games. Before the Scottish championship, Donald had been living and training around Dunoon. After three months of races over distances from 5k to 16 miles, he “did ‘the diet’ between Sunday lunchtime – (I lost 4.5 lbs on the morning 14 miler) – and Tuesday p.m. (14/3; 7/3; 7/3); and then ran next to nothing on the carbo-loading phase (3/3; 4;2.” Amongst his Scottish rivals, Donald was infamous for always getting the pre-marathon diet right and finishing very strongly indeed.

Before the Commonwealth Marathon, Macgregor maintained well over ninety miles a week for sixteen weeks and was fit, but perhaps not fast enough due to a lack of races during the last six weeks. His room-mate Ian Stewart convinced him to go for a slow run immediately after arrival at Christchurch airport, in a successful attempt to deal with jet-lag. Race day was on 31^st of January 1974. Despite finding the pace too rapid after five miles (Ian Thompson beat Ron Hill’s Championship record with 2.9.12), Donald passed several runners in the second half of the marathon to end up 6^th in his best-ever time of 2.14.15.

Donald won the SAAA marathon titles in 1974 and 1976, and continued to win medals in the event until his ninth in 1986, twenty-one years after his debut.

As a new veteran in Hanover in 1979, Donald ran an impressive30.04 to win the World Veterans 10,000 metres by 55 seconds. Then in the marathon, after he had waited for John Robinson of New Zealand, and had agreed to run in together, his companion sprinted away for a one-second win. However in August 1980 near Bellahouston, Glasgow, a determined Macgregor overtook Robinson with three miles to go and gained revenge by winning gold (2.19.23) in the World Veterans Marathon Championship, just 70 yards in front.

In 1983 he seemed reborn at 43 when he won the first Dundee People’s Marathon in 2.17.24. Donald Macgregor has run the most sub-two-twenty marathons by a Scot – 24.

Durable Donald won the Scottish Veterans M50 cross-country title despite problems with fading eyesight, steamed-up spectacles and a tendency to trip over dips, ruts and obstacles. He went on to win races in the over-Over 70 category.  In retirement from teaching, this droll, self deprecating man serves on the Community Council in St Andrews and talks as he writes with forthright enthusiasm. .

Now my own story – possibly not as up close as Colin’s but one with which I was quite pleased.   It covers the time from his school days and he even mentions particular people who were influential in getting him started and shaping his career from school days right through to his running sub-2:20 as a veteran.   It is maybe an appendix to Colin’s article which qualifies and adds to some of the points raised.

GREAT SCOTS – DONALD F MACGREGOR

Don McGregor is unique.    As a marathon runner, he has won three SAAA titles and is universally respected abroad as well as at home; he has proved extremely efficient as an administrator and been elected President of the SCCU;  as an adviser of top marathon men he has been asked for advice by many of Scotland’s top men; he has done sterling work at grass roots level for his own club, Fife AC, and on behalf of the Dundee People’s Marathon.   A former SAAA marathon champion has said that although Jim Alder, Dunky Wright and Joe McGhee have better records in terms of Games successes, Donald’s overall contribution to the sport in Scotland exceeds a lot of these people.   Having indicated the width of his contribution to distance running north of the border I would like to take a look at his career as a runner in some detail.

Donald started at Daniel Stewart’s College in Edinburgh where, as a non-rugby player, he was allowed to ‘jog, run or amble’ round a short road circuit with some colleagues.   Being the best in the group, he won the school cross country championship and at the start of the following track season was running a brisk 5 minutes 25 for the mile.   He remained around this mark until one evening in May, 1957, when he won the triangular fixture for the school against Trinity and Heriot’s in a personal best by 23 seconds.   That really got him going and immediately he started training with a purpose.   He also raced a lot and it was not unusual for his name to appear twice or even three times in the ‘Scottish News’ column of ‘Athletics Weekly’.   His improvement was steady.   Up until his first marathon in 1965 his progress at Three and Six Miles was as follows:

1958:   Three Miles   –   15:48

1959:   Three Miles   –   15:16

1960:   Three Miles   –   14:53

1963:   Three Miles   –   14:28;   Six Miles   –   30:04.8

1964:   Three Miles   –   13:50;   Six Miles   –   28:42

1965:   Three Miles   –   13:57.6;   Six Miles   –   29:19.4

(First Marathon: 2:26:24)

As can be seen from the above times he was a good class runner on the track before he turned to the marathon.   The reasons why runners come into marathon running and racing have always intrigued me.   As far as Donald was concerned he had had a fairly successful season on the roads and the notion of running the marathon came to him at this point.   The actual decision to un in the SAAA Championship of 1965 was born after a poor run in the International Cross Country Championship at Ostend where the thick mud did not suit him at all.   The track season began with a win over Alastair Wood in the SAAA 10 Miles Track Championship in a time of 50:23 with the last lap covered in 61 seconds.   His training at this time had been approximately 70/80 mpw with Ken Ballantyne and the New Zealand athlete Bill Allison.   The 1965 season included a race in the Clydebank – Helensburgh where he ran in with Alastair Wood prompting the late Jimmy Scott to remark, “It’ll be MacGregor for ten years now.”

It can be seen from the  figures above as well as the results against Wood that he was in good form for the marathon.   Perhaps unfortunately for the new boy, the race was held over what he recalls as an undulating sort of course – it was in fact the very hilly, dead straight and fairly tough course from Anniesland along the Great Western Road to Dumbarton and back again and the opposition including the aforementioned Wood whom many of the top men have described as ‘an obviously very hard man’, ‘tough in competition’ and so on.   Donald held on until just after the 20 mile mark and despite wanting to drop out at about 23 miles carried on to the finish.

His next marathon was in the Poly event from Windsor to Chiswick.   On a very hot day he was never in contention, had some sort of heat stroke and dropped out at 20 miles.   He kept on running he says with the marathon as a ‘fall back’ event.   In 1966 his best three miles was 14:13.4 and he ran six miles in 29:28.8 to win the SAAA title.   In 1967 his times improved even further – 29:15.6 for Six Miles and 2:17:19 for the marathon.   This race, notable for the fact that the first three runners were all Scots, came after a lot of speed work in training.   His season up to that point was relatively low in mileage (60/70) but included sessions like 5 x 400 in under 60 seconds with a 400 jog,  or  10 x 300 in 45 with a 300 jog.   he also ran 8 minutes 58 for Two Miles on the five laps to the mile grass track at Murrayfield finishing behind Lachie Stewart but ahead of Ian Stewart.   In the course of the marathon by the way he was encouraged by the Secretary of the SAAA shouting “Keep it up, Duncan!”

By now, ‘The Don’ was racing a lot and racing well.   In 1969 he ran in the star studded Maxol  Marathon in Manchester (not too well) and then finished second in the international race at Kosice in the same year.   He is quoted in ‘Athletics Weekly’ in December 1969 as saying that his target was a medal in the Commonwealth Games in 1970.   This didn’t happen and it is common knowledge what sort of a race that turned out to be.   His next target had to be a place in the Olympic Games team in 1972.   He continued to run well and, to quote Ron Hill, ‘a surprise third in the race overall was Scotland’s Don MacGregor in 2:15:06.   (Ron Hill had been second.)   The reigning Scottish champion was Alastair Wood and jogging together before the race he had asked Donald what time he was looking for and was told two hours fifteen minutes!   He more than justified the faith of his club who had helped him with his air fare to the trial.

Moving from 20th at eleven miles to third in a time almost two minutes faster than his best he had won his ticket on the plane to Munich.   The Munich race is well documented in Ron Hill’s book if nowhere else but for one top Scots runner one of the sights of the Olympics that year was Ron Hill’s face as he realised that another British runner was catching him..   Donald ran a first class race to be seventh to Hill’s sixth.   Hill’s comment about him was not very original – verging on cliche for most Scots runners in fact – but sums up The Don in action: “He’s ungainly, but Christ he’s moving.”   There were only four seconds between them at the end.   Donald himself admits to feeling pity for Ron when he caught him up because he had put so much into winning this race.   He suggests too that perhaps Ron was the unwitting architect of his own downfall: by staying at altitude until 7 days before the race he did not give his body time to adjust to the new conditions.

For Don himself the relative success of the Olympics gave him a tremendous lift and a new stature as an athlete that he had not had before despite his excellent running at all levels on all surfaces (except Ostend mud!)   He put an end to his lack of SAAA Marathon titles by winning in 1973 (2:17:50), 1974 (2:18:08) and 1976 (2:24:12).   He tried ultra distance running with some success and still holds the Scottish records for 25000, 30000, 35000 metres and for the two hours run as well as 20 miles (1:42:07).   he also had a go at the Two Bridges race in August 1974 where he finished seventh (first veteran was in third place and was called Alastair Wood).   He kept on running marathons, road races, relays and cross country for club and country – in 1974 he was third Briton in the ranking lists with 2:14:15; in 1975 he slipped to 2:20:50 for 28th in the GB lists; in 1977 he was running 2:18:31.   In his first year as a veteran he won the World Vet’s Marathon Championship in Glasgow and last year at the age of 44 he won the Dundee Marathon in 2:17:24.   Brief as it is the above gives only the bones of his marathon running career and barely hints at his achievements in other events.  

You can read about his career as a veteran at this  page

What is he like as a man?

My correspondents all agree on one thing: The Don’s sense of humour.   Maybe training for the event nowadays makes a sense of humour more desirable or necessary than before.   In any case, his is described more as subtle satire.   I am reliably informed that he used to do a wonderful impersonation of the archetypal SAAA official; on another occasion having won a trophy for his run in the Westland marathon he spent the boat trip home unscrewing the trophy and re-assembling it in various ways, each more ridiculous than the last.   In the course of an SAAA marathon when Robin Morris appeared for the umpteenth time in a few miles shouting fiercely he turned to the other races to comment: “I hope he doesn’t intend keeping that up for 26 miles!”   He has been described as an excellent committee member being articulate, well organised and intelligent, and even better team manager being as one might expect athlete centred instead of being an official official.

As a runner he is said to be prepared to chat briefly to his rivals but to save the conversation for after the race.   His early aggressiveness has also been commented on by one former champion while another noted that he comes through late.   The truth is probably that he is pretty tough all the way through and if you yourself have a weakness he will be sure to find it at some point in the race.   All are agreed however that he had marathon training perfectly controlled – and this included the diet.   He has had several items published on marathon training but he has managed to lay them out under four distinct headings:

1. Endurance which he feels is best achieved by lots of slowish, medium and even fastish runs.
2. Speed which involves lots of shorter races on all surfaces but not too often.
3. Experience which takes time to acquire.   By this he doesn’t mean necessarily marathon running experience but more racing in general over shorter distances.
4. Rest.   Another runner once told me that knowledge of when not to run was as important as knowing when to run.   Donald feels that it is important to ease right back in the week or two prior to the race although this should be seen in the context of a 10 or 15 week build up.   His basic advice seems to be don’t train too hard unless you feel like it and there is no need for ‘bashing’ in training so long as you have a short race every 2 – 3 weeks.   The maximum would be three or four marathons per year to give  the runner adequate time to recover psychologically.

Finally, on the question of diet.   Donald, according to one SAAA champion kept charging through late in races because of the effects of the diet.   It was a surprise to many when he gave it up completely.   The man himself says that there is no need to attempt it until you can run under 2:20 without it.   It did help him in three bug races including Munich but he doesn’t do it often since the Commonwealth Games in Christchurch since he can’t stand the strain of the first three days.   His advice is not to deprive yourself totally of carbohydrate in the first three days – Ron Hill ate the occasional yoghurt as well as apple and orange during the low carbohydrate phase.

If George Sheehan can be described by ‘Runners World’ as a renaissance man because he can write and run as well as be a doctor, then I suppose Donald should really be called Leonardo.    As I said at the start – Donald is unique.

(‘The Diet’ referred to above had been pioneered in Britain by Ron Hill and details can be found by looking up either ‘Carbohydrate Loading’   or  ‘Glycogen Bleed Out’ or ‘Glycogen Depletion’ – all were used depending on the emphasis.)

Donald was a hero to many of us for a long time.   Unlike many he is always free with his advice and has written several articles and reported on races for magazines and newspapers and even broadcast training advice over local radio in the run-up to the Dundee Marathons.   The photograph below was taken at a reunion dinner in April 2012 and Donald is seen here with Lachie Stewart and Fergus Murray.   It was a good evening and Donald enjoyed watching the slide show and talking with all his old cronies.

                                                       Don Macgregor – Marathon Career Record   

Donald leading the June 1986 Edinburgh (SAAA) Marathon Championship. He ran out of energy that day but kept battling to finish second behind Brian Carty. This was the last marathon that Donald completed. Still a tough guy, fighting onwards after a wonderful inspiring running career.

From Pat’s diaries …

Although I didn’t know Pat Maclagan well it was inevitable that we were acquainted with each other since our two clubs were fairly close together geographically and we were running in many of the same events.    He was always very pleasant and I remember a conversation with him on the train into Glasgow.   There were two races held in Glasgow at the start of the year – the Nigel Barge which had been on the first Saturday of the year since its inception and the Springburn Cup which had had many incarnations.   In the year in question, Springburn decided to hold their race on the same date as the Barge but with bigger prizes and more of them.   A fair few runners were talking of reneging on the Maryhill race but when I asked Pat which he was going to run in, he replied immediately that he would run in the Nigel Barge race – “after all, it’s a classic race, isn’t it?”   That was exactly right and if you look at the racing programme described in Colin Youngson’s story of Pat’s career you will see that he ran in all the classic races in the country whether on the road, over the country or on the track.   The SAAA Championships, all the cross country championships, the Edinburgh to Glasgow and others all appear in his story.    Incidentally in the race in question, the winner was Ronnie McDonald from Monkland Harriers who was sub-4 miler from Pat in second place with the difference being only three seconds.   Pat in turn was a mere one second ahead of the extremely talented Alistair Blamire who was two seconds up on Andy McKean, who was two seconds up on Alex Wight with Dave McMeekin 29 seconds back!   Six men within 37 seconds and only eight seconds covering the first five!     What follows is his friend Colin’s account of Pat’s career..

Patrick Maclagan, who was educated at Glasgow Academy, used to live in the quadrangle of Glasgow University, where his father was Professor of Moral Philosophy.    Victoria Park AAC clubmate Hugh Barrow (who once held the world junior record for the mile) remembers doing interval sessions round the famous Gilmorehill Campus with Pat, under cover of darkness.   Young Patrick had a good sporting pedigree, being related to William Maclagan who captained the first British Isles rugby tour to South Africa in 1890-91.

Pat was only nineteen when he ran the last stage in the 1963 Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay for Victoria Park.  This event was of massive annual importance for his club, probably because of traditions created during the Ian Binnie era in the 1950’s when no fewer than seven E to G’s were won by the club.   Ronnie Kane who ran in some of these winning teams, became club captain and coach, although Pat and other younger athletes of that era, such as Hugh Barrow, were coached initially by Johnnie Stirling who like Ronnie had won four E-G golds.   The only race taken more seriously by aspiring fast men was the TRIAL for the McAndrew Road Relay, since the top eight usually ended up in the prestigious VP team for the E-G!   In the autumn and early winter, every Tuesday and Thursday there were competitive pack training sessions over a variety of five or six mile routes round the local pavements.   In addition the club organised three or four mile road races for the Crawford or Knightswood Shields.   Compared to most of his clubmates, Pat was unusual in that he was also a good cross country runner, rather than mainly a road runner.

By 1964 Pat was speedy enough to be only 8 seconds slower than the fastest time on Stage Three of the E-G and VP finished fifth.   Next year they were up to third place with Pat only one second from fastest on Stage Three (and inside the previous record) taking VP from third to first.   1966 produced a silver medal for the club with Pat running the long sixth leg.   Between 1963 and 1977, Pat ran Stages 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8.   He did not run in 1970, 1974 or 1976; and represented Strathclyde University in 1973 and 1975, before returning to the VP team for the final time.   His main club won silver in 1966 and 1971 and bronze in 1965.   Pat was considered to be a good man to rely on and consequently was usually given the responsibility of running one of the two most important important stages – two or six.

A good result in his cross-country career was in 1964 when he was twentieth in the Junior National cross-country championship and the VP team won silver.   In 1965 he was up to seventeenth and team bronze.   In 1966, VP finished second team in the Senior National with Pat second counter in twenty third – a very good debut.   Later that season he finished an excellent thirty third in the English Senior National.   Apart from that his best cross-country performances came in 1967 and 1968.   First of all, Pat achieved a meritorious fourteenth in the Senior National (with VP third team), only just behind a well-known duo – Jim Alder and Alex Brown.   This was actually the equivalent of sixth since there were eight New Zealand internationals in front of him including ex-Scot Mike Ryan.   Deservedly Pat was chosen to compete in the ICCU Championships in Barry, Wales.   Pat ran very well to be fifth team counter in fifty first place (beating Alex Brown, Alistair Blamire and Jim Brennan, with Ian McCafferty dropping out) and Scotland finished a solid fifth from ten nations.   Pat also finished forty first in the English National that year.

One of Pat Maclagan’s finest victories was in 1968 when he won the Midland CC Championships after a real battle over a hilly course at Bellahouston Park, Glasgow, surging away from fellow internationalist Jim Brennan before the finish.   Thereafter Pat went on to finish eleventh in the 1968 National.   He was also in the top twenty in the National CC in 1970 and 1972.

In the summer of 1969, Pat Maclagan was the first winner of the John Kerr Memorial 12 at Airdrie, and finished well clear of the field in the Strathallan 22 breaking the record previously held by John Linaker.   Signs of things to come in the marathon!   Another good result was in November 1969 when Pat escaped from Eddie Knox on the “back-breaking slope of Clevedon Road” to win the Glasgow University 5.25 Miles Road Race.   Alastair Johnston recalls Pat’s “many victories in the Vicky Park Club CC Championships, held at Milngavie, which involved taking on numerous fences over muddy farmland followed by hilly undulations over Hilton Park Golf Course (to which the likes of Hugh Barrow, Albie Smith and I were slightly averse!)   However the versatile Pat was in his element!

“

Pat trailing Jim Brennan at the top of the hill in Bellahouston Park, Midland District 1968

On the track in 1965 Pat was third in the West District Three Miles (14:27.6) as well as running Six Miles in 30:26.7 in the Scottish Championships.   In 1966 he was again third in the West District Three Miles (14:16.4) and improved this time to 14:14.6 in the East v West match shortly afterwards.   He then finished second to Don Macgregor in the Scottish Six Miles in 29:41.   In 1967 he was fourth in the Scottish Six Miles (behind Lachie Stewart, Mel Edwards and Alex Brown) in 28:58, his best for that distance.   In 1968 his focus was on road running, preparatory to eventually moving up to the marathon, but he did run 29:16.5 in the Victoria Park club championship Six Miles.   In 1969 he was third again in the West 5000m and his season’s best was 14:42, plus 31:06 for 10,000m.   1970 saw him run faster: 14:33.6 and 30:26.2 respectively.

In 1971, on 11th August, he produced a lasting personal best time of 30:04.8 for 10000m.   Ten days later came another of his very best races: a one-hour event at Meadowbank.   This was won by Jim Alder in a Scottish Native Record of 12 miles 618 yards with Pat an excellent second with 12 miles 400 yards (the best-ever by a Home Scot and tenth on the UK All-Time list) having gone through Ten Miles in 48:45.   Almost a lap behind Pat were Aberdeen AAC’s Donald Ritchie, Alastair Wood and Steve Taylor.   In the seasons after this Pat trained with less intensity and his track times became slower.   It is interesting to compare his track times in 1970 and 1971 with his marathon times in these two peak years.   Pat Maclagan was not alone in finding that proper marathon training can help your track times and vice versa!

The Shettleston Marathon on 11th April 1970 was a marvellous debut for Pat since he won the race in a fine 2:22:03.   In the high quality SAAA Championships and Commonwealth Games Trial Marathon in Edinburgh on 16th May he improved to 2:20:49 for seventh place, one behind his Victoria Park friend and rival Alastair Johnston (2:19:31).    Alastair would undoubtedly have become an excellent marathon runner.   Sadly this was not possible after a dreadful accident on June 16th 1972 when English Hammer Thrower Barry Williams to blame when his hammer bounced on to the Meadowbank track and shattered Alastair’s left tibia preventing him from winning a bronze medal in the SAAA metres championship.   Poor Alastair was in plaster for 15 weeks and never really recovered top form although his contemporaries all knew just how good he could have become.

The British Amateur Athletics Board wished two good Scottish marathon runners to compete in a major representational event – the Toronto Marathon on 25th August 1970.   Alastair Wood and Alastair Johnston were invited but Johnston had to turn this down due to professional accountancy commitments, so Pat Maclagan was selected instead.   Pat finished a respectable eighth (2:24:34) in a good international field.   I have a photo of Pat wearing a GB vest, running towards the finish under poor streetlights.   Alastair Wood finished second to Jack Foster of New Zealand in this race – the First Canadian National Exhibition Marathon.   He reminisced that this started  “at 8:20 pm to ensure the finish would not interfere with stadium entertainment starring Johnny Cash!   Each competitor was accompanied by his personal motor-cyclist.   The parade before the start was mildly embarrassing since it featured uniformed national teams from Mexico, USA and New Zealand.   They looked slightly more professional than Alastair and his team-mate Pat who could only wear their normal warm-up gear.”

An insight into Pat Maclagan and his training in summer 1971 is given by an article he wrote for the VP club magazine that October.   It is entitled “Sunday Morning” and his twenty mile route, starting and finishing at his flat at Broomhill, went through Anniesland, Canniesburn, Craigallion Road, round the Waterworks, and back.   Excerpts are as follows.   “I often stop briefly.   Some can’t understand it.   I don’t care.   It works for me – a sort of fartlek training.   Passers-by stare.   Better get moving again.   I don’t like the idea of being thought unfit!   I’m not shut off in a little world of my own.   I’m part of society, out here expressing my individuality, striving for something, for the satisfaction sought by all men and discovered by few.”

“The free wind cools my face now and keeps at bay the fumes from the passing cars.   I can breathe deeply and fill my lungs.   I can feel the strength come to my chest and shoulders.   I can drop my arms down to my side and feel my legs as strong as steel as I relax down the gentle hills and, when i change gear for the sharp climb, I can sense the stretching of the tendons and contracting of the muscles in rhythmic unison.   There is no pain, no suffering, only a feeling of power, of perpetual motion, of balance as I float along over kerbs and potholes, picking out the even surface of the road, avoiding loose stones and the little whirls of windblown leaves.”

“Should I do extra?   No.  I turn my thoughts to the hot shower and lots and lots to drink.   Planned to do twenty, so don’t tempt providence, just do twenty.   The  Scottish Marathon is in two weeks.   Twenty six plus.   Never do over twenty in training.   Never have done.   No need to this time.   Funny, I never think about feeling tired in a race.   Suppose my mind is occupied and there are other blokes around.   So much easier than training.   All those miles on the road with no company.   And I look forward to the race, and try not to think about next Sunday morning, and suddenly realise I’m home again.”

Shortly after that, on 26th June 1971, Pat Maclagan easily won the Scottish Marathon Championship from Meadowbank Stadium, Edinburgh.   His time was 2:21:18.   Pat was working at the time as a production planner at J & P Coats Ltd in Paisley.   He felt that he had ‘pushed his luck’ in doing three marathons in 1970.   A stress fracture during the following winter gave him an enforced but invaluable rest!   By April 1971, however, he was fit enough to run 48:15 for second place to Andy McKean in the lightning-fast Tom Scott 10-miler.   Training amounted to 100 – 120 miles per week at this time, and was still at 90 in the three weeks before the Scottish Marathon.   Most of this heavy work was fartlek work done in the forests around Aberfoyle.

There was torrential rain at Meadowbank which forced officials to halt the track championships (temporarily) while the road runners squelched on dourly.  After six days of training totalling 58 miles, Pat remembers starting the race by running through standing water.   His Onitsuka Tiger running shoes had added foam padding under the tongue and heel pads.   Since he did not wear socks, he had also taped the soles of his feet.   Unfortunately the soaking dislodged a piece of tape to his considerable discomfort.   Pat recalls complaining about this to Donald Macgregor, who replied callously or helpfully, “Why don’t you stop and take your shoe off, then?”   Instead Pat spent some time trying to manoeuvre the offending tape between his toes so that it no longer became a problem.

Bill Stoddart, the 1969 champion, thinks that no one was too keen to take the pace, due to the depressing conditions, so he led for most of 22 miles.   By then Donalds, Ritchie and Macgregor, had dropped back and Willie Day had come through.   According to Pat, Bill and Willie tried to get away at this point but he hauled them back.   Bill remembers “Pat speeding past me as if I was going backwards, and he didn’t even say hello.”   Or indeed goodbye!   Pat Maclagan won the Scottish title by over two minutes, with Bill Stoddart second in 2:23:31 and Willie Day third in 2:26:07 – good times considering the weather.   Pat remembers being confident of winning because “in general, the longer I ran, the better I was relative to most others.”   In fact he covered the last lap in 70 seconds!

In November 1971, once again Pat won the Glasgow University Road Race by one second from Alastair Johnston with new team-mate Colin Youngson fifth.   A couple of months earlier, just before starting my teaching career, I had moved into Patrick’s flat.   My diary records, “Life with monastic, dedicated Patrick, as well as two other flat-mates, was rather novel.   Gradually I acquired Vicky Park’s superiority complex on the road; and its inferiority complex whenever a square foot of muddy grass loomed over the horizon.”  Training with Pat certainly helped me to improve and, generously, he put up with me for a  year, before I moved into another flat just off Byres Road with Dave Logue, the charismatic Northern Ireland steeplechase and cross-country international and cross-country runner.

In January 1972 Pat Maclagan was selected for a small Scottish cross-country team to compete in the Chartres International event.   Scotland won the team contest defeating France and West Germany.  Pat was seventh, Andy McKean fourth and the great Ian Stewart the individual victor.

Between September and November 1972, Victoria Park AAC won three relay races.   The first, not unusually for this club, was on the road – the Edinburgh Southern Harriers Road Relay at Fernieside, Edinburgh.   the team was Davie McMeekin, Hugh Barrow, Colin Youngson and Pat Maclagan.  The next two victories, atypically, were over the country!   Although Pat was not available for the Dunbartonshire CC Relay, Innis Mitchell proved an able substitute.   Then on the 4th November, Davie, Hugh, Pat and Colin won the Midland District Relay at Lochinch by almost 200 yards with Pat recording the second fastest time to Scotland’s best runner Jim Brown.   The club magazine asserted that “this was the club’s greatest victory for a long time.”

After that, Pat began to concentrate more and more on his studies at Strathclyde University and he graduated with first-class honours.   Before long he went to Hull to work as a lecturer, and to publish one book and many articles, some of which are available online.   Although he is now retired, as an Emeritus Fellow at the Business School, University of Hull, as of 2010 he was still writing the occasional academic paper and going for  one or two forty minute runs a week over the country plus a lot of brisk, one-hour walks.   After his move south, he competed for some years for City of Hull AC and in one of his last races finished fourteenth in the 1983 Ferriby 10 in 51:11.   In Scotland, he should be remembered as a dedicated, determined, consistent and versatile athlete who achieved a great deal.

*****

Having re-read the piece, there is one thing that is missing I think.    Many athletes with Pat’s talents and list of achievements  would have shown it in some way in their dealings with others: phrases like ‘doesn’t suffer fools gladly’ and the like are bandied about as an apology/explanation.   There are athletes who change in their dealings with others when success comes.   Pat was none of these.   He was modest in the best possible way – as I said, I didn’t know him as a person but he was always friendly and didn’t seem to change as the successes grew.  

 Finally, I always find it interesting to see athletes running in the same event over several years as a kind of rough measure of their progress.   On long road races the times are often affected by the weather – eg the Clydebank to Helensburgh was run into the prevailing wind and then one year the wind was behind the runners and almost picked them up at Clydebank and threw them to Helensburgh.  The result was a whole series of personal best performances and a course record that stood for some time!   Bearing that in mind, we can look at  Pat’s competitive record in two races in particular.   The first is the 14.5 mile race at the now unfortunately defunct Dunblane Highland Games.

10 August 1966               1.   JL Stewart   1:17:23;     2.   P Maclagan   1:18:53

14 September 1968:        1.   JL Stewart   1:15:45;       2.   P Maclagan    1:15:53      3.   D Macgregor   1:17:30

                                             [The previous Saturday, Pat and Lachie had run in the Shotts Road race with its ferocious climb up past the Kirk O’Shotts against some of the very best in the country with the following result:

1. JL Stewart   68:43; 2.   John Linaker    68:49; 3.   P Maclagan  69:57;  4.   AJ Wood   70:00;   5.   Alex Brown  71:37.   NB The existing record was Lachie’s 71:20! ]

12 September 1970:       1.   P Maclagan   1:17:58;    2.   A Faulds        1:19:09;     3.   I Donald           1:20:50

11 September 1971:       1.   P Maclagan   1:16:39;    2.   Bill McDonald 1:24:18   

The Dunblane race was one of the most scenic in the country: leaving the park it crossed a field to a road out of old Dunblane and on to the A9, the main road North, as far as the turn off for Braco and Greenloaning when it turned onto the back road twisting and winding its way through Kinbuck on its way back to the arena.   The drag up the A9 was a pretty serious slog until the turn off.

He also ran in the Kirkintilloch Highland Games which was billed as a 10 Miles Road Race but which was in fact virtually 11 miles: this was attested to by the fact that many of the best runners at the peak of their form were running 55 minutes and slower for the distance!   Pat’s record was as follows:

12 August 1967:          1.    AJ Wood      55:48;     2.   P Maclagan     55:58

10 August 1968:          1.    P Maclagan   56:32;   2.   A Johnston      57:22

8 August 1970:           1.   D Wedlock     56:14;    2.   M Craven        56:43;    3.   P Maclagan   57:00;   

14th August 1971:     1.    P Maclagan (Scotland)   56:35;   2.   R Kernaghan (Northern Ireland)   58:24;   3.   N Morrison (Scotland)   [This race incorporated a Scotland v Northern Ireland International]

Following up what was said in the first paragraph about running in all the classic road races – many if not most of which are no more – Pat ran in the Drymen to Scotstoun race on 24th May 1969.   This race with its fierce climb up the Stockiemuir Road from Drymen had one of the longest and most unremitting climbs in the country had been the subject of many good races featuring many of the Scottish ‘greats’ such as Dunky Wright, McNab Robertson and Emmet Farrell.   The result this times was:   first, AJ Wood in 1:17:53,   second  P Maclagan in 1:18:59.

What do we get from the above statistics?   First and foremost we see that Pat was a top class racer and not just a time-trialist.   The Shotts race in 1968 fully demonstrates that – every one of the first five was a Scottish Champion, three of them (Stewart, Linaker and Wood  on track as well as country and Wood of course a multi marathon champion) and all were ferocious competitors.   Second he could compete in fast races – which was just as well because he was running and racing at a time when the standard of road running in Scotland was probably at its highest ever.  Some competitor, Pat!

Back to Marathon Stars

Fergus (131) with Lachie Stewart in the National at Hamilton

“Scottish Athletics”, by John W. Keddie, was the official history of the SAAA in time for the centenary in 1983. Fergus Murray features prominently in the following extracts. He actually started running with Dundee Hawkhill Harriers in 1960, encouraged by the enthusiasm shown by Alistair Barrie. While at Dundee High School, he won the Scottish Schools mile in 1961, in 4 minutes 27.1 seconds.

“In 1963 a promising young distance runner emerged in Edinburgh University student Alistair Fergus Murray (born in Dundee on 11^th September, 1942). Early that year he won the Scottish Junior cross-country championship. On the track he won the East of Scotland (14minutes 7.6 seconds) and SAAA (14.1.6) 3 mile titles, before giving a glimpse of his potential with a marvellous 13.32.6 clocking in placing 4^th in the annual BUSF (British Universities Sports Federation) versus AAA versus Combined Services Triangular at Portsmouth on 20^th July.

The following season in 1964, after winning the first of three successive Scottish Senior cross-country titles, he retained his SAAA 3 mile title (13.47.8) and really made a breakthrough at the AAA championships by placing 5^th in the three miles with 13.29.2 – the best ever by a Scot. It was as a result of this performance that eleven days later – on 22^nd July, at Helsinki – he was called in as a last-minute replacement for injured Mike Wiggs in the GB versus Finland contest 5000m. To his own surprise as much as anyone else’s he won the race decisively from Bruce Tulloh in a superb 13.49.0, fourth fastest ever by a UK athlete at that time. These performances, together with some fine runs over 6 miles/10,000m, clinched his selection for the 10,000m at the Tokyo Olympics later that year.”

“It was over 10 miles on the track that Fergus Murray first showed his real potential as a long distance runner of class. In April 1964 he placed second in the AAA championships, in which he was pulled to a marvellous 48.41 (29.33.8 at 10,000m) behind Mel Batty, whose 47.26.8 constituted a world record. That performance augured well for the young Edinburgh University student in Olympic year. His attention was mainly focused on 3 miles/5000m, but after his ten miles effort he was selected for the 10,000m at Tokyo in October, and this decision was justified by his fine run for Britain versus Poland on his 22^nd birthday (11^th September, when he was second in 29.10.4). Unfortunately a heavy cold prevented him running to his full potential in Tokyo and he could only finish 22^nd(30.22.4).”

“In May 1965, in perfect conditions for distance running, Fergus Murray treated an enthusiastic Edinburgh crowd at the East of Scotland championships to a marvellous exhibition of solo running over three miles at New Meadowbank, when he broke the Scottish All-Comers’ and Native records with a magnificent 13.25.4 (intermediate mile times of 4.24, 4.28 and 4.33). But even this was eclipsed by his run in an amazing AAA event on 10^th July, in which the great Australian Ron Clarke became the first man to run the distance in under 13 minutes with a time of 12.52.4. In sixth place, Fergus Murray recorded a personal best time of 13.21.2; and exactly four weeks later, in the Triangular at Portsmouth, excelled even his AAA performance with a fine win in 13.19.0, ever to remain his best for the distance. Perhaps his best individual performance, however, was a third place in the 5000m at the Universiade in Budapest in August 1965, with 13.52.6. Murray, who trained very hard on a high mileage” had a cartilage removed in August 1966, which resulted in a temporary set-back but at Oxford University thereafter, Murray had a very successful season.

“Fergus Murray developed into a fine marathon runner. Less than a year after Jim Alder had become the first Scot to break the 2.20 mark with 2.17.46 for third in the AAA marathon, 1965 witnessed the first sub 2.20 marathon in Scotland when in the Shettleston Marathon on 15^th May, Fergus Murray, who was making his debut at the classic distance, won in 2.18.30 from Alastair Wood (2.19.03).”    After graduating from Edinburgh University with a BSc in science and spending a year doing post-graduate work, Fergus completed a Dip Ed at Oxford University during 1966-67. The O.U. cross-country and track ‘Blues’ teams would have been delighted to recruit such a talented athlete. Alistair Blamire remembers Fergus coming to watch Edinburgh University win the BUSF cross-country team prize at Parliament Hill Fields in 1967. Fergus was wearing a felt trilby hat – very Oxbridge, Alistair thought!

“In 1967, Fergus Murray had a good season over the longer distances. Early in the year he again placed second in the AAA 10 miles, this time to Dr Ron Hill (Bolton United Harriers). Murray’s superb time of 47.45.2 – 6.6 seconds behind Hill – was the fastest by a Scot. Later in the year he reduced his best six mile time to 27.42.96 when placing 6^th in the AAA race.”   “In 1967 Fergus Murray (Oxford University AC) won the famous Polytechnic Marathon from Windsor to Chiswick in 2.19.06.”   During the week following this long but apparently not exhausting race, he won the 2 miles for Oxford/Cambridge v Harvard/Yale at the White City in 8.44.0; came 4^th in a 2 miles in Reading in 8.38.8; and won the BUSF 6 miles on the Saturday in 28.38.2!

“The 1970 Scottish Marathon Championship was a very exciting race over the course for the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games. On the 6^th of June no fewer than six athletes (five Scots) clocked under 2.20 – certainly the greatest in-depth marathon in Scotland up till then. In the end Jim Alder (2.17.11) won by a mere three seconds from Donald Macgregor, with Fergus Murray third (2.18.25), England’s Barry Wood fourth, Alastair Wood fifth (2.19.17) and Alastair Johnston (Victoria Park AC) sixth in 2.19.31.”

“The three Scottish representatives ran wonderfully well in the Commonwealth Games marathon, in which they all set personal bests. England’s Ron Hill won as he pleased, in a brilliant 2.09.28, with Jim Alder second in 2.12.04. Fergus Murray (2.15.32) finished 7^th, one place in front of Donald Macgregor (2.16.53).”   That is the SAAA version, summing up Fergus’s running career. Track omissions include: another win (13.46) in the 1966 SAAA 3 miles; first places in the SAAA 6 miles in 1964 (29.05.2) and 1965 (28.33.4); and a gold medal in the very first SAAA 10,000m (29.34.2) in 1969.

For more detail on Fergus Murray’s cross-country successes, the best source is Colin Shields’ Centenary History of the SCCU, published in 1990. Selected extracts are below. (All Fergus’s Scottish CC titles were won at Hamilton Park Racecourse, where in 1966 he raced in bare feet to defeat Lachie Stewart!)   “On 23^rd February 1963, Fergus Murray, a first year student at Edinburgh University, who had previously won the Nigel Barge road race, won the Junior title as he liked – winning by over a minute from Mike Ryan (St Modans, who won Olympic bronze for New Zealand in 1968), with Alec Brown third and Lachie Stewart (who won gold in the 1970 Commonwealth Games 10,000m) fourth. Murray led Edinburgh University to the Junior team title, the first of three consecutive Junior team wins (1963-65) and 3 Senior team wins (1966-68) in a six year period when Edinburgh University runners dominated Scottish cross country and road running with a staggering series of wins thanks to punishing training schedules that developed talent to its fullest potential.”

“In 1964, Fergus Murray, after winning the British Universities championship in Nottingham (in a dead heat with Mike Turner) and finishing a close third in the Martini International 6 mile race at Brussels, behind Gaston Roelants (International CC champion) and Derek Graham (Northern Ireland), lined up with confidence for the National Senior championship race, representing Dundee Hawkhill Harriers. Racing over a heavy 7 and a half mile of racecourse turf, Murray trounced three former National champions. His great strength and speed proved decisive, giving him a 39 second margin of victory over Jim Alder, with Alastair Wood third, a further 22 seconds behind, but 4 seconds in front of Andy Brown.”   “Murray retained his National CC title in 1965 with a solo run. In an unrelenting mood, Murray set off at a gallop from the start, and by two miles had opened up a gap from the following group of Andy Brown, Lachie Stewart and Jim Alder. Alder set off in pursuit of the leader at 3 miles but made no impression on the flying Murray, who eventually won by 24 seconds from Alder, with Stewart a further 11 seconds behind and Brown fourth.”

“In 1966, Murray and his Edinburgh University team-mates were in impressive form at the National CC championships at Hamilton Racecourse, where the trail was now, of necessity, confined to the actual race track inside the boundaries of the ground, with no entry to the rough country by the riverside. Murray, Stewart and John Linaker (Pitreavie) ran together for 4 miles, but then Murray turned on the pressure, increasing his pace to find little reaction from his rivals. He established a lead and, with an impressive display of stamina on a heavy, muddy course, proved he was at his best when running on his own. He won by 70 yards from Stewart, the Inter-Counties winner, with Jim Alder making a late run for the tape, which took him into third position, ahead of John Linaker. Edinburgh University packed their six men into the first twenty-one home, to win the National Team Championship for the very first time. Such was the enormous margin of their victory that they had their entire team home before runners-up Victoria Park had their first man, who finished in 22^nd position. This outstanding performance allowed the students to record a 109 points margin of victory – the largest ever recorded in the history of the event.

Fergus Murray’s third triumph in a row was only the fifth time that an athlete had achieved this success in the 81-year history of the championships.”

Although Fergus ran for Scotland in the International CC Championships four times (1964, 65, 66 and 69), Colin Shields suggests that he tended not to run to his full potential in the event. His best run was in 1969 (after finishing second in the Scottish National) when Fergus did very well (23^rd) in front of a home crowd over a hilly, testing course at Dalmuir Park, Clydebank. Ian McCafferty was a brilliant 3^rd, Lachie Stewart was 20^th, and the Scottish team ended up a good 5^th from the 13 nations taking part. Alistair Blamire reckons that Fergus did very well that day since there weren’t any hurdles, unlike in previous international cross-country championships.

Even after Fergus Murray’s peak, he continued to produce good team performances in the National CC. He was in ESH teams that won gold in 1969 and 1970; silver in 1971 and 1976; and bronze in 1973.

On the roads, Fergus was first of all an inspiration to his University team-mates; and later on a thoroughly reliable senior athlete in championship races. This is best exemplified if one examines his record in the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay.

In 1963 he was fastest on Stage Two, traditionally reserved for speedy track men. In 1964 he repeated this performance and EU finished second. 1965 saw EU’s outstanding record-breaking 3.36.32 victory, with Fergus’s 31.07 record on Stage Six the finest individual performance of the day. Edinburgh University went on to win again in 1966 and 1967, without their leader but undoubtedly benefiting from the training regime he had set in place.

Fergus started 1968 in fine form, winning the renowned  Morpeth to Newcastle road race on New Year’s day, by forty yards from local hero Jim Alder. Later that year, after his marriage, Fergus retired for six months from racing. However he was fit again by late 1969, when Edinburgh Southern Harriers won the E to G, with Fergus (second fastest) battling to hold off Shettleston’s Lachie Stewart on Stage 6, before the last two ESH runners moved well clear. 1970’s race ended up with silver for ESH, with Fergus only one second behind National CC champion Dick Wedlock’s fastest time on Stage 2. Bronze team medals were won in 1971 and 1972, before ESH won again in 1973, with Fergus fastest, this time on Stage 4. In 1975 he ran Stage 7 during his team’s excellent new record victory (3.33.52). 1975 also featured one of Edinburgh Southern Harriers’ greatest performances: a silver medal in the AAA 12 stage relay and Fergus played his part well. Not far in front were Brendan Foster’s Gateshead Harriers and not far behind another great club, Coventry Godiva Harriers. No Scottish club has ever done as well as the 1975 ESH team in this extremely prestigious event.

Even when Fergus Murray was working at Fettes College, training was still hard and extensive, but time to relax and retain mental energy as in student days, was no longer an available luxury. Yet a final team gold in the E to G was won in 1977, when he ran Stage One for ESH. Although Fettes College was very supportive, the demands of teaching at a boarding school were more testing than the relatively carefree days of university. These were the days before professional athletics. Fergus would not have wished it otherwise, since that era gave a lot of joy and created lifelong friendships.

His marathon career was brief but very successful, starting with victories in the Shettleston Marathon (2.18.30 in 1965) and the Polytechnic Marathon (2.19.06 in 1967). However Fergus really concentrated on the event during the 1970 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games year. At five days notice, he travelled to Japan and on the 8^th of February finished second (2.18.04) in a top-class international field in the Kyoto Marathon. On May 16^th he qualified for the Scottish CG team fairly comfortably (third in the SAAA marathon in 2.18.25); and he peaked extremely well to break his personal best for seventh place (2.15.32) in the wonderful Commonwealth Games marathon on 23^rd July. Fergus also ran the classic Marathon to Athens event in April 1971, finishing 4^th in 2.25.04, with Don Macgregor 5^th, over an extremely hard course.

Fergus retired from teaching in 1995 and put his running fitness to good use, instructing and guiding mountaineering and climbing in the UK and Europe, finally retiring in 2007, depressed about a series of multiple shoulder dislocations. He still enjoys running enough to keep fit and possesses a set of bound copies of ‘Athletics Weekly’ (from July 1960 to December 1974), which thoroughly document the era when he raced so successfully.

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Fergus Murray’s outstanding athletic career was his influence on other runners, especially through his residence at ‘The Zoo’.

For his first two years at Edinburgh, Fergus shared a room in a flat in Mayfield Terrace with Chris Elson, run by very kindly landladies, Molly and Ena Cameron. Chris came from Rotherham AC and brought with him inspiring ideas about training, from club-mate Alan Simpson, a brave and whole-hearted athlete who went on to finish 4^th, only one-tenth of a second from a medal, in the 1964 Olympic 1500m. Simpson also set a UK mile record of 4.55.7. These training ideas made a great impression on the Edinburgh University team, leading to their years of ascendancy in the 1960s. Professor Neil Campbell, who in his youth as an EU quarter-miler had often competed against the great Eric Liddell, was a great supporter of the club for many years, both before and after the 1960s. Sunday mornings saw a group meet up outside the Geology Department. They stripped off their tracksuits and left for a 21 mile run through the Pentlands – no worry in those days of kit being stolen.

Alistair Matson, studying Law, was instrumental in arranging the large house at 27 Morningside Drive, in October 1965, where 6 runners lived for the next 3 years until the property was sold. At one time or another, runners living there included Fergus Murray, Alistair Matson, John Meldrum, Brian Covell, Dave Logue, John Bryant and Alex Wight, whose brother Jim lived nearby as well. Others, such as Donald Macgregor, Alistair Blamire and Gareth Bryan-Jones, came along in time for the long Sunday run or a series of faster sessions including repetitions and fartlek. On the kitchen wall was a chart recording the inhabitants’ weekly mileage and woe betide anyone slipping, on pain of being sent out to get in a few more miles! (Alastair Blamire remembers that John Meldrum, who was a medical student and more of a recreational runner, didn’t train anything like as hard as the others. The idea was for ‘The Zoo’ to train 600 miles each week. One Saturday night, John came back at 11.30 p.m. from a night out, and wrote only 15 miles in his slot, bringing the grand total to 597 miles. Poor John was immediately ordered out on the road by some fanatic who had stayed in, to rest for the Sunday 21! There is another story about Alex Wight, a very promising marathon runner, having been on a course one week. Unable to train as much as he wanted, he came back one Saturday night and went out for a 15 mile-run! History does not relate which week these miles counted in….)

Studies were not neglected, however, as everyone graduated, with some going on to professorships or substantial roles in business. So strong did the Edinburgh Hare and Hounds club (The Haries) become, that on at least one occasion at the Scottish Universities cross-country championship, they had all the first team athletes home before the first runner from another university; plus seven out of the first eight in the ‘B’ team race! A real highlight came in February 1966, when they won the Hyde Park Relay, which was a highly prestigious race for university teams in the UK. They went on to retain it for the next two years.

Alistair Blamire recalls that Fergus always did the Sunday 21 and also followed the ideas of the great coach Arthur Lydiard. On one occasion, Alastair bumped into Fergus one Wednesday, and he was already up to 75 miles that week. However, he could be secretive about some of his training, not so much with his club-mates, but with rival runners elsewhere, just in case Andy Brown or Ian McCafferty or Lachie Stewart got wind of what he was up to. Alastair got a terrible telling-off when he spilt the beans to (Shettleston runner) Henry Morrison on one occasion.

Certain EU runners had nicknames: Martin Craven was ‘the Crab’; Chris Elson ‘the Bear’; Alistair Matson ‘the Bomb’; Roger Young ‘Bodger’. However Fergus was always ‘the Beast’, presumably because of his ferocious appetite for hard, hundred-mile training weeks. He was the role model; and his dedication and great achievements were emulated by a succession of extremely good Scottish distance runners. If only ‘The Zoo’ could be cloned in every Scottish city nowadays!

His old friend, rival and training companion, Donald Macgregor, remembers that Fergus in his dominant early prime “was very determined and stood no nonsense from others. For example, once when Sandy Cameron opened up a lead on the Sunday run, Fergus called to him “See you back at the house”, which had the effect of stopping Sandy in his tracks. If you were due to train with him, and wanted to call off, you had to let him know beforehand or you were in trouble! He trained very, very hard and was outstandingly consistent, especially on track or road.”

Alistair Blamire was a very fine athlete himself, who certainly considers Fergus Murray as a major influence. Alistair was twice a close second in the Scottish Senior cross-country championships; and in 1971, he finished 11^th and first counter in the marvellous Shettleston Harriers team that shocked the Sassenachs, when they won the English National! He represented Scotland in the ICCU Championship once as a Junior and four times as a Senior; plus once in the IAAF World Cross-Country Championships. On the track he specialised in the 3000m Steeplechase, winning the Scottish title in 1972, setting a Scottish Native record, and representing GB, with a personal best of 8.41.4.

Alistair Blamire remembers that he was a keen follower of athletics while still at school, so Fergus was “a bit (I underestimate) of a hero before I met him. Imagine my ‘Fresher’ excitement when he stopped to talk to me when he was out for a run one day! It wasn’t a coincidence that Edinburgh University had the successes they had when he was there, and for several years after. He was truly ‘The Beast’ when it came to training, but everyone found their own level, based on mileage and fartlek. When he was captain of the ‘Haries’ he produced a wee booklet about training, diet, kit etc – all very innovative. I tried the same thing when I was captain a few years later, and was accused by some so-called runners of forcing them to train too hard! I trained with Fergus once a week later on, and they were always the hardest session I ever did, even though he was probably a little past his peak by then. These sessions were too hard really, but on has one’s pride. For example, at his house, Fergus provided a lunch of tinned stew and potatoes (no veg.); and then insisted on a brutally-tough ten mile run round the Braid Hills! I always felt that Fergus had an, almost mocking, edge over me, and it was a great relief when he wasn’t in the mood from time to time, and I could go at my own pace (while pretending to run as hard as usual).”

In conclusion, Fergus remembers the 1960s as giving great enjoyment, and considers that EU training sessions, while hard were not competitive, with in-built sensitivity to the likelihood that club-mates could well be tired from a session earlier that day or the day before. Fergus’s three summers with Ilford AC greatly helped track performances. He stayed with the parents of Dennis Plater, who also went on to represent GB at the marathon. Work at Fettes did not impinge too much on training but the freedom offered earlier was a thing of the past. The mental effort of hard training, and the realisation that a peak had been reached by the early 1970s, concluded in his development of a wider life-style. Running continued, but a developing enthusiasm for climbing and mountaineering fitted in with absorbing work at a boarding school. This offered a great deal of enjoyment, without the rigours of a demanding training schedule.

Fergus thinks that the highlights included travel, when this was not commonplace, to: Eastern Bloc countries; Japan (3 times); Puerto Rico; Jamaica; Canada; and all Western European countries. Friends from those days were very important and there was never any animosity. They have all stayed in touch and meet up from time to time. The club system then was very strong indeed, and Fergus wonders about the modern era of professionalism. Back then, they never looked upon running as a career, and while having a professional running career nowadays may be okay for an extremely small, very successful number of athletes, he believes that others ought to develop a working career for proper fulfilment.

Three Olympians: Don Macgregor, Lachie Stewart and Fergus Murray at a reunion in April 2012

Fergus Murray – Marathon Career Record

Andrew Robertson was born in Kenya on 25th March, 1957.   His parents were Scottish and his father was a farm manager.   Andy became a Physical Training Instructor with the Army and by 1979 was based at Harrogate where he managed to increase his marathon training considerably.   For the next five years he competed at a very good International level and his fastest marathon (2:14:23)  is still ranked at thirteenth in the Scottish All-Time list.

In 1979 he ran 2:21:51 for ninth place in the Milton Keynes marathon.   The next year he improved this to 2:18:14 in Laredo in Spain and in the same year he also clocked 30:09 for 10000 metres.   1981 started very promisingly when on 25th January, after a close race, Andy Robertson finished second (2:17:20) to the well known and versatile Tipton Harrier Andy Holden )2:16:57) on the Bermuda Marathon.   On the 29th February Andy won the inter-services marathon at Swinderby in 2:19:06.   Then he started building up very seriously for a more important race: the Sandbach marathon in Cheshire on 21st June.   The course was reputed to be fast and flat and over three and a half laps.   Andy had averaged 125 – 130 miles per week in training because he knew he was capable of making a real break-through.   A confidence boost was provided a few days before the marathon, when on 12th June at Aldershot, Andy won over 5000 metres in a ‘big’ personal best of  14:18.06.   Then he eased down for the Sandbach challenge.   The late, lamented, Cliff Temple wrote a colourful, detailed article about the race for the ‘Athletics Weekly’.   He wrote: “The day’s hero was Andy Robertson.”   On a warm sunny day, none fast men had broken away by six miles: Trevor Wright, Graham Laing, Paul Eales, John Caine, Mike Gratton, Ian Ray, Terry Colton, Jim Dingwall – every one an international athlete – and Andy Robertson, who made a decisive move at the end of the first lap at a sponging station.   “While eager hands reached out for soaking sponges, the PTI from the Army Apprentices’ College at Harrogate, put in a sudden burst which took him clear of the rest.   “There was nothing planned,” he explained afterwards, “I just felt so full of running.”

Passing 10 miles in 50:31 Robertson was well over 100 metres clear of the rest and at around 12 miles his lead was 34 seconds.   A tall, lean 60 kg, with a hollow, unshaven face, Robertson gave the impression of a man ready to run away from the rest or die in the attempt.    Behind him the bunch kept together and it still seemed probable that the gaunt leader would be reeled in later on, especially as Robertson was by-passing all the drinks stations which seemed to invite dehydration”.   Jim Dingwall was forced out of the race with muscle trouble before halfway.   Robertson pulled further away and passed 15 miles in 1:15:18.   By 18 miles his lead was well over a minute.   The chasing group was down to four: Colton, Cain, Laing and Ray.   At 21 miles Colton was suddenly gripped by cramp in the calves and had to ease off although he still felt strong.   Cain pushed on alone and cut into the lead significantly, sure that Robertson would suddenly fold up.

“Meanwhile, what of Robertson himself?   Was he thinking he had gone too soon?   ‘It did cross my mind more than once or twice, but once you are committed it has to be eyeballs out all the way.   I hadn’t a clue how far ahead I was because spectators were calling out anything between 100 and 180 yards.   I was trying to stay relaxed, particularly up to 20 miles, then I pushed it again over the last five or six.   I knew they would close on me but I didn’t mind how much as long as I was still in front at the end.”   As he finally turned off the road into the Sandbach Leisure Centre for the approach to the finish, Robertson had little more than 100 metres of his lead left  as Cain charged after him.   But it was enough as he crossed the line 15 seconds ahead in 2:14:23, a personal best by almost three minutes.   Cain knocked 20 seconds off his own best with 2:14:38, while the freshest finisher of the day, Terry Colton, still sliced four minutes off his best with 2:25:11.

They were followed by –

* Graham Laing   in 2:15:29;          * Ian Ray in 2:15:58;          *Trevor Wright in 2:16:58;          * Dave Clark in 2:18:42;          *John Robertshaw in 2:18:56;         Colin Taylor in 2:19:09;       Des Austin in 2:19:21.

Ten under 2:20 and Robertson’s victims included four good Scots – Laing, Clark, Austin and Dingwall

As h had his “first drink since before the race”, Andy Robertson said, “I’d like to run for Scotland in the Commonwealth Games next year, if I can find out what I have to do to qualify.   This is my biggest marathon win so far, although I’ve twice won the Inter-Services Marathon at Swinderby..”      He hopes to have done enough now to claim a place in Britain’s six-man team for the inaugural Eiropean Marathon Cup in Agen, South West France, next September, where the course is apparently even flatter than Sandbach.”

On 2nd August, 1981, Andy Robertson wore the Scottish vest with pride in a track international at Meadowbank versus Denmark and Eire, finishing a solid fourth in the 10000 metres (30:24.61)  in front of an Irishman and a Dane.   Andy was rumoured to have Stirling connections, and by now he ran not only for the Army but also for Spango Valley AC, although not apparently in any major Scottish team events such as the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay, the Road Relay or the National Championships.

Sadly Andy Robertson struggled on 13th September because of an Achilles tendon injury.   Competing for Britain as he had hopes in the European Marathon Cup, he as ninth at 25km but ended up fifty first (and fourth Briton) in 2:27:01.   His team finished seventh.   From the nineteen nations fielding teams, there were 81 finishers, but many dropped out due mainly to temperatures in the seventies and high humidity.

On 31st January, 1982, Andy Robertson repeated his second position in the Bermuda Marathon.   This time he was timed at 2:18:11 behind the very experienced Coventry Godiva Harrier, Colin Kirkham (2:17:28).   Andy followed this on 10th April with third place (2:17:05) over another very fast course in the Westland Marathon at Maasluis, Holland.

Strangely, Andy did not compete in the AAA’s Marathon which was the Commonwealth Games trial on 13th June when Scots (John Graham, Jim Dingwall and Graham Laing) came fourth, fifth and sixth, all in 2:15+.   The result was that John Graham and Graham Laing were chosen for Brisbane and ran very well in October over a very testing, hilly course to finish fourth and seventh in the Games.   By then Andy had gained some consolation on 26th September by  winning the Torbay Marathon in 2:18:21.

His good form continued on 30th January, 1983, when at the third attempt, he fully deserved his victory (2:19:09) in the Bermuda International Marathon.   Then in 1984 he recorded yet another excellent time (2:15:23) in the London Marathon.

There is no mention of Andy Robertson in the 1985 rankings.   His career may have been short but indicates boldness, strength, speed and consistency at an impressive level which would certainly have qualified him to compete with distinction for Scotland in most Commonwealth Games.

We can finish with a report done by Cliff Temple for ‘Athletics Weekly’ in July 1981

                                                                                                  Andy Robertson – Marathon Career Record                                  

The team in Seoul in 1987: Fraser Clyne, John Brown, Sandra Branney and Lindsay Robertson.

Lindsay Robertson is ranked number seven on the Scottish all-time marathon ranking lists with a time of 2:13:30 run in Frankfurt on 25th October 1987.   Only two Scotsmen have run the distance faster since then.   In addition he has run seventeen sub 2:20 marathon races.   He was a member of Edinburgh Athletic Club which was one of Scotland’s strongest road and cross country running clubs of the seventies and eighties.   Among their top men were Jim and Alex Wight, Jim Dingwall in his pre Falkirk Victoria days, Jim Alder, Doug Gunstone, Sandy Keith and several others.   So when Colin reports below that Lindsay was EAC’s top road runner at the time, it is a considerable compliment.   He had a quite remarkable record and maybe more should be known about him.   With this in mind, Colin Youngson has written the following account of Lindsay’s athletic career.

Lindsay Robertson was born on 28th June 1958.   In time he developed into one of Scotland’s very best marathon runners.

At first he represented Edinburgh Athletic Club in the usual cross country and road races including the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay where his debut run in 1979 made an immediate impact – he was fastest on Stage Seven and EAC finished second.   Soon he was given the responsibility of running Stage Six and speeded up rapidly to hold his own in distinguished company.   In fact he raced the longest leg seven times and his club won two more silver medals, in 1982 and 1987.   Undoubtedly EAC rated Lindsay Robertson as their best road runner during this period.

Over the country he seemed less assured but still counted in EAC National Cross Country Championship teams which won gold in 1981 and silver in 1983.

In the Edinburgh to Glasgow 1985

When the time was right Lindsay concentrated on what would be his strongest event – the marathon.  Races such as the Edinburgh to North Berwick had been part of the programme for him – the race was/is a Scottish classic that had been started back in the late 1950’s and it had attracted a fine mix of top Scottish endurance runners (eg marathon champions Harry Fenion, Hugo Fox, Don McGregor) as well as some very good athletes from the North of England (Jim Alder, Terry Rooke)   The distance had originally been 22.6 miles but had changed by the time Lindsay took it on in 1982 to 21.8 miles.   No matter he won in a new record time of 1:50:55 which was over a minute and a half quicker than the next fastest over that course.   He repeated the feat the following year but the record stood.   So by the time he started on the 26.2 miles he already knew a thing or two about long distance road racing.    He was a very determined, hard yet intelligent trainer.   In addition he was quiet, modest and a true Christian with a healthy lifestyle who never ran a poor marathon.

His first Marathon was in Gateshead in 1982 and it was a sub 2:20 – 2:19:18 for fourteenth place to be exact.   He followed this with 2:21:43 for third in Edinburgh then in October it was off to Turin where he ran 2:19:16 to be fourth.   This was his first GB vest  although not quite the ‘full GB’ international kit – it had diagonal stripes but he made up for it with full colours for the European and Worlds in 1985 and 1987.   He remembers that he pulled or tore a muscle at about 10 miles and although feeling that he was running with a straight leg for several miles managed a sprint (he suggests that it was more just running slightly faster!) at the end of the 2:16 time.   The aftermath was that he couldn’t walk properly for some time afterwards.   Fourth place in his first British international in a fast time was some consolation though.   In 1983 there were three very good marathons in Barcelona, London and Edinburgh where he won in 2:21:36.

By March 1984 he was running for a small Scottish team in the Barcelona marathon which featured heat, hills and a huge field of runners with a number of very classy European international athletes at the front.  Totally unfazed, Lindsay finished a very impressive sixth in 2:16:15.   By September that year he had created a new personal best of 2:15:55 by racing away to an easy victory in the Edinburgh Waverley Market Marathon which included an England versus Scotland international.   The report in the Marathon and Distance runner for November 1984 read as follows:

“September 2nd.   EDINBURGH MARATHON.   Lindsay Robertson, Edinburgh Athletic Club, the defending champion and home favourite set a course record and a personal best in winning this year’s Edinburgh Marathon in a time of 2:15:55 (his winning time last year was 2:21:35.   A field of 3,597 runners lined up outside Meadowbank Stadium at 8:30 am on Sunday morning, with light rain making the conditions perfect for the runners.   As the race got underway, a group of four runners were immediately to the fore.   The group contained Lindsay Robertson (EAC), Evan Cameron (Edinburgh SH), Alex Robertson (ESH) and the winner of the first Edinburgh Marathon in 1982, Dave Ellis of Birchfield Harriers.   By the time they had run two miles, this group was 100 yards clear of the next runner with the rest of the field starting to settle into their pace.   As the runners reached Princes Street they were being caught by Brian Emmerson of Teviotdale Harriers.   However, soon after catching the group he was again dropped and they continued to push on.   Lindsay Robertson at this point was doing most of the front running and it was good to see the Scotland squad in a 1,2 and 3 position with Dave Ellis still with the group but not looking very comfortable.   By halfway, Lindsay Robertson and Evan Cameron had broken away from Alex Robertson and Ellis.   It looked certain that one of these two would be the winner as they sped through 16 miles with most of the field quite far behind.   Robertson, still doing most of the front running, started to pull away from Cameron as they ran along Cramond sea front and by 19 miles he had opened a gap on Cameron.   Looking stronger all the time, Robertson pulled further away from Cameron and entered Meadowbank Stadium to a huge roar from the crowd as he sprinted down the finishing straight like a 1500m runner and clocked 2:15:55.   There was a wait of over three and a half minutes for Cameron whose time (2:19:34) was still inside the course record.   Bill Venus of Exeter Harriers pulled through strongly to take third place.   Lindsay Robertson, on winning, is now faced with a dilemma: whether to take advantage of his first place prize, a full expenses paid trip to the New York Marathon, when he is earmarked to compete for Britain in an international event in Czechoslovakia around the same date.” 

By the end of 1985 he was well on his way to his treble victory in the Tiberias Marathon in Israel which he won in 1984 (2:16:28), 1985 (2:15:39) and 1987

(2:16:06).  He had received a personal invitation in 1984 and after running so well,  was invited back for the others – unfortunately he could not run in 1986 because of injury so when he won in ’87 it was ‘run three, won three! 1985 also produced thirteenth in the London Marathon in another personal best of 2:14:59.   A year later he completed the same  race in the same position only four seconds slower.   Now that is consistency!   Sadly, just when he was extremely fit and ready for an even more impressive run in the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, two days before the race he went down with an illness (probably food poisoning).

However he reached his peak in 1987.   In April that year he represented Great Britain in the World Marathon Cup in Seoul, finishing a fine twenty second in 2:15:07.  On the trip he was part of  a Great Britain team – four men, for women – who travelled to Korea to race over the course to be used the following year for the Olympic Games.   Fraser Clyne and Lindsay were in the men’s team and Sandra Branney was the sole Scot in the women’s team.   John Brown the SAAA Treasurer travelled as well as part of a fact finding mission.   They did not travel directly to Korea but lived for four days at the Nihon Aerobics Centre just outside Tokyo which was to be the holding camp for the GB Olympic team.   Described by Fraser Clyne as ‘impressive’, the word seems rather mild when you consider that it had (a) an outdoor synthetic six lane track, (b) a three lane indoor track, (c) the centre is fully equipped with every sort of exercise, medical and physiotherapeutic equipment, (d) a 25 metre swimming pool and jacuzzis, saunas, roller beds and a hydrotherapy unit.   The team were quartered in log cabins set on the wooded hillside.   Sounds ideal but apparently there was little in the way of off road training for the distance runners.    After the four days there, they transferred to the Sheraton Walker Hotel in Seoul.   Sandra ran well to finish twenty sixth and be a counter in the women’s team which was fifth.    In the men’s race, the race was won by Ahmed Saleh in 2:10:55 from Taisuke Kodama in 2:11:23.   The team finished eight with Dave Long first home in 20th place (2:15:04) just ahead of Lindsay who was only eight seconds outside his personal best.   He had been 79 seconds behind Long at 35 kilometres but finished very strongly and in fact his final 2 kilometres is reported to have been faster than Saleh’s.   Fraser Clyne was forty seventh.

Then on 25th October he won the Frankfurt Marathon in a superb 2:13:30 which makes him sixth fastest Scotsman ever for the distance.   An amusing anecdote about this race is that the owner of a bar had put up a prize for first man at 10K.   Lindsay did not know this but was determined to stick with the leaders no matter what.   So he followed a runner who turned out to have the sole aim of winning this prize.   Running flat out, Lindsay looked over his shoulder to see the European bronze medallist and the rest of the pack miles behind!   However his impressive stamina allowed him to hang on for an excellent victory.

Lindsay running in the Frankfurt Marathon in 1987

In all he ran no fewer than seventeen sub-2:20 marathons (not far behind Don Macgregor’s 25) during a short but extremely impressive career.   These are included in the table below.

A Great Picture!

Lindsay Robertson – Marathon Career Record  

Several of the top marathon men not only in Scotland but around the world started their marathon career only after a background involving lots of conditioning and then a period of fast running on the track – Allister Hutton for example.    Lawrie Spence must be among the best ever Scottish examples of this pattern.    Starting as a boy in Greenock Glenpark Harriers and based in the South West District of the Cross Country Union he won the District title every year from first year Senior Boy through to Senior Man and then went on to win the West District Senior Championship three times after his move to Shettleston Harriers.   He also medalled in every age group in the National Championships – the only other marathon runner to do so was Mike Ryan who was third in the Mexico Olympics marathon in 1968.   In addition he ran for the Junior Scottish team in the last Cross Country International in 1972 and for the Senior team no fewer than eight times   He also took over from Jim Alder as the Scottish Team Captain.   These are summarised in the table below: the first three columns are the Cross Country titles won, the second three columns (in blue) detail the International appearances.   (As in all tables in this section, placed runs in championships such as his second in the Scottish Junior Cross in 1969 and medals in team races have been omitted as there are so many of them).

His track history built on this and is no less illustrious.   Most track runners would have been happy to be in one Scottish all time list at their specialist distance but Lawrie is in no fewer than six.   He has also won track championships at Scottish level: The SAAA Junior 1500 metres title in 1972 in 3:57.8; the SAAA Senior 1500 metres title in 1973 in 3:47.6 and in 1975 in 3:47.3 ; the SAAA 5000 metres title twice in 1978 in 13:45.0 and again in 1981 and the 10000 metres title three times in 1982 in 29:38.1, 1983 in 28:38.9 and 1984 in 29:18.3.   Although not winning a UK title he won silver in 1983 and bronze in 1981 for 10000 metres.   In 1971 he was ranked top Scot for 3000 metres in 7:52.82.

Let’s have a  look at his appearances in the Scottish All Time Best Performances list.   I can’t think of another Scottish marathon man who has run sub four for the Mile.   He also held the Scottish record for 2000 metres with 5:20.8 which he set at Airdrie in 1975 and then lowered to 5:12.8 in 1976 at the same venue.   His current pb (set in Belfast when beating Rod Dixon the 1972 Bronze 1500 metres and 1983 New York marathon winner in a new All Ireland record of 5:03.8) although not eligible for a Scottish Native Record is actually faster than Frank Clement’s record of 5:03.5 set in 1978.   In addition his 10000 metres time noted below is only 0.15 seconds slower than Lachie Stewart’s record of 1970.   A track pedigree to be eminently proud of!

The table summarises the personal bests and their all time rankings in Scotland and England – I have added the marathon best and the asterisk at the GB Marathon ranking indicates that it was arrived at by adding one to the UK Athletics rankings which stopped at position 151 on 2:16:00, just stopping short by one second of Lawrie’s mark    Positions as at the start of April 2010.   Lawrie’s own story of the Sub-Four Mile can be read at the SATS website – www.scotstats.com – just visit the site and go to the BLOG  section.

The bare bones of his marathon career are as follows:   He ran five marathons in all over a three year period.   He ran his first marathon in Glasgow in 1983 where he hit the wall and walked in to finish in 2:42:12 but the following year got it right when he finished third in 2:16:01 having learned the lesson of the previous year.   In 1985 he started with an excellent 2:19:11 (fifth in Scotland and fifty eighth in the UK) which he set in Perth, Western Australia.    His faster marathon was in Orange County, Los Angeles when he ran 2:15:03 but the course was never certified and ended up being a one off event and so doesn’t count!   By 1986 he had it down to 2:17:01 which he set in London and brought him up to number five in Scotland for the year.

***

Having found the Scottish Marathon Club questionnaire very useful in the past, I used IT to put some questions to Lawrie about his running career  and specifically about his marathon running. His replies are below in italics.

How did you get into athletics in the beginning and were you coached?

I was coached by my brother Jim who took me from the boys’ age groups through to senior international level..   During the break through years I was lucky to have Lachie Stewart as a mentor which gave me a great foundation in the sport.  In the early eighties I had a spell with Stan Long who was Brendan Foster’s coach but due to him being based down in Gateshead, the distance proved to be difficult before the age of our modern communications like email and mobile phones.   As time went by I became more in control of the detail of what was in the sessions and what the  plans were to be, but always keeping Jim as a rock in my training.   I do believe that you do have to have somebody at the different stages of your athletic career, and also others, almost a team for example to play the ‘good cop/bad cop’ when reviewing your performances and help to modify what is working and what is not.   As I am now a coach myself, I try to be an athletes coach and not a coach of athletes, using my own experience to help them develop and minimise their mistakes.

A jump now to the marathon years.   Why did you run the first one – was it your own idea, were you talked into it, or what?

As I progressed through the events of the 1500m, 5000m and 10000m the marathon was always a natural move for me and it was just a question of when I was going to do it.

Do you  think you came to the event too early, too late or just at the right time in your career?

I don’t think I would have wanted to try the marathon any earlier than I did.   Even when I did, on reflection, I don’t think I ever fully committed myself to the event in that I wanted to still be able to compete on the track and therefore never did the miles of running that would maybe have allowed me to perform better and not suffered the aftermath of the recovery phase.   I do have the thought of what really could my pb really have been?   I know I underperformed in the marathon.  

What did you think was your best race (not always the same as the fastest)?

As stated earlier, I don’t think I ever had a best one but my second Glasgow after having to walk the finish for my first one, gave me the most satisfaction as I was able to run it the whole way in 2:16:01 finishing third and first Scot and getting an engraved crystal vase for my efforts!

My most enjoyable trip to one was to Perth, Western Australia.   The reason for the trip was to go with my wife Ann to see my old training companion Duncan McAuley (who ran for Cambuslang when he lived in Scotland before emigrating) and his wife Fi..      We had spent many a session together and run together.   His help in sessions was invaluable in my development and thereafter in my racing performances.   That’s one of the best things about our sport: the friendships that you build up which last for ever – and they are “real” friends.   Trevor Wright, the English internationalist, was racing and he also had his wife Rosemary (maiden name Stirling) who won gold for Scotland over 800 metres in the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh but who was not running in the marathon.  

It always amazed me who I met throughout the world when I travelled to races.   It was great to catch up with them.  

he race in Perth ended up a disaster at about the 19 mile mark in a pack of five when I went to grab my drink bottle from the tables, one of the other athletes also crossed, caught my heels and I fell skinning my arms and knees.   I then did the classic of getting up too quickly and chasing after them like a bat out of hell as they had put the boot in when they saw me go down.   I got back on to the back of the pack but was feeling uncomfortable as I sat for a while but the break was on after my fall and I then drifted off the back running on my own, feeling very sorry for myself with my grazed knees and elbows.   It ended up being a long run back to the finish but passing one who was in a worse state than me to move up to fourth in the race but dropping valuable time which would have given me a PB over a hilly but very scenic course along the Swan River in Perth.  Mind you, I did beat Trevor!

What was your worst?

It must be my first one in Glasgow.   I hit the wall at 22 miles and was reduced to a walk and finished in 2:42.   This international track runner who had been able to race half marathons well was caught out and given the message that the marathon is a unique event and demands respect.   But I did finish the race as that was my whole make-up as an athlete – never drop out but finish and take it on the chin as you take the plaudits when you do well!

Can you give some idea of your training?

It was very much on 10,000 metres training with the speed sessions, fartlek runs and hill work depending on the time of year.    My belief was, and still is, if you train slow then you race slow and vice versa.   I increased my Sunday runs to over two hours and also tried to learn to take on water.   The problem was being able to bring the pace down  in these runs and not overcook and pay the penalty.   I also increased the mileage in my other runs (not sessions) during the week and was hitting about 120 miles per week. 

Finally, what have you got out of running?

Belief in myself, never lose your confidence and take the knocks and get on with it!   I left school at 15 with no formal qualification and at best was getting a craft job in the Shipyards but through running giving me confidence in myself (I was one of the top boys in Scotland at the time) and learning the discipline of training I was able to go to night school and then day release and so able to get the qualifications to go to Strathclyde University, which in turn allowed me the opportunity to have a successful work career.   Through hard work and dedication to the lifestyle and getting the success this brought with it, I moved onwards and upwards as a person.  

In terms of career development and as a model for any young athlete, Lawrie’s career development can’t be bettered.   I knew and raced against his brother Jim (and know George and Cammy as well) and it is good to see the effect he has had on Lawrie’s career.   Jim himself won many races and was Scottish Marathon Club Champion in his own right.    But having said all that and being an admirer of all that Lawrie has done, the marathon enthusiast in me can’t help saying “If only …”

Bill winning the SAAA Marathon Championship in 1969 at Meadowbank

I met Eddie Knox of Springburn in the Cowgate in Kirkintilloch many years ago.    Eddie had won the Junior International Cross Country Championship and was a multi title holder in every age group from Under 15 up.   He had just come back from a race for a small Scottish team in Hannut in Belgium and couldn’t get over the fact that a Scotsman over the age of 40 had beaten him!   The veteran Scotsman was Bill Stoddart who came to most people’s attention when he won the 1969 SAAA Marathon Championship from the unfinished Meadowbank Track.   The race was used as a trial for the route to be used for the Commonwealth Games marathon in 1970 and a good field was forward for the event including Donald Ritchie, Jim Wight, Hugh Mitchell, and various others.

‘A Hardy Breed’ covered the race as follows; “The runners covered one lap of the track and left to the cheers of a few workmen since spectators were banned from the site.   Donald Ritchie also took part and shared the early lead with Bill Stoddart.   The course was Restalrig Avenue, Joppa, Musselburgh, Seton Level Crossing, Longniddry and the Chance Inn Bridge where competitors turned for home.   At three miles they were joined by Jim Wight (Edinburgh AC) who later became an international marathon runner.   Police, motor cycles, patrol cars. ambulances and carloads of officials shadowed the runners through the city streets and out over the country course. However, by five miles Donald felt the side of his right foot burning and nipping but decided to press on.    Jim lost contact on a hill at seven miles.   Bill put in an effort before 10 miles and passed that mark six seconds clear in 54:10.   Donald’s foot was now giving him great pain so he stopped at eleven miles to investigate.   A three inch blister on the sole had burst.   Even Donald could not restart and had to return to the stadium in an ambulance.   He had modified a pair of EB racing shoes to reduce weight and increase breathability.   That is, he had cut holes in them, succeeding only in decreasing stability allowing excessive foot motion and friction -and disaster.

Bill Stoddart in more recent years has become a veteran multi world record holder and champion in track and cross country as well as the marathon.   In 1972 at the age of 41 he recorded 2:21:18.   He reports that back in 1969 he was a 38 year old teacher of maths and physics at Reid Kerr Technical College in Paisley.   Six weeks earlier he had been silver medal winner in the SAAA Track 10 Miles so he was in good form.   However only a fortnight before the Scottish Championship he had run his first 26 miler in the Shettleston event starting too fast and fading over the last two miles.   Perhaps he would learn better pacing for this championship.   At halfway (at Spittal, East Lothian) he swung round a policeman guarding a bollard first in 70:40. followed by Alistair Matson (Edinburgh Southern) and Hugh Mitchell (Shettleston) in 73:15.   Then came Gordon Eadie (Cambuslang), Jim Wight and Jim Irvine (Bellahouston).   Bill found the head wind on the way back refreshing on a hot and humid day, but the course seemed boring with long straights to endure.   Still, ‘when you win, what does it matter?’   At 23 miles, out on his own, climbing the hill to the stadium, Bill remembers that ‘Willie Fulton, the time keeper was shouting out my time, which I couldn’t hear  since I was a bit light headed by then.   I vaguely remember shouting back to Willie not to bother with my time but would he please tell me (as in the song) the miles to Dundee.’

Bill Stoddart’s winning time was 2:27:25, second was Hugh Mitchell in 2:31:30 and third was Peter Duffy (Motherwell YMCA) in 2:37:04.

Bill’s career as a marathon runner went from strength to strength and it will be covered soon but I’d like to tell for the first time that he was almost the subject of a protest and possible disqualification on the day.   All the officials for the Commonwealth Games Marathon were having their first ‘dry run’ and were assigned to their places well in advance.   I was part of the team at Fisher Row in Musselburgh who were to serve the drinks to the runners.    When Bill passed a car stopped at the side of the road and gave him his drink – it had not been approved and sent out to us before the race started.   The chief steward was all for reporting the incident and having ‘action taken.’   Fortunately we managed to change his mind.

1969 was a very good year for Bill.   He had two marathon times in the Scottish Rankings: 2:27:25 at Meadowbank placed him tenth Scot and was the fourteenth time by a Scot that year; he also recorded 2:29:16 at Manchester on 20th July.   The faster time placed him at number forty six in the UK; At ten miles his time of 50:55 placed him at number two in Scotland and thirteenth in the UK; he was also number three at Six Miles in Scotland.   There was no way that anyone could regard his run in the marathon as a freak performance.   Earlier in the year he had won the Scottish South West Cross Country title for the first time leading Wellpark to victory in the team race and in 1970 he competed for Scotland in the world championships.   In looking at the rankings you must remember of course that it was at a time when British and Scottish endurance running was at a real peak with Don McGregor, Jim Alder, Alistair Wood, Fergus Murray, Ian McCafferty and Lachie Stewart were all running and in the wider British scene there were athletes like Ron Hill, Mike Freary, Bill Adcocks and Tim Johnston we  all performing exceptionally well.

His next medal in the Scottish championships was in 1971.   Clyne and Youngson again: “Bill Stoddart remembers that “torrential rain greeted us as we prepared to warm up for the race and people could be seen dashing for cover.   In a matter of minutes we were running round splashing like ducks in a pond!”   In fact the weather was so bad that the officials were forced to abandon (temporarily) the SAAA Track and field championships while the road runners squelched onwards dourly.   It was ever thus from a marathoners point of view – ‘track fairies.’   After six days of training totalling 58 miles, Pat Maclagan remembers starting  the race through standing water in his Onitsuka Tiger shoes with added foam padding under the tongue, and heel pads.   Since he did not wear socks he had  also taped the soles of his feet.   Unfortunately the soaking dislodged a piece of tape to his considerable discomfort.   Pat recalls complaining about this to Don McGregor who replied callously or helpfully, “Why don’t you stop and take your shoe off, then?”   Instead Pat spent some time trying to manoeuvre  the offending  tape between his toes so it became no longer a problem.

Bill thinks that no one was keen to take the pace due to the depressing conditions so he led for most of 22 miles,   By then Donald Ritchie had dropped back as had Don McGregor  and Willie Day (Falkirk Victoria Harriers) had come through.   According to Pat, Bill and Willie tried to get away at this point but he hauled them back.   Bill remembers Pat “speeding past ” me as if I was going backwards and he didn’t even say ‘Hello'”.   Or indeed ‘Goodbye’.   Pat Maclagan won by two minutes in 2:21:17 with Bill Stoddart second in 2:23:31 and Willie Day third in 2:26:07 – good times considering the weather.

***

This year he was eleventh in the Scottish rankings for the marathon, seventh in the one hour track run with 18,900m 11 ml 1309 yards, ninth in the ten miles track and twenty second in the 10000 metres with 31:12.6.   The times and distances are remarkable and only indicate how high the standard was at the time – in 2010 he’d certainly be in the top two or three.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The best summary of his career that I have come across is this article from the ‘Scotland’s Runner’ magazine in November 1992 outlining Bill’s career to that point.

NEVER TOO OLD TO STRIKE GOLD

Margaret Montgomery talks to Bill Stoddart in the wake of his gold medal winning performance at the veteran world road racing championships in Birmingham

With a spritely and alert demeanour which belies his 61 years and semi retired status, Bill Stoddart appears every inch the world veteran champion.   Watching him greet non athletic contemporaries at his regular training haunt – Battery Park in Greenock – the impression of a man with an unusual degree  of zest and vitality for his years is even more pronounced.   While Bill jogs along with easy grace, those he bumps into are either slowly walking their dogs or watching the activities of boats on the Firth of Clyde from the comfort of a park bench.   his particular lunchtime however Bill was to join the ranks of the park bench pensioners.   Taking an hour or so off from a fairly hectic daily training schedule, he managed to sit down long enough to talk about his latest athletic accomplishments and share the goals he has set himself for the coming year.   Fresh from the recent world veterans road race championships where he struck gold in both the over 60’s 10K and25K, Stoddart is presently on the crest of a wave.   Even by his own very exacting standards he has just achieved something rather special.   “I really wanted to pull off the double”, he explains, “Although I’ve come first and second in these events in a single championships, I’ve never won both at once before.”   Stoddart’s preparation for double gold was long and arduous.   Despite his comparatively advanced years, he was putting in between 70 and 80 miles a week in the run up to Birmingham.   On top of that he was racing every other week and doing the equivalent of another five miles a day deep water treading in a local swimming pool.

“I’ve used deep water treading as part of my training for around three years now,” Stoddart confesses.   “I started it in my late fifties and my times have got faster every year since.   It’s a tremendous thing.  It works your cardio-vascular system, tones muscles and prevents shock.   People tend to use it when they’re injured but I’d recommend using it as an everyday training aid.”   Bill’s performance in Birmingham rounded off a highly successful season for the Greenock man.   At Arbroath in June he achieved a world best in his age group for the half marathon with 75:53, while in August he did, to all intents and purposes, the same thing in the 10K when he clocked 34:51.   This however has still to be ratified.   With the world ten mile best in the same age group already lodged under his belt (at East Kilbride and Lanarkshire 10 mile road race in August 1991 he clocked a formidable 57:43) Stoddart’s remaining target is an Over 60 world best in the marathon.   This he hopes to have acquired by the end of the year.  “I clocked 2:49:53 at the Inverclyde Marathon last year,” he says  “I’ve got 2:42 to beat but I’m fitter this year than I was in 1991 so I think I’m capable of the low forties.”   Whether or not Bill does achieve his marathon goal by the end of the year, he won’t be short of accomplishments to list on his athletics curriculum vitae.   Stoddart has won Scottish and British titles in all veteran’s age groups, Scottish titles in distances from 1500 metres up to the marathon and the British in distances of 10000 metres and upwards.   Meanwhile on top of this Stoddart has the distinction of being the only man to have held world bests in all veteran age groups, these being in distances of 5K and upwards.

It all adds up to a remarkable career.   What makes it all the more outstanding however is that it hasn’t been developed on the back of an equally glittering senior career.   Although he competed as a senior, representing Scotland a number of times along the way, it is only since turning 40 that he has become what is euphemistically known as a world beater.   Stoddart puts his ‘late development’ down to the fact that he was too much of an all-rounder in his early days to concentrate solely on one sport.   A county standard table tennis player and a keen junior football player, he only began running ‘for fun’ when he was called up for National Service in 1952.

“I was stationed with the RAF in the Black Forest for two years,” he recalls, “the choice was either to become an alcoholic or a sportsman.   I decided I’d rather become a sportsman.   I started doing cross country running every Wednesday and eventually became good enough to win a place in the RAF combined team.   I suppose I got a taste for running at this time but it was very much a leisure pursuit.   I still saw football and table tennis as my main sports.”   By the time Bill returned to civilian life he was 23.   His appetite for running whetted, he joined Greenock Wellpark Harriers to which he has remained loyal ever since.

Throughout his twenties and most of his thirties, Bill by his own admission was no more than a good club runner.   Training just twice a week and competing in only the odd cross country, mile and half mile, he was devoting most of his energy to building up his career as a draftsman while also pursuing his old loves of table tennis and football.   Running was not high on his list of priorities and perhaps would have stayed that way had it not been for a change of lifestyle and a chance meeting at the national cross country championships when he was in his late thirties.   “I met up with Andy Brown who I’d known was in the RAF,” Bill explains.   “I’d just come twenty fifth in the national which was quite good, all things considered.   Andy came over and said I should concentrate on my running and that if I did I’d make the Scottish team.”

As it turned out he was right.   Brown gave Stoddart a training schedule.   Bill who had just entered further education for the first time and had more time on his hands than he was used to, duly complied by following it assiduously.   Table tennis and football were finally dropped and before long he was representing the SAAA in road races and had made the Scottish cross country team, a feat he managed in four successive years from 1969 to 1972.   “I was known as the old man of the team,” says Stoddart, a veteran of 42 during his last year in the team.   In making the national team at this late juncture in his life. the Wellpark Harrier had what he describes as the ‘great honour’ of being part of one of the greatest ever Scottish cross country teams and attending the World Championships in Vichy.   Among those he travelled to France with were Lachie Stewart, Ian McCafferty, Ian Stewart, Gareth Bryan-Jones and Jim Alder.   It was a team capable of a top three place.   In the end however it failed to place among the medals.   “We got caught up in the strikes that were hitting Paris at the time.   We ended up travelling overnight and were tired before we even started running.   There’s no doubt we could have done better if we had been blessed with better circumstances,” he now says.

Stoddart has also suffered his fair share of injury.   In 1974 while competing in the South West Cross Country Championships, he hot a rock with his spikes and was forced to pull out of the race.   The next week, thinking what was a minor matter had cleared up, he entered another race.   In fact he had fractured an ankle and racing again so soon had turned it into a compound fracture.   Out of training and racing for almost a year as a result of the injury, he gave up ideas of continuing to compete as a senior and began from then on to concentrate on the veteran scene.   “I never got into the County or Scottish team after that injury,” says Stoddart.   “That’s when I seriously started to compete as a vet.”

Although he thinks he might well have achieved more as a senior had he taken running more seriously at an earlier age, Stoddart doesn’t regret the way he’s done things.   “I suppose I thought I had the balance right at the time,” he says.  “There were too many other things to do when I was a young man.   Nowadays it is a lot easier to be concentrated on the one thing.”   Certainly he has packed a lot into his life and has a number of other strings to his bow which might be absent were it not for the fact that he had an all-rounder’s outlook when he was young.   Head of Management and Industrial Studies at James Watt College, Stoddart was one of the first people to complete an Open University degree and can also boast an MA from Strathclyde University in Industrial Relations.   On top of this he is a corporate member of the Institute of Industrial Managers, the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and the British Board of Management.   Other sports related commitments include the post of chairman of the Inverclyde Athletics Initiative and a place on the committee of the Scottish Veteran Harriers Club.

In many ways Bill exudes the qualities associated with old fashioned athletics values.   It is only since a more flexible working life and semi retirement came his way that he has made running a major priority in his life.

“I’ve always worked full time,” says Bill.  “I’ve never made a penny out of my running.”   Although he admits he “wouldn’t say no” to making a small amount from his efforts, Stoddart says he would never go out of his way to look for cash.   The fact that a fair number of the people he beat in Birmingham have subvention funds and are managing to make a living from running as a vet is not enough to change his strongly held beliefs on this matter.   “It’s gone a bit too far,” he says.   “Take Linford Christie and Carl Lewis.   They’re delaying a race until the stakes are high enough.   It’s all gamesmanship and professionalism.   People are obsessed with it.   I remember when people used to be happy to run for a canteen of cutlery or a set of sheets.”   Whatever his views on the sport’s ethics (or lack of them) Stoddart is nonetheless determined to stay with it for as long as he can.   “Till death us do part!” He jokes.

Who knows then what the future could hold for veteran athletics?    I like to think I’ve set standards for others to beat,” says Bill.   “And I hope to go on doing so.”   Now in his sixties, he’s one of the few vets in any age category to have dipped below 76 minutes for the half marathon, 35 minutes for the 10K and 60 minutes for 10 miles.   He’s also getting faster as he gets older.   There would seem to be little doubt that Bill Stoddart could be setting challenging standards for some time to come.

Bill Stoddart Fact File

Date of Birth: May 2, 1931

Club: Greenock Wellpark Harriers

World Bests

10 Miles: 57:43 (East Kilbride and Lanarkshire 10 Mile race, August 1991

Half Marathon: 75:53 (Arbroath Half Marathon, June 1992)

10K: 34:51(SVHC Championships, August 1992)

World Titles

10K and 25K (World Veterans Road Race Championships, August 1992)

Personal Bests

Personal Bests in Current Age Group

Where do these times stand in 2010?   At British level, the half marathon time above still stands as at December 2009 as a British M60 age best but Bill ran an excelleny 18:18 for 5K Road on 18th June 1997 at Lochinch which was and still is a British record for the M65 age group.   It is a sign of the quality of the times that in an era when veterans and masters athletics are being fought out at a higher level than ever before that times set eighteen and thirteen years ago are still top of the lists.

Daily Training Schedule

Morning: Swim, followed by half an hour intensive deep water training

Lunchtime: 40 minutes to an hour easy running and strides.   Usually 6 – 8 miles at most

Afternoon: 4 Mile Run.

(Bill says: “I’m not a scientific runner.   I do ten to twelve miles every day but I’m not obsessed by the stop watch while I’m doing it.   I aim to keep even pace.   Speed work frightens me – at my age particularly it can lead to too many injuries.)

Bill  was universally respected – and liked as well although the two don’t always go together – died in September, 2015 and there was a lot of comment on the various social media platforms.   Fergus Murray circulated the news around his contemporaries and friends who all commented on how they got on with him and the qualities that they realised he embodied.   Typical of many of them was this one from Alistair Matson:

“Hi Fergus,

Thanks for letting me know abut Bill Stoddart. I’ve now read his “Scotsman” obituary online. Although I ran in races with him only in 1968 and 1969, he made quite an impression – not least because he was a good number of years older than us yet did not seem to have any serious running background!    Also, he always seem to run really hard – and hope for the best!   If my memory is correct, in his early road races, he tended to fade after battling with the leaders but gradually stayed with them longer until, of course, he won the Scottish Marathon of 1969 from the under-construction Meadowbank Stadium.   I ran in the Shotts and Dunblane Highland Games 14 mile races on successive Saturdays in Sept. 1968 and while Bill was 6.30 mins behind Lachie Stewart in 6th pos. he had reduced that to just over 5 mins behind Lachie at Dunblane also in 6th!

I ran in what would have been his first marathon – Shettleston, 1969.  It didn’t go exactly to plan and he should have won it convincingly. He was about a minute ahead of me at 20 miles and I was well ahead of the rest including Sandy Keith who won in 2:29:22. Sadly a marshall wasn’t in place to direct Bill and me to turn on to a minor road which eventually rejoined the full loop we covered on the first lap.   I don’t know what Bill’s reaction was when he realised like me that we had run in error the full loop a second time to add more than half mile to the marathon distance!  Personally, I felt very deflated as I probably would have held on to 2nd spot and got a pb.   So the account of that Shettleston in the Scottish Distance Running History web-site doesn’t really reflect Bill’s potential success!

Of course, Bill achieved proper recognition at the Scottish Marathon 6 weeks later when he made light of the torrid conditions on a humid day exacerbated by the fumes from the continuous traffic on the A1.   Although lying 2nd at the turn, I succumbed a few miles from the finish from asthma symptoms related to hay fever.  Bill though from the photo of him finishing looked very sprightly with a well deserved victory.

He was a great guy and I’m sorry I wasn’t in Scotland longer to know him better”

There was an excellent film made of him by the Inverclyde Council which is available on youtube :