Category: Elite Endurance

A year ago Karen MacLeod could only reflect on the talent and fitness that once saw her selected for the Olympic marathon.   One of Britain’s best female marathon runners of the 90’s, Skye born Macleod was in need of a kidney transplant after a long-standing illness became acute.   Her younger sister Deborah was the donor in an operation that took place last May at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.   Now, restored to health, she will be one of the thousands of walkers taking part in the Full Moon Walk – the marathon distance of 26 miles 385 yards – this June.

Raising money for cancer charities is close to her heart.   Her father died of the disease when she was young and her first event – a half-marathon at the age of 22 – was to raise funds for the cause.   It was that race that convinced her that she could run at a higher level and eventually led on to a place in the GB Olympic Games team in 1996 in Atlanta.    Now, at the age of 50, the wheel has turned full circle with her return to fund-raising alongside three friends from the island.   “I started out running charity fund-raisers but that stopped when I got serious about athletics.”   In Georgia in 1996, Macleod – who was running times of around 2 hours 30 minutes – was a team mate of Liz McColgan after selectors placed their faith in her to handle the heat of Atlanta.   She had also run for Britain in World Championships and for Scotland in the 1994 Commonwealth Games.

It was about two years after Atlanta that an alarming dip in running form led her to seek medical help and her kidney problem was diagnosed.   I don’t really know what caused it.   It could have been something to do with training really hard when I had a virus that might have damaged my immune system,” she said.   She gave up athletics at the top level and only continued her running to keep fit while developing her career with the NHS.      She is currently a health-at-work adviser with NHS Highlands in the Ross-shire area.    She gave up running in 2005, but it wasn’t until last year that her kidney problems deteriorated to such an extent that she had to undergo emergency dialysis.   A month later she had the transplant.

I didn’t really acknowledge to myself how bad it was and I got to the stage where I was really poorly and had to have emergency dialysis.   Luckily my sister was already prepared to give me her kidney.   She was adamant that if it had to happen, I should have one of hers.   She would say ‘it’s just plumbing, all they do is take it out and plumb another one in.”    My partner, Angus, really inspired me to have the operation as well.”  

MacLeod says she and her sister, a keen fell-runner, probably broke records in leaving the transplant ward in seven days and four days later respectively.   Five days later they were walking side-by-side in the Skye Half Marathon.   “You are told to get active as soon as possible but a marathon runner probably has a different idea of what getting active means,”  she joked.

Almost a year on and the transplant appears to have gone well.   “So far it’s been great and compared to what I was feeling like, I have a whole new lease of life.”   She is now looking forward to the Full Moon in nine weeks.   “Well I did the half marathon last year so I thought this year I might go the whole hog.   After all the full length marathons, it will be a novelty for me to walk one!”

The above was written and appeared in ‘The Scotsman’ in 2009 and Deborah adds (July 2012), “We’re now four years down the line and life is truly wonderful for both Karen and myself – I’m heading to Skye Torr to do the Glamaig Hill Race with her.   Karen is now coaching a young hill-runner called Hugh Campbell from Skye who  is not a bad marathon runner.”

Karen (2) in the the Scottish Championships in 1989 with Laura Adam (4), Christine Pryce (4) and Sandra Branney (5)

According to the British Olympics records, she is Karen Margaret Anne MacLeod, her height is 5’6″ (168 cm), her weight is 112 lbs (51 kg), she was born in Iringa, Tanzania on 24th April 1958 and she was a member of Edinburgh Athletics Club.   For Scottish endurance running aficionadas she is one of the few Scots to have run in the Olympics (the only woman to have done so apart from from Liz McColgan), runner in two Commonwealth Games and a competitor in the World Championships.   Of course, for some who look for the unusual, she was ‘the athlete sponsored by Runrig, the Gaelic Rock Band from Skye’.   She was married to John Davies , the former Welsh schools and Bath stand-off who became her coach as well as her husband.  To examine her career as an athlete we should maybe examine her personal best times as a measure of her quality.   The rankings are the all-time rankings.

These are very impressive, the more so when you remember that she was running at almost the same time as Liz McColgan and Yvonne Murray and that there have been several athletes who were English/Scottish who were only so for a few years.   Her list of major Games appearances is no less commendable: Commonwealth Games in 1990 (10000m) and 1994 (marathon), World Championships 1993 (marathon) and Olympic Games 1996  (marathon).   And yet there is remarkably little written about her or her running.   For the purposes of this profile I will draw heavily on two articles by Doug Gillon (one from the ‘Scotland’s Runner’ of June ’93 and one for the ‘Herald of 14th August ’93) as well as the usual statistical sites.   It is generally assumed that she was born in the Western Isles but the truth is that she was born at altitude in Tanzania where her father was a government architect and she moved to Skye as a toddler.   “When we there I spoke Swahili and had to learn both Gaelic and English”, she told Gillon, “I only remember a couple of words of Swahili now – enough to say hello to Kenyans and goodbye.”  Karen left Skye at 18 and by 1993 she was a PR graduate of Dunfermline College and also had a degree in English and History and was studying for a post-grad degree in health promotion.

She did not race until the age of 24 and her first race had been the 1982 Bath Half Marathon which she ran shortly after the death of her father to raise funds for cancer research.   “I was a bit of a sloth,” she told Gillon, “I liked my drinking and was not that fit.   I was clueless – ran in a pair of Dunlop green flash and could hardly walk the next day.”   The article goes on to say: ” She met her husband during the Wells Half Marathon later that year.  ‘He’d been following me for some time, then drew level and came out with this corny line about us wearing the same shoes – I’d graduated to a real pair by then.     John decided I should become more competitive.   He reckoned I was a real wimp.   I suppose I was a bit pathetic.   I chased after one rival and told her she had taken the wrong route – then she beat me.   I helped another girl through a stitch – and she beat me too.

John indoctrinated me to the rugby mentality of killing people off – that when people are suffering is when you put the boot in.   I’ve come around now but it’s taken a long time.”    Then there was the horse injury.    In 1983 she was thrown from a horse while pony trekking in the Mendip Hills.   “I’ve never been on a horse since, she said, “On Skye we were used to riding bareback.   If you ever got in trouble you just slid off.   But my foot stuck in the stirrup and I was dragged at the gallop, hanging by my left ankle.   I twisted my pelvis, damaged muscles and suffered sciatic problems.   Being an idiot I kept trying to run.   I developed a very awkward style and it took the physio ages to sort me out.”

Nevertheless, after starting running as reported in 1982, she started winning Scottish titles in 1985: when she won the Scottish 4000m closed cross-country championship in 1984 she beat Yvonne Murray.   She won the same title in 1986  and it was reported briefly in ‘Athletics Weekly’ thus: “SWCCU Championships held at Lochgelly on February 9th and raced over 4000m, the SWCCU ‘closed’ championships resulted in a win for Karen Macleod (EAC) in 16:07 from Penny Rother (EAC) 16:35 and Jean Lorden (ESH) 17:28.”   On the track indoors she won the WAAA Indoor 3000m, also in 1987.   She has also won the Scottish outdoor 3000m on 19th June 1987 in 9:26.61 from Christine Haskett-Price (9:28.72)   “Scotland’s Runner” reported on the race: “A cold and blustery Friday evening and the absence of Murray and Lynch conspired to ensure no fireworks.   But Karen Macleod did a competent job in adding the Scottish title to her UK indoors one.   With two laps remaining she finally broke fellow international Chris Haskett-Price, opening an ever increasing gap by the bell.   Although Chris closed on the final stretch, a last lap of 72.71 seconds was fast enough for Macleod to hold on.”   At the end of 1987 she was ranked tenth in the 1500m with 4:25.89 and eighth in the 3000m in 9:25.50.

 She competed in the last three world cross country championships.  Her victory in the SWCCU Cross-Country Championships in 1987, the ‘Athletics Weekly’ reported as follows:

EASY PICKINGS FOR KAREN MACLEOD

Victory by 24 seconds as Liz Lynch and Yvonne Murray race elsewhere.

Karen MacLeod was racing to an impressive victory in the Scottish Women’s 4 miles cross-country championships at Cowdenbeath on February 22nd.   The Edinburgh AC runner, born in the Western Isles but now living in the Bristol area, stayed with the leaders during the early stages but soon pulled away on a steep uphill stretch of heavy plough and created a gap of nearly 100m which she maintained all the way to the finish.   Despite being badly hirt in a horse riding accident a few years ago, Karen has fought back with such tenacity and courage from the injuries which threatened to terminate her athletics career, that during the past 12 months her successes have included the Scottish ‘closed’ cross-country title in 1986, the WAAA indoor 3000m crown and now her first ever national cross-country championship.”    Further through the article it said that she had, by her victory, gained automatic selection for the World Championships in Warsaw.

The Scottish Championships in 1988 were held at Crown Point Track in Glasgow and on the Friday night of 22nd July she lined up for the start of the 3000m race just as the rain started to fall.   She retained her title though in a race described as follows in “Scotland’s Runner” as follows.   “Fast finishing Alison Jenkins just failed to prevent Karen Macleod from retaining her 3000m title after a spirited sprint up the final straight.   Macleod dominated the race, breaking away from Jenkins, Audrey Sym, Valerie Clinton, Eileen Masson and Christine Price at about 800m and building up a lead of almost 60m before being hauled back in the last lap.   In poor conditions, Macleod’s time was well down on her 1987 Meadowbank clocking of 9:25.61.”   On the following afternoon in the 1500m, Karen was fourth in a time of 4:30.63.   By the end of the year the woman who would turn into one of Scotland’s best ever marathon runners appeared in four ranking lists on the track:   tenth in the 1500m with the time from the Scottish championships, seventh in the 3000m in her time from the evening before and second in the 5000m with a time of 16:26.57.     She had been helped through 1988 by sponsorship from Brooks, the clothing company as reported in the article below.

Karen MacLeod winner of the 1987 Scottish cross-country title, is back racing again following a 16 week lay-off at the end of last year.   Karen, pictured above with Alloa Brewery managing director John MacKenzie and Yvonne Murray after receiving a Skol award.   The injury was a particular setback to Macleod who had enjoyed a sustained spell of success over the previous 18 months including the UK indoor 3000m title and the Scottish track 3000m title.   Now based in Bristol, she and coach John Davies agreed that the entire cross-country season for which the athlete hoped to be bidding for the UK team to go to New Zealand would have to be missed.   However 1988 has started on a brighter note with Karen being signed up by Brooks for shoe, kit and racing sponsorship – her first such deal.   In her comeback race, eight miles over the roads in Wales on January 31st, Karen sliced three minutes off the course record with a time of 44 minutes.   John Davies says the immediate aim is to improve Karen’s 10K road best of 33:26, and then transfer to track 10000 metres.   He is also keen to dispel rumours that Karen is looking for a new coach!

(From ‘Scotland’s Runner in Mid-1988)

At the start of 1989, Karen was tenth in the International Cross-Country race at Gateshead and the summer season saw further improvements in track running with end of season bests of 3000m fifth placing with 9:22.96 and 5000m third with 16:10.98.   The 10000m was a strange one – in September the rankings had her top with a time of 33:00.00e, two months later she was top with 33:17.8 from Sandra Branney (33:40.2).    However that may be, Karen was continuing to improve and was set to retain her title over 3000m in the SWAAA Championships in July 1989.   The race report reads: “Defending Champion Karen Macleod was the early front runner in this seven and a half event, closely followed by main rivals Sandra Branney and Laura Adams,   By the 1000m mark, the field was well stretched out with the front runners emphasising their lead.   With two laps to go Branney and Adam took up the running with Adam stretching away to build a lead of 15m over Branney with Macleod a further 5m behind.   In the final lap Laura Adam was striding comfortably and building on her lead all the time.   With 250m to go, Karen LacLeod relieved Sandra Branney of her second placed position and made for home.   At the end of the race, Adam had built up a lead of 50m over second placed Macleod who was 10m ahead of Branney.”   

Laura Adam leads Karen, Christine Price and Sandra Branney

Domestically she was outshone only by Murray and McColgan although her distances tended to be more from 5000m upwards which meant that McColgan was her only real domestic rival.   And so it was internationally with all her appearances at major Games being at 10000m and marathon.    Having set her lifetime best of 33:17.88 in Oslo on 1st July 1989, her first Commonwealth Games was over the same distance in 1990 in Auckland, New Zealand, where she was eleventh in 34:24.71.   Again the race was not without mishap: She broke ribs in the final, thumped by a flying elbow and finished the race in agony before being hospitalised.   In the 1990 rankings, she was second in the 5000m with 16:20.59 and second in the 10000 with 34:24.71.

In 1991 she broke 14 course records at distances between 10K and the half marathon and was second in the Great Scottish Run.   The report on the race, held on September 22nd reads: “In the women’s race Scotland’s Karen MacLeod, attempting Olympic qualification in the marathon in Italy on October 27th, came second, never really trying to make any impression on the winner and leader throughout, Andrea Wallace.   ‘I ran with Andrea’s husband – I decided that was the next best thing,’ Macleod laughed.   ‘I suppose I’m not particularly pleased with the time, but it’s not bad for that type of day.’   MacLeod’s time of 74:22 was 73 seconds outside her personal best.   The Skye born woman, who represented Scotland over 10000m at the Auckland Commonweath Games said she was helped to the distinction of being the first Scottish woman home by the sound of the bagpipes wafting from the finishing line at Glasgow Green.   ‘They helped me pick up my pace,’ she said.   ‘I was just praying the rhythm didn’t slow down before I crossed the finish.’   In the Scottish track rankings that year she was fourth in the 10000m with 33:56.2 behind Liz McColgan (30:57.07), Annette Bell (33:30.0) and Bicki Vaughan (33:46.1).   As for the Italian marathon in November, it was not a success.   The headline was ‘Macleod Frustration.’ and the short article read as follows: “Karen MacLeod-Davies clocked 2:37:48 in Carpi, Northern Italy despite suffering badly from cramp after reaching 30k in 1:49.   “That first bit was like a 20 mile training run, but after the cramp, I had to walk and jog the final six miles.   It was really frustrating,” said the former national track and cross-country champion who finally finished twelfth.   Her biggest upset was being on course for the Olympic qualifying time of 2:35 and she is now resigned to not making the Barcelona team.   She may now go on to tackle the Houston marathon in January of next year.’

1992 being Olympic year, resigned as she said to missing out on the trip to Spain, she ran 71:45 for a half marathon in Lisbon in January and turned in a time of 2:41:35 for the London Marathon in April but then collapsed at the finish, later finding out that she suffered from a serious iron deficiency.  By the time of Doug’s article in “Scotland’s Runner” she had won three marathons and with a pb of 2:34:30 at that point, plus a course record of 53;40 in the Tom Scott Road Race, she was in superb form but did not appear anywhere in the official rankings for the year.

In 1993, described as a ‘Salford-based Scottish woman’ when she won the Bristol half-marathon in 75:00, she was running as well as ever again – witness the following performances from a woman who was now in the WV35 category.

By August 1993 Karen was selected for   the World Championships in Stuttgart and her record was impressive: she had started in five marathons and won three – in Majorca (9th December 1990 in 2:38:45), Bordeaux (26th May 1991 in 2:38:06) and Seville (21st February 1993 in 2:34:20).   These were all run in hot conditions such as those she was expecting in Germany and it was reasonable to expect a top ten finish. where she was sixteenth in 2:41:46 and the Seville time ranked her 120th in the world.    It was about this time that her connections with the Gaelic band Runrig was made public.   “The Gaelic Rock Band Runrig will be Karen Macleod’s inspiration tomorrow morning as she runs for Britain in the marathon at the World Championships in Stuttgart.   As she heads for the start, the auburn-haired Edinburgh Athletic Club woman will play her favourite Runrig tracks on her cassette player, suitably titled numbers like Protect and Survive (Once in a Lifetime), Always a Winner and The Final Mile.   And as she races, songs of the appropriate tempo will run through her head helping maintain her rhythm.   Macleod grew up on Skye where she and her sister Deborah were staunch fans long before Runrig became a national institution, when they played to fewer than 50 fans in a tiny hall in Skeabost.   But the inspiration goes much deeper than that for Karen’s sister is married to Runrig star Rory MacDonald who writes most of the band’s material.   In fact they had planned to be in Germany to support her but Rory’s mother is ill at home in Lochmaddy and they decided not to travel.”

Her second Commonwealth Games was in Victoria, Canada, on 27th August 1994 and her build-up included a lot of fast under distance racing.   In March, she went to Alphen in Holland where she was tenth in the 15,000 m road race in 52:11; in April it was 10 miles in New York where she won in 55:41 and second in the Trevira Twosome in New york.   The ‘Herald’ reported it as follows: “Karen Macleod, already selected for the Commonwealth Games marathon this year, removed any doubts about her fitness yesterday in New York where she lined up with Kenyan steeplechaser William Mutwol to win the Trevira Twosome in Central Park.   The race is based on the aggregate times of a man and a woman both covering 10 miles.   Despite thunderstorms and pelting rain and hail, Macleod covered the distance in 55:04, the fifth fastest woman’s time of the day.   Allied to Mutwol’s 47:10 it brought their team overall victory.   “Everything is on schedule and Karen is running well,” said her coach anmd husband John Davies last night.”  In June there were two 10,000m track races -at St Denis in France where she ran 33:34.85 on the tenth and 34:05:00 at Meadowbank on the twenty fifth to win the SWAAA championship.   It all paid off in the Games marathon where she was an agonising fourth in the marathon in what would prove to be her best ever time for the distance of 2:33:16  – still the sixth best ever by any Scotswoman.   After the Games on 2nd October in Thessaloniki, Greece Karen was second in in a 20000m in 70:45 and her best half marathon of the year was 73:52 in Stroud where she repeated her victory of the year before.   As a result of the Commonwealth Games race, her world ranking had moved up to 86th, a considerable improvement on the previous year.

In 1995 she was top in two events, second in three and third in another Scottish domestic ranking list in races – her six top times were in six different countries with a racing season that lasted from 15th January to 3rd December!

The peak of any athlete’s career has to be competing in the Olympic Games and Karen attained that honour in 1996 when she went to Atlanta in the United States with Liz McColgan to run in the marathon.   Again there was a lot of fast racing in the months leading up to the Games.  Her fastest marathon of the year turned out to be in Houston on 21st January when she was seventh in 2:33:50 but before that there was a whole series of good runs including winning a 10K at Bourton in Gloucestershire in 33:27 in February, 55:34 to win the 10 miles at Ballycotton in Ireland, she won the 5 miles road race in Nailsea in late June in 27:27 and in Atlanta before the Games she ran a half marathon in 75:55.  She also won the Isle of Skye half marathon in a new record time of 1:22:21.  In the Games however, there was a big field and a very good field and Liz was sixteenth  with Karen forty fifth in 2:42:08 and Suzanne Rigg (the remaining GB runner) fifty eighth.

Although Karen never ran as a veteran or in any veterans events, she is listed in the Scottish Athletics Yearbook as having run 16:59 for 5K on the road (she would have been 39 then) , 36:08 for a 10K and 17:17.2 for 5000m on the track.   A final note – on 14th July 2008, a Karen MacLeod ran in the Isle of Skye Half Marathon as a FV 50+ where she finished 250th in 2:49:50.   Was it the same Karen MacLeod?   Yes, it certainly was – and it was only four weeks following her kidney transplant operation!   A quite remarkable feat and possibly as good as any run she had ever done.   Karen and her sister Deborah are now keen advocates for organ donation and feel that more people should be aware of the programmes.   Read about the transplant via  this link.

In short, a first class athlete, perhaps a bit unfortunate to be running at the same time as Liz and Yvonne – but her record, both competitive and in terms of times, was first class and is one of only two Scottish women to have raced in the Olympic marathon

John Myatt running in Strathclyde University colours in the Hyde Park Relays, 1968

Colin Youngson has written the profile of John’s career below and it gives an excellent overview of just how good he was.   What follows is a more detailed look at his running on a year by year basis with the final years after 1972 being condensed a bit.   

John Myatt ran for Strathclyde University, Law and District AAC, Wirral AC from 1970 – 73 and Gateshead from 1974 – 86.   Between 1967 ad 1971 he produced the following track times:   one mile – 4:12.1;   5000m – 14:39.4;   10000m – 30:54;   ten miles – 50:23.    In addition he ran the Maxol Marathon in 2:21:57.

However John Myatt’s main strength was undoubtedly in cross-country running.   In 1967 he finished third in the Scottish National Junior Cross-Country Championship behind Eddie Knox and Alistair Blamire.   Myatt ran for Scotland in the ICCU Junior Championships at Barry in Wales finishing nineteenth.   Then in 1968, having won the Midland Junior Cross-Country,  John showed even greater speed when he won a gold medal in the Scottish Junior on Hamilton Racecourse, defeating the reigning ICCU and Scottish Junior Champion, Eddie Knox of Springburn Harriers.

In 1969, having won the Midland Senior title, John made an outstanding debut in the Scottish Senior National at Duddingston finishing in fourth place.   In 1970 he was third in the Midland event but led Strathclyde University to the team title. His team -mate Innis Mitchell says “John was quite a private person and a very conscientious student and athlete.   He did most of his training on his own but worked hard as Strathclyde captain (and fastest runner) to encourage improvement in others.   As well as winning the Midland, Strathclyde won the most improved team medal in the 1967 E-G, and finished a very creditable third at the prestigious Hyde Park Relays (6-man team).   John’s family lived in Calais while he was at University and after he graduated he married Christiane from France, whom he had been courting for some time, unknown to his Scottish mates.   He also had a talent for eating curries – the only person I ever knew who could consume two of Glasgow’s hottest vindaloos at the same sitting!”

 John was only twenty second in the National that year but in 1971 improved to fifth.   In the 1972 National John Myatt was seventh, a place he repeated in 1973.   He also ran well in this event in 1974 (sixteenth), 1978 (eighth) and 1980 (fifteenth).   Overall, John Myatt was marvellously consistent and thoroughly explored his talent over the country.   John was selected to run for the Scottish Senior team in the International Championships four times, but unfortunately illness prevented his participation in 1969 (Clydebank) and 1971 (San Sebastian). However in 1972 (Cambridge) he finished in 76th place; and in 1973 (Waregem, Belgium) he was 83rd. In addition he was chosen as a reserve in 1968 and 1978.

Law and District were not very strong at this time, although eventually Douglas Frame developed into a fast man, but John Myatt showed his ability as a road runner in the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay.   He ran five in succession for Strathclyde University, mainly on the hardest stages – Two or Six.   In 1968 he was allowed the luxury of the first stage and promptly finished first setting a course record time of 26:50.   Strathclyde’s best team position was sixth in 1970.   After that John Myatt was loyal to Law and District running the E-G for them six times until 1980.   Once again he was landed with Two or Six and his team’s best finishing place was tenth in 1974.

John running in Elgoibar, 1973

We can take a more detailed look at John’s cross-country running career in Scotland from the pages of the ‘Glasgow Herald’.   He started his career with Strathclyde University in 1966, came to public attention after his performance in the Midlands championship of 1967 and ran at a very high level for several years thereafter when he was one of the top runners in the country.  The review of the 1966-67 cross-country season comes first.

We can start with his first appearance in the sports pages on 12th November, 1966, when he was second to Adrian Weatherhead in the Inter-University four and a half mile race at Heriot Watt playing fields 29 seconds down.   He followed this with fourth place two weeks later in the Inter-University six and a half miles at Westerlands – Weatherhead won again – but the race gained him selection for the Scottish Universities team to meet the SCCU two weeks later at King’s Buildings in Edinburgh.   He was unplaced in this race but the standard was very high and in the absence of McCafferty and Stewart it was won by John Linaker from Alec Brown and Gareth Bryan-Jones.   His first race in  1967 was on 14th January when he ran in the Glasgow University v Strathclyde University v Heriot Watt v Cambuslang Harriers at Moriston Park, Cambuslang.  John won this race in 32:38 from Charlie Jarvie of Cambuslang and John Hickey of Glasgow.

John’s first very good run – his ‘breakthrough’ as it has been described – came in the Midland District Championhip on 21st January 1967 where he finished sixth, Ron Marshall commented in the ‘Glasgow Herald’:  “The biggest surprise of the leading finishers was the sixth place of J Myatt (Strathclyde University) who has known only modest success in student circles.”   His friend and rival Alastair Johnston and says that he well remembers the race where John showed he himself and many others a “muddy if not a clean pair of heels”.   He adds that brilliant McCafferty won, beating Lachie Stewart by a minute and although John was sixth (just behind the outstanding Jim Brennan) he was ahead of Eddie Knox who was running really well at that point and a fixture in Scottish teams.   John’s own comment to Alastair in reply to the above was that “The big breakthrough was the 1967 Midland District Cross-Country where I was sixth being third Junior behind Knox and Brennan.   You will remember the course and the rain throughout the race which suited me particularly.   I remember seeing you and Pat Maclagan in pursuit along with many other big names and hoped that I could hold on until the end.”   He went on to prove that this very good run was not a ‘one-off’ but the start of several years when he was among the best in the country.   The result was:

1. I McCafferty (Motherwell);   2.  JL Stewart (Vale of Leven);   3.   AP Brown (Motherwell);   4.   AH Brown (Motherwell);   5.   J Brennan (Maryhill);   6.   J Myatt (Strathclyde);   7.   E Knox (Springburn).

Tenth in the Scottish University Championships the following week, where Edinburgh University whitewashed the field,  he ran in the BUSF Championships at Parliament Hill Fields in London  on 4th February -the day that Edinburgh University won the title.   Myatt was fifteenth in 31:38 to be fifth Scottish representative.    Ian Young was eighth (31:13), Jim Wight eleventh (31:25), Gareth Bryan-Jones thirteenth (31:36) and Alistair Blamire fourteenth (31:37).   One week later he won the six mile race at Moriston Park in 31:16 which beat the record of 31:39 set by Lachie Stewart of the Vale of Leven in 1965.   The result:  1.   J Myatt (Strathclyde U);  2.  A Faulds (Stirling)   32:23;   3.   J Hickey (GU)   32:40.

In the Junior National on 25th February, 1967, John was third behind a ferocious race to the line in which Eddie Knox beat Alistair Blamire by one second (28:03 to 28:04).   The quality of this race can be seen by those who finished outside the first three – Myatt’s time was 28:33, fourth was Jim Brennan in 28:59, fifth was Dave Logue in 29:06, sixth was Harry Gorman in 29:16 and seventh was Norman Morrison in 29:30.   After the race, four Juniors were selected for the International at Barry in Wales on March 18th – Eddie Knox, John Myatt, Norman Morrison, Willie Day and Jim Cook of Garscube who had won the Youths race.   Blamire and Brennan were Juniors at home but internationally their dates of birth made then seniors and ineligible for the team but Myatt as third finisher would have been selected anyway.   In the English Championships the following week, Myatt was fifteenth – four places ahead of Knox.   Nearer home on 11th March, he won the University championship after the annual handicap race at Cambuslang.   In the international at Barry on 18th March, Myatt finished 19th and third Scot behind Knox and Morrison.

The cross-country season for 1966-67 drew to a close and it had been very interesting one for the student who started so quietly and gradually wound up the performances until he was one of the chosen four to run for Scotland at the international in March.  There were a number of hugely talented individuals at this point – Knox, Blamire, Morrison, Brennan were all among the best the country has produced – and John Myatt was more than holding his own.   The following summer he was ranked at 16th in Scotland for the Mile where his best run was 4:12.1 before heading back to the roads and country in October.

Hyde Park 1970

As before he seemed to start the 1967 – 68 season gently and the first report was on 21st October in a University race at Glasgow involving Queen’s, Belfast, Glasgow University and Strathclyde University in which John was second to John Hickey by 24 seconds.   Then on the weekend of 6th November the University squad went to Belfast where there was a three-way contest involving Queen’s and Aberdeen.   In the first race over six miles in Belfast, John beat team mate Alistair Johnston by 10 seconds and then in the second race at Dublin Alastair won by 14 seconds.   Alastair says that there was a healthy rivalry between them.   Alastair says:

“We always finished quite close – he ahead in the mud, me ahead on the road generally.    A good example was the Irish Tour you mention – muddy Belfast on day one, fast Parkland/ Road in Phoenix Park, Dublin the next day.    It was more a healthy respect we had for one another as compared with a good friendship – we were both quite quiet guys and “business-like” and loved meeting on a Wednesday afternoon and burning up a ten miler along Alexandra Park to the countryside around Hogganfield Loch.   Of course on the way back , the pace would accelerate and a close “race” would develop with us dodging buses, people and dogs until reaching the sanctuary of the Cathedral Street gym, thoroughly pleased with ourselves.   Ah – happy days!”

John confirms that they liked different racing conditions and his comments on the ’67 Midland District above say as much.

The team returned from Ireland and the headline the next week read “Easy Victory for Myatt” after an inter-university race at Aberdeen where he won by 32 seconds from John Hickey.   It should be noted however that Edinburgh University was absent – possibly because the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay was the following week.    Strathclyde also had a team forward and it finished 12th and won the most meritorious unplaced team award.   John ran on the second stage and pulled the team up two places when he ran the ninth fastest time of the day.   Edinburgh University won from Shettleston.   On 25th November and the annual SCCU v Northern Counties and SCCU v The Army joint fixtures were held at King’s Buildings in Edinburgh where Myatt was running for the team against the Army.   He finished eighth in the hardest race of the afternoon.   Into December and in the high-quality Lanarkshire Cross-Country Championship, the first six were :   1.   I McCafferty,  2.   E Knox,   3.  AP Brown,   4.   AH Brown,   5.   R Wedlock,   6.   J Myatt.   His last race of the year, at least as recorded by the Glasgow Herald, was the well-supported East Kilbride five and a half mile road race which was won by Jim Brennan of Maryhill in 25:57 from Alec Brown of Law in 26:04 with John Myatt third in 26:08 – only eleven seconds down on the winner.

On 13th January, 1968, Adrian Weatherhead of Heriot Watt University guested in a three cornered match between Edinburgh, Strathclyde and Glasgow Universities and won in 26:12 from John Myatt who ran 26:13.   It was another good run – third was Alex Wight in 26:16, fourth Gareth Bryan-Jones in 26:54 and fifth Andy McKean in 26:59.   Myatt was racing the best of the outstanding University runners and often beating the best.   In the Midlands District Championship at Bellahouston the next week, he was fourth behind Pat Maclagan (VPAAC), Jim Brennan (Maryhill) and Alex Brown.    The Glasgow Herald report commented that “for a long time it appeared as if J Myatt (Strathclyde University) – who is still a Junior – would take a splendid third place but inexorably he was overhauled by Alex Brown (Law).   Myatt flogged himself up the finishing straight in an effort to displace Brown but he missed only by a second.”    On 27th January in the Scottish Universities Championships he was fourth in another very close race.   1.   D Logue   33:02;   2.   J Wight   33:09;   3.   A Johnston   33:12;   4.   J Myatt   33:14;   5.   A Wight   33:18.    Five runners within 16 seconds!    Seven days later it was the British Universities championships in London and the report said that J Myatt (Strathclyde University) was the best placed Scot – Edinburgh University was runner-up to Cambridge in the team contest.   The ‘Glasgow Herald’ report read :Edinburgh, winners over the same course last year, totalled 97 points and took their second place ahead of Oxford.   Their counting runners were A Blamire (7), D Logue (10), A Wight (14), A McKean (18),  G Bryan-Jones (23) and I Young (25).   The best placed Scot was J Myatt (Strathclyde) in twelfth position.”   

In the 1968 National Championship at Hamilton where Eddie Knox was seen as the man to beat.   He had all the talent but was going through a rough patch.   In the actual race, the first five turned out to be:   1.  J Myatt   26:27;   2.   E Knox   26:39;   3.   B Mullett   26:59;   4.   M MacMahon   27:04;   5.   N Morrison   27:28.   Myatt won by 60 yards from Knox in a field of approximately 160.   Fourth in 1967 to champion in 1968.   When the team was announced the following Monday Myatt, too old by international rules to be run as a Junior, was only selected as a reserve for the senior team with Gareth Bryan Jones who had a bad run in the National because of a stone inside one of his shoes ripping his feet.   Wedlock, Don Macgregor and Myatt all had their supporters for the last place but Bryan-Jones was the man selected on his form during the lead-in to the championships.   In the International itself on 16th March, the team had a chance of third place but the last counting runner was Bryan-Jones running in his first international.   He finished 47th and the team was fourth.

In summer 1968 his best best mile time was 4:16.2 which ranked him 12th in Scotland and his best 10 miles time was 50:23.0 which ranked him third in Scotland.

Lanarkshire Relays, l969:   Albert Smith to John Myatt and John Myatt to Innis Mitchell

Winter 1968-69 started in October and Strathclyde was seventh but no individual times were recorded in the Herald.   The first headline garnered by Myatt was not until 26th October when it read “Myatt helps club to narrow win.”    It referred to an inter-university road race at Westerlands in Glasgow where he won by 200 yards from David Ritchie of Aberdeen – any kin to Donald, I wonder – with a time of 36:42 to Ritchie’s 37:12 with J Youngson  – any kin to Colin? – third in 37:43.   Strathclyde won from Aberdeen by four points.      The Midland District Relays were held on 2nd November and the headline and article read as follows:

“STRATHCLYDE THE SURPRISE PACKETS OF THE MIDLAND RELAY

No one talked very much about Shettleston Harriers victory in the Midland District relay championship.   They were all too busy talking about how Strathclyde University had managed to come home second in front of a good number of more fancied teams.   The course at Bellshill, a two and three quarter mile slog through fields heavy with mud knocked the steam out of   some of our better runners and, conversely, brought out previously unrevealed tenacity in others.   Tom Patterson (Shettleston) and Mike McLean (Bellahouston) are only two who spring to mind as having reached beyond their normal heights.  

The Strathclyde team – in order of running John Myatt, Albert Smith, Kenny Laing and Colin Maciver – looked no more than ordinary on paper.  But Myatt’s great lead-off leg in which he sprinted home first, must have provided the rest with a welcome stimulus.   Smith, of course, had little hope of outpacing Dick Wedlock, Shettleston’s second man, but how well he protected second position for Strathclyde during the next 10 minutes or so.   Even then, with Laing and McIvor to come, the students were by no means sure of staying there.   Nevertheless the unexpected continued to happen.   Where were Law, Springburn and Victoria Park?   Was there no late challenge coming from any of them?   It began to look that way as Laing handed over to the fair-haired McIvor giving him a lead of about 40 yards over Bellahouston.   Indeed Maciver kept that lead, perhaps slightly adding to it, and gave his club their most significant relay result for several years. ” 

The race result was

1. Shettleston.   T Patterson 11:53;   R Wedlock  11:47;   W Scally   12:03;   JL Stewart   11:44
2. Strathclyde U   J Myatt   11:52;   A Smith   12:11;   K Laing   12:19;   C McIvor 12:28
3. Bellahouston H:   B Goodwin   12:15;   M McLean   12:04;   J Adair   12:10;   A Yates   12:29.

One week later and the headline was “Myatt’s Time Shows His Class” after he had won the Glasgow University road race at Westerlands.   He had won the race from Eddie Knox and former Strathclyde team mate Alistair Johnston in a time of 25:21 which was only five seconds outside Lachie Stewart’s record time.   Knox was 13 seconds down.   There were quite a few missing from the race because the following week was the Edinburgh to Glasgow relay.   Myatt ran the first stage for Strathclyde and set a new record for the first stage which was 4 seconds inside Jim Alder’s time of the previous year but his team were unfortunately outside the medals.    His third race in three weeks was an inter-university match in Aberdeen to help select the team to compete against the SCCU in mid-December.   Myatt won by 20 yards from Adrian Weatherhead who was 15 yards up on Dave Logue, who was followed by Colin Youngson, Andy McKean and Donald Ritchie.   His time beat Bill Ewing’s course record by one second.   On the same day he was also selected to compete for the SCCU along with Lachie and Dick Wedlock at Edinburgh the following week.   This time he was seventh finisher in the race and a member of the winning team.   Straight into December and he was third in the Lanarkshire championship behind Lachie and Dick Wedlock again before the match between Scottish Universities and the SCCU.    The first four were – Lachie Stewart (1), Dick Wedlock (2), Alistair Blamire (who was having a really superb season, 3) and John Myatt (4).    It had been an excellent series of races to end the year on.

Missing the Nigel Barge and Springburn Cup road races at the start of the year, on the 20th January he won the Midland cross-country championship beating Andy Brown by over 100 yards.   After racing in January in Scotland, Myatt travelled to Spain with a small Scottish squad to race in San Sebastian against approximately 100 top class runners along with Ian McCafferty and Adrian Weatherhead.   The race was won in a temperature of 65 degrees Fahrenheit by Mike Tagg (England) with McCafferty twelfth, Myatt twenty eighth and Weatherhead thirty first.   “Myatt and Weatherhead ran courageously.   They went with the big leading group early on and fought hard even as they slipped place by place in the latter stages of the race,” said Ron Marshall.   Myatt then missed several weeks races including the inter-district race won by John Linaker and an inter-university race at Aberdeen the week before the National.   He did turn out in the National – and he ran well, so well that he finished fourth ahead of such as Don Macgregor, Jim Alder, John Linaker and Gareth Bryan-Jones, and was selected for the International to be held in Clydebank on March 22nd.      When it came to the actual international though, John Myatt was absent through illness.   He himself feels that he was at his best in the late 60’s and it is a pity that he had to wait until 1972 for his first full cap in the big international.

John Myatt, Willie Diverty and Gareth Bryan-Jones at the Cross des Capitals, Tunis, in 1969

1969-70 started with a win in a triangular cross-country race against Queen’s and Glasgow at Westerlands in which Myatt and Albert Smith had a Strathclyde 1-2 in 37:35 and 37:51.       The Midland Relay was on 1st November and Strathclyde could not match the previous year’s performance but finished fifth with Myatt running first (11:11:32, Mitchell second (11:48), Smith third (12:04) and Hall fourth (12:06).   Myatt was not included in the results of the Glasgow University Road race which was won in 1969 by Pat Maclagan from Eddie Knox, Alex Brown and Alistair Johnstone.     In the Edinburgh to Glasgow the following week, he was on the long sixth stage and dropped one place – from 7th to 8th – when he was passed by Alex Brown and turned in seventh fastest time.   On 24th November the trial for the Universities team to meet the SCCU was held at Cambuslang and Myatt was fourth behind J McHardy, A McKean and A Blamire.   At the end of January, in the Midland District championship at Lenzie,  Myatt was third behind Ian McCafferty and Eddie Knox and just in front of Alastair Johnston and Pat Maclagan.  Strathclyde won the team race with runners placed 3, 10, 19, 21, 34 and 38.   He had a relatively quiet season in 69-70 thanks to the finals at University but was selected for the Scottish Universities team for the BUSF Championships in Sheffield the following week.  John finished 15th with Dave Logue also in the field but the Press attention was focused on Norman Morrison.  On 21st February at Ayr on a misty, wet afternoon, Myatt was again the Strathclyde University leading runner – but he was down in 22nd place on a day when all the odds were upset.   eg Eddie Knox was 20th, Andy Brown 25th Alex Brown 30th.    No international appearance was on the cards that year.   His summer of 1970 was a good one with rankings at 5000m (14:39.4 and ranked 19th),  10000m (30:54.0 18th) and 10 miles (51:57.0 8th).

On graduating he went to Port Sunlight and joined Wirral AC.   He continued to run in Scotland for Strathclyde as an associate member of the athletic club.   Eventually the SCCU queried this status which, while consistent with the Strathclyde AC constitution did not apparently fit that of the SCCU although they had by default accepted it in accepting the University as a member club.   They decided that associate status was not a good thing and allowed John  to join another club.   He opted for Law & District, another Lanarkshire club, which he thought would benefit from his services in the Edinburgh to Glasgow and the National championship.

Then it was into winter 1970-71.   On 21st November, 1970, he ran in the Edinburgh to Glasgow on the sixth leg for the University.   He dropped one place and was outside the top ten times.   His next appearance in fact was on 20th February in the National Championships at Bellahouston Park where he finished fifth and was selected with Lachie Stewart, Ian McCafferty, Fergus Murray, Alistair Blamire, Dick Wedlock and Ian Stewart for the international in Spain.   Unfortunately he had to withdraw from the team through injury – made more unfortunate because the actual course was a real mudbath and would probably have suited him down to the ground.   He was to make good on his omission from the team over the next two years.

In winter 1971-72 he made his first appearance in the Scottish papers on 13th November 1971 when he was tenth in the Waterloo eight mile road race at L:iverpool where the top Scot was Jim Alder in sixth.      Nevertheless he turned out for Strathclyde in the Edinburgh to Glasgow the following week – the University team had Frank Clement on the first stage who was fourth and John on the second who moved them up to third with the third fastest time of the day.   Unfortunately that was about it as far as the team was concerned and it fell away to sixteenth by the end of the race.   In the National held in February Myatt finished fifth and was an automatic selection for the International to be held that year in Cambridge.   The team looked a good one – Ian McCafferty, Jim Alder, Lachie Stewart, John Myatt, Ian Stewart, Dick Wedlock, Alistair Blamire and Jim Wight – but did not perform on the day.   McCafferty was not even in the counting six and there was not a single Scot in the first 19.   Jim Alder was 20th and Lachie Stewart 27th and the team manager, the normally genial Jim Morton from Springburn was reported as saying it was not bloody good enough.    John was last counting runner in 74th place, three places behind Dick Wedlock.

Into winter 1972-73 and this year Myatt missed all the classic domestic races but, running for Liverpool, finished seventh in the National Championships in February to be selected for the Scottish team to compete in Waregem, Belgium.   These championships had previously been organised by the International Cross-Country Union but the responsibility was taken over by the International Amateur Athletics Federation in 1973 and so, after several years of disappointment, Myatt was one of the few to run under both sets of conditions in successive years.   Although he was listed as Liverpool in the National, the SCCU history notes that he was a member of Law and District for the international.    In the international he finished 83rd to be out of the scoring six.

John running in the Law colours in the Edinburgh to Glasgow in 1978

Myatt turned out for his new club in the Edinburgh to Glasgow in November 1973 on the second stage where he gained two places, from 16th to 14th, in seventh fastest time of the day on this very difficult stage of the race and saw the club finish fourteenth.   Came the National at the end of the season and he was the first Law man to finish when he was sixteenth.   It should be noted that the papers at the time did not always publish the details of three- and four-man teams in international races on the Continent, often contenting themselves with a head line that said ‘Victory for Stewart’, McCafferty Wins In Belgium’ or whatever with no reference to the rest of the team.  Myatt ran in races such as Hannut in Belgium (twice), San Sebastian, Elgoibar and Tunis over the years.   There is a picture of him running in Elgoibar above and the one below with Ewan Murray and Fergus Murray is another from the same race.

Elgoibar, 1973, John (second left) with Ian Gilmour who finished ahead of John,  Fergus Murray and Ewan Murray

On 16th November 1974 he ran his second Edinburgh to Glasgow for Law & District, this time on the sixth stage where he gained one place (16th to 15th) for the team which finished tenth.   He also turned out for them in this race in 1975 (second stage), 1976 (second stage – picked up from 10th to 9th), 1977 (second stage, picked up from 11th to 9th), 1979 (second stage, picked up from 17th to 14th), 1980 (second stage, maintained 12th) and in 1981 Law & District dropped out of the race for a year and the thread was broken.    1980 was his last E-G.

As for the National, he missed the National in 1975, 1976 and 1977 but in 1978 there was a surprise for just about everybody when J Myatt (Law & District) finished eighth.  Not selected for the team he was a non-travelling reserve for the international but no one dropped out and his last chance was gone.   It was ten years since he had last been a reserve for the event and even then, no one was kind enough to drop out.    He ran again in the National for the club in 1979 when he finished 49th, 1980 when he was fifteenth, in 1981 when he was 46th, 1982 when he was 21st and 1983 in 67th.    It was a remarkable record of loyalty to a club which was falling down the finishing order almost every year, particularly when it is realised that he was travelling up from the north of England to do so.

John ran for Gateshead for many years but had to stop running in 2000 due to lower back trouble and he currently keeps fit by walking and swimming.    He moved from Durham to Darmstadt in 1993 before retiring to Biarritz in 2008.

Yvonne winning the Commonwealth Games 10000m in 1994

Yvonne Murray was born in Musselburgh on 4th October 1964 and was to go on to represent Scotland in the Commonwealth Games and Great Britain in the Olympic Game, European and World Championships.   During her time in the sport Scottish women’s endurance running had many very good athletes indeed but there were only two giants – Yvonne and Liz McColgan.   Unlike Coe and Ovett in England they did not avoid each other – it was not unknown for Coe or Ovett to turn up at a Grand Prix, find that the other was slated for the same race and ask for a separate race to be organised so that they did not cross swords: there were many meeting where there were separate races at 1500 metres and the mile.   The situation did not prevail as far as Murray and McColgan were concerned.   The races were hotly contested – I remember one in particular on the roads inside Duthie Park in Aberdeen where they ran so close together that, with no one else within a hundred yards, shoulders were jostled and heels were clipped.   But strong as their rivalry was, they both had their eyes on bigger prizes than domestic ones – both went for the Commonwealth Games, the European Games and the big one, the Olympic Games.

Where Liz was advised over the years by a range of coaches – notably Harry Bennett, John Mitchell and John Anderson – Yvonne only had two.   In the beginning it was Bill Gentleman in Edinburgh and she ran some very good times and won some big medals while with him, and then Tommy Boyle.   What difference did the change make?   Well to many Yvonne seemed a bit more self assured while with Boyle, she was certainly a harder athlete than before – although she was a delightful personality, when she was running she was a real competitor – and had a broader range of tactics.   I have seen her sit in and go over the last couple of hundred metres, I have seen her go from 1000 metres in a 1500 metres race, I’ve seen her go from the front.   She was also known to track other runners – Liz and Elana Mayer among them – so closely as to cause them some discomfort mentally as well as physically.   This may have come with maturity anyway but that a ‘might-have-been’ and ‘might-have-beens’ do not count.   The fact is that she was a talented and redoubtable character who drove herself hard in her quest for success.   The following account of Yvonne’s career was written by Colin Youngson.

Yvonne and Liz

Colin writes:   “It must have been 1977 or 1978.   I was teaching at Craigmount High School, Edinburgh, and my friend Dave Taylor convinced me to set up a cross country team to take part in the Edinburgh Schools Cross Country League.   So one Tuesday afternoon we boarded a minibus and headed off for the distant wind-swept playing fields.  Since I was running at least 70 miles per week at the time, no opportunity could be lost to add to the total.    My method of ‘coaching’  was to make sure that my boys and girls were warming up, and then to cheer on the leaders in every race by running parallel with them.   So it was that I first met Yvonne Murray, who may have been 13 years old.   She was the small but extremely determined figure who was inevitably so far ahead of the other girls that they may as well not have bothered.   What impressed me was that she was bashing on flat-out right to the finish, when she could have jogged on and still won easily.   I praised and encouraged her without having any idea about just how good she would be in the future.

Her coach at the time was Bill Gentleman who had met her at Musselburgh Grammar.   Bill was, and still is, a chunky enthusiast who can out-talk anyone.   Even in 2010 he remains an outstanding veteran hammer thrower who wins medals at World Masters Championships.   How on earth could he coach a middle-distance runner?   Nevertheless the partnership worked well until 1987 when she switched to Tommy Boyle (Tom McKean’s coach) and Stuart Hogg.   Before then Yvonne had made very good progress.   Stan Greenberg wrote the following for the 1995 Scottish Athletics Yearbook: ‘She first came top notice on the big stage with a sixth placing in the 1981 European Junior 3000 metres, and the following year set a British Junior record for the distance and won the Scottish title.   Celebrating her eighteenth birthday at the Commonwealth Games she placed an unnoticed tenth in both the 1500 and 3000 metres.   In 1983 she began to make a mark showing her range by winning the Scottish 800 and the UK 5000 metres titles.   She also gained her first Senior International.   The following year witnessed a series of personal bests, although no particular victories of note, but she began 1985 with a bronze medal at the European Indoor Championships.   Later in the year she took the UK 3000 metres title.   1986 was a come-through year and Yvonne improved to a silver medal at the European indoor meet.   At the Commonwealth Games she won bronze in the 3000 metres as well as placing fifth in the 1500  and repeated her bronze at the European Championships in Stuttgart with an 18 second improvement.’  

***

Naturally I had followed her progress with interest.   Although she was an extremely brave front-runner, and had improved immensely, she seemed to lack a finishing sprint.   Stan Greenberg again: ‘In 1987 she finally got her first gold medal, for the 3000 at the European indoor championships, and followed that with fifth in the World Indoor Meet.   Despite a dislike for cross country, which still endures, she placed sixteenth for Scotland at the World Championships in Poland.   Later in the year she took took second place in the European Cup 3000 metres and was seventh in the World Championships in Rome.   Yvonne won her first WAAA title (at 3000 metres) in 1988 and went on to win an Olympic bronze medal in Seoul in the excellent time of 8:29.02.’   

Bob Mackenzie has written, ‘This Olympic bronze only convinced her coaches that the Musselburgh secretary would have to experiment to find out her real capabilities to cope with the campaign of the 1990’s.   She proved a quick learner and the notorious one pace and desperate finish, already on the way out in Seoul, was eliminated in 1989.’   

In early 1990 Yvonne said, ‘We tried different things, going for the big finish from a variety of lengths, and although it would vary according to the race and the competition, I know I am a better racer for the experience.   I had a fixation about fast times for a while.   It seemed that I should always be going for a record, but I have learned to race and it worked well in the 1989 World Cup final in Barcelona.   The time was nothing special, about 8:44, but I won and that is what matters.’    Tommy Boyle added, ‘I told her before the World Cup final at Gateshead (where she won silver) to go from 200 metres.   At first she though I meant 200 metres from home – I meant 200 metres from the start.   You have to be one ahead of the opposition all of the time.   Most of the girls are very fit now, and it is the mentally tougher one who wins.   Yvonne will be a much better runner hopefully for what we have learned in the past season.’

His hopes were fulfilled in 1990.   Although in the Auckland Commonwealth Games, Yvonne was pipped by one second to the gold by Canada’s Angela Chalmers, she won the WAAA’s title and as Stan Greenberg wrote, ‘At the European Championships in Split she really came into her own with a 600 metre finishing kick to win the gold medal.’   Yvonne Murray was awarded an MBE that year.

Greenberg continued, ‘Although she retained her WAAA title in 1991, the year was not happy as she had poor runs in the European Cup (fifth after a remarkable first lap of 61 seconds) and in the Tokyo World Championships (tenth after leading at the bell).   The following year at the Barcelona Olympics, also after leading at the bell, she finished in eighth place – disappointing after her excellent WAAA 1500 metres victory.’

In March 1993, ‘Athletics Today’ wrote about the World Indoor Championships in Toronto – one of Scottish Athletics’s finest moments since gold medals for Yvonne Murray (3000m) and Tom McKean (800m), who were both coached by Tommy Boyle, and David Strang (1500m)  would have put Scotland in third place in the medal table if they had not been running for GB!   ‘No major championships would be complete without some tears from Yvonne Murray.   But this time the tears that spilled were over victory, not defeat.   After two miserable years, the Scottish lion was rampant again as Murray lifted the 3000 metres title with the biggest winning margin in the race’s history – 12 seconds – and the fastest time – 8:50.55 – in the world this year.     Murray who had tried to break away on each occasion in Tokyo and Barcelona with 600 metres left, reverted to an old favourite from her bag of tricks – running from the front.   As soon as the big clock flashed up’1000, 3:02.98′ Murray went, stepping past three time World Cross Country Champion Lynn Jennings (USA) and putting her head down.’   (Also left behind was Elly van Hulst (Holland) who had won gold in the same event back in 1989 narrowly outkicking Scotland’s Liz McColgan and breaking the world record in Budapest.)

‘The pace was brutal (that 200 was covered in 32.30, the 400 in 65.6 and the 800 in 2:13.9) and deadly.   Within 200 metres she had put six seconds between herself and the rest of the 12 woman field.   At its widest Murray’s lead stretched to 18 seconds with three laps left.   The giant video screen, Murray admitted, had been a useful tool in her break.’    ‘I always used  to run from the front but when I joined Tommy Boyle I tried to become unpredictable rather than predictable.   I knew what kind of shape I was in today and if anyone was going to beat me they would have to run bloody hard to do it.   A lot of people will say that the World Indoor Championships are not important.   But to any youngsters or anyone trying to re-establish themselves, I think they are important.   I feel like they’re a hurdle I’ve overcome.  It doesn’t matter if they’re the World Indoor Championships or the European Championships – it’s great to hear the national anthem.’    Murray is only Britain’s fourth senior woman runner to become a world champion, following Wendy Sly (World road race 10K 1988), Zola Budd (World CC 1985 and 1986) and Liz McColgan (World 10000 1999 and World Half Marathon Champion in 1992).   Yvonne finished her lap of honour clutching the Union Jack in one hand and the flag of St Andrew in the other.’

Ultimately, despite this superb performance (and another victory in the WAAA 3000 metres), Yvonne faded to ninth in the World Championships in Stuttgart.   However in typical fashion, she bounced back in 1994 with (in the words of Stan Greenberg) ‘a gallant second place in the European 3000 metres at Helsinki, and then, in only her second run at the distance, ran an outstanding 1000 metres to win the gold at the Commonwealth Games in Victoria.   Then to end a wonderful season, she won her second World Cup 3000.’   She was BBC Scotland’s Sports Personality of the Year for 1994.

On the few occasions I have met Yvonne since her earliest racing days, I have been impressed, not only by the fact that her international experiences had matured her into a tall confident young lady, but also by her modest, friendly greetings to old acquaintances.   Yet I remember watching a needle match between her and Liz McColgan – a 5K international road race in Aberdeen organised by Brendan Foster.   Liz tried to run away while Yvonne maintained iron physical control by following so closely that she frequently unsettled Liz by tapping her heels.   Naturally Yvonne won the final sprint.   She is a lovely person but a ruthless competitor.  

Although she continued to race until almost 2000, injuries eventually hastened her retirement after an extremely successful career.   Her Scottish records endure.   1500: 4:01.2, One Mile: 4:22.64; 2000 metres: 5:25.93; and 3000 metres: 8:29.02.   Yvonne Murray-Mooney (her married name) was inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame in 2007.   She is now an inspirational athletics development coach with North Lanarkshire Leisure and is involved in promoting the International Children’s Games.   Participants will be extremely fortunate if they go on to emulate Yvonne’s own triumphs.”   

The account above is fairly comprehensive but a couple of things need to be added.   One is an overview of what she won and when and the other is some description of some key races in her career.   We’ll go with the overview first in the table below.

In addition she had seven Scottish Championships, three AAA’s championships (two at 3000 m and one at 5000m) as well as AAA’s indoor champion.    When she was second to Angela Chalmers in the Commonwealth Games in Auckland in 3000 metres one of those behind her was Liz McColgan.

‘The “Independent”s Ken Jones described her first major gold (in Split) with the words “With three and a half laps left she dropped back a stride or two and the others, particularly Yelena Romanova waited for her strategy to unfold.   Around again, pad, pad, pad, the pace metronomic and seldom disturbed.   When would Murray make her move?   Her closest rivals had said they could not tell.   A feint to the front as though to get them on edge and then back again into third place.   Suddenly she went.  Kicking off a bend and towards the bell; a long punishing run for home….. the field was in disarray, stretched out, watching her extend her lead to 15 metres with some 600 left.   Had she gone too early?   Did Romanova have the energy to catch her?   No danger.   The girl from Musselburgh went further and further away, uncatchable in the final stretch.”    The debt Murray owes to Boyle, said the ‘Athletics Today’ magazine, is enormous.   “I was cautious, never prepared to gamble,” she confesses.   Murray’s tactics in Split were certainly a gamble.   If they had failed or she had misjudged them, Murray may have left the Yugoslavian resort without even a medal.’    If this was a clear triumph for tactics, the 1994 victory in Toronto was another tactical victory – but not one that met with universal approval – at least not Elana Meyer’s!

In the Commonwealth Games 10000 metres in 1994 she defeated Elana Meyer of South Africa, who had been second in the 10000 metres at the Barcelona Olympics, for the title.   Meyer, said by her countrymen even today to be the best woman endurance runner ever from the country,  was another not known for her sprint and she was better known for leading or for winding the pace up from a long way out.   An article on the SI.com website anticipating her duel with Liz McColgan in 1992 said that in the past Meyer had not had to race so much as simply run and added that in Barcelona, “the wispy Meyer may not fare well if the 10000 turns physical.”    We all know how well she ran in the Olympics to finish second and the symbolic value of her lap of honour with Tulu who had won the race.   But one thing that can be said about Boyle’s team – they did their homework and Murray was well capable of carrying out the instructions.   If physicality was a problem for Meyer then an element of it could be introduced into the race.    (Word has it that for the race in Duthie Park mentioned above Tommy Boyle had instructed Yvonne to get right up on Liz and the phrase ‘even get inside her vest’ was quoted in one paper.)   This time too Elana did the leading with Yvonne following very closely indeed which let the South African know she was there, know she was just holding herself back with difficulty and then when she decided to go Yvonne went on to win by just over nine seconds – 31:56.97 to 32:06.74.   The tone of the contest was indicated by Doug Gillon’s headline in the Herald the following day: “Murray Wins the War and a Gold Medal to go with it.”   The report reads as follows – “”It was war out there” said Murray, whose time was a modest 31:56.74 which nevertheless had dropped all but three of the field with nine laps to go.   Second was South African, Elana Meyer with Kenyan Jane Omoro third.   The Scottish team captain, Vikki McPherson was fifth in 33:02.74.   Murray finished bleeding from spike marks, testimony to her concentrated close pursuit which had Meyer looking daggers at her.   “Now I understand why Liz McColgan gets so upset when she races Yvonne”, said the angry Meyer.   It was sweet revenge for Murray who had been shadowed in similar fashion only to lose her own European 3000 metres title in Helsinki last month.   “I am delighted,” said Murray, “but it really was a battle.   Elana kept slowing and I would clip her heels but it was not intentional.”   The pace was modest to 5000 metres (16:27.37) with eleven runners still in contention, but when Meyer broke with Omoro and Murray in pursuit, they were soon shed and the medals were already decided.   Murray contained her impatience and struck in utterly ruthless fashion with 500 metres to go covering the final lap in 65 seconds.”   A day later and he wrote, “Criticised by Meyer for having run too close to her, Murray countered, “She’s got pretty good elbows herself.   Elana said something similar about the Kenyan, Sally Barsosio, at the World Championships when she dropped out.   But I have poor eyesight and sometimes miss a gap appearing, that’s why I stay close.”    Meyer insisted it had been excessive: “I could feel her breathing – pretty heavily too.  It gave me hope.”

In an interview published in July 1991 Yvonne spoke openly about competition tactics.

Competition tactics

1. Athlete’s Input: It is essential that the athlete communicates with the coach and discusses competition tactics, and I felt that this was beneficial for myself and the coach; for the coach checking to see that his athlete was switched on, and for the athlete making me concentrate on what was important – WINNING!
2. Know your opposition: Most athletes keep a check on how other athletes are getting on through televised meetings and running magazines.   I find it useful checking up on the new faces also.
3. Evaluate their strengths and weaknesses: I find it useful looking through videos of races, checking on pace, tactics, etc.   It is much easier and I can learn quicker about the opposition by watching rather than reading reports on races or by other peoples views, eg Puica is a kicker; I will have to go easy to compensate and try and burn her out early.
4. Plan tactics on strengths to exploit their weaknesses: After finding our opposition’s weaknesses, plan one or two ways of approaching a race and practice in training until feel comfortable about it.
5. Olympics 1988 – thought processes: My own thoughts before the Olympics were ones of confidence.   I was the outsider, not expected to get a medal, and I used this as best I could.   After planning one or two ways of running the race, I read through the start lists, checking the opposition in a positive manner, knowing the biggest and best field ever, including Samolyenko/Ivan/Decker, etc had been assembled and it was going to be hard but it didn’t frighten me.    I then concentrated hard on what I was going to do during the race, no negative thoughts, thinking this was just another race that I wanted to win.   I cut down the opposition to two people, Paula Ivan and Tatyana Samolyenko, as the main threats and made sure I knew where they were during the race.   I knew that Decker would take it up and hoped she would keep it going knowing that she was not the athlete of old, and at the right point, used my race plan, finishing third, winning a bronze medal, and improving my best for 3000m by nine seconds, but of equal importance the result fully justified my decision to take a much more professional approach and leave no stone unturned in my quest to become the perfect elite 3000m runner.   I shall share with you my thoughts on the best tactics to employ to consistently win high level 3000m races.   This shall of course be after retiring from international athletics!

*

Very interesting indeed.   It is not often realised by the general public that middle and long distance racing is a physical contact sport – whether it was the Victorian peds flicking the heel of the leader with the hand every ten or fifteen strides or deliberately boxing in a runner in a  1500 metres Championship race or learning to use your elbows to your own advantage in a Highland Games handicap 800.    However the results of the 3000 m races described with their tactics above are as follows:

25/9/88  Seoul Olympics   1.   Tatyana Samolenko (USSR)   8:25.15; 2.   Paula Ivan (Rumania)   8:27.15; 3.   Yvonne Murray (GB)   8:29:02; 4.   Yelenka Romanova (USSR)   8:30.45.

29/8/90   European Championships, Split.   1.   Yvonne Murray (GB)   8:43.06; 2.   Yelena Romanova (USSR)   8:43.68;   3.   Roberta Brunet (Italy)   8:46.19.

There are several videos of her races at the Youtube website – just type in ‘Yvonne Murray’ and take your pick.

Yvonne Murray has been inducted into the Scottish Athletics Hall of Fame.

Tommy with Dave Cannon

Tommy Murray (born 18/5/1961) was a real individual – an outspoken man who overcame considerable difficulties to enjoy an outstanding running career, mainly in the 1990’s, when Scottish GB Internationalists were very rare indeed.   This profile will be based on his own email autobiography and has been put together by Colin Youngson.

Tommy calls himself ‘a bit of a rogue’ during his schooldays at Cowdenknowes High School in Greenock.   He certainly did not enjoy the muddy, hilly cross-country course.   Between the ages of 14 and 20, he suffered terribly from anorexia and bulimia, before taking up employment with Inverclyde Council and taking up an exercise regime.   He got around the Inverclyde Marathon in 3 hours 57 minutes.   After that he was invited to train with that distinguished old club Greenock Glenpark Harriers and his improvement was rapid.   After doing repetition sessions with stars like Lachie Stewart, Hammy Cox and Cammy and Lawrie Spence, he won the Glenpark club cross-country championship in early 1985, defeating ex-international Dick Hodelet who had won the event ten times.   In October 1985, Tommy Murray wore the Scottish vest for the first time in a Celtic Nations contest at the Isle of Man.   Bobby Quinn was a team-mate.

In 1987 Tommy won his first Scottish title, the 10000m at Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh.   (He was to win this championship four times for four different clubs: Greenock Glenpark Harriers, Cambuslang Harriers, Spango Valley AAC and Inverclyde AAC.)   On this first occasion Tommy’s committed front-running dropped everyone apart from the Cambuslang pair Calum Murray and Andy Beattie.   Remembering Lachie Stewart  mentioning that most runners ‘went for home’ at the 20 lap mark, Tommy surged hard at 19 laps!   He went clear and won in 29:38.

In 1989, Tommy was not considered by the pundits to have a chance of winning the Scottish National Cross-Country Championship – Neil Tennant, Paul Evans and Steve Ovett were the favourites.   However once he got a look at the Hawick course which was a mixture of churned-up snow and mud, Tommy was confident that he could handle the heavy going.   He wrote: “As the starter fired his pistol and the race got underway, I got myself up to the front and into the lead, with several main contenders bunched up behind me.   After about two miles of the seven miles race, I suddenly felt as if I was floating along, oblivious to my surroundings – or as some say ‘in the zone.’   For the next few miles I continued to push on, cutting the chasing pack down one by one, until I was on my own and clear.   Every now and then I would hear some one cheer my name as I sped along.   The race seemed to be over so quickly from the gun firing to me crossing the line with my arms aloft in victory.   Paul Evans was second and Peter Fox was third.   The great Steve Ovett trailed in fourth, and as soon as he crossed the line he was surrounded by the BBC TV crew, but being a true sportsman, he turned and pointed to me and said, ‘That’s the winner over there.   Once you’ve spoken to Tommy, come back and see me.’   That meant as much to me as winning the race.   On the coach back to Greenock, one of my clubmates produced a bottle of champagne and filled the cup so that everyone could drink from it.   I had just won “The National” and it felt brilliant.”

After this Tommy was sponsored by Asics and formed a lasting friendship with their representative Dave Cannon, who had been an excellent GB international marathon runner.   Dave proved invaluable in providing advice and encouragement as well as free kit!   For example in 1991 he followed Dave’s suggestions about when to do hard sessions and when to rest, and was soon running well again.   Tommy won an international cross-country race in Holland, defeating England’s Bashir Hussein and Dutchman John Vermeulen.   His hosts treated him like a superstar and he returned to this race three more times recording another win, a second and a third.

1992 was one of Tommy’s best years.   He fought hard to hold off Robert Fitzsimmons of Kilbarchan in the Scottish Indoor 3000m at the Kelvin Hall.   Then he was selected to run for Scotland at an International Indoor Meeting in Norway, against the host country and Denmark.   Unfortunately, ‘special needle spikes’ were supplied by the hosts, which ensured that the Scots found it very slippery on the bends!   Shortly afterwards Tommy reduced his pb to 8:11.   This was just part of his preparation for the British CC Championships in Basingstoke where he hoped to qualify for the British team and take part in the World Championships in Boston, USA.   Rob Denmark, a 5000m track specialist, was meant to be the favourite at Basingstoke, but Tommy writes: “The first eight places were filled by very good cross-country runners who weren’t bad on the track, rather than very good track runners who weren’t bad on the country.’   After a last-ditch sprint, Tommy finished fifth,  with Chris Robison sixth, and both were selected for the British team.   Then in the Scottish National on the Beach Park at Irvine, Tommy ‘destroyed the opposition and won the race so easily’.   Chris Robison was second and Bobby Quinn third.   Unfortunately Tommy missed the medal presentation and the applause of the crowd, since a jobsworth drug-testing official insisted that, even with an escort, he could not receive his cup and gold medal, while he was waiting to provide a urine sample.

In Boston, as usual on international trips, he shared a room with Chris Robison.   Tommy writes: ‘We had a right good laugh.   The senior men’s team were a great bunch of guys and we got on brilliantly, apart from Richard Nerurkar, who liked to keep himself to himself.   As international athletes the rest of us understood that everyone has different ways of preparing for big races and that was his.’

‘On race days, all athletes were transported to the course by small vehicles called trolley buses.   These were normally used for tourist sight-seeing trips and were equipped with intercoms.   The atmosphere on our bus was very tense, so to lighten up I asked the driver if I could use the microphone.   I proceeded to give everyone on board my best rendition of Tom Jones’ ‘Delilah’, followed by ‘Sweet Sixteen’.   The look on the foreign athletes’ faces was an absolute picture and the British team was howling with laughter.   The bus driver offered me a job during the tourist season, saying I could earn a fortune.’

‘After a warm-up, I felt very nervous when I took my place in the starting stalls alongside World and Olympic medallists.  Once the gun went, everything was just a blur.   We seemed to have started at one hundred miles an hour and then got even faster.   At no point in the race could you take a breather – if you did, a dozen athletes would overtake you.   John Ngugi of Kenya won the race and led his country to team victory, which was no surprise.   What did come as a shock was France taking silver and Great Britain bronze, so now I’m the proud owner of a world championship medal.   The presentation was brilliant, going up on to the stage to receive my medal with the rest of the team is something I’ll never forget.   That was a fantastic week for British Athletics and the highlight was not us winning bronze medals, although to us as seniors it was unforgettable.   The best thing was a certain Miss Paula Radcliffe winning the Junior Women’s race.   I remember thinking that she would probably go far!   Compared to major Games, the World Cross is a lot smaller but as far as quality races go, they don’t come any bigger.’

That summer recording a new pb of 29:16.42 Tommy scored a decisive victory in the SAAA 1000m over his North of England rival Kevin McCluskey.   Tommy considers the 1992 season to have been his most successful.   He attributes this to a number of things: my ability ti train hard, Dave Cannon’s influence, ‘I’d switched clubs to Cambuslang and finally my training partner, Tommy McCallion.’   These two ran or cycled together almost every day for three years.   Tommy also pays tribute to Jim Scarborough of Cambuslang, ‘the best manager I ever had the privilege of running for.’

In his autobiography, Tommy Murray selects a number of race highlights, including a 1993 track international in Israel – the host country versus Scotland, Turkey and Wales.   By this time his wife Lesley had given birth to their second daughter and family life was good.   In 1994, despite winning the Scottish 10000m once again, in a new pb of 29:12, Tommy Murray was very disappointed not to be selected for the Commonwealth Games.   He was rightfully annoyed that Chris Robison and John Sherban, both ex-English internationals, were selected for the Scottish team despite missing the Scottish championship, when part of the selection policy had been that anyone wishing to be considered had to run that race.

The 1995 World Cross-Country championships was to be held in England and at the age of 35, Tommy Murray hoped to be involved.   The trial race was in Northumberland, and, despite being tripped, Tommy finished fourth and easily made the British team.   The World Cross was in Durham and Tommy was happy with eighty first position.   To give some idea of the quality of this event, if he had been 12 seconds faster he would have been fifty third!   After this he was signed up for a new televised event – the All-Terrain Marathon, to be held in the North East of England at the beginning of May.   There were to be races on six consecutive days, over a variety of distances and surfaces.   A considerable amount of money was on offer and 24 international runners were involved.   A four miler on Bamburgh Sands came first and then a 5000m track contest.   Tommy moved up the field with fifth in a six mile trail race in Kielder Forest, then improved to second in a five mile cross-country.   In a gruelling four mile hill race, Tommy won by over a minute, defeating former World Mountain Racing Champion Martin Jones.   Over all Tommy was now second and only twenty seconds down on Jones who managed to hang on to this lead in the final four mile road race and round Bamburgh Castle.   Tommy writes: ‘The event proved to be a huge success and it was held for the following four years.   I’m happy to say that I completed them all, never managing to win but never out of the top six places, which was not a bad record, considering that  I was 38 when the last one was held.’

Since he did not consider his long loping stride with a high kick to be suitable for success in marathons, Tommy waited until 1995 to consider training for one.   He was invited to an established race in Eindhoven, Holland, and ‘set about changing my training regime dramatically, with the weekly mileage rising from 60 mpw to 100.’   However the invitation fell through since the organisers obtained a cheap deal on some Kenyan runners.   ‘With no marathon to run and feeling as fit as a butcher’s dog, I started to look for another race to do.’   Doug Gillon, of the Glasgow Herald asked if Tommy would be interested in taking part in the World Mountain Running Championship which for the first time ever was to be held in Edinburgh round Arthur’s Seat.   Tommy easily won the Scottish trial race at Dreghorn, beating amongst others ‘my pal Bobby Quinn, an established athlete on the mountain racing circuit.’    When the World Championship started, England’s Martin Jones went right to the front, at too fast a pace to maintain for 7.5 miles.   By two miles, Tommy was in the lead and working hard   forcing himself up and down Arthur’s Seat several times.   Unfortunately Fregonzi of Italy caught up and raced down the final descent  ‘like a kamikaze pilot on a mission.’   Tommy started to gain on him once they reached level ground but the finish came too soon.   However Tommy was more than happy to win two silver medals at a world championship – both individual and team.    Italy won, with Scotland second and the auld enemy England third.   After this fine result, Tommy obtained lottery funding for the next four years ‘which I saw as just reward for the years I had given athletics.’   He ran three more World Mountain Running Championships in Austria, the Czech Republic and Borneo in Malaysia, but never ran quite as well as he had in Edinburgh.

 Despite winning a final Scottish 10000m title in 2000, Tommy was thinking about retirement but was convinced to give Veteran Athletics a go.   Having turned 40 on 18th May 1991, Tommy made an immediate impact by winning the East Kilbride Half Marathon which incorporated the British Veterans Championship.   In running 66:46, he easily defeated not only the several top English vets but also second placed Simon Pride, the Welshman who had been selected for the Scottish team in the forthcoming Commonwealth Games marathon!   In November the Scottish Veteran Harriers were hosting the annual Home Countries Cross-Country International at Callendar Park, Falkirk.   According to the usual biased reporting  in Athletics Weekly, four Englishmen were the favourites for the M40 title.   However Tommy had other ideas and after fending off a challenge from Julian Critchlow, he went on to win by 30 seconds.   Then Tommy went on to win the Open Race too ‘because I was good enough.’

 Tommy maintained a series of eleven straight victories, until he overtrained during a 2002 holiday in Ibiza and became exhausted.   This feeling continued for months, until he consulted a doctor and his blood count was found to be low.   After two weeks complete rest and only ten days of training, Tommy lined up for the 1993 British Veterans Cross-Country Championships at Beach Park, Irvine.   Tommy found himself engaged in a fierce battle with Julian Critchlow and Brian Rushworth.  ‘By the time we’d started on the second and final circuit, I decided to use a trick Allister Hutton had used on me in the 1987 National Cross-Country.   About a mile from the finish you run like hell for about 600 metres and try not to go into oxygen debt.   By doing this you hopefully fool the opposition into thinking you’re feeling good and are full of running, so that they hesitate while they decide whether to go with you.   Then you pray that you have enough left to make it to the finish.   Initially it looked as if my plan was working – I had opened up a seven second lead but I knew we still had the steep hill to come.   As soon as I hit it my legs started to buckle and I could feel Julian edging closer to me.   By the top he had narrowed the gap to two seconds, but with 800 metres left to run I wasn’t going to let a Sassenach beat me on my own soil, so I dug in really deep and mustered another effort from somewhere and the victory was mine.’

‘After the race at the medal presentation, Julian was interviewed and he paid me a massive complement by saying I was one of the greatest runners ever to come out of Britain.   Winning this race meant a lot to me.   I had to draw on all my strength and experience and it was also great to be involved in a real race.’   Nevertheless, Tommy felt that this was too good to last and just a few months later, he stopped after one mile of running on a training run and walked home, having quit running at the age of 42.

*

Tommy Murray reckons that nowadays all sports, including running, are in terminal decline due to the lazy lifestyle that is promoted by the media.   It seems like they would ‘like everyone to be sitting in their Lazyboy armchair, with their DVD, VIDEO, PLAYSTATION, COMPUTER, IPAD and a microwave meal, watching virtual sport on their WIDESCREEN TV before going out to visit some MULTIPLEX CINEMA or BOWLING ALLEY, with FAST FOOD and FREE PARKING!!!’  When he was starting running he might turn up to a race and find opposition of the calibre of Nat Muir, Allister Hutton, John Robson, Neil Tennant and Lawrie Spence.   This no longer happens in Scotland and veterans make up 65% of the field.   He hopes that the situation improves but he does not know how this might happen.

However Tommy Murray looks back on his career with justifiable pride.   he won thirteen Scottish titles: 3000m indoor, 10K Road, Half Marathon, 10000m and National Cross-Country; two team golds in the National plus three team golds in the CC Relay and countless Wst District ones.   ‘My weight moved around the nine stone mark and for years I survived on Weetabix and bananas, because I like them.   I always wear gloves when I race, I don’t feel complete until I put them on, just like Clark Kent becomes Superman when he changes into his blue suit and red cape.’

Tommy’s autobiography gives a real flavour of the man.  It is honest and forthright and very entertaining about races and personalities.   Ask him for a copy!   He mentions as his favourite memories his Dutch victories and the Kielder Dam 6 Miles race. around the biggest man-made reservoir in Europe, which he won three times plus two second places.   On training he says that you will do well if you can find the right balance between ‘No Pain, No Gain’ and ‘Train. Don’t Strain.’   People he admires include John Ngugi (World Cross and Olympic 5000m gold medallist), Liz McColgan, Tommy McCallion, Dave Cannon, Lachie Stewart, Cammy Spence and Doug Gillon.   His greatest tribute is to his family, ‘who have shared all my successes and helped me through all my defeats.’

A final word on one of his finest races – the World Mountain Racing Championship at Meadowbank in 1986 as reported in the excellent ‘Fell Runner’ magazine with a good photograph by Peter Hartley.

This is where Colin leaves the Tommy Murray profile, but I’d like to add a personal tribute to Tommy – but not to Tommy the runner.   Tommy was never ever big-headed about his achievements or arrogant in any way; always approachable he would give help to anyone who needed it.   Mention has been made above of his anorexia.   When one of  the athletes I was coaching had serious bulimia, Tommy came forward and offered to help and do what he could for the young man.  He phoned him at home more than once and provided me with some advice.   He did not have to do it, he wasn’t asked – he came forward and made the offer.    Tommy Murray will always be rated highly as a person regardless of his running.   Mind you, having said that, what a career!

Nat Muir winning the Luddon Half Marathon in 1988

By any measure, Nat Muir has to be one of Scotland’s best ever distance runners: possibly also one of the country’s unluckiest in that he never had the success at the very topmost level that his ability and dedication deserved.   The tables below tell some of the story but by no means all of it.

 Why include the club championships?   is it not a great drop from the internationals?   Maybe, but the point is to emphasise that even when he was one of the best in the world, even when he was getting invitations to races all over the continent every winter, he found time and had the desire to run in the club championships: the motivational effect on all club members of seeing him running on their own turf must have been considerable.     I asked one of his old friends about him and the reply was that he just got on with it without any pretensions.    That might of course be why he didn’t seem to get on with Andy Norman, the ex-policeman Mr Big of British Athletics at the time.   His track times stand any comparison you care to make – despite the fact that it has been 30 years and more since most of the marks have been made he tops the 5000 metres lists for both Junior and Senior men.   His place in the all-time rankings for various events are as follows.

Nat Muir, born 12th March, 1958, took up athletics in 1970 while a pupil at St Aloysius Primary in Chapelhall, near Airdrie, and was encouraged to go along to the Shettleston Harriers club by two schoolmates – John Mulvey and John Blair   In his first race – the Lanarkshire relays in 1970 – he had the fastest individual time  in his age group and ‘caught the bug’.   He won the Midland District and was third in National Junior Boys Championship in February 1971.   As well as doing club training, he ran as much as possible, encouraged and supervised by his Dad, Hugh, who had marked out a measured mile in a field near the family home in Salsburgh.   The combination of natural talent and hard work helped him to the National Youths (Under 17) title in 1975.

The 1975-76 season started with the McAndrew Relays and as the official club history (‘One Hundred Years of Shettleston Harriers: An East End Odyssey’) says “In his first full season as a junior Nat Muir quickly established himself as a regular member of the club’s senior teams.   At the McAndrew, running the second leg in the fourth-placed team, he ran the second fastest time of the 16 Shettleston runners, only one second slower than Jim Burns.   The following week he beat Jim by two seconds to record the club’s fastest mark at the Lanarkshire road relay.   Wresting the Allan Scally Trophy from Edinburgh Southern was the challenge presented to Nat, Davie Lang, Jim Burns and Lachie Stewart at the seventh running of the race but both Edinburgh outfits proved too strong and the club was third and once again Nat had the fastest time.   Stewart, Lang, Burns and Muir got their names into the history books when they won the inaugural senior relay of the new Western District in which Nat’s fastest time of the day was vital in the 29 second relay over Clyde Valley.   Another fastest time from Nat at the National four-stage relays in Edinburgh was not enough to beat the Edinburgh Southern quartet and Shettleston finished second.”    Nat missed the District Championships at Coatbridge but when the cross country season ended, Nat won the first of three Junior Championships.   Selected for the International Cross-Country Championships at Chepstow in Wales, he was third finisher but with the next Scot being 35th the team was well out of the medals.  Perhaps his best run though was his victory in the English Junior Cross Country Championship at Leicester leading the club team into third place.

1976-77 was one where Davie Lang, Lawrie Spence, Lachie Stewart and Nat Muir showed how good a team they could be when they won the County relays, the District Relays and the Allan Scally relay and were half of the team that won the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay and then won the National four-man relay.   A year later at Glenrothes in deep snow, Nat again triumphed by almost a minute from John Graham leading the Shettleston team to victory in the Junior race. The 1977 International Championship was held at Dusseldorf  in Germany and Nat was unable to replicate the previous year’s result, finishing eighth to lead the team home.   What of Nat in other races that year?   The Glasgow University Road race was to be a happy hunting ground for Nat in the years to come but the first time he ran (remember has still a first year junior despite his wonderful running) there were a couple of problems.   The club history again: As one of the youngest runners in the record field of 213 runners at the GU Road Race, Nat Muir’s inexperience, if not his sense of direction cost him valuable time although it did not affect the race result.   After taking the lead at the halfway mark, he twice went off the course only to be sportingly redirected by the second man, Dave Logue of Edinburgh Southern whose magnanimous gestures may have cost him the race since he finished only three seconds behind Muir on the Westerlands track.”   Bearing in mind that senior men, especially the seasoned and grizzled cross-country specialists, do not like giving anything away to young juniors, and that they will use all sorts of wiles and tricks to keep their position, his results were astonishing.   I remember a young start who as a first year junior was defeated by an older and slightly slower man in the University race being quoted as saying “Aye, Andy Brown knows how to run wi’ the heid!’   He was ninth in the Western District championship winning team and then in the National at Glenrothes won a second Junior title and led the junior team to victory.

In summer 1977 Nat started with a victory in the GRE Gold Cup at Liverpool he was the only Shettleston Harrier to win his event and turned out for the club in League matches.   His best track running of the year was yet to come: Nat was second in the AAA junior championship 5000 metres in 14:05.8 and then took a huge chunk from that respectable time with 13:49.1 when he won the European Junior 5000m in Donetsk in Russia to beat Alberto Cova of Portugal, a future Olympic 5000m champion.  The summer ended for him with second place behind Mike McLeod of Elswick in the Round the Walls race at Berwick in September

At the start of the 1977-78 cross-country season, he was in the teams which won the McAndrew at Scotstoun, the West District relays and was third in the Allan Scally race and then ran well in the team that finished third in the Edinburgh to Glasgow.   Nat on his own won an international 4.5 mile race at Gateshead to defeat David Black of England and Steve Jones (Wales) and the later finished second to Steve Ovett in a 5 mile international race in Belfast.   Many athletes called off from the District Championships on a frozen, rutted trail at East Kilbride, Nat was among them.  Others who started and then dropped out included such notables as John Graham and Frank Clement. The International Championship was to be held at Bellahouston Park in 1978 and accordingly the National championships were held there a few weeks before.   Nat had asked to be allowed to run in the Senior Race as preparation for the International but permission was refused so he ran in and won the Junior title for the third time.   Then the selectors who wouldn’t let him run in the Senior race, picked him for the Senior team in the international.   On a day of dreadful weather with rain, hail, sleet all making an appearance along with a strong wind, Nat started steadily and worked his way up to fourth and then dropped back to seventh, his finishing position: very good going for a slightly built 20 year old.   Notable races that summer for him included an international against Greece in Athens where he was partnered by Lawrie Spence.    The two Shettleston men ran together building up a lead before sprinting for the tape with Nat winning in 13:37.6 and Lawrie a mere tenth of a single second behind.   A month later in the SAAA Championships the tables were turned with Lawrie winning in 13:45 to Nat’s 13:47.   As a result of their good, consistent running, they were selected for the Commonwealth Games in Canada.   The Games were not a success for either although Nat was sixth in 13:34.9; Lawrie unfortunately had been affected by a virus and finished thirteenth in 14:28.

At the start of winter 1978-79,  Nat was again in winning teams in the County and District Relays and he also ran in the team which was second in the McAndrew road relay.   At the end of the season the National Championships were held on a rock-solid, icy course at Livingston with more than its share of hills but that did not stop Nat, in his first year as a Senior taking the title by 26 seconds from Lawrie Spence.   The International that year was held in Limerick in Ireland and under the management of John Hamilton for the first time.   Nat was tenth and first Scot  with John Robson in 52nd being the next counter.   Summer 1979 started with Nat winning the 800m/1500m double at the first League Match at Coatbridge in 1:52 and 3:56 and then he did the ‘double-double’ when he won the same two events at the second match at Meadowbank.   He won the SAAA 5000m in 13:57.3 and followed with two fine international races.   In a Mile at Gateshead he was third, first in the 5000m in a GB v France B International in Wales and then third behind Rod Dixon (NZ) and Brendan Foster  in the Phillips Gateshead Games in 13:27.4.

The McAndrew relay in 1979 was again won by the club and again Nat was part of the team.   He missed the County event and in the District his fastest time of the day assisted the club to second place.   In the Allan Scally relay, Nat not only had the fastest time but was faster than any Shettleston runner had achieved in the ten year history of the race.   1980 and into a new decade and Colin Shields in his centenary history of the Cross Country Union said: “The Eighties decade started well for Scotland when they won the team contest in the ‘Round the Houses’ road race at Madrid on Hogmanay.   Nat Muir finished runner-up to Carlos Lopes (Portugal), future world cross-country champion and Olympic gold medallist with Jim Dingwall 4 and Graham Laing 8 completing the Scottish team…. Muir won the Belfast International Race, then finished sixth in the Villamoura event in Portugal with Jim Brown close behind.   Muir stayed training for a week in the sun after the Villamoura race and the benefits showed when he won the San Sebastian race in Northern Spain with Brown 5 and Lawrie Spence 15 for Scotland to finish second to England in the team contest.”   The National Championships were held at Irvine and Nat won by 17 seconds from John Robson with Allister Hutton in third.   The World Championships that year were held at the Longchamps Racecourse in Paris and the course had several barriers set out to test the runners – Nat hit the first such hurdle with his heel and had to drop out soon afterwards to be taken to hospital for an operation to his Achilles tendon.   John Robson finished fifth in a superb run and the team was seventh.

He recovered in time for the track season and won an International 5000m against Northern Ireland and Luxembourg in May at Meadowbank and at the Amoco International Games at Crystal Palace he defeated Henry Rono and pushed Filbert ayi to the finishing line to make the meeting’s headlines.   But 1980 was Moscow Olympics year and everyone wanted selection for the Games.   The selectors had decided that two would be chosen from the trial at Meadowbank plus one other to make up the quota of three runners.   That was of course dependant on the runners having done a qualifying time.   Several other runners had done the time, Nat hadn’t.   He was also returning from altitude training at Kenya and although he said he ‘ran like a donkey’ there were extenuating circumstances attached to the race.   Due to the proximity of the selection date he had to either be in the first two or do the qualifying time in that race or, ideally both.    It was a dreadfully windy afternoon at Meadowbank, at least two others had done the time and there was no incentive for them to push the pace along, they were content to sit and go for the places late on in the race.   So Nat had to take the pace along earlier than he would have liked on a day that did not help fast exposed front running.   Despite running the fastest time by a British runner that year for 5000m of 13:17.9 (a Scottish record) and regularly beating two of the chosen three in other races, he was not selected.   In the Oslo race he had beaten multi-world record holder Henry Rono, Suleiyman Nyambui, Craig Virgin and many others of very high quality.

Nat in Oslo, 1980

 In the 1980-81 season, he had a series of hard races on the Continent but not before running the McAndrew (where he was ten seconds faster than he had ever run on that trail), the Lanarkshire relays, the Districts and the Allan Scally where he also broke the course record..   At Denderhouton in Belgium he won from a high class field on a snow covered course, he was runner-up at the ‘Almonds in Blosson’ race in Portugal an at San Sebastian in Spain on successive weekends and then won at Chartres in France.   The Scottish Championships at Callendar Park couldn’t have been more different from Spanish and Portuguese weather – sleet, snow and a quagmire underfoot did not however stop him from winning his third title and he won from Jim Brown.   The World Championships that year were held at Zorzuela in Spain and a mystery illness affected the Scottish team for whom only six runners actually finished the race: Nat Muir was twenty sixth and second Briton to finish, only 45 seconds behind the winner.   finish third to Allister Hutton and John Robson.    Despite the disappointment of his non-Olympic selection he had a good season in 1981 as was shown in the ranking lists:

800 in 1:53.5; 1500 metres in 3:41.75 (ranked second to John Robson and above Frank Clement); Mile in 4:03.24; 3000 metres – three of the top five times with a best of 7:53.98; 5000 metres – five of the top seven with a best of 13:31.77   He competed for Scotland at Gateshead in the Mile against England, Hungary and Norway and finished fifth, against Denark and Eire at Edinburgh in the 5000m and won in 13:52.73, against Greece, Wales, Israel and Luxembourg where he was third in the 5000 metres and in the SAAA Championships he won the 1500 in 3:41.75.

He started the following season (1981-82) with the fastest time in the McAndrew relay and the District relays but at the end of the year in the ‘Round the Houses’ New Year’s Eve race in Madrid he was hit by a trolley-car  and missed the entire period up to the National Championships.   He did run in the National Championships however but the lack if training showed itself and he could only finish third behind Hutton and Robson.   In summer 1982 he ran for Scotland in an international in Luxembourg and won the 5000m in 14:06.   The cross-country season started with a victory in the Glasgow University Road Race for the fifth time in six years, won the Bellahouston Harriers open cross country race and finished third in the Presto International in Gateshead after leading for three of the five laps.  .   He started the New Year with two more victories on consecutive days – the Nigel Barge which he won in record time and the James Flockhart cross country race at Coatbridge – before going on to win the Springburn Cup from Lawrie Spence and then the International race at Cumbernauld.   Five races in the New Year so far and five wins.   He made it six when he won the National Championships at the Jack Kane Sports Centre in Edinburgh by six seconds from George Braidwood.   The World Championships were held at Gateshead on a traditional kind of course with twists, turns hills and everything else associated with the sport.      Nat finished eleventh and was second Briton but the team could only finish a poor eighteenth.     In summer 1983 he started by winning the 800 and 1500m in the second Scottish League match with a pb in the 800 of 1:50.   By the end of the year he was ranked thirteenth in the 800m; fifth in the 1500m; first and sixth in the 3000m with a best of 8:00.05; in the 5000m he had the top six time (from a best of 13:34.42 to 13:46.09) and another two in the top twenty.  In the men’s international in Luxembourg against Luxembourg and Belgium he won the 5000m, at Meadowbank against England, Poland and Norway he was fourth in the 3000m with 8:00.05 (race won by Steve Cram in 7:57.80) and at home he won the SAAA 5000m in 13:42.7 and the West District 1500 in 3:52.5.    Having been selected for the Commonwealth Games team he went to Brisbane, Australia, and finished sixth in the 5000m with a time of 13:40.

In 1983-84 Nat did not compete as often as before but he ran in the West District Championships, held in the grounds of Leverndale Hospital, he won comfortably from Eddie Stewart and Alex Gilmour of Cambuslang Harriers.   Competing only twice in Scotland during the season he returned to the Brach Park in Irvine for the National Championships and, taking the lead right at the start, he won from Allister Hutton by an astonishing 43 seconds.    The World Championships were held in the United States for the first time.    British runners ran well in the race but Nat was not one of them.   Having had a good season against them all there were hopes of a medal but unfortunately at the time of the race he was in bed with a temperature of 103 due to a bronchial virus.   Having run in eight races on the Continent with a record of two wins and five second places it must have been a galling experience for Nat.   His own take on the situation was quoted in the Shettleston history – “It was Catch-22 – the fitter I got the more susceptible I became.”

It took almost a year for him to recover from the illness.   Nat was a member of the teams that were second in the McAndrew, first in the West relays and second in the Allan Scally relay.   He had a record breaking run in the Edinburgh to Glasgow sixth stage to indicate how fit he was with several good runs on the Continent in 1984-85  he went into the National Championships, held again at the Jack Kane Centre, in good shape and after a hard race in rainy conditions, he won by over 20 seconds from John Robson.   He went straight into a programme of races on the Continent starting with Birbeck in Belgium where he was second 24 hours after the National finishing ahead of Carlos Lopes and Emiel Puttemans.    According to Colin Shields this was one of six major races Muir competed in between New Year and the World Championships at Lisbon, winning two, being second three times and being fifth in the other one.   Again the World Championships were another bad experience for Nat: running fourth in the leading group after a mile he had one shoe ripped from his foot by the spikes of another runner.   He tried to retrieve the shoe but eventually just took off the other one and ran on in his socks.   There was a 300 yard stretch of gravel to be negotiated on each lap and he finished back in forty third with bleeding, lacerated feet.   The first Scot was John Robson who was six places up on him.   In the summer of 1985 he won the West District 10000 metres championship with a time of 29:26.   The following week he went to that happy venue for so many Scots runners (Frank Clement, Graham Williamson, John Robson, etc) – Oslo for the Bislett Games.   He again ran the 5000m and was timed at 13:22.   This was his fastest time since the outstanding victory in 1980.

1985-86 proceeded as before for Nat.  His first race of the winter was in the Allan Scally relay where he had another record breaker to help the team to victory.    A successful programme of international races – third or better in six of eight races in the first half of the season – and a break from racing before the National at Irvine and won again, getting away from runner-up Neil Tennant on the feared Dragon Hill and winning by 30 yards.    Came the World Championships at Neuchatel in Switzerland and Nat withdrew because he had ‘flu.    For a man of his ability and experience his luck at World Cross-Country Championships was terrible.   Cross-country was his forte and the surface where he had some of his best competitions and to be robbed of a fair chance at the top meeting was cruel luck.   John Robson was first Scot to finish in 122th position.   The following season it was announced that it would the last time that the four home Countries would compete as separate teams: in future only a single UK team would be allowed to run.    This had been coming up for many years but now it was a reality.   In summer 1986 he was asked by the selectors to double up the 10000m and the 5000m in the Commonwealth Games to be held in Edinburgh.   he declined their offer and ran only in the 5000m where, due to an Achilles tendon problem he ran his slowest 5000m of the three Commonwealths he was in – 13:40.

The World Championship in 1987 would be the last for Scotland.    In the National Championships preceding it, the race was a duel between Nat and Chris Robison with Nat winning by 22 seconds to equal the record of five consecutive victories by J Suttie Smith between 1928 and 1932.   Colin Shields: “Although it was not known at the time, Muir’s victory was his final appearance in the National Championships as injury prevented him competing again.   Except for Allister Hutton’s win in 1982 when Muir was injured after being knocked down by a car in a New Year’s Ever race on the Continent, Muir had won eight of the nine National Senior titles between 1979 and 1987.   These honours, together with his three wins in the Junior Championships 1976-78 and his 1975 Youth win, gave him a total of 12 National titles – a performance which is unlikely ever to be equalled, let alone beaten in the future.   He dominated cross-country in Scotland as comprehensively as his list of championship honours indicated, and his love of cross-country running, and his consequent concentration on the winter sport could have been the reason for his lack of success on the track in the summer that his talent indicated he might have achieved.”   In any event, the World Championship was held that year in Warsaw in dreadful conditions with sub-zero weather.   Nat was first Scot to finish – in fortieth position and Shields suggests that the dismal performances by the Scottish runners, men, women and Juniors, was down to the fact that it was at least partly due to the fact that it was the last ever appearance in the event for Scotland.     In 1988 he ran a fast half marathon of 65:34 in the popular Strathkelvin race.

Up to this point, Nat missed almost every District Championship because he was racing on the Continent but in 1988/89 he ran in Houston and won by two seconds from Tommy Murray but because of a viral illness could not run at the Nationals.

I am going to digress from the narrative a bit here.    Nat is on record as saying that athletics is essentially an individual sport with a team element coming second to that.  No one can gainsay that.   But let’s look at the reality.

He went on racing for his club as he had done so often in the past at every opportunity.   There were many of his rivals over the previous decade who either omitted club commitments from their schedule or went through the motions by turning out and running over the course.   Nat was a good club runner and he turned out as often as he could for it.    Have a look at this list of appearances from 1975 to 1992:

Scottish Four Stage Relay:   1976, 1977, 1981, 1990, 1992.                                   District Relays:   1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1984, 1990, 1991, 1992.                                     County Relays: 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1988

Allan Scally Relays:   1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1984, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992                                                                   In the McAndrew Relay at the start of the cross-country season he was in three winning teams: 1976, 1977, 1979

Then there was the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay:   He ran in 1975 (2nd stage), 1976 (4th stage), 1977 (2nd – fastest on stage), 1978 (6th – fastest on stage), 1979 (2nd), 1980 (2nd – fastest), 1982 (2nd – fastest), 1984 (6th – fastest), 1986 (6th), 1989 (4th – fastest), 1992 (2nd).    Eleven starts.    

From 1988 he became more and more prone to injury but turned out as often as he could.   At the start of 1989-90 he had a good run in the Allan Scally relays which were his first of the winter wit the best time of the day but his next serious season came in 1991 when the club history says: On the road, Nat Muir began his spring/summer season with a win at the Tom Scott in April and ended with a victory in the Aberdeen Half Marathon in September.   He competed in at least ten 10K races, won seven, was second in two and fourth in a race at Keighley in Yorkshire with a best time of 30:09 at Stranraer in May.   He won the Monklands Half Marathon   in 67:59 – three seconds slower than his mark at Aberdeen, the Monklands 7 and was part of the second-placed Shettleston team at the Jock Semple Relays at Clydebank with John Mackay and Billy Coyle.’    The 1992-93 season started with Nat, Peter McDevitt, Andy Little and Billy Coyle taking third in the McAndrew relay.   Nat’s time in the Scally relay was his club’s second fastest of the day but the fact that it was two minutes slower than his own record combined with what he called ‘susceptibility to injury’ made him think seriously of giving up the sport.   His final race for the club was on the second stage of the Edinburgh to Glasgow where the team was seventh.

Bayi leads from Henry Rono in a 3000m in 1980 in London with Steve Jones, Steve Binns, Gordon Rimmer and of course Nat.

Graham Williamson’s hair can be seen above Nat’s head.

In their comments on his career, the club historians included the following remarks: “One of the highlights of his track career was winning the European junior title at Donetsk in the Soviet Union in 1977, where he beat Alberto Cova, later European, World and Olympic 10000m champion.   Five years later Nat experienced the downside of the sport, or as he put it – ‘was cheesed off’ – after he failed to be selected for the British team for the Olympics in Moscow.   One of the ironies of Nat’s career during the eighties was that though he was Scotland’s supreme middle-distance runner and the early part of the decade coincided with the running boom, the club itself went through one of its poorest periods.   Nat was very aware of the situation, described by him as ‘being in lio’ because of the number of talented young Shettleston runners of his generation who left the sport at a comparatively young age.   For him however even though he always wanted the club to do well  especially in relays, athletics was essentially an individual sport.   It was a relay that convinced him that he should end his own career and it was nothing to do with the team’s performance.      He had always used the Allan Scally relay in November as an indication of his fitness and a gauge for the coming year, so when his slowest time ever in the 1992 race coincided with a recurring Achilles tendon injury he could see retirement beckoning.   His last race for the club was on the second stage of the Edinburgh to Glasgow later in the month.’

For a view from outside the club, I will quote the remainder of Colin Shields’s review of his career quoted above after the final cross-country international.   We have already seen the laudatory comments on his cross country career, this is on his track running:    “His track distance running talent flowered early when he won the 1977 European Junior 5000m title in Russia clocking the excellent time of 13:49.1 at 19 years of age.   The following year he recorded a personal best of 13:34.9 when finishing sixth in the Commonwealth Games 5000m at Edmonton.   His outstanding International success came in 1980 when he defeated a top class 5000m field at Oslo in the Scottish National record time of 13:17.9 – a time which was third fastest in the world that year – bit it was recorded too late to gain him a place in Britain’s team for the Olympic Games in Moscow.   In a track career which never flowered to the same extent as his cross-country one, he never gained a medal in any of the Commonwealth Games he competed in or gained selection for the Olympic Games or European Championships in the Eighties.    He won Scottish titles at both 1500m and 5000m but never achieved the high honours that Ian McCafferty or Ian or Lachie Stewart did in the Seventies.”

What Colin says is true.   BUT …. I would contend that Nat was unlucky (see the problems that dogged him in the International Cross-Country Championships all of which were unforeseeable) and that the lack of  others of equal or near-equal talent within Scotland at the time (compare with Lachie, Ian McCafferty, Andy Brown, Dick Wedlock, etc racing each other frequently on all sorts of surface: something denied Nat) and that these combined to rob him of the rewards that his talent deserved.    It would also be unfair to end without mentioning Alex Naylor’s – Big Daddy of Scottish Endurance Coaching for so many years and Nat’s coach from the very beginning.   They made an impressive partnership.

A final word.  The last time I spoke to Nat was at a National Cross-Country Championship at Irvine.   He was watching the race and runners, parents, coaches and others were walking, jogging or running past not knowing who he was.   I don’t think he was even asked to present the prizes after any of the races and he was certainly not interviewed over the tannoy as others have been on occasion.   We spoke for a minute or two and then we went our separate ways.   Another who could be a first-rate example for our young athletes wasted.   It would be good to speak to him again now that he has had time to reflect on his career.

Angela Mudge in the Carnethy colours at the Ben Nevis Hill Race in 2008.

In the course of my running career I ran in several hill races (eg the Mamore Hill 4 times) and ran well in none of them.    I have also officiated at the Arrochar Alps and the Kilpatricks races – several times at each and have nothing but admiration for the skills, bravery and intelligence for those who can compete successfully in this most demanding of athletic disciplines.  I once had the privilege of sitting listening to Bobby Shields reading a map of an up-coming hill race and it was like anyone else reading a book (there’s a dip between these two tops, we call it a saddle, and there’s a burn running down from the middle so if you go just west of where the burn is, then ….)   He hadn’t seen the map before and he was reading direct from the OS map.   You can’t be stupid and a good hill runner at the same time.    I have spoken to sever of these athletes and know from direct experience that that is true.    One of the best we have had in Britain is an English born woman who has run her entire career for Scotland – Angie Mudge is world famous.   We just had to include her here.

Doug Gillon at his best is a superb journalist who passes on a lot of information in every piece he writes but mixes it in with illuminating comment and a degree of insight which is all too often missing from our sports pages.   In an article in ‘The Herald’ of Friday, 23rd September 2005 he wrote an excellent article about one of our greatest endurance athletes – Angela Mudge – which I will reproduce in its entirety here.    He wrote:

A mountain to climb?   Mudge now at her peak.   Leading endurance athlete tells Doug Gillon she is now ready for the ultimate challenge.

In some sports Angela Mudge would travel business class with a retinue of managers and medics, living in five-star luxury, her future assured by whacking endorsement income and prize money.   Her recent winnings were a Swiss cheese and a voucher for a bunch of flowers.   She declined.   Vases, when you live in a tent, are excess baggage.

Hill-running is an under-estimated discipline.   As befits its rigours, competitors take life and hazards in their stride.   Mudge has spent two months during the past year on crutches after radical surgery to correct a serious knee problem that already had her considering alternative sports.   “I’d worn away all my knee cartilage – more to do with my running style than with the sport itself,” she said.   “I was running on the bare bone of my femur, so the surgeon drilled a lot of holes, which stimulates scar tissue and I could run again.   My knee was more painful afterwards than before, I was prepared for that, but was allowed to run for only 10 minutes even months after the operation.   I deliberately did not ask about the success or failure rate in order to keep a positive frame of mind.   It was only six months later that a physiotherapist told me that there were lots of people for whom the operation did not work.   Taking rehab slowly has been the key to success, although I had plantar fasciitis which put me out of action again from the end of May to the beginning of July this year.”   Since then she has recovered dramatically training for five weeks and racing four times in Switzerland.

“I won three races and was second in the Swiss Championships on the Matterhorn.   There was a raclette cheese for winning one race and a 50 franc voucher from a flower shop for another which I gave back.   There was nothing for the third but it’s not about the prizes.”   Mudge reckons she is short of the form required to reclaim the individual crown at the world mountain running trophy, but still believes the Scottish women’s team can be on the podium.   In her final race before her departure for Wellington, where she leads the Scots on Mount Victoria, Mudge won the world masters title in the Lake District by nearly three and a half minutes.   “It was the first time I’d raced downhill since the operation,” said the 35 year old Carnethy runner.

In the 2000 World Mountain Running Championships, Mudge won the world title, while in 2003 she won silver and led the Scottish team to gold in the only athletics discipline in which Scotland now competes at world level.

Overtaking on some descents can be more hazardous than on a Formula One racetrack.   Mudge is a former winner of the world climbathon on Mount Kinabalu in Borneo where there were sheer drops.   She had to sign a disclaimer absolving organisers from liability.   Little wonder.   This was the mountain on which ten British squaddies got lost for several weeks yet it was all in the day’s run to Mudge.   She has raced in New Zealand before having speent six months there with a boyfriend.   Laureus tried to tempt her home when she was short listed for the world extreme sportswoman of the year title but she declined the all-expenses trip.

The only other British nominees were in other categories.   Steve Redgrave, David Beckham, Jonathan Edwards and Lennox Lewis among 75 luminaries boasting 316 Olympic and World titles at a glittering gala dinner in London’s Albert Hall.   Mudge preferred a meal cooked in the open “and camping in a tent high up in the Southern Alps”.   She added that she did not possess a little black dress and would only have wandered around collecting autographs.

A Stirling University chemistry graduate with a PhD and MSc, she worked temporarily as a research assistant with a recycling agency for six months over the winter while in rehab but quit for the competitive season.   She cycled and camped the length of Switzerland to cut costs.   “Sometimes I meet up with other runners and I’m happy to join them but I am just as happy to do everything myself, preparing meals on my little gas cooker.”

Mudge overcame being born with her feet facing the wrong way and the boredom of track running as a teenager – she has never done it since – to become Britain’s greatest hill racer.   She has collected the UK cross-country title and contested the world championships in that discipline along the way, but the hills are where her heart lies.

“Before this latest operation I was unsure whether I would be able to carry on running.   I would just have picked another sport, like cycling, which is compatible.   It was always in the back of my mind.   I’ve set no goals for New Zealand.   It’s more of a trail race than open mountain so it will be quick and I’m not as sharp as I’d wish.   It would be stupid to focus on the top fve when I could finish fifteenth and still have an excellent run, but I think we can medal if all the girls run well.”    The Standard Life Scottish team includes Tracy Brindley, the 2003 individual world bronze meallist, and British champion Jill Mykura and runner-up Sula Young, but is minus Lyn Wilson, Mudge’s clubmate and former world gold medal team-mate who tackles the Berlin Marathon tomorrow.

“I did not go out too early to New Zealand,” adds Mudge, “because it would be just another week with disturbed sleep.   I don’t do time change well.   I like to see the course, but too much of it beforehand is not good for me.   If you’re having a bad run, you know what is coming up.”

Whatever the outcome, there is no end in sight.   “I can’t see myself doing world and European championships for many years more”, she says, “but I’ve missed a lot of races through doing championships.   I’ll continue until my body falls apart.   With any luck I’ll still be doing women’s 65+ races in 30 years.”

That’s the end of Doug’s article and she did indeed run in the World Mountain Running Championships that year – and won the W35 age group race while finishing 20th overall.

When researching this article we were advised to look at the Wikipedia article on Angela Mudge – and it was all there!   Her entire career up to and including 2008 when she won the Ben Nevis race and the Sky Race in Switzerland with three seconds in Switzerland, Italy and the WMRA Championships.   They have done a very good job and those interested in Angela Mudge as an outstanding hill-runner should look it up at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Mudge

That will give the whole story of the wonderful career of Angela Mudge.    I will add to this page later but you will already have noted a lot about her character, her integrity and her competitive nature from Doug’s writing.

Angela has been inducted into the Scottish Athletics Hall of Fame.

Phil winning the Stornoway Half Marathon: May 2004, 1:14:37

I have always had great admiration for Phil Mowbray: when I was coaching several very good Scottish international athletes, he was slightly younger than most of them and being nurtured by Malcolm Brown, an excellent coach who had started out with Cambridge Harriers and who, at that time, was in charge of athletics at Edinburgh University.    He worked with many really top class athletes such as Dermot Donnelly, Dominic Bannister and Alison Rose.   And in Philip he had an athlete with talent  and an uncompromising competitor.    He got the better of many who should have beaten him simply by his determination, his refusal to yield, as well as his natural talent.   Now, in 2012, when many of those others who competed with him in the 1990’s have left the sport, he is still taking part in competitions the length and breadth of the land – the picture above is taken from the Stornoway Running Club’s website (which is one well worth visiting)   when he won the Half Marathon there in 2004 as an M40 veteran.    When he left Edinburgh University, a Scottish and British internationalist, he would have been welcomed into any club in the land and he no doubt had offers by the handful.   He chose instead to join Hunter’s Bog Trotters: the slightly eccentric club, founded by Robin Thomas among others,  for the University old boys.   Noted for their almost carefree attitude to the sport they contained many very talented athletes and had some famous victories.   They can be compared and contrasted with the other Edinburgh based club of the 90’s, the Racing Club of many names: Reebok, Leslie Deans, Mizuno, etc, who wanted to see a Scottish club win at British level as well as domestic and set about doing it.   Where success was the be-all and end-all of Racing Club with top-class athletes being signed up from all around Scotland, the Trotters trained hard and raced hard but always kept things in perspective.    Phil, talented, determined, stubborn and his refusal never, ever to give in until the line was crossed chose to run for the club with some sense of perspective.   

The following profile was written by Colin Youngson.

Phil Mowbray (born 19 March, 1973) is an extremely talented athlete who has run very well on track, road, country and hill.   However his career has not followed traditional elitist lines, ie when the runner concentrates fully on years of remorseless training, aimed at churning out personal best times, important victories and representative honours.   Yes, Phil achieved many of these traditional objectives but also decided that his work/life balance would be better served by focusing on competing for his notably friendly, sociable club and enjoying his running..

On 22 February, 1992, Philip Mowbray, an Edinburgh University Maths student, led his team to victory in the Scottish National Junior Cross-Country Championship at Beach Park, Irvine.   It was a commanding front running performance.   Phil had just missed out on a place in the British Junior team for the World Championships in Boston, but had an excellent season also winning the East District Junior title and the Scottish Universities Championship.   Naturally he was awarded an EU ‘Blue’.   At the same venue in 1993 Phil won the National Junior Cross-Country once again, 27 seconds clear of his Edinburgh University Hare & Hounds team-mate Christian Nicolson (who later ran very well in the USA and was selected to run the 10000m in the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games)   The Haries retained the team title.   He also represented Scotland in the World Mountain Running Trophy in 1992 when the Scottish Junior Men’s Team (John Brooks, Phil Mowbray, Hamish Hutchinson) won bronze medals.

On the track, representing Edinburgh Southern Harriers, Phil produced his very best form in 1994.   During the previous two years, he had run well at 800m, 1500m and 3000m, but this season, having won the East District 1500m and finished second after an exciting sprint finish in the Scottish Athletics Federation Championship (Glen Stewart 3:48.41, Phil Mowbray 3:48.69 and Grant Graham 3:48.81) he took more than three seconds off his pb when third at Solihull on 21st August.    Phil’s outstanding 3:41.63 still features in the Scottish All-Time ranking list.   Although Phil went on to win two Scottish Athletics titles: 1500m (3:43.81) in 1995 and 5000m (14:16,42) in 1996, and produced excellent 1997 personal bests in 5000m (13:49.44) and 3000m (7:59.5) he seemed to concentrate mainly on British Milers’ Club events and stopped making progress.   His last two serious track seasons were 2001, when he ran 13:58.48 (second in the Edinburgh International Games at Meadowbank), and 2002 (5000m in 14:02.88.   Mowbray’s fastest Mile took 4:08.81 (1999) and 800m  1:51.88 (1993).

Mention has been made of the Trotters and some more light was shed on them in an article in ‘The Herald’ of 19th January 1995 under the headline “GB Cap Could Leave Mowbray in a Quandary,” Doug Gillon wrote: “Phil Mowbray, a 21-year old Edinburgh University student, made history yesterday when he became the first member of Hunter’s Bog Trotters to gain full selection for Britain.   But the honour could prompt the club to ask him to resign.   Being one of four Scots  named to compete against Russia,  in the 3000m,  at Birmingham’s National Arena a week on Saturday.   Mowbray has broken an unwritten HBT club rule.   Trotters frown on egotism, those who take themselves too seriously, and particularly on the too-intense pursuit of excellence.   Winning races is discouraged by the most bizarre means.   Some of their number, for example, even stop during road and cross-country races, when the location of hostelries permits, to partake of a pint, ideally of real ale, before continuing.   Tom McKean, Brian Whittle and Mel Neef, from mainstream Scottish clubs may find it hard to adjust to Fifer Mowbray.   They are a non-elitist bunch, the chocolate vested Trotters.   They take their name from an area in Edinburgh’s Holyrood Park and not as the SAAA believed when initially denying them the right to the name, from anything with lavatorial connections.   The most-coveted club award is the Golden Trotter vest, awarded to the last person after each race, and passed, unwashed,  week-by-week to the successive last man.   The holder at the season’s end wins the Golden Trotter – a freshly severed pig’s foot from the local butcher, which is then carefully spray painted gold.  

Mowbray however, while still showing hedonistic tendencies to compare with the best of his colleagues, is repeatedly showing what his club will view as a disconcerting ability, and a British vest will rank as the ultimate heresy.   Last year he was Britain’s fastest under-23 metric miler, ranked fourth senior in Scotland at 1500m with 3:41.63.  On Hogmanay he stunned English pundits when he scored a runaway victory in a 3000m cross-country event at Durham – a special race for track runners, in which his victims included former world 1500m champion Steve Cram, and major championship medallists Mark Rowland, John Mayock and Matthew Yates.”

In cross-country and road running, Phil Mowbray has an interesting record.   After his early Scottish Junior triumphs with EU H&H he had a couple of quiet years in the Senior National (1994: 25th, 1996 24th).   Changes were happening in the Scottish winter road and country running.   It was the age of the ‘Super-Team’, ie Racing Club Edinburgh which had won the Edinburgh to Glasgow in 1991 and under various aliases, went on to dominate club athletics for well over a decade, despite heroic resistance from some of the more traditional outfits like Shettleston and Cambuslang.  Phil Mowbray refused to join the juggernaut; instead he showed his cavalier spirit by becoming a Hunter’s Bog Trotter.   HBT (or ‘the Trotters’) had been the brainchild of Robin Thomas (a good long distance runner during and after his years at Edinburgh University) who had a mischievous and rather rebellious attitude to the established powers, eg Edinburgh Southern Harriers, Edinburgh Athletic Club and teh Scottish Cross-Country Union.   Eventually he became president of the latter, but this had not prevented him from organising a club which attracted true amateurs, bohemians and Rabelaisian real-ale drinkers.   Zany events were organised, including lengthy relays from town to town through the Highlands, using an actual pig’s trotter as the baton.   Dehydration was strenuously avoided after HBT training sessions in venues like the Blue Blazer pub.   Before too long however, HBT discovered that several very good athletes had joined their ranks – and wouldn’t it be fun to take part in a few top team contests?

Phil Mowbray ran brilliantly in a series of Edinburgh to Glasgow Relays for Hunter’s Bog Trotters.

• 1994:   Fastest on Stage Two going from ninth to first, although HBT finished sixth.
• 1995:   Fastest equal on Stage Six with Graeme Croll of Cambuslang and HBT fourth.
• 1996:   Easily fastest on Stage Six with his team winning bronze medals
• 1998:   Fastest by far on Stage Six, well in front of worthy rivals Daniel Leggate, Allan Adams, Tommy Murray and Alan Puckrin
• 1999:   Fastest yet again on Stage Six with his club finishing third.
• 2000:   Fastest on Stage Seven with HBT finishing fourth
• 2001:   Second fastest on Stage Six in 30:29, only eleven seconds slower than Scottish multi-champion Glen Stewart.

(These were very good times which compared with those of past giants like Nat Muir, Allister Hutton, Jim Dingwall and Fergus Murray)   After a tremendous fight HBT won silver medals only fifteen seconds behind Mizuno and nearly eight minutes clear of third place.)

• Finally in the very last E – G in 2002, Phil was second fastest to Glen Stewart on Stage Four and his team finished fifth

In 1998 Phil Mowbray took part once more in the Senior National Cross-Country finishing a meritorious fourth between Tommy Murray and Tom Hanlon, with the Trotters fifth team.

Phil went on to represent Great Britain in the 1998 World Cross-Country Championships, finishing thirty fifth in the Short Course event.   He won the Scottish Short Course Cross-Country title in both 2000 (outkicking Bobby Quinn) and 2001, (beating HBT clubmate, Don Naylor) and gained another GB vest in the World Cross-Country in 2000 (sixty fifth finisher).

Then came the greatest moment: in 2001 at Beach Park, Irvine, the Scottish National Cross-Country team champions were Hunter’s Bog Trotters!   They scored an extremely low 70 points with Phil finishing seventh.   He also shared in two other National triumphs: in 2005  at Irvine (Phil ninth), and 2007 at Callendar Park, Falkirk (Phil last counter in twentieth).   His best Senior performance was in 2004 when he won an individual silver medal, five seconds behind Glen Stewart but five seconds clear of future star Andrew Lemoncello.

HBT won the Scottish CC Relay in 2005 with a fine team: Steven Cairns, Alistair Hart, Don Naylor and Phil Mowbray.   In 2004, the Trotters had come second in the Scottish Six Stage Road Relay Championship.

From 2004 onwards, Phil Mowbray has relished running for pleasure on the roads, with wins in events like the EU 10 Miles, and half marathons in Haddington, Stornoway and the Isle of Barra.   He continues to take part regardless of finishing position, and has run many hill races such as the Two Breweries, the Aonach Mhor uphill and of course the Hunter’s Bog Trot.   Phil has also tackled the Trossachs Duathlon and it seems as if he has a long and varied career ahead of him.   Will he compete seriously as an M40?   Only if he enjoys such a challenge!

Another picture from the 2004 Stornoway Half.

And that is where Colin ended his profile.   You will note from the pictures on this page that Phil is still competing in the twenty first century with some distinction.  He is racing on the road and over the country and seems to be tackling all distances in both disciplines but not aiming for the Scottish veterans scene.    With his ability and attitude he could probably do well there but Phil was always his own man and always followed his own inclinations.   Bearing that in mind, I hope and expect to see that familiar running action and determination in action for a few years yet.

Colin Martin in the 1985 Tom Scott 10

Colin Martin was a very good athlete indeed.   He excelled at events from 880 Yards right up to the marathon and even did his share of the work when Dumbarton AAC set the record for the original Glasgow – Fort William Relay.   He was indeed one of the very best club men in the country – the old adage of ‘one man, one club’ held good for his entire career and his club had good reason to be grateful.   The same Colin Martin knew how to ‘run wi’ the heid’ as well: I remember a Dunbartonshire 5000m track championship on a very windy afternoon at Scotstoun when the wind really hurtled up the back straight.   Colin was up against a much less experienced man that day and when they hit the back straight Colin went to the front with the wind at his back and lured the opposition into working to catch him into the wind up the home straight, he did the same in the second lap, and the third, and by the fourth of the 12 laps he was on his own with the younger runner totally spent!   His application for membership of Dumbarton AAC went through on 25th January 1962, he was vice-captain in 1964 and 1965 and was elected captain in 1966.   A very popular athlete, his career is reviewed by Colin Youngson.

Colin R.L. Martin was born on the 19^th of January 1947 and has enjoyed a long and successful career as a middle and long-distance athlete. During all that time, he has been proud to represent only one club: Dumbarton AAC. While other runners of similar ability have worked and raced around Scotland, taking every opportunity to join the most successful clubs available, Colin has stayed true to his roots and his training mates. He may have fewer team medals as a result but has undoubtedly retained his integrity.

Colin’s talent was obvious from the start. In 1965 as a Youth he won a bronze medal in the SCCU Championships at Hamilton Racecourse, behind Eddie Knox (Springburn) and John Fairgrieve (EAC). That summer he was fifth in the Junior one mile rankings with a good time of 4 minutes 19.1 seconds. Top of the list for 880 yards and one mile was another fine Dumbarton runner: Graeme Grant. Bill Cairns was another good team-mate.

In cross-country Colin did not shine again until 1971, when he finished 19^th in the Senior National. For some time after that he took part in the International Training Sessions on Sundays at Cleland Estate, Motherwell, and in November 1971 ran for the SCCU team which lost to the Northern Counties but defeated the Army over mud, hills and a series of nasty brushwood fences at Catterick Camp. In the 1972 National he must have been very pleased with an excellent 11^th place (so near to making the Scottish team for the International CC), over a fast course at Currie. In the 1973 National he proved his consistency with 14^th place (beating Dave Logue and Jim Dingwall amongst many others) and managed a respectable 24^th in 1974. There is no doubt that these four runs in the National would have won him team medals if he had not been admirably loyal to Dumbarton AAC.

Colin’s club took part in eleven successive Edinburgh to Glasgow Relays from 1966 to 1975 (plus 1983) and Colin Martin, totally reliable, ran them all. Since he was usually the fastest runner in the club, he was given the responsibility of carrying the baton only against top opposition on Stages 2 (8 times) or 6 (4 times). No chance of shining falsely on the less important legs! Dumbarton’s best placing was tenth in 1969, when Colin gained five places on Stage Two. In 1974 he moved up five once again, this time on Stage Six, finishing an outstanding third-fastest behind Lawrie Reilly and Ron MacDonald.

Allan Adams was several years older than Colin Martin and became his friend, training partner and mentor. Goodness knows how many miles these two have run together! I imagine that Allan made Colin suffer on some of the long runs, while Colin gained his revenge through speedwork. When I ran for Victoria Park AAC in 1971-1973 I got to know them both. They were always polite but steely competitors – hard men! (After I became a veteran in 1987, Allan emphasised that he remained a redoubtable opponent, not only winning six Scottish CC titles in the M45 and M50 age groups, but also pushing me very hard in the Lochaber and Aberdeen Marathons, despite the fact that I was in a ‘younger’ category.)

It seems entirely appropriate that, when Colin Martin handed over the baton at the end of Stage Two, in both 1966 and 1983, he passed it to Allan Adams.

Bill Yate, 165, Phil Dolan, 159, Colin Martin 164 in the DAAA 3 Miles on the real Scotstoun track

On the track, Colin Martin raced relentlessly for his club in league races, often running several events in one meeting. Several highlights stand out. In 1969, he was second to John Linaker in the Inter-District 5000m. 1970 was one of his best seasons: 800m 1.55.8; 1500m 3.55.8 when he was fourth in the SAAA Championships (and Commonwealth Games trial) at Meadowbank, plus a win in the West District 1500m; 10,000m 30.39.8; and a debut marathon at Dumbarton in 2.48.55.

1971 produced the following: 1500m 3.58.3; 3000m 8.23.0; 500m 14.45; and a very good 10,000m in 30.08 when fourth in the SAAA Championships at Meadowbank.

By 1972, Colin had become one of my main rivals. He was undoubtedly faster but I was gaining in stamina. Two races illustrate this. At Meadowbank on the 27^th of May, we both had a go at the SAAA Ten Mile Track Championship. EAC’s Andy McKean went off with Colin in close attendance but then dropped him before going on to win easily. My training diary states: “Caught CM at three miles after a big effort and then we took two laps each until I made a break at seven miles and struggled to the finish. Andy 49.25, me 50.15, Colin 50.45.” However by the 16^th of September Colin Martin was much fitter. In the afternoon at the Grangemouth so-called Highland Games, he sprinted away in the 3000m to produce a PB of 8.21.4, five seconds clear of me and young Lawrie Spence. According to the SATS Yearbook, that evening at Meadowbank in a 5000m, Colin set another PB in a time of 14.18.0. As I said, a hard man!

Further proof of CM’s toughness was a real head-to-head on 26^th May 1973 at the West District Championships at Westerlands. It was extremely warm, the track was very hard and my rival took the lead from the gun. The Sunday Post reported: “Colin Martin powered out a blistering 4.35 over the first four laps of the 10,000 metres and only Victoria Park’s Colin Youngson had the courage to go with him. But his legs failed him with ten laps to go and the Dumbarton man went on to win comfortably in 30.29.2 with Youngson second in 30.47.0. The pair reached the halfway stage in 14.50 and a good time looked on until Youngson tailed off.” At least I made him work! As the time for the second 5000m indicates, we both found it awfully hard. Newspaper photos make clear how knackered we were! A week later Colin M beat me again by thirty seconds in the Airdrie Highland Games 13 mile road race (but I did finish in front of him in the SAAA 10,000m two weeks after that!)

1974 seems to have been Colin’s last serious track season.  He won the West District 5000m at Grangemouth on 25^th May, defeating Phil Dolan of Clydesdale Harriers. His other races were at Meadowbank: victory in a 1500m on the 8^th of June, recording 3.57.3; at the SAAA Championships on 22^nd June he ran 14.22 for 5000m; and in July completed 10,000m in 30.21.4.

Apart from his E to G runs, Colin Martin had shown considerable promise as a road racer. For example in the Glasgow University Road Race (over five and a quarter miles) he was third in both 1971 and 1972. In March 1973 he was third in the Balloch to Clydebank 12 and a half (behind Jim Dingwall and me) but then in early June won easily in the Airdrie 13. I believe that he went on to run for Scotland against Northern Ireland in another road race around half-marathon distance.

 Loch Rannoch Marathons 1985

It was not surprising that Colin eventually turned to the marathon as his main event. In 1978 he improved his best to 2.38.13 in the SAAA event. A particularly good run was in the 1981 Glasgow Marathon, when Colin finished fourteenth in 2.28.25. A year later in the same event he recorded 2.30.36. Then in April 1984 he won the inaugural Lochaber Marathon in 2.28.36, improving this record with another victory in 1985 with 2.26.58.

However the best win was yet to come. The History of the Scottish Marathon Championship tells the following tale.

“1988 was the year when the SAAA Marathon travelled to Fort William as part of the (still flourishing) Lochaber Marathon. Colin Martin, a Scottish Road-Running International in the seventies, had become a veteran the previous year. He and his Dumbarton training friend/rival Allan Adams (a British Veterans Marathon Champion) had been doing 90 to 100 miles per week, with Tuesdays and Thursdays devoted to 400, 800 or even mile repetitions with Lachie Stewart and his promising son Glen. Colin’s Saturday session might be 22 miles on the road, with Sundays an hour and a half over country trails. Lochaber made an excellent target, since it also hosted the Scottish Veterans and SAAA events. Donald Ritchie, the famous ultra-distance runner, wrote that on 24^th April “a group of six runners formed by the time we left town. I increased the pace and by the turn there were three of us left. At about 18 miles I managed to drop the Pitreavie runner McNeill, but Colin Martin stuck behind me.” Colin himself remembers that over the next few miles, both athletes made attempts to get rid of each other, to no avail. Shortly after the right turn at Corpach, over a steep little climb starting at a garage, Colin burst away and held a narrow lead to the end. It was a very gruelling race indeed. 

The result was: first Colin Martin (Dumbarton AAC) – 2.30.09;  second Donald Ritchie (Forres Harriers) 2.30.26; third Bill McNeill (Pitreavie AAC) 2.36.39. Scottish Champion Colin Martin went on to represent Scotland in the Nuremberg Marathon in June 1988.”

Colin Martin and Doug Gunstone at a Reunion Dinner in April 2012.

Dave Logue was a Northern Irish athlete of high quality who did almost all of his running in Scotland and who ran for both Northern Ireland in the world cross-country championships and the Commonwealth Games in 1970.   Colin Youngson was a team mate and friend and has written the following profile of Dave’s career since his arrival here in 1965.

David Nixon Logue was born on 2nd August 1946.   He has lived in Scotland since going to Edinburgh University in 1965 but has run internationally for Northern Ireland.   Without doubt, if he had chosen to compete for us, he would have been a regular ,member of the Scottish Cross-Country team.   In November 1975, reporting on Dave Logue’s win on the Glasgow University Road Race, Ron Marshall wrote the following in a Glasgow Herald article headlined ‘Double First for Logue’ : “David Logue, an Irish research fellow at Glasgow University, who specialises in cattle reproduction, received news on Saturday morning that he had been awarded his doctorate.   In the afternoon, with not a farmyard welly in sight, he won the university’s open road arce from a record field of more than 200.”

“Logue has been around for a long time.   A native of Northern Ireland, he has become one of the best known faces in Scottish middle distance running.   He represented his country  in the 1970 Commonwealth Games in the steeplechase at Meadowbank.   Nowadays he runs for fun.   Many of the serious, less-talented men who regularly finish with only a rare view of his rangy physique are not amused – at least not while he digs into a mine of stamina few possess and whips them along at a merciless pace.   Keeping Logue company all the way were Doug Gunstone, the Scottish 10000m champion, Colin Youngson the national marathon champion and Maryhill’s Bill Yate, one of the hardest runners around at this level of competition,   The last 300 metres of the five mile circuit was run on the cinder track at Westerlands, and it was Logue who had most in reserve as Gunstone tried to launch a counter-attack.   The big Irishman finished two seconds ahead in 24:51, 23 seconds outside Norman Morrison’s record.   Gunstone ran 24:53; Youngson 24:57 and Yate 25:03.”

I find it hard to imagine anyone grudging Dave Logue victory.   In the 1960’s and 1970’s he was famed as a cheerful extrovert – a larger than life character who loved a party and was the best of company.   However his dedication may be less well known.   Certainly his working career has been very successful.   In 2011 he retires as Professor of Food Animal Disease at the University of Glasgow School of Veterinary Medicine.  Certainly when his suspect Achilles tendon permitted, his running training was extremely fast and tough.   But it was his ability to peak for important races and to produce his absolute best for the team that I remember.   Three of his perennial favourites were the Edinburgh to Glasgow Road Relay, the Scottish National Cross-Country Championships and the SAAA 5000 metres.

Mark Cavendish, the superb Tour de France sprinter, who goes through hell on the hilly stages, makes an interesting distinction between a cyclist’s ability to hurt himself and his ability to suffer.   A 400 metres runner hurts himself a good deal; a good distance runner has to learn to suffer for quite a long time.   We all remember athletes of great physical talent who make it look easy (eg Ian McCafferty, Graham Laing, John Robson and Nat Muir).   Others however obviously got there with tremendous effort (such as Jim Brown and Andy McKean).   However of all the men I was lucky to know really well, no one possessed a greater ability (to push horribly hard, really hurt himself and suffer a great deal) than Donald Ritchie, the world-record breaking ultra-distance runner and Dave Logue.   The rest of us backed off and slowed down – but we admired our tougher rivals, especially because they never boasted.

Dave Logue’s running career can be divided into three phases: 1966 – 1970, the Edinburgh University years and the Commonwealth Games; 1971 – 1973, competing for Glasgow University; and 1974 – 1984 representing Edinburgh Southern Harriers.

What a wonderful time to start at Edinburgh University!   National Cross-Country Champion Fergus Murray had established a training and racing dynasty and the Hare and Hounds ruled the roost in Scotland and in British University competition.   By the end of his first year, in the 1966 National Junior Cross-Country Championship, Dave Logue finished fifteenth and his team won bronze, only four points behind the winners.   In 1967, in his final Junior appearance, Dave was fifth and Edinburgh University won gold in the BUSF Championships.   His first attempt at the National Senior in 1968 produced thirteenth for Dave (third EU counter behind Alastair Blamire and Gareth Bryan-Jones) and another team gold.   In 1969 he was eleventh in the National but most of the Edinburgh University stars had graduated and their domination was at an end – although they went on to win Scottish team titles with ESH or EAC.   In 1970 Dave was tenth and EU won team silver.   Alistair Blamire was fourth but Andy McKean finished eleventh, only eight seconds behind Dave – a friendly rivalry between these two was evident and it was to continue for several years, especially on the sixth stage of the Edinburgh to Glasgow!

There were several other cross-country highlights for Dave Logue during this time.   In January, 1967, Edinburgh University H&HC occupied the first eight places in the Scottish Universities first team race from King’s Buildings and over the Braid Hills; and Chris Elson won the second team race in a time that would have placed him about sixth in the premier event!   So much for competitors from the other six Scottish universities.   Dave of course won a full blue at Edinburgh University.   With greater difficulty I managed the same at Aberdeen University.   However I couldn’t help wishing that I had gone to Edinburgh, although I doubt whether I could have endured 100 miles per week!   The most committed beer-drinking runners attended Strathclyde, but Edinburgh certainly played hard as well as ran brilliantly.   In 1967 EU won the team title at the BUSF Cross-Country Championships, defeating amongst others Oxford and Cambridge.

The gulf in class was evident in December 1968, when the Scottish Universities trial match (for the match versus the SCCU) took place on my home course in Aberdeen.   I ran a pb in 34:14 and finished fourth (just in front of young Andy McKean).   However the first three finished within eleven seconds well over a minute in front.   John Myatt of Strathclyde broke Bill Ewing’s course record by one second (33:26), with Adrian Weatherhead recording 33:30 and Dave Logue 33:37.  Then in March 1969 the syndrome continued over the   KB course.   Once again I was fourth, well over a minute behind the carefully staged and deliberate dead-heat contrived by Dave Logue, Ian Young and Alastair Blamire.   As Scottish Champions, Edinburgh University took part in the European Championships at Arles in Belgium.   The team finished a creditable fufth with Dave Logue being first counter in a remarkable seventh individual position. Naturally Dave represented Scottish Universities every year, not only in the fixture against the SCCU but also in the home countries university contest which was part of the BUSF.   In addition he won the Scottish Universities cross-country title twice, including 1970 when he finished just in front of Andy McKean.

In March 1969, wearing his country’s colours (green vest, white shorts) Dave Logue ran for Northern Ireland in the ICCU Championships at Clydebank/   His team was led by the outstanding Derek Graam (9th Old Boys), while Dave was a member of North Belfast Harriers.

In the Edinburgh to Glasgow Road Relay Dave had considerable success.   In 1966 he was third fastest on the fourth stage, extending the lead and EU won the team race.   1967 was almost identical (Dave moving up three places into the lead, third fastest on four behind Derek Graham, EU gold).   However in 1968, although Dave moved up four places and was second fastest on four to 1969 Scottish CC Champion Dick Wedlock, his team could only finish seventh.   Then in 1969, Dave moved up two places on four and was fourth fastest to Wedlock, Gareth Bryan-Jones and Alex Wight, EU finished third.   So far, representing EU in the National and the E – G, Dave Logue had collected four team gold medals, a silver and two bronze.

But what of the track?   I don’t know when the inhabitants of ‘The Zoo’ (See Fergus Murray’s profile) gave Dave the nickname ‘Arkle’ after the big Irish Equine steeplechaser.   Dave usually took university track less seriously and often raced when he was not fully fit.   The two main EU three milers were Alistair Blamire and Ian Young, so Dave contented himself the odd speed session over one mile (I even finished ahead of him once) but occasionally exerted himself (such as June 1969 when he won the 5000m at the Scottish Universities Championships).

1970 was different – Commonwealth Games year.   Dave Logue tried the steeplechase.   He made an immediate impression by winning the Scottish Universities title and also the East District one (recording 9:15.6 and defeating former Scottish champion Bill Ewing).   The race that sealed Dave’s selection for the Northern Irish team in the Edinburgh CG was his fourth place in a keenly-contested SAAA steeplechase.   Olympian Gareth Bryan-Jones won in 8:41.8 but there was a real scrap behind him.   GB International Bill Mullett was second in 8:57.2, Bill Ewing third in 9:02.6 and Dave Logue ran a pb of 9:06.6.   Sadly before the Games started, Dave suffered a bad injury to an Achilles tendon.   Typically he decided to compete anyway and was determined to finish his heat.   I was spectating and agonised with him as he limped doggedly onwards.   It was torture to watch and much worse to run.   Imagine the pain: the impact of taking off and landing; negotiating 28 hurdles and seven water-jumps as well as running seven and a half laps on one good leg and one very sore one.   Dave made it to the finish in 9:49.8.   Well-known Welsh international Ron McAndrew, by contrast, did not complete the course.

Dave never ran another steeplechase and was injured for several months but by November 1971 he had started studying for a PhD at the Veterinary School and competing for Glasgow University.   Although that Achilles tendon was seldom healthy, Dave took part in many races for his new team.   In fact the 1971 – 72 season was very successful for Glasgow University Hares & Hounds.   The long and entertaining history of the club (on haresandhounds.com) states: “A major factor in the improvement of the club’s fortunes had been the presence of the former Edinburgh University runner, Dave Logue.”   He was always a role model – someone who trained and raced hard but also encouraged others and took an extremely active part in post-race celebrations, despite carrying out his academic work with exemplary zeal.

Although Glasgow University could not hope to win medals in the National Cross-Country Championships and the E – G, Dave continued to peak for those events as well as contributing to GU success in University competition.   They won the Scottish Universities team title in 1972 (and Dave was awarded a Blue) and 1974 (when Dave was the individual victor for the third time.)   Even after he graduated in 1974, Dave’s influence continued since GU went on to win the SU CC team title in 1975 and 1976.   Dave Logue ran a great race in 1974 when he won the Midland District CC title at Cleland Estate almost half a minute clear of Lawrie Spence.   He also achieved an excellent sixth place in the BUSF that year.   In the Scottish National CC, Dave was fifteenth in 1973 and ninth in 1974.   In the annual SU v SCCU race, he was the individual winner in both 1973 (representing SU) and 1974 when a Northern Irish team took part in the contest and Dave was victorious again wearing his international vest.

In 1973 Dave was second in the Northern Irish National Cross-Country Championships and secured a place in the Northern Ireland team for the World CC Championships on Waregem Racecourse, outside Ghent, Belgium.   In 1974 he finally became Northern Irish Cross Country Champion.

In the 1971 Edinburgh to Glasgow, Dave ran the long sixth stage for the first year of seven in succession.   He improved the position of Glasgow University by five places and they ended up twelfth.   In 1972, the Hares & Hounds moved up to seventh.  Then in in 1973 GU finished ninth after Dave was second fastest on six in the top-class time of 31:16, not much slower than his old rival Andy McKean, who equalled the stage record with 31:00.   The famous Ian Stewart could only manage 31:21.

On the track Dave ran well for fifth place (14:11.6) in the SAAA championship 5000m at Meadowbank.   In the same race in 1974 he improved to fourth in a new pb of 14:04.0.

There are many tales about Dave Logue around this time.   On the training front, there were his legendary lunchtime sessions on Westerlands grass, with the likes of Lachie Stewart, Alistair Blamire and Innis Mitchell.   I rented a room in his top-floor flat in Highburgh Road for a year (1972-73) and remember trying early morning five mile runs with Dave.   He started so fast that it took me a mile to catch up.   Then there were the Wednesday evening, winter-dark ten mile runs up to Anniesland Cross (Dave ran straight through the traffic while I dithered nervously) and then out the grass in the middle of the dual carriageway in the direction of Dumbarton until we reached a certain roundabout and then headed back to the flat.   The petrol-tainted air quality can not have been healthy but we got used to it.   Dave’s notorious Achilles was frequently tender and he used to rub it with horse liniment from the lab!

Then there was the socialising.   Dave had a miraculous ability to quaff ten pints of Guinness at Westerlands without showing a single sign of unsteadiness on the way home.   After BUSF in 1972, the GU history reports that Dave “only narrowly failed in getting himself thrown out of the Sheffield Union.”   At a SCCU dance after the 1973 Springburn Cup, “there was a snowball fight with Scottish international Norman Morrison and Dave Logue threatened to practise handbrake turns on the Switchback Road to Bearsden!”   Working in a lab had its advantages, and Highburgh Road parties featured a powerfully alcoholic (and aphrodisiac?) so-called ‘punch’ which might (allegedly) been enhanced by the odd nip of ethyl (not methyl!) alochol.   In addition Dave started a fashion for late night post refreshment walking over parked cars (onto the bonnet, over the roof and on to the next car, etc).   When Albie Smith performed this feat on Dave’s treasured light-blue ‘Beetle’ and left a dent on the roof, Dave was calmly philosophical about the damage.    With very few exceptions, Dave has been a sober and sensible citizen for many decades, but some of us still remember his roaring twenties!

Finally there were the Edinburgh Southern years.    By 1974, both Dave and I were competing for Scotland’s top road-running team.   In the E-G that year, ESH won with Dave keeping our lead on six, with the third fastest time ahead of internationals Ron McDonald and Doug Gunstone, and ESH broke the course record set in 1965 by Edinburgh University.   In the 1976 race (when young John Robson had an argument with the baton, ESH could only finish eighth but Dave Logue was undaunted, moving up three places and setting the fastest time on six once again.   Dave was out of form in November 1977 but still battered himself in the great race, moving ESH into the lead on stage six with the fifth fastest time.   Our team won again.   He did not run the E-G again until 1982 when Dave was third fastest on five and ESH recorded another victory.    His Achilles tendon let him down at last in 1983 when he took over second on the eighth stage but was injured and limped in a brave sixth   Still, he had been in six winning teams!

Dave Logue ran successfully in several more Scottish National cross-country championships.  In 1976 Dave was sixth in the National Cross-Country: second ESH runner behind Allister Hutton in third and the club team was second to Edinburgh AC’s record breaking score of a very low 37points.   In 1977 the race was on an undulating course thickly covered with snow.   Only the hard men made light of this.   Andy McKean won from Allister Hutton with Dave Logue achieving a  superb third place and ESH a close second to Shettleston.   In the 1979 race at Livingston, Colin Shields reported: “The races were held in bitter Arctic conditions over a tough course made difficult by terrain which was icy-hard and rutted underfoot.”   ESH had a real chance of winning the team contest.   In my optimistic opinion, I was training faster than my friend Dave and after the first mile we found ourselves running side-by-side.   Suddenly I felt strangely tired – after all this was a genuine cross-country test and not a nice smooth road on which I might have had a chance.   Dave simply disappeared up the field while I sagged back to end up fifth ESH counter in a lowly 29th place.   By sheer effort and the ability to suffer, Dave overcame any lack of fitness to finish tenth, second counter for our team which won easily.   1981 was an absolute mudbath in a downpour at Callendar Park, Falkirk.   We were going for a hat-trick of team titles, so Dave and I struggled home in 15th and 19th positions, four seconds apart, only to hear that a couple of our more sensitive ‘stars’ further up the course had reckoned the conditions  a little unsuitable for athletes of their calibre – and had dropped out, so that we only finished second, a mere eleven points behind Edinburgh AC.   1982 produced another gold medal for ESH and Dave was 19th while I was surprised to outsprint him for 18th, and a bronze with Aberdeen AAC, the team I had rejoined.   Dave Logue’s final gold was in 1983 when he ended up second ESH counter in 22nd place and the team won narrowly from old foes, EAC.   In total Dave was in five National winning teams.   After one of EU’s victories in the National, perhaps in 1968, there was a slight delay in the presentation and Dave entertained everyone with his version of ‘Wild Rover’ over the official microphone!

In addition, Dave Logue played his part in a number of road relay successes.   He may have taken part in the AAA 12 stage relay in 1974 when ESH finished an excellent second behind Tipton Harriers.   he was certainly in the team which repeated this considerable feat in 1975 behind Brendan Foster’s Gateshead Harriers.  In 1974, Dave was third fastest (22:20) only eighteen seconds slower than Andy McKean when he, Ian Elliott, Alistair Blamire and I helped ESH to break the Allan Scally Relay course record in 90:45,   Dave was also part of the ESH team which won the inaugural Scottish Six-Stage Road Relay at Strathclyde Park in 1979.   This was his twelfth Scottish Championships gold medal.

On the track, his impressive swansong was in 1977 when he finished fifth in the SAAA track 5000m.   It was a particularly high quality race, won by England’s Dave Black in front of Lawrie Spence, Allister Hutton, Jim Brown and Dave Logue who finally broke the 14 minute barrier with a very good 13:53.   Injury-free at last, he also set an impressive pb for 10,000m (29:03.8) in September 1977.

Occasionally Dave tried his hand at longer distances.   I remember him outkicking me to break the record in the Balloch to Clydebank 12, probably in 1975.   Furthermore I believe he finally represented Scotland in an international 10 mile road race, possibly at Bearsden.   Then in 1983 when the Glasgow Marathon had become the major race in Scotland, Dave quietly decided to take part.   He was still in the leading group around 16 miles and then ran in steadily to finish untroubled in 2:26:05 – 24th out of the 9000 who completed the course.

Thereafter Dave Logue concentrated on his work and his family but has always continued to keep fit by running and ski-ing.   He has a wide circle of friends and, for a number of good reasons, thoroughly deserves to be referred to as ‘Big Dave’.

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That’s Colin’s profile of his friend, team-mate and rival Dave Logue and there is a lot in there that I – and I suspect many others – did not know; for those who were friends and rivals, some of the stories will bring back happy memories.   I can’t help but remark though on the Edinburgh/Glasgow University situation.    In the early 1960’s Glasgow University had a top class team including Calum Laing, Doug Gifford, Allan Faulds and others which was maybe the top team in the land but like all student teams it fell away, in the 1970’s the Edinburgh University team was quite simply outstanding.    Both of these teams had students who wanted to run for the University and who turned out as first claim team runners for the H&H teams.   When the Glasgow team in the 80’s won the Scottish Universities cross-country title eight times in a row, they had very high quality athletes running in the Scot Unis – unfortunately most of the top men chose to run for their club and not for the student teams.    It would have been a quite formidable squad had such as Bobby Quinn and Alastair Douglas chosen to run for them as first-claim members.   While there is nothing wrong with that decision, they are only at University for a few years and it might have been interesting seeing such a team in action.    However, Dave Logue had an excellent career and but for the tendon, the steeplechase might have been a real option for him.