“Alastair’s relentless leg speed was impossible to match”

Alastair leading Colin Youngson and Don Macgregor in the 1979 SAAA Marathon Championship

I had the pleasure of training with Alastair for many years when we lived in Lenzie and the story of these great years can be read in the section on The Lenzie Lopers.   We travelled to many races together but during every event we were in different races – his at the head of the field and min halfway down the field against totally different opponents!    He was a great talent and fully deserved his victory in the marathon championship.    Alastair is here as a runner  but he has also been a first class official who always worked for the athletes – with his club, with the marathon club and now with the Scottish Veterans Club.     He is also the only marathon runner I know of with the record of “Run Four, Medalled in Four” SAAA Championships – in other words he never ran without being in the first three!

He was also what might be called a complete endurance runner – his personal best time from 800 metres up to the full marathon are very impressive and represent a wider range of talent than most marathon men.

What follows is in his own words and then there is a report from ‘A Hardy Race’.

“I suppose it’s fair to say that my running career was in two distinct phases.   I started running at school in January 1963.   I was encouraged to run at school and very soon found that I could compare favourably with guys who were members of the local club, St Modan’s AC; a club no longer in existence but highly regarded at that time.   At that time, Mike Ryan, later to become an Olympic and Commonwealth Games medallist, international decathlete George McLachlan, and Scottish Steeplechase Champion Charlie Meldrum were all prominent club members.

My very first race was the National Cross Country Championships, held that year at Hamilton Racecourse.   In the Youths race, won by Ian McCafferty, I finished 40th and first counter in the team that took the silver medals.   My first race and I picked up a medal in a National Championship!   This business is easy!   However, having left school my commitment dwindled a bit although I had been doing some running with Willie Scott who ran in the professional highland games.   Willie convinced me that what I needed to do was to join him on the pro circuit.   At that time people like John Freebairn, Jimmy Bryce, Stuart Hogg and Eric Simpson, Arthur Rowe and the legendary Bill Anderson were all prominent competitors; and Olympics fourth placer Alan Simpson and former world mile record holder Derek Ibbotson were soon to join the pro ranks.   After a couple of years experience I improved sufficiently to become one of the top performers in the middle distance events.

Alastair, left, winning at Grasmere in 1968

Professional running in the Highland and Borders Games Circuits was all handicapped and runners brought up in the pro code were very careful not to expose too much to the handicapper.   However, my background was different and as an amateur with St Modan’s I was in the habit of giving 100% in every race.   That same background meant that I trained twelve months of every year which not all of my rivals could claim.   I started the 1968 season with a decent handicap and won most of the races I ran which meant that my handicap was severely reduced as the weeks went past.   However I had so much in hand that I was still able to win races from the back mark.   Some of the highlights of that summer of 1968 were mile victories at Hawick and Peebles, a half mile and mile double at Alva Games, and an invitation mile at Lauder where I prevailed after a race long battle with professional world mile record holder Michael Glen.   The biggest day of the season though came at the Grasmere Sports in the Lake District where I won my heat of the 880 yards and then the final and also the mile to be awarded the trophy for the athlete of the day, unheard of for a track runner where they take their fell running and wrestling so seriously.   Then to cap an eventful season came the New Year meeting at Powderhall.    In the 880 yards I finished fourth in the Final but in the mile the following day I had to work hard to qualify for the final in a distant second place.   For the final though, in spite of a heavy grass track, I was totally focused as I got up to win in the last few strides from the back mark.   For my efforts over the season I was awarded the Scottish Games Association’s Athlete of the Year Trophy.    My training at that time was mostly track based doing sessions like 20 x 220 yards (pre-metrication) in close to 30 seconds with 30 seconds recovery, 2 x 4 x 220 in 25/26 seconds with two and a half minutes recovery and ten minutes between sets, 6 x 440 in 55/56 with five minutes rest, and I would sometimes do a ‘long run’ of 5 – 7 miles.   In addition I did a lot of running at King’s Park Golf Course at Stirling, a lap of about 1.7 miles, very hilly over the first three quarters of a mile  then very fast, flat running to the finish.   Ideal running territory!

Alastair (in white) racing at Braemar

I moved to Lenzie in 1973 and feeling that my running could improve as an amateur, after three attamptes was eventually re-instated as an amateur, and joined Springburn Harriers.   The club was strong at that time with Eddie Knox, Harry Gorman, Stewart Gillespie, etc, and I came under the influence of Bill Ramage.   Bill introduced me to twice a day running and convinced me to try racing over longer distances.   I ran the Balloch to Clydebank (a 12.25 miler in those days) in March 1974, though I had never run that far before even in training!   After a cautious first half I came through to finish seventh in a race won by Jim Dingwall.   A few weeks later I finished second to Willie Day in the Clydebank to Helensburgh 16 miler and followed up by winning the Lanarkshire 10 miles championship.   In May I took the West 10000 metre track title from Innes Mitchell in 31:20 and in June beat Sandy Keith to win the Spean Bridge to Fort William 10 miler in 51:11.   So things were falling into place for a stab at a marathon.   In September I won the 14 mile road race at Shotts Highland Games and in October ran 2:29:43 at the Harlow Marathon, a race dominated by the Scots as Jim Wight won with Donald McGregor third, Jim Dingwall fourth, Colin Youngson eighth and Alex Wight tenth.   I finished off the year in good company with a decent fourth place on the first leg of the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay behind Messrs Youngson, Day and Alder.   I retained my Lanarkshire ten mile title in May 1975 and reduced my marathon PB to 2:25:00 at the AAA race in Stoke, then ran 47:56 for twelfth place in the high quality Brampton to Carlisle with on Hill second in 47:02.   I was never a fan of cross country but I had my best country run in the National at Drumpellier Park in February 1976 to finish twenty first, sandwiched between Peter Stewart and Willie Day. I finished fifth in the Tom Scott in 48:51 with Andy McKean, Dingwall, Doug Gunstone, by now my training partner, and Day ahead.   In May along with Doug, Bill and Brian McAusland, I travelled to Rotherham for the AAA’s marathon and took a few seconds from my best with 2:24:44.   Then in June I finished third in the West Districts 10000 metres track in another pb of 31:16.8 behind Dingwall and Day.   A week later in scorching hot weather I took third in the Scottish Marathon Championship with what turned out to be my career slowest time of 2:30:14 behind Donald and Doug.   Later that year I hit a decent bit of form as I finished first on the first leg of the E-G ahead of Mr Youngson.   Colin says that he wasn’t well that day but I am still extremely proud of that run given every club’s expectations for the race and the pressure and atmosphere surrounding it; certainly one of the highlights of my career.   The following week came another good run at the Brampton 10 miles as Ian Elliott got away from me in the last 600 metres, I was placed second with 48:04.   In January of 1977 I won the Springburn Cup which has become the Jack Crawford Cup but then came a dormant period as I coped with one injury after another.   However I managed to get back into some decent training early in 1979 and by the time of the Tom Scott was fit enough to dip under 50 minutes and take fifth place in a race won by Jim Brown.   Things were starting to fall into place and by the Clydebank to Helensburgh I won by over a minute from Tommy Wiseman, Martin Craven and Gerry Gaffney.   This victory gave me a big boost and two weeks later I won the Lanarkshire 5000 metres title in a pb of 14:50 from Hugh Wilson.   Then it was on to the big one: the Scottish Marathon Championship and although I was very nervous I couldn’t fail to be confident given my preparation.   And my confidence was justified as I took a huge chunk from my pb with 2:18:03 to beat the old masters, Donald and Colin!   I never felt in trouble in that race, the least painful marathon experience of my career and I felt sure that I could improve on it.    For my efforts that season the SAAA  presented me with the Donald MacNab Robertson Trophy for the Outstanding Road Runner of the Year.   Sadly, due to injuries I was not able to improve on that time but nevertheless I was still able to turn in some decent performances.   At the AAA’s Marathon at Milton Keynes in 1980, I ran 2:25:51 and in the Scottish Marathon in June I came with a late run to finish third in 2:27:21 behind Graham Laing and that man Youngson again.   In 1981 I made it four medals in four appearances in the Scottish marathon with another bronze in 2:22:25 with Colin winning and Donald second.   However a couple of more months before that year’s race came an event that would change the face of running in Britain, the first London Marathon.   Even with ‘only’ 7500 runners it was an unforgettable occasion and there was again a good Scottish representation as I ran 2:22:18.   In October as a try out for the Glasgow Marathon, to come the following year, an international invitation event was held over a four lap course in the city centre.   An Irishman finished first as I ran 2:21:01 for sixth place.   My final marathon came in the Dundee People’s marathon in April 1984.   I was in the leading group with Donald McGregor, Charlie Haskett and Murray McNaught who were to finish in that order, and Terry Mitchell until I got dropped at 18 miles.   However with the arrival of Donald Ritchie on my shoulder things picked up and we passed Terry and I was able to outsprint Donald for fourth place in 2:19:56.

My training over these years since turning to road running never altered too much: there was lots of consistent running but never huge mileage.   I would try to hit about 70 miles a week with a two hour Sunday run, a session of reps, usually on the track in midweek and a race at the weekend.   The rest of the time it was just running, often twice and sometimes three times a day.   Track session would include 20 x 200 continuous with a 200 jog recovery, a staple for me, 10 x 600 in 1:42/1:45 with a 200 jog  or  6 x 1 miles in 4:50/5:00 minutes with 400 jog.   I was always very fortunate to have Bill Ramage, Doug Gunstone and Brian McAusland as regular training partners, not only for the company on runs but for exchanging ideas and theories and for the general banter.  In addition our Sunday morning runs would attract runners from far and near to join us and for the track sessions Stuart Easton and Jim Evans would provide some additional quality.”

Alastair (in green) and Doug Gunstone warm up at Coatbridge.

It is a very interesting account on a variety of levels – there are training details including rep speeds and recoveries, it tells the same tale as Allister Hutton and Jim Dingwall of the importance of spending some years on shorter faster distances and the inclusion of cross country and track in the marathon runner’s schedule is also highlighted.

Alastair mentions the difficulties involved in getting re-instated as an amateur athlete: well do I remember some of it!    I was on the SAAA General Committee at the time of his application for international re-instatement and hardly missed a meeting but it so happened that when Alastair’s application came in I was absent.   It was turned down but when the next meeting came up in Edinburgh, I was there and raised the matter under Business Arising from the Minutes.   I had spoken to other Committee Members in advance and knew that they were in favour of reinstatement.   So when the time came I looked at the Secretary, Ewen Murray, and asked how much it would cost to have him reinstated.  I was told seven pence ha’penny (the cost of a stamp in those days!    Could we justify the request?   The answer was yes we could in that he had run well for years and competed as an amateur for years, there would be no problem.   So I proposed reinstatement, in the vote that followed no one voted against and it went through.   And not before time.

The story of his 1979 victory is told in ‘A Hardy Breed’ by Clyne and Youngson:   “The Scottish Marathon Championship from Meadowbank on the twenty sixth of May turned out to be a fine one.   After a year of injury free training and a blend of mileage and short or long repetitions, Alastair McFarlane was in very good condition having won the Clydebank – Helensburgh by over a minute and shortly afterwards set his fastest 5000 metres.   By five miles (26:20) the leading group contained Alastair McFarlane (Springburn), Don Macgregor, Colin Youngson, Ian Graves (Fife), Graham Milne (Aberdeen), Dave Lang (Fife) and good English fell runner Alan McGee (Bolton United Harriers).    Gerry Gaffney (Greenock Wellpark), making his debut, was there too.   The pace was steady due to a slight headwind.   Halfway (70:23) was reached with a pack of six: Macfarlane, Lang, McGregor, Youngson, McGee and Gaffney.  

According to Colin Youngson’s diary: ‘With the wind behind us, suddenly the pace of the return became suicidal – until legs dropped off!’   Gaffney and Lang were left behind by fifteen miles (80:30) and Alan McGee shortly afterwards.   Donald Macgregor slipped off the group at 18 miles and in the words of Alastair Macfarlane, ‘at a watering point opposite Musselburgh Race Course – around twenty (1:46:07) and a half miles, Colin went for a drink while I kept running.   So I was on my own, feeling good and running well, and knew that, although there were well over five miles to run, I would not be caught; a tremendous feeling to have in the later stages of a marathon when you are normally suffering a bit.’   Youngson simply remembers that on the day Alastair’s relentless leg speed was impossible to match – he really was in great form.   Macgregor, having paced himself more sensibly, passed Youngson but all three finished strongly to beat 2:20.  

The result was first Alastair Macfarlane relaxed and fresh in 2:18:03, second Donald Macgregor, two months from being a veteran, 2:19:15,  third Colin Youngson 2:19:48.   Then came Alan McGee in 2:21:26, Ian Graves 2:23:44, Gerry Gaffney 2:24:09, Graham Milne 2:26:26 and Martin Craven 2:29:29.”

There is a Gallery of Alastair’s photographs covering the race at www.anentscottishrunning.com/saaa-marathon-1979-2/

Alastair went on to be Secretary and then President of the Scottish Veteran Harriers Club and did his usual very thorough job.   He appeared at many races, and was always to be seen at vets championships with his camera taking photographs for the club magazine.   Later on he became Secretary of the Scottish Veteran Harriers Club and and again worked well for the benefit of the club and its members.  He also started coaching senior distance runners and has worked very successfully with runners of several clubs.

Alastair Macfarlane – Marathon Career Record                                                                                        

Memories of Early Running and Racing

Running with the best:   Graham (112) with Don McGregor (002), Peter Fleming (0016), Jim Brown (001) and Andy Daly (extreme right)

When I was coaching a very good group of young athletes in Clydesdale Harriers in the 1970’s, I very quickly became aware of the high quality group forming at Bellahouston Harriers — the names of Peter Fleming, George Braidwood, Graham Getty and Andy Daly became very familiar and were among the first results I looked for on a Saturday afternoon.   Much later – well, in the early 1980’s – I was lucky enough to be working with an excellent group of senior 1500/5000/10000 metres runners at Coatbridge on Wednesdays.   Alex Gilmour approached me when I arrived one evening and said he had brought a new guy along, did I mind?    The track that night was kind of slippery so we went out on to the roads where there was a triangle which was just over a mile in distance.   The notion was to do five reps in a set time.    At the end of the first lap the group, usually well disciplined, arrived in a long straggle with Alex and Eddie Stewart right out in front and the new boy not far behind.    So I took Alex and Eddie to one side and asked them what they thought they were playing at.    It seems the new boy had forced the pace so much that it became a race!   So we finished the five reps after I had suggested to him that he sit in the pack for the remainder.    The new boy was Graham Getty acting like a Harrier – they are a competitive breed, Harriers, and on any first encounter they try to test the mettle of their future training companions.  However, after that night he settled in remarkably well, became a popular member of the group and did his share of the work.    When we made contact recently I asked him to complete a wee questionnaire for the website and he did so quite quickly and the results are below.

Graham Answers the Questionnaire

Name:   Graham Getty

Club:   Bellahouston Harriers

Date of Birth:   10/5/60

Occupation:   Accountant

Personal Best Times:   1500m   –   4:06;             3000m   –   8:38;          5000m   –   14:42;          10000m   –   30:43;        10 Miles Road   –   50:05;        Marathon   –   2:19:24

How Did You Get Involved in the Sport Initially?   Through my school (Hutchesons’ Grammar School).   During the winter, PE Classes were replaced by cross country runs around the rugby fields, culminating in the school championships at the end of the season..    I ran my first cross country run in 1971 at the age of eleven and won the Primary 7 Championship – relatively easy and much to my surprise.   From then on, I realised that Cross-Country was maybe something I could be good at!

As a result of my performances at school, I was encouraged to join the local running club – Bellahouston Harriers – which, at that time, was continually in the news through the performances of Frank Clement leading up to him representing Britain in the 1500 metres in the 1976 Olympic Games.   More success came at school, winning in 1973 the Year 2 and in 1976 the Year 5 championships, meaning that by the time I reached University in 1977 I was hooked as a runner!

Has Any Individual or Group had a Marked Effect on Either Your Attitude to the Sport or to Your Performance?   Yes!    Three Individuals plus one group.

1. Individuals:

• At school my PE teacher Alec Percy who told me to concentrate on my cross country running rather than rugby.   At the time I was very upset at his comments regarding my rugby playing skills….
• Andy Daly, a great team mate of mine at Bellahouston Harriers.   Andy and I started running at the same time.    We spent hours and  hours training together, including while on holidays in Spain and Greece.    Nothing would come in the way of our training sessions.   Andy had a tremendous work ethic and I knew if I was to make the team at Bellahouston then I had to try to keep up with him.   While we were great mates, if there was one person I wanted to beat, it was Andy!    Unfortunately I rarely succeeded.
• Brian McAusland:    I attribute my breakthrough in marathon running to Brian.   When I joined his squad of athletes, my pb was 2:24 and I felt I was stuck at that level.   Within a few months of joining his squad, I twice achieved my target of sub-2:20 in the space of five months: 2:19:34 in London in 1984 and 2:19:24 in Glasgow 1984)

2. Group:   My team mates at Bellahouston Harriers from about 1975 to 1985.   A group of us just seemed to join the club at the same time and all of us straight from school:   George Braidwood/Peter Fleming/Andy Daly/Tony Coyne/myself.   Training and competing with guys of this ability drew the best out of me; I knew that if I didn’t run well in any one race, I wouldn’t be in the team for the next week.   Having such a strong squad of young athletes led to a successful Bellahouston Harriers.   Success bred success and then the group attracted more athletes including Alistair McAngus, Hammy Cox and Neil Black, making it even harder for me to ‘make the team’!    All I could do was train even harder.

What exactly Did You Get Out of the Sport?   I always loved being a member of a successful team – whether it be in winning National or District medals or winning a mug in a local race!   The more I won, the more success I wanted and the more I wanted to improve my times.   Wanting to be successful taught me many things I have taken with me outside athletics including that –

• You don’t get success without hard work;
• You could be more successful than those who had more natural talent than you but who did not apply themselves as well.
• You can’t take short cuts!   There is no easy way to success!
• You are only as good as your last race.

The sport also enabled me to travel and hence to get to know many people up and down the country.

Can You Describe Your General Attitude to the Sport?      Work Hard and Persevere!

What Do You Consider Your Best Ever Performance?   Probably the London Marathon in 1984 when I went under 2:20 for the first time (2:19:34) and when probably for the first and last time in my career I beat my team mate Peter Fleming!   I went through half way in about 69 minutes and finished feeling I had  a bit too much left in the tank.

I also have fond memories of my first marathon in 1980, one month after my twentieth birthday.   This was the British Students Championship which was incorporated into the Sandbach marathon.    I finished in 2:25, second in the Students’ Championships and eleventh overall.   I won the prize for the first novice.   I also remember subsequently getting a letter from the SAAA who reprimanded me for competing while under-age: the marathon limit in Scotland at that time was twenty one!   As a student in my third(and possibly final) year at University, I couldn’t understand how I could possibly go through my university career without being able to run in the Student Marathon Championships because I was too young!   For information, the winner of the Student Championships was Evan Cameron who went on to win the Scottish Championships in 1985 when I was third.

And the Worst?   My second marathon!    After the success of my first marathon in 1980, I thought that I should start my second one a bit more aggressively and that by doing so I could win the British Students Championships.   So I started far more quickly going through ten miles in under 52 minutes but not taking account of the very hot weather.   I finished the race outside the medals in 2:31 and had to go immediately to hospital  for treatment on my foot and suffering from sunburn on my shoulders.   During the race I had noticed that my shoe had changed colour, I thought I had stood on something – little did I realise that this was due to blood.    I had a huge piece of the sole of my foot hanging off – literally by a thread!   That race told me – you have to respect the marathon distance!   While 2:31 was still a pretty decent time, I also learnt that day the value of pace judgement.

What Goals Did You Have That Are Still Unachieved?   Now, as an ex-athlete due to injuries I look back at what more I could have achieved.   For sure I would like to have taken part in the Boston and New York Marathons; I always planned to do them ‘next year’.   The lesson I have learned from this is ‘take your chances when you have them – you may never get them again!’

The Edinburgh to Glasgow

The Bellahouston group of the time was particularly interesting because the success of the club’s road runners was built almost entirely on local runners who had grown up in the club and for whom it had been the only club they had ever belonged to.   It had been one of the very best clubs in the country in the 50’s winning seven sets of medals in the 1950’s (1 gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze) but despite a whole series of excellent runners such as Frank Clement they had only one one set of medals in the 60’s and none at all in the 70’s.    Although they only won one set in the early 80’s they had become a force to be reckoned with.   A solid team, finishing in the upper half of the select field for many years, they had been 7th in 1970, 13th in ’71, 18th in ’72, 15th in ’73, 6th in ’71, 10th inn ’75, 9th in ’76, 10th in ’77 when Frank Clement ran the first stage and George Braidwood ran the second stage in his first year of eligibility, 13th in ’78 when Andy Daly became eligible and 9th in ’79.   They ran for the team in various permutations until 1982 which was the first year that all five of the Young Turks turned out along with the added recruits Hammy Cox and Neil Black.    The team was fourth with the runners in order of running and their and places being:

Graham Getty 11th; George Braidwood 8th; Hammy Cox 2nd; Andy Daly 2nd; Neil Black 1st; Peter Fleming 1st; Tony Coyne 3rd and the erratic Alistair McAngus 4th.   In his excellent history of the race, Colin Shields says: Allister Hutton again turned in his usual good performance on Stage Two gaining eight places with the fastest time to establish a narrow 3 second lead over Clyde Valley.   A record run by Ian Elliott, bettering his own stage record by no less than 47 seconds, gave Southern a 77 second lead over Bellahouston for whom Andy Daly then caught up 46 seconds.   Neil Black then recorded the fastest lap to give Bellahouston a 31 second lead which was extended on Stage Six by Peter Fleming to 47 seconds.   The positions were drastically revised on Stage Seven, Craig Hunter ran a storming lap for Southern to hand over a 43 second lead over Edinburgh AC with Bellahouston another 13 seconds behind in third place.   The two Edinburgh clubs retained their positions on the final stage with marathon star Graham Laing gaining another set of medals for Aberdeen when making up almost three minutes on Bellahouston over the final stage.”.  

It was an excellent team run which, with more luck on the last stage, would have come away with medals.   However the complete team was out in the relay again the following year and finished second,   The team was – in running order – Tony Coyne 8th, Neil Black 1st; Hammy Cox 1st; Andy Daly 2nd; Graham Getty (with third fastest time on his stage) 2nd; George Braidwood 2nd; Alistair McAngus, with a much better run, 3rd; Peter Fleming 2nd.   Black, Cox and Fleming all had the fastest times on their stages.   Colin Shields wrote about it as follows in his book “Whatever the Weather”: “After a solid start Aberdeen were behind Southern and Bellahouston on stages one and two when Craig Ross, taking 30 seconds off the Stage Four record took them into a lead they were never again to lose.   This was Aberdeen’s only fastest stage time of the day but in good running conditions, Hammy Cox (Stage Three), Allister Hutton (Stage Six) and Peter Fleming (Stage Eight) all broke or equalled stage records.   Between stages 5 and 7 Peter Wilson, Fraser Clyne and Mike Murray added another 7 seconds to Aberdeen’s lead such that Colin Youngson, running in the race for the eighteenth time, took off with a lead of 34 seconds from Southern and 53 from Bellahouston.   In spite of a determined chase by Fleming who closed to within 20 seconds at one point, Youngson held on to bring Aberdeen to victory.   They recorded 3:35:30 – the second fastest time in the race rankings and over 20 minutes faster than Aberdeen would record in their next victory in three years time.

Bellahouston finished 40 seconds behind in 3:36:10 for third fastest of all time but good enough only for silver medals.   There was a solid backbone of youngsters in their team who had been in the club since young boys – Tony Coyne, Andy Daly, Graham Getty, George Braidwood, Alistair McAngus and Peter Fleming – and it says much for the Glasgow club that they achieved so much with home-reared talent.”

In 1984 a changed team finished fourth with the high being Peter Fleming’s fastest time on the last leg and the low being a disappointing run from Alistair McAngus on the sixth stage.    The team this time was Tony Coyne 15th; George Braidwood 5th; Hammy Cox 2nd; Graham Getty 2nd; Andy Daly 1st; Alistair McAngus 7th; Robert Fitzsimons 6th; Peter Fleming 4th.

These had been the really good years and the club slumped gradually from this high point.  Over the next few years the top men moved away from the club.   For business reasons Graham moved to London, Peter Fleming switched to Reebok Racing Club in Edinburgh, George Braidwood went on to Springburn when he moved to live in Bishopbriggs, Tony Coyne went to Shettleston Harriers and Robert Fitzsimons and Alistair McAngus went to Kilbarchan AAC, Neil Black left the country and Hammy Cox went back to Greenock.

A good measure of an athlete’s calibre is often their record in championships and other major races.   Their readiness to take part in team events is also worth looking at.   Many ‘big names’ are at times reluctant to compete in team events and there are examples of this all the way through athletics literature.   With that in mind, we can look at the attitudes and performances of Graham and his contemporaries through the late 70’s and 80’s.

Graham’s first National Cross Country Championship as a Youth (Under 17) was in February, 1977 at Glenrothes on a very snowy day and on what would normally have been a good running trail.   But it was cold, short spikes were not much use, trainers were worse and lots of the young – and some of the not so young – dropped out or were seen in tears at the finish.    Welcome to the world of cross-country, boys, where the race always went ahead.   The Bellahouston Harriers team was made up of Paul Brown (8th), Peter Fleming (13th), Andy Daly (15th), Graham Getty (19th) and George Braidwood (45th).   The team was second to Edinburgh AC with Graham Williamson winning.    It is interesting to note that the Fleming/Daly/Getty/Braidwood group was already in place and that they all went on to become significantly good seniors.   A year later in March 1978 on their home turf, they could have been expected to pick up medals of some sort but the team just missed out with fourth place.   The team consisted of Duncan McTavish (9th), Andy Daly (14th), Graham Getty (19th) and Paul Brown (22nd).

The step up to Under 20 level is a big one – there is often a tendency for Under 17 races to start with a rush, have a sleep in the middle and finish fast: the Springburn teams coached by Eddie Sinclair won so much because they forgot to have the sleep in the middle and ran fairly hard all the way.   The Bellahouston chaps were the same but nevertheless if the opposition have a wee sleep there is always the temptation to ease off just a bit.   Among the Seniors that is never the case – especially if the runner beside them is a first year U20!    Several of the Bellahouston Juniors ran that year in the team for the Edinburgh to Glasgow but Graham was not among them although Andy and Peter Brown ran well enough in the team which finished ninth.    In the National that year (1979), Graham had run for the Strathclyde University team that won the race when he finished in twelfth – Brian McSloy won the race, Colin Farquharson was nineteenth and Ian Smith was twenty second.

In 1980, the National was run at Irvine and Graham was fourth of the Bellahouston team that was third: he finished twenty fourth with Braidwood (3rd), McTavish (20th) and Daly (21st) in front of him.   Graham really knew he was a Senior when he ran the first of his Edinburgh to Glasgow relays in November.   The team was ninth and all the young lions were there.   Olympian Frank Clement ran the first stage (2nd), George Braidwood had a very good second leg to drop only one place to Ian Elliott of Edinburgh Southern Harriers, Andy Daly held third on the third stage before Peter Fleming dropped to sixth place on the fourth stage.   Graham was running on the open-to-the-elements fifth stage and picked up one place to hand over in fifth to Campbell Joss for the longest and very star-studded sixth leg.   He dropped to eighth and them Malky Steel dropped one place to be ninth when he handed over to Arthur McMaster who kept the place to the finish.  In summer 1980 Graham ran his first marathon.   It was at Sandbach in June where he was eleventh and second Scot (Evan Cameron was ninth less than a minute ahead ) in 2:25:46.   It was a very creditable outing indeed.

Came the Nationals in February 1981 and the Bellahouston team was third again.   With four to count the Bellahouston team was Andy Daly (8th), Peter Fleming (15th) , Graham in twenty fourth position and John Hendry.   That summer he was back on the marathon trail again  and again it was at Sandbach.   It was a bit disappointing after the previous year – this time he was forty fourth in 2:31:10.

The National in February 1982 was back at Irvine and by now Graham and his team-mates were first year Seniors.    There were 382 runners in the race and the team finished fifth with the runners being G Braidwood (10th), N Black (12th), Graham (35th), H Cox (37th) and A Daly (39th).   That summer he stepped up the number of marathons tackled and started with the SAAA championships at Grangemouth in July.   He was seventh in 2:33:37.   The next one was the Glasgow Marathon in October when he ran a personal best time of 2:25:38.   Not only was it a personal best but he lifted some notable scalps – eg Jim Alder was two places behind and others following him over the line were Willie Sheridan, David Wyper and Alan Partridge.   It was a good end to the season.

In the National at the end of the 1983 season the club was seventh of the thirty one clubs with 440 men completing the course.   Bellahouston runners were G Braidwood (2nd), A Daly (18th), G Getty (24th), F Clement (42nd), C Joss (85th) and T Coyne (96th).    It is interesting to see Frank Clement – whose career at the top had finished in about 1980 turning out for the team and doing so well.    In 1984 at Irvine, the team was fifth with the counting runners being G Braidwood eleventh, Peter Fleming twenty fourth, Graham Getty fortieth, Andy Daly forty fourth, and Alistair McAngus fifty eighth.   There was only one marathon that summer and it was again the Glasgow race and again there was a personal best attached.   He finished fifteenth in 2:24:24.    In 1984 there were two marathons again.   The first was the London Marathon in May when fifty fourth in 2:19:34.    His first time under 2:20 and to make it a wee bit sweeter, he was forty eight places ahead of team mate Peter Fleming!   He came back for the Glasgow Marathon in September when he was fourteenth in 2:19:24 (another personal best) ahead of many very good men once more.

In 1985, the team was tenth with the four top men being George Braidwood fourth, Tony Coyne forty ninth, Graham sixtieth and Tom Donnelly one hundred and twenty first.  There were two in 1985 as well: the first was the SAAA Marathon Championships in Edinburgh in June when he was third to win his first Scottish individual medal.   Evan Cameron won in 2:22:49, Colin Youngson was second in 2:23:46 and Graham was third in 2:24:13 – less than half a minute away from second!    He then went for the Glasgow marathon as a member of the select Scottish International team in September where he finished twenty fourth in 2:23:25.

In 1986 the Bellahouston team was again out of the medals with Graham finishing fifty seventh out of the 585 finishers.   The main Bellahouston finishers were George Braidwood nineteenth, Peter Fleming twenty seventh, Graham Getty fifty seventh and Tony Coyne seventy sixth.   That was Graham’s last National in Bellahouston colours – his next run was in 1989 and he turned out in Cambuslang Harriers colours.    However he did run another marathon that year – London in April.   This time he finished eighty fifth in 2:23:42.   This was to be his last marathon.   He had run ten with only two outside 2:30 but more than compensated for by two inside 2:20 plus a SAAA medal for the event!    A first class record.

In 1986 Graham went to live and work in London.    Never the most elegant of runners, the moment the English runners saw him in action they wanted him for their own club teams.   So they all made offers to try to entice him to join their club but he decided to join Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers and it turned out to be a good move.    They had several very good runners in their teams, they had lots of runners in their teams and they received invitations to and took part in all the big races on the calendar.   Graham proved a valuable addition to the club and raced more often than most of the big names.   He also won their club championship.   However, his first race – in 1986 – as in the Southern 12 Stage Relay where the team was first gave him a wee hint of what was to come.   The main races on the calendar were the Southern Championships, the Southern 12 Stage and the National 12 Stage Relays.    He also came back to Scotland from time to time to run in the National or the Edinburgh to Glasgow – but for Cambuslang and not for Bellahouston Harriers.   In 1987 he took part in many races but in the Southern Championships he was seventy third but the team was second and he took home a silver medal.   Later that year the team had been eighth in the Southern  and eleventh in the National 12 Stage Relays.   Although there were no marathons that year he did record a good 31:16.77 for the 10,000 metres on the track.   A year later he had brought this down to 30:43.66.   20 years later this time would have led the Scottish rankings.

He had started 1988 with a good run in the Southern Championships. where he was thirty second but although he had moved well up the field since the previous year, the club had slipped to fifth in what is a very competitive field.   Later in the year the team had moved up to fourth in the Southern 12 Stage but slipped to twenty sixth in the National.   It was all down to the availability of runners but Graham appeared regularly, raced as hard as he could and had become a valued team member.  In the Southern at the end of the winter – in 1989 – he was thirty eighth but the team had slumped to a lowly twenty seventh.   Their form in the long relays that year was no better – they were nineteenth in the Southern and did not run in the National 12 Stage.   Graham was running well but they had to get their best runners out.  In 1989 he was back in Scotland for the National – this time in the red and white of Cambuslang Harriers The race was at Hawick and he was twenty sixth in the winning Cambuslang team.   In November 1989 he again travelled north and ran the first stage of the Edinburgh to Glasgow where he finished sixth in the team that finished second.

He was back in Scotland in 1990 for the National Championships in February but although he ran well enough it was not enough to be a scoring runner for the winning Cambuslang team.  However he had already gone to the European Clubs Championship in Portugal in February where the team finished tenth with Graham sixty third.   Shaftesbury ran much better in the Southern Twelve Stage Relay in March to be third which ensured their place in the National 12 Stage the following month.  Graham came back up in November for the Edinburgh to Glasgow where Cambuslang finished sixth and ended his year with a victory in the Strathclyde University Past v Present match at Stepps.

We know about the team mates he had at Bellahouston but the list if members of Shaftesbury who were available to the club is equally impressive – Julian Goater (Team gold and silver in World Cross Country Championships in 1979 and 1982 plus individual 10000 bronze in the Commonwealth Games: he also has the distinction of the biggest winning margin in the National Cross-country (1981) of approx 2 minutes, Jim Espir (Sub-four miler, winner of both 1500m and 5000m at the Maccabiah Games in 1981), Dominic Bannister (Commonwealth Games Marathon, 2002, World Cross runner), John Sherban (Scottish and English International track and country), Joe Dunbar (top class track and cross-country runner) and many others.   There was also a runner called Mike Williams whom Graham rated very highly: he was certainly well placed in many of the Shaftesbury championship and team races.   Had they all been available all the time – as Graham was – the club would have been much more successful.

There were no races in Scotland in 1991 other than the Strathclyde University race at the year’s end which he won for the second year in succession.   The first championship however was the Southern Counties where he finished twenty eighth: Shaftesbury with Sherban and Bannister running, won the race.   Incidentally one of his team mates that day was Kirk Dumpleton (34th) whose main claim to fame is that as a young athlete he defeated both Ovett and Coe in the same race.   At the end of February in the English championships he was 133rd in the team that finished an agonising fourth  in a race with nine athletes per team to score.   In April at the Southern Counties 12 Stage the team was again fourth but with a no-doubt beefed up team they were second in the National 12 Stage.   An excellent result in a race of very high calibre on every stage, and  for Graham there was the added pleasure of running 14:32 for the fifteenth fastest times on the short stage which is still one of the fastest time run by any Shaftesbury Harrier, fifth on their all-time list.

1992 was his last really serious year as an athlete and he had good and bad news in the Southern Counties when he finished a lowly 106th and was a non-scorer in the winning team!    In February he ran in the Scottish Championships for the winning Cambuslang team and finished thirty fourth.   In the Southern Counties 12 Stage Relay the club won.    By April the team was down in fifth in the National 12 Stage and at the end of May he came back to Scotland for the Scottish Ten Mile Road Championship where he was eighth in 53:37.

Due to frequent injury and increasing business demands, he competed only ten times between 1993 and 1995 with the only championship being the English National in 1995 when he was well down the field.

Graham was a very good athlete who ran in many good teams with many outstanding runners and was always up there with them and I don’t think there was ever a star name in his team that he did not beat at one time or another.  As much as a runner he was a competitor.

Graham Getty – Marathon Career Record                        

Graham Laing in the Edinburgh 10 in 1984

The London Marathon is one of the world’s biggest in numerical terms and best if you look at the performances of those at the head of the field.   However, were you to ask any Scottish marathon runner how many Scots had finished in the first five or six in the event’s history, you would certainly get Allister Hutton, maybe get Jim Dingwall and then there would be the guesses at John Graham, Peter Fleming and others.   Very few would come up with Aberdeen’s Graham Laing who was fifth in the first ever London Marathon, two places ahead of Jim Dingwall.   He was also among the most modest of champions – I remember after he had won the SAAA title in 1980 hearing a runner who had dropped out at ten miles telling him he would have won it himself if he hadn’t got blisters!   Not a word of congratulation did he utter and Graham listened quietly and went about his business.   What follows is an account of Graham’s career written by Colin Youngson and the training described therein is informative, educational and not for the faint hearted.

By the end of 1979 Graham Laing, born 1/11/56, had become Aberdeen AAC’s most successful distance runner having won the SAAA’s 10000 metres title plus his first marathon, the inaugural and rather hilly Aberdeen event when he defeated the redoubtable Jim Brown by 42 seconds after quite a duel in 2:21:40.

Graham started his career by going out running while at Robert Gordon’s College instead of playing rugby with which  he had become disheartened because of his light frame.   In his fifth year he became the first Gordonian to gain full cross country honours.   Before that he had joined Aberdeen AAC in 1970 after meeting the legendary Alastair Wood who saw his potential immediately.   One of his secondary school teachers was Graham Milne, later a 2:21 marathon runner.   Mr Milne helped young Laing develop his running at school  and from 1977 onwards was an important training partner.   The year before that, in 1976, Graham Laing (with  Fraser Clyne, Steve Cassells and Danny Buchan) had been in the AAAC team which won the SCCU Junior Cross Country title.   Graham Laing was enormously talented as a runner and made rapid progress with what looked like considerable ease.   Yet his training by 1980 was 80 miles a week in winter and 55 in summer.   he fitted in morning 7 mile runs before his work, one evening track session, three hill sessions, weights training and some more long runs during each week.   This regime, inspired partly by Frank Horwill and Mel Edwards, seems tough enough.   Sunday’s run was 16 – 20 miles with Fraser Clyne, Peter Wilson, Graham Milne and the rtest of the club’s strong squad at the time.   Monday was easier, Tuesday hill repetitions or up to 16 x 400 with 30 seconds recovery; Wednesday the club run which ‘sorted the men from the boys’, followed by a pint in the pub;  Thursday might be easier or or an ‘up the clock’ – one minute hard, one easy, two minutes hard, etc up to six minutes hard and then down again; Friday was an easy run; Saturday a race or two short fast runs.

Sadly, two months before the Scottish Marathon Championship in 1980 Graham’s Mum died.   She had wanted him to keep training and do his best and he certainly kept the promise.   He was twenty seconds clear of the field at the turn and, despite the headwind on the way back being brutally strong, Graham kept on extending his lead finishing on the Meadowbank track in 2:23:03, almost two minutes in front of Colin Youngson.   Graham finished “so happy for myself, Aberdeen AAC and of course for my Mum.”   And that was only the beginning.   Not only was Graham to be a vital component of AAAC’s winning Edinburgh to Glasgow winning team in 1983, 1986 and 1988, but he was to make his mark as a very good marathon man indeed.

In the first London Marathon in 1981 Graham made a great breakthrough by finishing fifth in 2:13:59   which was to remain his fastest time.   In April 1982 he was part of the club’s successful attempt to break their own John O’ Groats to Lands End ten man relay record.   850 miles were covered in an astonishing 77 hours 26 minutes and 18 seconds.   Graham remembers this as his most enjoyable running experience.   SAAA Marathon champions, past and future in the team included Alastair Wood, Colin Youngson, Graham Laing, Peter Wilson, George Reynolds and Fraser Clyne.   The other warriors were Don Ritchie, Graham Milne, Mike Murray and John Robertson.   Graham Laing seemed to be the only runner who didn’t suffer at all during this gruelling event – he bounced around happily at high speed, unintentionally infuriating lesser mortals.   Graham wrote. “To have ten runners from one club, so fit and eager to claim a world record, and to achieve our aim, was absolutely brilliant.   On the way north before the start we heard on the radio that the Argentinians had invaded the Falklands – but three days later we were the record holders and nothing else seemed to matter.”

The 1982 Commonwealth Marathon Trial was the AAA’s event in Gateshead on June 13th, 1982.   Jim Dingwall who had run in the 1978 Commonwealth event, battled throughout with Graham Laing.    John Graham was fourth (and first Scot) in  2:15:14 with Jim fifth in 2:15:30 and Graham sixth in 2:15:39.   The Scots chose John and the improving Graham Laing.   Jim was very unlucky and realised that there were financial restraints that prevented three marathoners being selected – and philosophised that fairness was not always to be expected in life.   He wished Graham well.

In the 12th Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, Australia, the marathon took place on the second last day, October 8th 1982.   Graham remembers socialising with Allister Hutton, Nat Muir, John Robson and the inimitable, wise-cracking John Graham who set a ferocious pace during training runs.   The actual race started at 6 am before the heat built up, and it seemed strange to complete a marathon before breakfast.   Obviously someone had learned from the cautionary tale of the 1954 event.   The holder, Gidamas Shahanga, and his Tanzanian teammate Juma Ikangaa broke away.    Rob de Castella of Australia led a chasing group comprising John Graham and Graham of Scotland plus Kevin Ryan of New Zealand.   They passed ten miles in 49:06 and halfway in 64:10 (40 seconds down on the Tanzanians).   After 25k, ‘Deek ‘ , who was very strong over the Queensland University hills, started to come through to a narrow victory over Ikangaa with the Scottish duo performing well to secure fourth and seventh places.   Unfortunately it had to be an Englishman, Mike Gratton, who passed John Graham in the last two miles.   With Jim Dingwall running, Scotland could have won the ‘team race’.The result was:   1.   Rob de Castella 2:09:28; 2.   Juma Ikangaa (Tanzania) 2:09:30; 3.   Mike Gratton 2:12:06; 4.   John Graham   2:13:04; 5.   Kevin Ryan (New Zealand) 2:2:13:42;  6.   Gidamas Shanga 2:14:25; 7.   Graham Laing  2:14:54; 8.   Ian Ray (England) 2:15:11. That brave battle was probably Graham’s finest performance.   Other good marathon times included 2:15:29 at Sandbach in 1981, and 2:14:20 at London in 1983 when he was nine seconds in front of his clubmate Fraser Clyne.   His 10000 metres personal best was in the Aberdeen Club Championships in 1983 when he dead heated with Clyne in a club record of 29:22.   Graham’s half marathon best (set in Holland) was an impressive one hour one minute!

Nowadays (2010) he still glides to and from work (as manager in the Inverness branch of Run4it.   Every year he takes part in the prestigious Inverness half marathon and usually wins his age group!

Colin describes the Commonwealth Games marathon as Graham’s finest race.   There were what might be called ‘predictors’ in his form before he went to Australia.    The previous season he had been second in the Scottish marathon rankings behind John Graham and he built on this in 1981.   His best 5000 metres was 14:33.9 that placed him sixteenth on the Scottish ranking lists,  he had two remarkably similar 10000 metres track races run in 30:08.0 and 30:08.8.   When he went to Australia he had a swift 3000 metres in 8:18.8 just thirteen days before the race itself.   The result of the marathon meant that John Graham and Graham Laing were first and second in the rankings for the second successive year.   It would have been three years in a row but in 1983 Jim Dingwall slipped in between dropping Graham (2:14:20) to third and his excellent 10000 metres time for the season is noted above.

Graham has himself written about the 1982 marathon for the now defunct ‘Marathon and Distance runner’ magazine.   You can access it  here

Graham Laing – Marathon Career Record

Alexander Keith (sometimes Alex but usually Sandy) was born on 23^rd of January 1946. He was brought up in the remote community of Castletown, Caithness, not that far from John o’Groats. When he was 19, in 1965, he joined the RAF and took up running. In 1968 he ran for the RAF in the famous Boston Marathon, USA! Thereafter he became a regular member of the RAF cross country team and raced “track, road and country on almost every continent.”

In 1971 he joined Aberdeen AAC, although he was based at RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire, and also represented Huntingdon AAC. He worked as a Senior Aircraftsman (survival equipment fitter). April 1972 saw Aberdeen’s first attempt to break the 10-man John o’Groats to Land’s End relay record. Paired with Steve Taylor, Sandy showed great speed and durability. Spectators were awed when he positively zoomed down the steep Berriedale Braes. Despite the determined efforts of Sandy and his clubmates, the team narrowly failed in their quest. Even Sandy had strained leg muscles before the end. (See the Jogle section of this website.)

Statistics for 1973 show that Sandy ran 30.59.6 for 10,000m, to finish second in a Meadowbank track event. He improved his marathon time to 2.22.53 when finishing third, only three minutes behind winner Bob Sercombe, in the prestigious Polytechnic Marathon. Later that year he managed 2.23.07 in Harlow.   By 1974 he had moved to Edinburgh and joined EAC. Rab Heron has written about that year’s SAAA marathon, when “A fair-sized group of ruthless runners sheltered from the outward journey headwind, behind a protesting Sandy Keith. His pleas for clemency were met with mocking laughter and a comment that it served him right for being so big.” Unsurprisingly, Sandy slowed to 2.25 and fourth place. However just two weeks later he thrashed the bronze medallist, Colin Youngson, who had run 2.21 in the Scottish. In the Inverness to Forres marathon, Sandy was victorious in 2.26.28, while Colin could only manage 2.33.

Those two were rivals and occasional training partners that Winter and next Spring. Sandy could absorb a tougher weekly workload (over 100 miles); while Colin could only manage 80. However both trained very hard and were approaching their peaks. In the 1975 SAAA event in Edinburgh, Sandy raced fast from the front, allowing Colin some shelter into a slight headwind. However Colin broke away at 19 miles and managed to finish in a championship record of 2.16.50, while Sandy produced a fine PB of 2.17.58 to win silver.

By the end of the season, although the pair were ranked 5= in the British marathon merit rankings, Sandy had improved his best to 2.16.12, which made him fastest Scot of the year (and 53^rd man in the world rankings). He never ran a faster marathon. In addition he had made his debut for Great Britain, finishing in 2.18.43 to secure an excellent 2^nd to England’s Ron Hill in the Enschede marathon, Holland. His 10,000m time was reduced to 30.29.4.

1976 was Olympic year, and Sandy Keith performed valiantly in the AAA trial event in Rotherham, on a hot day over a hilly course. He finished 6^th in 2.19.02, having hung on as long as possible to the three men (Barry Watson, Jeff Norman and Keith Angus) who were selected for the Montreal Games. Sandy had to content himself with another British vest in a foreign marathon. On 31^st July he was victorious in the Bollenstreek (Flower Bulb Region) marathon at Noordwijkerhout, Netherlands, in 2.21.43. Dutchman Co van de Weyden was second in 2.23.30. Newspaper photos show Sandy metres from victory and afterwards with his pursuer.

Three weeks later he had a go at the Two Bridges 36mile ultra, recording 2.29.42 at the marathon checkpoint. Former Comrades Marathon victor Mick Orton from Tipton Harriers finally won the race in 3.27.58. To cap an excellent season for Sandy Keith, the prestigious D McNab Robertson Memorial Trophy was awarded to him by the SAAA, along with the well-deserved title of Scottish Road Runner of 1976. 

The 1977 SAAA event in Edinburgh featured Jim Dingwall breaking the championship record once and for all: 2.16.05. Sandy finished third in 2.18.52. That was at the end of June. The virtually indefatigable Mr Keith raced three further marathons that season. On a blistering hot day, he ran 2.20.44 on 27^th August for eighth in a top class international event in Enschede, Holland. Then 2.24.19 on 16^th September; and 2.16.03 (short course) on 16^th October, at the Cleveland marathon near Middlesbrough. Sandy finished second to Mike Critchley (2.13.28). However the course was deemed to be up to 1180 yards short. Still a fast run!

1978 must have been a disappointment to Sandy Keith. Once more he performed admirably in the trial for a major Games marathon; and once more he narrowly missed out on selection. This time the event was the AAA at Sandbach in May, when he finished well up in 2.18.15. Unfortunately only Jim Dingwall was selected for the Scottish team at the Edmonton Commonwealth Games. Nevertheless, Sandy raced two further marathons that year: 2.20.42 on the tenth of June at Snoek, in the Netherlands; and 2.20.01 on the 15^th of October, when he was fourth at Cleveland, less than a minute behind the winner.

Sandy started 1979 with a relaxed but exotic run in Bermuda (2.30.34) on the 28^th of January. After a serious build-up, he ran 14.41 for 5000m and then, eight days later on the 17^th of June, produced yet another excellent result in Sandbach, finishing second in 2.17.39. In October came another speedy second place (2.18.08), in the very first Glasgow Marathon, only 23 seconds behind the fast-finishing Olympian, Barry Watson, after battling it out for 24 miles.    Thereafter, Sandy kept training hard, but avoided the marathon for a while. From 1976 he had been a prominent member of EAC teams who won three silver medals in the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay. In addition his team won two gold medals and one silver in the Scottish National Cross Country Championships. Sandy’s finest run in this gruelling event was in 1978 at Bellahouston Park, when he finished 11^th individual.

Another important ingredient of his ‘race training’ was annually blasting through a number of the traditional ‘shorter’ Scottish road races. Sandy won several, including the tough Fort William 10, the Perth 15, the Edinburgh to North Berwick 22 and the first two ‘Seven Hills of Edinburgh’ events in 1980 and 1981.   Evan Cameron (SAAA marathon winner in 1985) has written that, from 1979 onwards, “five days a week, the morning started with a very rapid 8 mile run with Sandy Keith. These runs were always conducted running side-by-side, neither one of us conceding an inch to each other. Sandy became a mentor to me, offering advice on race tactics and on the need to introduce speed and hill sessions to what had previously been a regime of one-paced runs. Our morning sessions really helped me build towards weekly targets – provided I rested physically while at my desk job during the day!”In 1982 Sandy made a brief comeback to marathon racing, although not at his previous high level.   However he did win silver once again (2.26.34) in the 1982 SAAA marathon in Grangemouth,; and ran 2.24.25 in the Glasgow marathon.

After moving down to Newcastle, Sandy did continue to race as an Elswick Harrier for a while over the country and on the roads but eventually retired from the sport. He is rumoured to be living in Galashiels nowadays, still looking very fit. Perhaps the veteran scene did not appeal and years of exceptionally hard training had dimmed his enthusiasm for racing. However he undoubtedly achieved his potential, while earning a reputation for strength and consistency as an international marathon runner. Sandy Keith is remembered with considerable respect by anyone who attempted to keep up with him at his impressive best!

Sandy Keith – Marathon Career Record

One of the most outstanding and least recognised endurance running feats in Scottish athletics was Edinburgh Athletic Club’s successful breaking of the world record for the 24 hour, 10 man x 1 Mile Relay.   The programme for the event which contained pen portraits of the athletes said that Douglas Gunstone (born 10/7/1950) was 24 years old at the time and a married Chartered Accountant.   Both Doug and his wife Palm were Scottish International Cross Country runners.   Doug also represented his country on track and road.   He admitted to training approximately 85 to 95 miles per week.   (There is more detail on this feat, including a link to a scientific study of the event, in the Marathon Stars section of this website in ‘The Wight Brothers’)

In fact Doug had enjoyed a fine running career from an early age.   His family had long been associated with  Dundee Hawkhill Harriers which was established in 1889.   His mother Eleanor has held almost every post in the SWCCU and SWAAA (notably as treasurer for many years) and has often been on international duty,  his younger sister Penny won the Under 15 Cross Country Championship in 1973, went on to run for Scotland and compete for Britain in the triathlon and his brother John was also a talented athlete.   Dundee and district  seems to have a tendency to produce athletic families, witness the Hasketts (Christine, brother Charlie and now his son Mark) and of course the McColgans!

Despite being an athlete of talent as became evident a year later, he did not appear in any ranking lists for Youth or Junior age groups in 1967 or 1968 so we take up the tale in 1969 as described by Colin Youngson in the following account.

***

In 1969 as a first year Junior, Doug finished twentieth in the Scottish Junior Cross Country Championship.   He then went on to London University and that summer, on the famous Motspur Park track, produced promising times for 1500 metres (4:01.5), 3000 metres (8:36.8), 5000 metres (15:13) and 10000 metres (31:45.4).   The latter two made ranked him second in the Scottish Junior rankings  and he was twentieth in the Senior 10000m rankings for the year .   Considerable progress was made in 1970.   Doug was sixth in the Scottish Junior Cross Country and represented his country in the ICCU Junior International where he finished twenty fifth and was a team counter.   On the track he ran 3000m in 8:23, 5000m in 14:16 and 10000m in 30:37.6 (at Durham),   He made his debut for DHH in the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay and was third fastest on the fearsome stage two despite being only just 20 years old!   His time was only eight seconds behind the fastest – Dick Wedlock who had run in the  Commonwealth Games 10000 metres that year.   On the track, his times peaked early while he was studying in London and then at Cambridge.   ‘Blues’ were achieved at both universities.   His 3000m best in 1971 was 8:21.4 and in 1972 he ran 3:58.8 for 1500m, 14:06.8 for 5000m (sixth in the Scottish Championships) and 29:25.6 for 10000m.   He also competed for Highgate Harriers at this time.   In addition he was a close second to Andy Holden in the British Universities Championship 10000m in 1971.

 Undoubtedly his best distance was 10000m and he won Scottish bronze in 1973 and 1974 before winning gold in 1975.   Further medals came in this event came in 1977 (silver, just behind Jim Dingwall), and 1978 (bronze).   Even in 1979 he ran a fast 30:15 for fourth place.   An odd statistic was in 1977 when he finished second in both 5000m and 10000m in the WEST District Championships.   The Scottish Ten Miles Track Championship also suited Doug very well.   He won it twice, in 1973 (49:09.6) and again in 1975 (48:55.4) after a long battle with Colin Youngson (49:00.8), another former champion.    The picture below is of the finish of this race and shows the dire weather in which these times were recorded.   (Incidentally he had run a remarkable time of 47:47 for 10 miles on the road in the Tom Scott race when he was fourth in 1975)   Sadly the track event was discontinued after that despite the fact that Martin Craven had easily broken 50 minutes too.   Undoubtedly 1975 was one of his best ever years.

By 1974 Doug Gunstone had changed clubs to Edinburgh AC.   Dundee Hawkhill finished last in the E-G in 1972 and was not invited the next year despite fine runs by Doug on Stage Two.   In 1972 he was third fastest – only 67 seconds behind the legendary record run by Ian Stewart.   His subsequent Edinburgh to Glasgow performances were consistently impressive.   Team silver medals were won in 1974 (fastest on Stage Five), 1975 in the record time race won by Edinburgh Southern Harriers (only 21 seconds off the fastest on the long Stage Six), 1976, 1977 (fastest on Stage Four), and 1979.   He also turned out for Springburn Harriers (whom he joined in 1980) in 1980 and 1981 and for Fife AC in 1983, 1985 and 1989.   The Springburn connection turned out to be very successful and a good club team with Alistair McFarlane and a young Graham Crawford in particular picked up many an award.   This came about after he had been living in Lenzie since 1975 and there is more about Doug along with his thoughts on coaching and other matters on the Lenzie Lopers section of this website.    Alistair had met Doug for the first time when he was at the AAA’s marathon at Stoke in 1975 and only then found out that he was not only moving to Lenzie but to the very road that Alistair lived in.   It was natural that he would start training with Alistair, Doug and Brian on his arrival.   Alistair recalls that, unlike some others who came along, Doug never pushed it hard in training; it was just getting the work done.   He remarked to me more than once that one of the benefits of living in Lenzie at that time was that whatever you wanted – a fast six, a steady ten or twelve or a session of reps, there was someone who was looking for the same thing.   When he arrived in Glasgow he joined the Marathon Club committee and soon became Treasurer continuing to attend meetings after moving North to live in Broughty Ferry.   This came about when after a series of jobs in and around Glasgow, he was employed by Timex in Dundee where he had started in athletics.

On the country, Doug’s best position in the Scottish Senior National was eighth, which he achieved in 1972 and 1974.   In the earlier year he also finished eighty ninth in the notorious Arctic blizzard at Sutton Coldfield in the English National.   (His best position in this gruelling nine mile event was sixty fourth in 1976).   A major highlight was his selection for Scotland in the 1974 IAAF World Cross Country Championship.   He managed an honourable seventy ninth, a team counter in front of young Allister Hutton and Lawrie Spence and that older hero, Jim Alder.   Doug was an ever present in winning EAC teams in the Scottish National in 1974, 1975, 1976 and 1978.   He also won team bronze in 1977 and silver in 1979.   Up to then he was never lower than eighteenth position.   In addition he won medals in the Scottish Cross Country Relay Championships from 1974 to 1978: three silvers and two bronze.   Truly a man to rely on!   At the last count he had run in 42 (forty two) consecutive Scottish National Cross Country Championships.

His marathon running career started in 1976.   Even before then he had raced many of the traditional Scottish road races over odd distances.   At one time in the mid 70’s, Willie Day and Colin Youngson agreed that there were only three guys likely to win one of those – Doug was the other one!      Surely, they reasoned, a brief discussion and consideration of the fixture list could lead to them sharing out the races to avoid these tiresome tarmac battles!   A sign of good form was when Doug won the hilly Edinburgh University 10 in 49:57.   In the AAA and Olympic trial marathon at Rotherham on a very hot day over a tough course, Doug finished a very good fourteenth (third Scot) in 2:21:44.   Seven weeks later and on another roasting hot day, he was only a minute behind Donald Macgregor to win silver in the Scottish Championship (2:25:23).

GU Road Race 1978: Doug leads Nat Muir, Jim Brown, Jim Golder, John McGarva and Bill McKim up Cleveden Road well into the race.

In 1977 Doug had arguably his best marathon when finishing fifth in the AAA event at Rugby (2:19:07).   Subsequently he was invited to run another marathon at Tullamore, Eire.   Sandbach was the venue for the AAA Marathon and Commonwealth Games trial in 1978.   (Once again good form had been shown when Doug had run 48:57 for fourth place in the Tom Scott Ten Miles Road Race).   In the selection race, once again Doug finished third Scot (2:19:51).   The big occasion always brought the best out of him but he never really found a race with pleasantly cool conditions.

By 1980 Doug seemed to be slowing down a little.   Perhaps he had been so successful early on that his training became slightly less dedicated.   Still he finished fifth in the SAAA Marathon in 1980 and fourth in the same event in 1981 as well as running 2:24:42 in the London Marathon in 1981.

Colin was right in that Doug’s career started to taper a bit from about 1980 but he kept on running and enjoying his running.   By 2010 he had run in 42 consecutive National Cross Country Championships (and this does not include Schools or Universities events) – a fantastic record – but never seemed to resent or be disappointed that he was operating at a lower competitive level then before.    The run in 2010 was particularly noteworthy in that it was less than a year after a serious operation.   Between qualifying as a veteran in 1993 and 2010 he missed only five championship races as he moved through the age groups from M40 to the top end of M55.

Of course as well as running in the cross country championships, Doug was running in other road and cross country events.     There are those – sadly in the majority – who stop running and racing when there best days are over, who have to use Emmet Farrell’s phrase “shed their silk” as runners.   That is not Doug’s style: he loves running and all that goes with it.    For instance in summer 2000 he turned out in April in the St Andrews 5K, in May in the Blebocraigs 5 miles, the Auld Toon 10K and the Kinnoull Hill Race, in June in the Hill o’Tarvit Race, the Black Rock 5 at Kinghorn and the Ship Inn Sandy Slither at Elie, in July it was the Balgonie 10K and the Newburgh 5, in August he ran in the Mill Lum Race and the Strathmiglo Straddle.   The Mill Lum race was his first race as an over 50 veteran and the Fife AC website reports this as follows:  “Broughty Ferry member Doug Gunstone celebrated thirty three years in the sport contesting his first race as an Over 50 veteran.   The former Scottish Internationalist placed well up the field in 28th taking the Over 50’s award.”  At the start of the cross country season he turned out in the East District Cross Country Relays, then in the East District League at Livingston and the National Relays in October, then in November the Allan Scally Relays in Glasgow and in the Gauldry Gallop before ending the competitive year in December with the East District League match at Alloa, the Lita Allan race at Kirkcaldy and the Boxing Day Harriers v Cyclists race in Dundee.   That is about one year’s racing with the year selected about  halfway between his last run in the E-G and the present.    These of course are only the local races.

 His most recent marathons were in 2008 and 2009 when he ran in London for the AICR Cancer Charity and finished in 3:37:00 and 3:54.42..   This represents a much longer running career than almost all of his contemporaries from the 70’s and 80’s.   Certainly I can’t think of a longer one.

In retrospect, Doug Gunstone was a talented, consistent and successful runner with a considerable range.   Above all he was quiet, friendly, popular, respected and immensely modest.  Doug still holds two Dundee Hawkhill Harriers Junior age group records: the 3000 metres and 5000 metres with the times set in 1969 – and his son Neil also holds two DHH Junior age group records  – his are for the 2000 metres steeplechase (6:51.1)  and 3000 metres steeplechase (10:12.43).   There will be Gunstones on the Scottish running scene for some time to come.

 Andy Daly (111) in the Glasgow Marathon, 1985

Andy Daly was one of the most likeable runners in Scottish marathon running in the 1980’s and one of the best performers in the marathon.   Having come up through the ranks as part of the great group of young Bellahouston Harriers Youths and Juniors teams (Graham Getty, George Braidwood and of course Peter Fleming) he was well known all over Scotland.    He was also a very hard trainer and there are several stories to corroborate that.

What follows is Andy’s reply to the Scottish Marathon Club questionnaire completed quite early in his career – in October 1983.

·         In 1982 Andy’s best time was the 2:21:41 quoted above to be ranked fifteenth Scot,

·          in 1983 he was fourteenth with 2:19: 30,

·         (the actual time had him sixth in Glasgow ; Peter Fleming won  with Colin Youngson two places in front of Andy in 2:19:18.   Fleming and Youngson won the team race (with Andy as a non counting runner) and defeated Wales and thumped England!)

·          in 1984 he was fifth with a pb of 2:18:01, when he won the Belfast Marathon.

·         in 1985 at the London Marathon he recorded 2:15:47 (which is still good enough to have him seventeenth on the Scottish all-time list)

·          and in 1986 he was eighth in 2:17:53 (which was one place and five seconds behind Peter Fleming.)

Andy Daly ran 7 sub-2.20 marathons and raced for Scotland in two international marathons (Barcelona and Glasgow) and one international half marathon (Stirling). On all three occasions, Andy’s Scotland team was victorious!

Andy was a remarkably talented and tough athlete.    In 1983 when I was accompanying George Carlin to the Essonne Marathon as part of Stuart Easton’s party, Andy came along.   He had just run in the Barcelona Marathon as part of the Scottish team that won the team competition and finished tenth in 2:20:09.   He had already committed himself to the Essonne trip and kept his word.   Clearly tired from the Barcelona trip he came to France where he finished the race in 2:24!   The team won the team race as well.   He had, to start with, doubted his ability to do himself justice in the race and had the idea of only doing one lap of the two lap course but being third at halfway he just kept on running and although he dropped  a few places was still in the first ten at the finish.  Two marathons in eight days with a total time of 4:44 is some feat!

Andy was a legend as far as hard training was concerned.

·         A ferocious trainer one of his best quotes was when a club mate once asked Andy how many miles he ran in a week, and the reply was “120 no counting two track sessions!”   The other tongue in cheek comment was that he was not a pleasant person to train with as he always did you in no matter what had been agreed beforehand.

·         On the Essonne trip, he turned up for the bus and when it got to London, the first thing he did was go for a run.   The following morning the bus was due to leave at 7:30 but had to wait for a bit until Andy got back from his run.   The bus got us to Essonne and the first thing he did was go for a run.   Even the morning after the marathon, he went for a run!   Normally folk ease up for a bit after a fast marathon!

·         There was the tale told by Brian Goodwin about the time Andy’s Mum phoned him (Brian) because Andy was very late coming home from his long Sunday run from the Bellahouston Sports Centre.   Brian was out in his car looking for Andy and when he finally came home the story was that he had finished his two hours plus run when he met Peter Fleming about to start his session.   So Andy just joined in and Brian reckoned that his run that day was in excess of four hours!

·         Then there is the story that after a Glasgow Marathon where he was disappointed with his 2:18 time so he went for an easy 10 miler at night in about 54 minutes and then  did a weights session in the gym where he broke the British Bench Press record for his weight category – something like 280 lbs!

 Maybe today’s Scottish marathon runners could do with a dose of the Daly spirit.

In reply to the “Where Are They Now?” question, Andy is still running seven days a week on the grass at Cartha.   If he decides to turn out as an M50 vet, the rest will have a serious battle on their   hands!

Andy Daly – Marathon Career Record                                        

Evan Cameron finishing the Edinburgh Marathon in 1984

Evan Cameron was a very good all round distance runner.   When he started running well at a national level, it was a bit of a surprise to many of us in the West of Scotland as he had seldom raced in that neck of the woods.   It was not long before he was well known though and his career as an athlete is recorded below by his friend and rival Colin Youngson.

Evan Cameron was a versatile cross-country and marathon runner who trained exceptionally hard and made an impact on Scottish Athletics between 1977 and 1986, when he emigrated to Canada.   He was educated in Musselburgh and started running at Durham University in 1976. After his course finished in 1977 he ‘retired’ from athletics; but only a few weeks later found himself accepting a challenge while inebriated – to run the Scottish Marathon Championship wearing someone else’s number. His preparation lasted six days: ten miles for three days; and two miles for the last three! After the inevitable struggle he finished in 2.53, not bad considering.

That autumn he moved to Edinburgh to start work. Living in Marchmont he used to run round the Meadows three times a week. One evening he was chased by a runner (Colin Youngson) from Edinburgh Southern Harriers, who found it hard to catch up. Evan’s talent was obvious and he was invited to join the Sunday Balerno 16 mile training run. After suffering a few tough sessions, Evan gained fitness, joined ESH and started his steady improvement to International status.

By 1978 he had finished third in the demanding Edinburgh University 10, twice round the Braid Hills circuit. Mind you, he managed to beat Donald Macgregor amongst others because there was a thick carpet of snow and Evan had the wisdom to wear spikes for this particular road race! Before long it became clear that Evan’s defining characteristic as a runner was his enormous appetite for long, hard, fast training runs. Even Sandy Keith enjoyed an easier session now and again.

By 1980, Evan could run 120 miles per week for two consecutive months. This meant: Sundays 20 miles in the morning plus 4 miles extra in the evening; Mondays 8 miles to work and 12 home; Tuesdays 8 miles to work and another 8 home; Wednesdays 8 to work and in the evening 7 miles, including 8 fast 400s on grass; Thursdays 8 miles to and 10 miles from; Fridays 8 to and 4 from; Saturdays 15 miles, often including a race. Evan admits now that he might just have overdone it a little, and not tapered enough for races, but in general this exhausting schedule worked well for him.

From 1979 to 1985, Evan’s day started with what was very nearly a race – a very rapid 8 mile morning run with that other great trainer, Sandy Keith. Evan writes: “These runs were always conducted running side-by-side, neither one of us conceding an inch to each other. Sandy became a mentor to me, offering advice on race tactics and on the need to introduce speed and hill sessions into what had previously been a regime of one-paced runs. Our morning efforts really helped me to build towards weekly targets – provided that I rested physically while at my desk job during the day.”   Since both Sandy and Evan faded from the running scene before the late 1980s, some might say that they trained a little too hard – but both certainly enjoyed successful careers at the top before the workload became too much.

In the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay, Evan won three medals with ESH. In 1979, when he ran Stage Four, his team finished third. They could only manage fourth in 1980, but Evan had been promoted to the longest Stage Six. 1981 produced a double triumph: not only did ESH strike gold, but also Evan Cameron was fastest on Stage Six, beating amongst others John Graham, Graham Laing and Lindsay Robertson. 1982 saw another ESH victory, with Evan holding on to second place, once more on Six. Southern were less successful (6^th) in 1983, despite Evan’s fastest time on Stage Five. Then in 1984 they ended up 6^th once more, with Evan holding on to second place on Six, before the last two runners slipped back.

More evidence of Evan Cameron’s prowess as a road runner was provided by his record in the National Six-Stage Relay. ESH had an early monopoly in this event and Evan always contributed well by running the fourth (long) stage. He won team gold in 1980, 1981, 1982 and 1983, before winning silver in 1985.

The Scottish Cross-Country Relay was a little short for Evan, but in 1981, along with Colin Hume, Allister Hutton and Ian Elliot, he was part of a winning ESH team.    In the National CC, Evan had a very consistent record over seven successive races, improving from 1980 to his peak in 1983 and then slowing a little before his swansong in 1986. His finishing places were: 28, 22, 14, 9, 15, 19 and 24. ESH won gold in 1980, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985 and 1986, and silver in 1981.

Evan’s best run was undoubtedly in 1983, when he led his team to victory on a hilly, slippery, muddy course at the Jack Kane Centre in Edinburgh. He ended up ninth, in front of stalwarts like Graham Laing, Eddie Stewart, Paul Kenney, Graham Clark, Charlie Haskett, Cammie Spence, Brian Kirkwood, Rod Stone, Andy Daly, Craig Hunter, Ross Copestake, Adrian Weatherhead and Dave Logue. Evan was justifiably proud of his selection to run for Scotland in the IAAF World CC Championships. This took place over the vicious undulations of Gateshead’s Riverside Bowl. Although Evan found it very hard, he did manage to beat George Braidwood, who had been second in Edinburgh.

In the E to G, 6-Stage Relay, CC Relay and the National CC, Evan Cameron won a very impressive total of thirteen team gold medals, two silver and one bronze.

His consistently intensive training might suggest that Evan Cameron would be a ‘natural’ to succeed in the marathon but, possibly because he did not ease up before races, and over-cautious tactics, his progress was gradual.

In the 1979 Aberdeen Marathon, Evan finished 7^th in 2.31.22, a decent time on a tough course. He ran for Scotland in the Home International at Aberdeen in 1980 (9^th in 2.30.13) and 1981 (7^th in 2.26.23). In the latter year, he also ran strongly in an international marathon in Holland and finished fifth in the Scottish Championship (2.27.23).

At the Commonwealth Games trial in June 1982 at Gateshead, over a hard, hilly route, Evan did well to produce a PB of 2.22.00. He reduced this to 2.20.33 at London 1983. Over a nasty course in the Scottish Marathon in 1984, he won a bronze medal in 2.29.30. Then came a breakthrough at that year’s Edinburgh Waverley Marathon, when Evan was second to Lindsay Robertson in 2.19.34.

Evan Cameron lined up for the 1985 Scottish Marathon with confidence. Sadly, this was to be the last time that the marathon was part of the Track and Field Championships.  The leading group ran away briskly from Edinburgh’s Meadowbank Stadium, down to Portobello into a strong headwind.   A group of four went clear: Evan Cameron (ESH), Colin Youngson (Aberdeen AAC), Graham Getty (Bellahouston) and Pat McErlean (Aberdeen AAC).   Indeed it was Pat, a 2.23 man who trained in Aberdeenshire with Youngson, who did most of the leading through three miles (15.52), although he had been dropped by seven seconds by five miles (26.29) and eventually slipped away.   Even sharing the headwind and coping with a series of small hills was tiring. Ten miles was passed in 53.54 and by eleven miles Graham Getty was off the pace.

The turn was reached in 70.53, and with the wind behind, the pace increased to 5.10 miling.   Youngson hung on as best he could to Cameron’s determined running, but although Evan’s best was 2.19.34 and Colin had managed 2.19.22 in a Dutch race in April, on this occasion the younger man was superior.   After sixteen miles, Cameron ran a five minute mile and opened up an increasing gap on Youngson.   The leader passed 20 miles in 1.47.13, thirty seconds clear.  After 22 miles, both suffered fatigue, and it was Getty who began to close slightly.   At the finish, Evan Cameron was delighted to win his first individual Scottish title in 2.22.49, with Colin Youngson collecting his tenth and last Scottish marathon medal in 2.23.46 and Graham Getty winning bronze in 2.24.13. Fourth was E. Walker (Livingstone and District) in 2.31.26. Each competitor received a jar of instant coffee!     The pictures below tell the story of the race: Leading group of four at five miles, Cameron and Youngson at 13 miles, then there was one – Evan finishing first, and the first three: Youngson, Cameron and Getty.

In 1986, Evan Cameron emigrated to Canada to raise a family, develop a busy and successful career, and very occasionally go out for a five mile jog, to prove that he could still actually run. He has every reason to be satisfied with a fine competitive record as a distance runner.

Paul Bannon (24) finishing second to Brian Maxwell in the National Capital Marathon in 1978

Paul Bannon was a considerably good athlete in his own right but will always be known to Scotsmen of a certain age as “Eddie Bannon’s boy”.  Just as his Dad had done, Paul started out with Shettleston Harriers and won many athletics honours in Scotland but he did what his father never did when he won a medal in a major Games.    This profile is of Paul and will concentrate on his own career in the sport.

Paul is first in the record books in 1969 as a Senior Boy (ie Under 15) athlete.   In that year he was sixth in the Senior Boys District Cross-Country Championships and then seventh in the National Championships as a member of the Shettleston Harriers team.   It is interesting to note that as he goes up the age groups he tends to finish further up the fields whereas some of his rivals followed the reverse path and ‘progressed backwards’.

In 1970 and 1971 he was in the Youths (Under 17) age group and won the club championship in both years.   In 1970 he was sixth in the District Championships and sixth again in the Nationals.   As a second year youth he he did not run in the District Championships and was third in the National Championship  1971 was also the year when he first ran in the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay and running the fourth stage in the equal third fastest time of the day, brought the club from second to first – a position they held all the way to the tape.     At the end of 1971 he ran the second stage of the Midland relay and helped the club to second place, and ran third in the team that was third in the County relay.   he was also third stage runner in the club’s own Allan Scally Relays that finished third.

As a Junior in 1972 he was fifth in the combined Junior and Senior District Championships and second in the Junior National – needless to say, he also won the club champonship!    1972 was in fact a quite spectacular year for the young Bannon: as well as the championships noted above he was second in the European CCU Youths Championships, eleventh in the European Club Championships and thirteenth in the ICCU International Championships.    Domestically he also ran again in the Edinburgh – Glasgow relay but not in the blue and gold of Shettleston – he was to run that year for Glasgow University.   Good club man that he was, he confessed to feeling confused about who he was supposed to be shouting for!   He brought the University from seventeenth to eleventh – a brilliant run on that most difficult of stages – in the fifth fastest time behind Norman Morrison, Ian Stewart, Fergus Murray and Jim Dingwall.   In summer 1972 he showed what he could do on the track when he won gold at the AAA’s Junior Track Championships in the 3000m.

In 1973 he took up an athletics scholarship at Memphis State University in Tennessee.   It didn’t take too long for him to establish his credentials either.   A 3000m in 8:08.8 at Bloomington, NY in February 1974 was good and his best times in the States were to be 13:49.2 for 5000m in Knoxville, Tennessee, and 28:36.8 for 10000m in Des Moines, Iowa.   If you look up the athletics section of the Memphis University website, you will find that Paul Bannon is an all-time letterman from the 1973 – 1976 period, and the times quoted are still University records.   Furthermore, in the ‘Events No Longer Run’ list he is noted three times – for the Two Miles (9:00.0 in 1973), Three Miles (13:27.5 in 1974) and Six Miles (27:44.6 in 1975).   Having made his mark in Scotland, he now made a similar impact in Tennessee.

He came home in 1976 and was third in the SAAA 10000m.    His family moved to Toronto in 1976 and that was to be the start of another, even better athletics career for Paul Bannon.

Summer 1977 had been a good one for Bannon with victories in not one but two Canadian Track Championships:   He won the 5000m in 14:00.4 and the 10000m in 28:58.4   In the ‘Winnipeg Free Press’ of 10th September 1977 under the heading of “Scot Wins Road Race”, there was the story of how, running for the Toronto Olympic Club, he won the 20K Race at the Ontario Provincial Road Race Championships in a time of 62:41 which was 15 seconds clear of the second placer.   Two months later the headline in the same paper was “Winnipegger Wins Open Title” only this time the Scot was not the one in the headline – he finished sixth in the National Cross-Country Championships but as the paper said, “Scotsman Paul Bannon of Toronto actually finished sixth but is unable to compete for Canada internationally since he hasn’t been a resident long enough to qualify.”    The irony is that the International Championships that season (1977/78) were to be held in Bellahouston Park in Glasgow!

In May 1978 however he did have the requisite residential qualifications for selection to the Canadian team for the Commonwealth Games and ran in the marathon in Ottawa.   It was his first time in the event but he led for most of the way and it was only with three miles to go that Brian Maxwell (a Canadian living in California and third in the world in 1977) caught him and it was down to the last 75 yard sprint for the line before he got in front.   The winning time of 2:16:02 was a record – the picture at the top of the page shows how close it was.   He was selected with Maxwell and Jerome Drayton for the Commonwealth Games which were to be held in Edmonton.   How about that?   A Scot emigrates to Canada and misses out on selection for a World Championships in Glasgow but gets picked for a major Games in Canada!       Later that year, in July 1978 ‘The Lethbridge Herald’  reported on a 20K road race in Chicago where he finished second to Gary Bjorklund of America in 1:01:06.

In the race itself which was only his second marathon,  was held in a temperature of 21 degrees C with a humidity of 57%.   The race was won by Gidemas Shahanga of Tanzania in 2:15:39.8 with Canadian Jerome Drayton second in 2:16:13.5 and Paul Bannon third in 2:16:51.6.   Behind him were Kevin Ryan (NZ) in 2:17:15.3, Greg Hannon (Ire) in 2:17:25, Paul Ballinger (NZ) in 2:17:15.3.   Further down were Trevor Wright (England) 2:20:14.6, Stan Curran (England) 2:21:17.6 and Brian Maxwell (Canada) 2:21:46.3.    There were 30 finishers.   At 5km Jim Dingwall was equal with two others in 16:02 while the second group including Bannon and Ryan were timed at 16:03.    By 10K the leading group had all the main contenders and some others as well when it came through in 31:52.   The group stayed more or less together through 15 km (47:50), 20 km (63:49), 25 km (79:59 (Bannon and Ryan) with Singh, Drayton, Shahanga, Ruto and others very close up.   The first important break came in the 5km leading up to 30 km when Bannon covered that 5k in 15:43 which opened up a gap of 28 seconds on Kevin Ryan and Jerome Drayton with Shahanga fifth almost 75 seconds down.   By 35 km, Bannon’s lead was down to 19 seconds and Drayton was the man in second.   Times at 35 km: Bannon 1:52:05, Drayton 1:52:24, Ryan 1:52:47, Shahanga 1:52:55, Hannon 1:53:41.   Drayton went into the lead at 38km after 2:02 running time, Bannon offered no resistance and it looked as though Drayton would win.   he was however notorious for dropping out of races where he was very confident of winning such as the 1977 Boston Marathon.   After Drayton, Shahanga passed Bannon just after 39km and at 40km he was just 19 seconds down on Drayton.   40km splits:   Drayton 2:08:53, Shahanga 2:09:06, Bannon 2:09:22, Ryan 2:09:54, Hannon 2:10:15.   Drayton looked back at 41 km and saw Shahanga coming up fast and a minute or so later, just outside the stadium, the African passed him.   Shahanga was timed at 33 seconds for the final 200 metres.   He had done the distance from the 40km mark in 6:33.8 which works out at 4:50 miling pace.   The table below has the 5km splits for the first three

The Press described it as a ‘Race of Unknowns’.   Nobody knew anything about Shahanga – after the obligatory conference he was maybe 19 or 21 years old, he was one of 12 children, he was still at school, he always wanted to run  a marathon and might have run one in 1974 when he might only have been 15; in 1976 he did run one in 2:22:41 and also did a 10000m in 29:54.   And so on they went.   Of course Paul Bannon confused them as did Greg Hannon.   After all the confusion, very little press ink as spilled on the English runners!   The coverage in ‘The Lethbridge Herald’ in Canada was “Brill and Drayton miss gold medal chances.”    The Press never changes.   The ‘Athletics Weekly report however draws attention to another aspect of his selection.   I quote: “Paul Bannon, son of former Scottish cross-country star Eddie Bannon, could have represented his native land but opted for Canada as he did not expect the Scottish authorities to pay for his fare over in order to qualify.   He is eligible only for Britain at the 1980 Olympics as he will not have been resident in Canada long enough but says he will not be racing that year in order to concentrate on his accountancy exams.   A former AAA junior 3000m champion, his one previous marathon outing was in the Canadian trial race in May where he was beaten by Brian Maxwell in one of the closest finishes in marathoning history – 2:16:02.6 to 2:16:02.8.”   The picture below is of Paul being helped from the track after the race.

Bannon of course went on running although very little information filtered back to Scotland about it.    We do know that his next big marathon was in Vancouver.  On 1st May 1983 he took to the streets of Vancouver for the annual marathon and, described in the ‘Winnipeg Free Press’ as ‘Paul Bannon of Mississauga, Ont.’ he won from a field of 8000 runners in a time of 2:19:40.    It was his first marathon for three years and it is remembered as ‘the long marathon’ after a spotter at Brockton Point in Stanley Park  misdirected the runners for an extra 561 yards.   Nevertheless, Paul won!    In 1984 he ran in the Canadian Olympic Marathon Trials – the picture and comments quoted, received from Joe Small, tell the story.

MEN: 1.   David Edge, Burlington, Ont.   2:13:19          2.   Alain Bordeleau, Montreal   2:14:19          3.   Art Boileau, Eugene, Ore.   2:14:36         4.   Robert Englehutt, Dartmouth, N.S.  2:16:50          5.   Jeff Martin, Jordan Station, Ont.   2:17:39

6. Tom Howard, Surrey, B.C.   2:18:18             7.  Muya Wachira, Ottawa   2:18:41               8.   Paul Bannon, Missisauga, Ont   2:18:51    9.   Rheal Desjardins, Montreal   2:19:25                   10. Stephen Pomeroy, West Vancouver   2:19:48

27 – Howard who hero mentioned 2:13 guy, a bit past his prime at that race.   29 – Martindill: big talent in everything up to the marathon but had some kind of breathing issues or something that would hamper him in the marathon – maybe oldster remembers 64-half marathon guy – 1:34 30km guy – did two sub-30 minute 10km road races in one day, didn’t finish that race.   No number – Dave Edge (made team), behind 29 needs no introduction – one claim to fame was practically coming to blows with Joe Sax for drafting off him the whole way at ATB.    No Number – Butler, tall guy next to Edge, needs no introduction – 2:10 guy who didn’t make the team.    3 – Dyon – owns Brooks, 2:14 guy – tough as nails – didn’t make the team.   8.   Bannon – 2:16 guy – became a priest later I think – I went by him at 20 miles in NY in 83 – he went out at some ridiculous pace there.   No number behind Bannon – Hughson – 2:13 guy a bit past his prime at that race.   10 – Don’t know – Pomeroy wild ass guess.   Team Adidas guy next to 10 – Maxwell – now deceased founder of Power Bar – 2:14 guy, didn’t make team

He is also listed at number seven with that Ottawa time in the Toronto Olympic Club’s list of their all-time marathon runners.   No small feat with guys like Drayton, Maxwell, Fonseca and Boychuk as club members.   The last we heard of Paul was that he had indeed become a priest in the Catholic Church.    We would welcome any new information about  him

Back to Marathon Stars

Alastair Wood came to marathon running with a record of athletic achievement at all levels of the sport that might have justified him in retiring or stopping.   Instead he went on to become one of the great figures of Scottish and British distance running.   Among the many honours that were justly awarded to him was the Achilles Club gold medal.      The Achilles Club is an elite and exclusive athletics club composed only of students at Oxford and Cambridge Universities.   Founded in 1920 it has added a great deal to the sport and is known and respected all over the globe.   Since 1949, the Achilles Club has awarded annually two gold medals,  for the best performance by a club member on either Track or Field. Recipients of the Track award include Roger Bannister, Chris Chataway, Chris Brasher, David Hemery and Richard Nerurkar.   The only Scottish athlete to obtain this prestigious medal was Alastair Wood (Oxford University and later Aberdeen AAC), who won twice: in 1962 [when he was a close second (to that year’s European and Empire champion Brian Kilby) in the AAA Marathon; and a splendid fourth in the European Marathon]; and in 1966 [when he is reported to have run 2.16.06, and also set a new European record of 2.13.45 in the Forres marathon. For some obscure reason, the latter time has never been accepted by the SAAA, but was ratified by the AAA in 1967, and is now recognised by the Association of Road Running Statisticians (www.arrs.net) as the fastest time of the year in 1966]. Alastair was also narrowly pushed into second by Jim Alder in the AAA championships in 1967, with 2.16.21.    And yet the present generation of Scottish marathon runners know very little about him.

Like so many marathon men he began as a middle distance track runner.   Having been introduced to the sport at Elgin Academy, he really became involved when he went to Aberdeen University.   The 1952/53 AU ‘Athletics Alma’ reported, ‘A very useful half miler in A Wood has come forward this year.   he should with more training and competition soon break the two minute barrier.’   He himself doesn’t recall doing so, but without too much practising turning in a 4:30 mile and a 14:55 Three Miles.   In 1955 however he was third in the SAAA  Mile Championship, and after running a 4:15 on the grass track at Westerlands, came under the guidance of the Scottish National Coach, Tony Chapman.   After leaving University he went into the RAF and really began training in earnest.   In 1975 he won the SAAA Three Miles, in 1958 he won the Six Miles and in 1959 lifted both titles.   He had already in April ’59, become the second Scot to run under 29 minutes for the Six Miles when he turned in 29:40.8 in the English SCAAA race, and although not quite so fast set a new Scottish native record for the Three Miles of 13:39. 8 and ran Ten Miles in 49:24.8.   He also won the Six Miles in 1960 and 1961.   This feat of winning the title four times has only been equalled by Ian Binnie of all the Scottish distance runners.   The range of his ability can be seen from the 1960 season when he also ran a Scottish native record for the Three Miles of 13:39.8 and ran Ten Miles in 49:24.6.   By 1962 when he turned to marathon running he had six SAAA titles, set records ay 3, 4, 5 and 6 Miles and represented Great Britain at Three Miles, Six Miles and in the Steeplechase.

Over the country, Alastair began by winning the Scottish Universities Cross-Country title in 1956 for Aberdeen University at St Andrews.   Such was his progress that a mere three years later he won the Scottish title from John McLaren of Victoria Park.   he ony narrowly failed to retain it the following year in an epic race with Graham Everett which had Emmet Farrell writing in the ‘Scots Athlete’ saying that the running of the winner must rank among the greatest in the history of the race, almost equally brilliant was the form of the defeated champion, Alastair Wood.   This race was followed by another really exceptional run in the International Race held at Hamilton Racecourse in which the spearhead of the team was Wood, Everett and the AAA’s Three Mile Champion, Bruce Tulloh.   In the race itself, Alastair was seventh behind Rhadi, Roelants and Merriman, prompting Farrell to say, ‘Scotland, fifth out of eight teams, might have claimed fourth if  Everett and Tulloh had run with the distinction of Wood.’

In May 1962, Andy Brown had run a great 2:25:58 for the marathon and was favourite for the SAAA title.   In fact Alastair took exactly one minute from the time in winning the championship.   He went on to run second in the AAA’s event and gain selection for the team for the European championships in Belgrade.   He finished fourth in that race – a magnificent achievement in only his third marathon.   Despite being quoted after the race that he was bored with the distance and would run no more marathons, he was far from finished with the race.   A few only of the highlights of his subsequent career are set out here.AA title.   In fact Alastair took exactly one minute from that time in winning the race.   He went on to run second in the AAA’s event and gain selection for the UK team  for the European Championships in Belgrade that year.   He finished fourth in that race – a magnificent achievement in only his third marathon.   Despite being quoted after the race that he was bored with the distance and would run no more marathons, he was far from finished with the race.   A few only of the highlights of his subsequent career are set out here.

These are only the very bare bones of his marathon career and say nothing of the many many first class races with which his diaries are filled.   The European best time of 1966 was never properly recognised and he had to live with the smear that it was a short course for some time.   The SAAA did however include it in their list of best times and they are not a body given to charity in matters of this sort.   Besides, did not his entire career up to this point indicate that he was indeed capable of this time?   His record of six Scottish titles is unequalled and it would be a brave man who forecast a similar one in the years to come.

                                                                                                         1966

He has also run well in events beyond the marathon distance.   He is credited with Scottish Native Records at 15000m, 20000m and 25000m (sharing the last two with Don Macgregor) and for the two hours run.   Probably his best Ultra was in the London to BRighton in 1972 which he won in 5:14:31, a record which stood until 1978 and is still the third best of all time for the course.   It was after this rn that he was heard to comment that he felt his legs had been sewn on backwards!

Alastair’s career has been of such length, variety and quality that even a brief summary such as this makes awesome reading, but what of the man himself and his training methods and philosophy?   He was quoted in a Road Runners Club publication of 1965 as saying that if running meant the exclusion of all else, he would give up tomorrow.   Nevertheless, one who knows him well believes that running is one of the mainsprings of his life – although he abhors athletics bores.   Described as an intellectual runner (not in the sense of education endured but rather with respect to his attitude to the sport) his attitudes to training provoke not a little thought.   Underlying his attitude to training is his belief that training to runf ast, means running fast.   Beginning when he did in the late 50’s, he was totally interval trained up to 1960 and found that he could run well up to and beyond 10 miles on any surface.  It is inevitable that while he shares many doubts about the quantity of interval training done in its heyday, he should feel that it still has a great deal to contribute to any training scheme.   Any system is dangerous if taken to extremes and this is as true of long, slow distance as it is of interval training.

I would like to quote Alastair direct at this point.   ‘The answer to fast running at any distance is to devote a considerable amount of time to moving faster than you intend to race.   eg my best time for a mile is :10 but by a lot of hard work I got my ‘cruising speed’ up so that in one session I could run 3 x 1 Mile in 4:15 with a ten-minute recovery.’    Long runs?   ‘I agree you need one long run at least, but probably not more than two.   You also need a couple of interval/repetition sessions – reps over a relatuvely long distances (880y to Mile) and intervals of say 220y.   My fastest marathons came after only three to four weeks of interspersing fastish steady runs of up to 12 – 15 miles on the road with track work-outs of up to 60 x 220 in 33/34 seconds with very short jogs of about 35 seconds in between.   As far as the big mileages done now for longer races are concerned, the following comments from an acknowledged master are illuminating.   ‘I also discovered the invaluable practice of training every other day.   After all, you need some sort of carrot to do 60 x 220 if you are human!   So you could train as little as three or four days a week and simply jog a couple of miles to recover on the other days, particularly once you are fit and looking for races and preparing for a particular event.   This is exactly what I did when training for my one and only London to Brighton.   So we have the strange situation where the length of the race often exceeds the weekly mileage.’

When he turns his eye on marathon runners generally he feels that many get nowhere near their potential.   ‘If you are covering 80/100 miles per week, the way to improve your performance is to build in more contrasts in terms of fast/slow, long/short runs rather than run all the miles faster or try to increase your mileage.   Of course you must be psychologically prepared to live with much reduced mileages …’

In the ‘Athletics Alma’ quoted above it was said that he ‘trains hard on cigars and whisky and the three w’s.’   None of my informants believes that one.   As far as The Diet is concerned, his thoughts are that it definitely helped him in longer races such as the Two Bridges and the London – Brighton although for the marathon itself, the risk of the physical upsets plus the depressingly poor runs immediately prior to the race more than offset the negligible gains.

Described by one of his great rivals as ‘always cheerful and talkative before and after a race but very tough in competition, he also has a fair (and maybe idiosyncratic) sense of humour.   He has been seen after a particularly hard race pulling faces at a busload of competitors that would have won a gurning competition.   Running with a young Donald Macgregor in the SAAA marathon, Don’s ESH team mates were shouting the boy on at about three miles.   Alastair turned on the first time marathoner, smiled and said ‘Surely they don’t expect you to drop already?   He went on to ‘break’ the boy at about 19 miles and win.

Alastair Wood is still not finished with the marathon – who would bet against a sub 2:20 marathon with his record?   As one who has done a lot for the sport and who is not on record anywhere as indulging in any shady practices, as one who never took the money and ran, nor ran and took the money, he is a first class example for anyone taking up the sport.   If he is not one already, he should be made an honorary member of the Scottish Marathon Club.   Alastair Wood is a famous runner.

As I said that was written in 1983 and his thoughts on training could well form the subject for a week end seminar!   “The invaluable practice of training every other day” would not go down well with many – but does it have merit?  What is it?   “If you are covering 80/100 mpw then the way to improve your performance is build in more contrasts to your training.”   Discuss!    A wonderful man who was maybe not appreciated as he might have been by the Scottish administration of the day and whose knowledge was shamefully under utilised.

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Alastair Wood was of course more than a wonderful athlete he was a motivator and his influence on his fellow Aberdonians has already been mentioned.   The following is an excerpt from an article in ‘Athletics Weekly’ by Ranjit Bhatia who knew and ran with him in 1959 and 1960.

“The athletics career of Alastair Wood makes one of the most interesting stories of our time.   I first met him in 1959 when he was serving with the RAF as a short service commission officer.   He was keen to keep up his running while with the Air Force and fortunately enough was posted to Halton, a station which had a reputation for producing outstanding athletes.   He was the only officer in the station athletics team and his amiable qualities made him very popular.   During the winter of 1958 he proved to be their most outstanding cross country runner and it was not surprising to find him dominating the cross country events during the summer track season that followed.  

Alastair left the Air Force the next year and joined Oxford University to do a post graduate course (he had graduated from Aberdeen University three years earlier).   From October 1959 until the time I returned to India I did most of my training with him, and in the process learnt a great deal about distance running from this ‘elderly’ (born 1933) and somewhat eccentric Scotsman.   He was much older than most of his contemporaries in the University Athletics Club and the three year stint in the RAF had left its mark on him.   But then he was so very much an extrovert and within a few weeks he managed to build up a large following amongst the distance running fraternity at Iffley Road.   But he and his wife Jean lived in a cottage nearly ten miles away from the centre and Alastair often ran to his lectures, and to the track for his afternoon work outs (“To save petrol”, he used to say).   Every day around three o’clock one would hear his characteristic call.   “Any of you clots here to train?    Come on you lazy English!   And you there from Poonah!”  

A training session with the Aberdonian was a unique experience.   He cursed everyone as he ran.   If someone attampted to slow down the pace, Wood was there to male sure that he went even harder.   By the end of the winter, Alastair Wood’s running group had acquired quite a reputation for themselves.   They won practically every team race in which they participated.   Came the 1960 International Cross Country Championships and no less than four of the seven members of the university cross country team won their International vests with Wood finishing seventh.

(This 1970 article goes on to mention Alastair’s track exploits and his switch to the marathon.   It finishes with the statement: “He continues to be Scotland’s most colourful distance runner.”)

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In the January 1987 issue of the ‘Scotland’s Runner’ magazine there was an interview of Alistair by one of his proteges and running mates from Aberdeen – Mel Edwards.   Mel is a quite outstanding athlete himself with many superb runs over the country, on road and track and also in the hills and freely admits that Wood was one of the inspirations behind his early career.   In fact he won what is probably the best cross country race I have ever seen when he defeated Ian McCafferty at Hamilton in the Scottish Under 20 Championship.   However we may speak of Mel separately at some stage but for now extracts from his article on Alastair are quoted here.

“Born in Elgin on January 13th, 1933, Wood went to Aberdeen University in 1954 and two years later won the Scottish Universities cross country title at St Andrew’s.   He excelled at athletics in the RAF in the late Fifties and went on to take 16 Scottish titles (including eight marathons).  His major Championship appearances were: 1958 Empire Games Three and ix Miles; 1962 European Championship marathon (fourth) and Empire Games marathon.   Other highlights were a 2:13:45 marathon. a London to Brighton record and the World 40 Mile Track Record (1970).

Edwards: You’ve had a long career in the sport, Alastair.   What are your most memorable performances?

Wood: Oddly enough the very early ones.   Just about the first thing I won was the Scottish Universities Cross Country at St Andrews.   I had to stop to tie a shoelace yet I still won by 300 yards.   That was the first occasion I really though I was a runner.   I went in for a mile race at Westerlands in summer 1955 with a personal best of 4:35 and found myself up against a couple of athletes who had been in Bannister’s first sub-four minute mile at Oxford the previous year.   Looking back I should have been overawed by these guys but in the event I took off and was still leading after three laps.   I was still in front with 100 yards to go and although I was passed I came down to 4:14 in that one race.  

E: You went into the RAF for a short service in the late Fifties. serving at Halton which had a reputation for producing fine runners?

W: Yes, I won the RAF cross country championships in 1957 and this pleased me very much as Derek Ibbotson who broke the world one mile record that year had been a previous winner.   The competition in England was invaluable.   I came up to Meadowbank that summer to do the Scottish six miles a distance I’d never done on a track before.   However with a 29 minute 10 second run including a 57 second last lap I managed to break Ian Binnie’s Scottish record by 0.8 seconds.

E:   Moving on to the Sixties, I think I’m right in saying that this was the period you were really at your peak?

W:   Yes, my fourth place in the European marathon in 1962 was a breakthrough in a competitive sense although not time-wise.

E:   I remember doing my first two hour run in Aberdeen on the morning of that race so that I could watch you on TV in the afternoon with a clear conscience!    But wasn’t 1966 an even more eventful year for you?

W:   That’s right, the Commonwealth Games were in Kingston, Jamaica and I went for marathon selection.   The only trouble was that I couldn’t get any guidance on the selection procedure.   The Scottish championships were at Westerlands in early June and I asked John Anderson – who was the National coach and advising me on my training –  if he could ascertain whether this was the race on which selection was to be based.   He couldn’t find anyone who could tell him but suggested that if the winner of the race was to be selected then I had to do it.   Anyway I was in excellent shape and travelled to Glasgow.   It was extremely hot and the tar was running on Great Western Road.   No one would confirm that the winner would gain selection so as the times were going to be slow I didn’t run as it would have done my chances of selection no good.

E:   The Polytechnic Marathon from Windsor to Chiswick was two weeks later and Jim Alder and yourself went for selection in that one?

W:   Yes, Again it was very hot but at least I knew that if I beat Jim I would almost certainly be picked.   We both suffered and Jim finished fifth and I was two minutes behind in eighth.   Jim deservedly gained selection and I was very ill with dehydration.   I was pretty demoralised and decided to retire.   This lasted all of ten days and although I couldn’t face long runs I got stuck into sessions 60 x 200 metres.  

About three weeks after the Poly I went North for the Inverness – Forres Marathon.   It was a cool day and I felt so good that I knew I was on a blinder.   I reached ten miles in under 50 minutes and then slowed deliberately because I thought I’d blown it.   I still came home in 2:13:45, a European record.   There was considerable disbelief about the time but the course had been measured by surveyors and the North of Scotland AAA.   Anyway, the next year the course started 200 yards or so back from the previous starting line, and although I found this one much harder I still did 2:13:45.

E:   What are your views on marathon selection as a result of these experiences?

W:  Basically the system should be objective enough to almost dispense with selection.   Have a rule and stick to it.   The American system in Track and Field of ‘First three’ in the trials might be ruthless but everyone knows what they have to do.

E:   Going on to training now, you’ve experimented with virtually every form there is.   Have you come to any conclusions?

W:   There is definitely a lot to be learned from trial and error.    Obviously if there is a perfect system it is the one which produces the most good runners, but some top class runners may have been even better on a different system.    However, in a nutshell, training fast helps you to run fast.   I don’t believe in the ‘something for nothing’ school of thought and reckon that interval training makes you faster than any other system.

E:   But it’s not just training of the body, is it?   I don’t think it’s far off the mark to say that you would psych yourself up for a race and that a lot of your best runs were through guts and a desire to do well.

W:   A fair point.   There’s no point in throwing the race away mentally before you’ve started.  

E:   What were your preparations for the London to Brighton and world 40 mile records in 1970?

W:   I trained only every other day and never more than 15 miles at any one time.   In a sense you could say that I did get ‘something for nothing’  with these two events because I wasn’t doing excessive mileage.   The London to Brighton in five hours eleven minutes was ten minutes faster than the previous year and I remember after the 40 miles record a guy from Capital Radio asking if I could improve on my time next year.   My comment on the likelihood of anyone being stupid enough to tackle it twice was not broadcast.”

There is more to the article than that and if you can get hold of a copy then it is worth reading.   Mel has done a good job and I was relieved to see that he had been given the same replies as I had where the same questions were raise – but he has more colour in his interview and asked some questions that are more insightful than some of mine.

Alastair’s record breaking run in the London to Brighton was mentioned in the interview and I would like to include this excerpt from an article by Bill Brown in The Road Runners Club Newsletter of January 1973 which I received from Colin Youngson.

“The weather now became even gloomier with patchy fog at Gatwick.   This could not have been very pleasant for the runners but it had little effect on the leaders who arrived at Crawley (thirty and three quarter miles)in the very fast time of 2:54:54, more than five minutes inside the record..   The leaders were Alastair Wood and Mick Orton with Cavin Woodward, two minutes slower, third.   Both Hensman and MacIntosh, fourth and fifth, were running faster than the previous best and Houk, sixth in 3:02, was only a few seconds slower.   Shortly after Crawley, Wood began to take charge of the race and soon opened up a large gap on the gallant Orton.   When Wood reached Bolney, nearly 39 miles from Big Ben, in 3 hours 43 minutes 30 seconds he was a good 9 minutes ahead of Orton who had a three minute lead on Woodward.   As usual there was now the customary speculation as to whether or not Wood was travelling too fast, and perhaps might not last the full distance.

The opinion of the two former winners, Tom Richards (1955) and Bill Kelly (1954)  was that there was no doubt that Wood was just the sort of runner to conquer the distance and the record.   Not even the famous Dale Hill seemed to have any effect on this talented runner, and so at Pycombe (46 miles) Wood’s time of 4:27:12 was no less than 10 minutes 48 seconds faster than Levick’s 1971 time.    More than six minutes passed before Orton passed this check, yet he too was four and a half minutes better than the record.

So on to the Aquarium Brighton, where after fifty two and three quarter miles Alastair Wood was timed in with the incredible time of five hours eleven minutes and two seconds to smash the record by ten minutes 43 seconds giving Scotland a win in this event for the first time.   The true worth of this time can be seen when it is realised that with an even time run at 10 mph (six minute miles) the journey would have taken five hours fifteen minutes.   Yet when I spoke to Alastair Wood afterwards he stated that he had had no feelings in his legs for the last twenty miles.   Congratulations on a magnificent run.   So far was he inside the record that the Mayor of Brighton did not get to the finish in time to welcome him in.   A good deal of sympathy must go to the rest of the runners.   Especially to Mick Orton ho ran a splendid race in a brilliant time (5:18:28) to be content with second place.”  

Alastair Wood – Marathon Career Record                                            

Alastair Wood – Ultra Career Record              

We finish with a tribute to Alastair from his friend and fellow Aberdeen AAC runner Colin Youngson.

A Tribute To Alastair Wood

To me, Alastair was the runner hero, the inspiration, the adviser, the irrepressible outspoken character and the most stimulating of friends.   He may have been easily bored but he was never boring.   I knew him for thirty six years – certainly not long enough.   Very shortly after meeting him, I recognised that Alastair was rather unlikely to compliment anyone unless they really deserved it.   Many people were influenced by him, competed with him, admired him, suffered the lash of his sardonic tongue, learned simply to insult him right back, laughed with him and were glad to count him a friend.  

Alastair Wood, along with Steve Taylor, inspired so many successful distance runners for over twenty years.   This was mainly by example.   When Alastair Neaves approached Wood, mentioned that he hoped to switch from football to running and asked him for his advice, the reply was “Running is ten times harder than football.   Do yourself a favour – give up before you start – go to the pictures instead.”   Of course Ally Neaves accepted the implied challenge and started training in earnest.    I remember struggling to hang on to the pack during the Sunday fifteen mile run, which started from Woodie’s house.   Some days the pace was so fast that I was left behind before Hazlehead roundabout.   With perseverance my stamina increased and it was the same for so many others.   What a combination Wood and Taylor were.   Even after I could eventually defeat them in cross country, they could both run away from me on Sundays.  

What images stay with me?   Alastair Wood’s confidence; his tactical brain; that little half smile as he sped to fastest time on stage two of the 1968 Edinburgh to Glasgow relay.   His beautifully balanced economical style which was just perfect for the marathon.   Alastair winning the 1967 Scottish marathon title in Grangemouth, easing round the track, strolling to the track entrance, bantering with officials, sipping a cup of tea, and then applauding his protege, young Donald Ritchie who eventually came into the stadium to claim the silver medal.   During the final John O’Groats to Land’s End relay twenty years ago Woodie, the oldest runner, battled so hard to ensure that his Aberdeen A.C. team would break the record again.   It was tough, but so was he.   This might explain when, on one occasion as Donald and I took over from him and Mike Murray, since he thought erroneously that we were late, Mr Wood threatened me  with a particularly nasty personal operation if the tardiness were repeated.   I ran away rather fast.  

When he became ill, Alastair remained brave and uncomplaining, apart from the time, while he was recovering from the kidney operation, Steve and I made him laugh so much he was in agony from his stitches.

Only a few days ago , at Hogmanay 2002, I was lucky to spend an hour with Alastair.   We chatted about many topics – people, books, cricket, cycling and of course running.   He claimed cheerfully to be making a comeback and mentioned his plans for some rather dangerous speed training.   I mentioned that he was definitely to be included in a forthcoming book about Scotland’s greatest athletes.   He said this was just as well.   If he had been missed out, the author Colin Shields would have received a sharp letter of protest.   But although he knew his own worth, he was a modest man.   Fraser Clyne wrote accurately and well about Alastair’s achievements in the Press and Journal – although Woodie might have remarked that he missed out the double blue for Athletics and Cross Country at Oxford; and the ultra distance racing in South Africa.   I once suggested to Alastair that he had been a great runner; no, he replied, just a good one.   Very, very good in my opinion.

One of my favourite books features many fleet-footed athletes.   Its title is ‘Watership Down’.   When a rabbit dies, the others say ‘one of our friends has stopped running today.   Alastair finished his final session last Thursday.   I’m not surprised he pushed it a little too hard.   I will miss him a great deal.   He was an unforgettable person:  a great man.

Alastair Wood’s Two Finest Races       1966: Two Controversies involving Alastair Wood

Mike has had a fascinating career in athletics and it will take more than a page to do it justice so the plan is this.   I will start with a resume of his career as an athlete, go on to look at how he is regarded in New Zealand then report and quote from his own words in emails and phone calls.    The Mexican feat is of real interest to all endurance enthusiasts – how did he win a medal in the marathon when no other sea level athlete had won anything nor even done himself justice?    So that is covered in a separate section called Mike in Mexico.

That is a short review of his career.   If we want some statistics, well he never bothered about times because the race was the big thing for him.   There are of course several readily available from the records.   When he won the NZ 6 Miles Track Championship in 1969 – the year before Mexico – he ran 28:32.8 and in 1971 when he won both titles on consecutive days his 5000 time was 14:17.8 and his 10000 metres time was 30:23.4.   The long course cross country that he won was timed at 37:19.   Unfortunately the records generally for the 1960’s are hard to come by so I made contact through Tim Grose, a mutual friend, with UK Statistician Ian Hodge who replied as follows: “I can’t find too much on Mike in essence because I can’t find marathon rankings for most of the 1960’s coupled with the fact that the NZL website doesn’t give all time lists.   I would assume that his 2:14:05 to win the first Fukuoka Marathon in 1966 was the world’s leading time that year – it probably went into the top five all time.   It was the one NZ record that he set and it only lasted for a year.   He ran 2:15:21 for ninth in Fukuoka the next year (by a long way the world’s top marathon in those days) and he ran 2:19:21 for second in the NZL Championships in 1966 – these are the only sub 2:20’s I can find for him.   5k best of 14:00.8 in 1966, 6 Mile best a fine 27:43.8 in the NZL championships in 1968.   10K best of 29:06.0 in 1965.   Only notable time I can find in GB was a 9:09.8  Two Miles in Glasgow in 1961.”

That’s the best I have found so far but they are all considerably good times today and were quite outstanding in the 1960’s.

Racing in NZ 1969

There is a short but interesting entry in the New Zealand pages which covers his career from a different angle and it can be found at www.olympic.org.nz/AthleteProfile.aspx and I’ll quote some of it here.

“Quite why Mike Ryan’s performances have been so underplayed down the years is difficult to understand.   Perhaps the Waikato based Ryan missed out on some of the media attention because he did not live in a main city.   And perhaps because he won bronze medals not gold he did not capture the headlines.   Whatever the reason there is no doubt that Ryan was a marathon runner of the highest class.   He ran at two Games – the 1966 Kingston Empire Games and the 1968 Mexico City Olympics – and returned with unlikely bronze medals each time.  

Could there have been two more challenging runs?   In 1966 he had to contend with the torrid Jamaican heat that melted the chances of so many of the marathon field.   Two years later the altitude of Mexico City (situated 6000 feet above sea level) wrought havoc with the distance runners from sea level countrues.   African athletes dominated the distance events at Mexico City which makes Ryan’s marathon bronze all the more astounding.   While such great athletes as Australians Ron Clarke and Derek Clayton were destroyed by the altitude during these Olympics, Ryan ran with incredible grit and determination to earn his medal.

…………..[ After emigrating] once living in the Waikato, Ryan soon hooked up with John Davies who introduced him to the Arthur Lydiard training methods.   Davies helped Ryan build the endurance that would stand him in such good stead when pitted against the world’s best marathoners.   Ryan was much more versatile than is commonly acknowledged.   In 1967 he won the National Cross Country Championships and represented NZ at the world championships.   He won NZ titles at 5000 metres, six miles and 10000 metres and finished fifth in the 10000 metres at the first Pacific Conference Games in Tokyo in 1969.   But it was as a marathon runner that he achieved most.

Ryan’s Olympic medal was not without cost.  He maintains that the effort required to run so fast for so long at altitude affected his health for many years afterwards causing him to feel continually sapped of energy.”

What follows are some extracts from emails and a telephone conversation with Mike over December, January and February 2010.

He started running in School where he led a very active life and he also did a lot of biking and rock climbing.   At St Modan’s AAC he was coached by Jimmy Kielt who was a contemporary of Joe McGhee.   Jimmy had him doing a lot of repetition training and his aspirations were to beat runners such as Lachie Stewart, John Lineker, Fergus Murray and others.   In the early 1960’s he was invited to a squad day at Redford Barracks and a weekend at Inverclyde with potential Commonwealth Games athletes.   The group also contained Ming Campbell, Mike Hildrey and Fergus Murray among others.   When he left school he worked in the Alexander’s Bus Garage at Fallin before his brother got him a job in the Lake District as an athletics and climbing instructor.   At this time he was applying for a variety of jobs in various places including the Falklands before going to NZ and settling in Tokoroa which is small mill town with about 6000 inhabitants.   He was a hard and frequent racer and won several 3000 metres races.   Vladimir Kuts and the Press sisters were living there at that time.   He cannot over emphasise the influence of some of his friends at that time and mentioned in particular Bill Sutcliffe (with whom he made a journey to Everest Base Camp some years later and John Davies the former Olympic 1500 metres runner (two bronze medals) who was a very good coach and motivator who went on to coach Dick Quax and other international athletes including Lorraine Moller.   It was only a mill town but many people came or passed through from all over to train with the club.

The training he did was a routine season by season, year by year regime dictated by the racing programme.   “I never considered myself a marathon runner rather one who ran and enjoyed all disciplines.   I ran probably about 35 – 40 marathons.   However I was a frequent racer at other distances from 800 metres club nights to and through all distances on track, road and cross country.   Before the start of the cross country season we have some exacting ten man relays.   The track season from November to March is usually interval training – mainly but not solely on grass tracks.   The early part of this period would often consist of 100 metres shuttle dashes plus 200 and 400 repetitions – 20 – 30 with 200 metres recovery.   {see the section on Mike in Mexico}   There would also be a session of 3000 – 5000 fartlek.   This would be done as well as half to three quarters of an hour run before work in the morning.   There was a period when a third daily run on cross country was possible at lunchtime.   Throughout all training the execution of a long weekly Sunday run 0f two and a half horus would be done, even when we went away.   The wisdom of John Davies imparted to us in the early days was marked.   Collective training and racing were significant as well as socially edifying.   Early on under JD’s tutelage the companionship of group training, travelling and racing was not underestimated.   The competitiveness with each other, inspiration, advice, reassurance with resultant ambition pervaded the club.  

In NZ national representation is seen as a big thing and to compete internationally is seen as a significant honour – especially in a small town like Tokoroa.   While I enjoyed training racing was very important.   I relished the thought processes leading up to and the requirements of race day.   I had been a good racer back home and my greatest spur to success was to beat those who had previously beaten me. “

Jamaica: He travelled to Jamaica for the Commonwealth Games in 1966 with Jeff Julian who was the best marathon runner in NZ at the time.   Jeff was a rather negative type being openly negative even three days before the marathon and Mike Ryan picked up on that and other wee quirks and peculiarities.   In the race itself he reckons there was a big gap in ability between Alder and Adcocks and the rest of the field and he ran the race pretty well on his own.   In a small group the one forcing the pace dropped out at halfway and the two others soon dropped off as well.

Fukuoka:   Japan is in the Northern Hemisphere and the race is in the first week in December so many of the runners wear gloves – the temperature is around 8 – 10 degrees.   It is a good fast course, it is appreciated and supported by the local people and the level of competition all make it a good, fast competitive race.

Mike was always a competitive athlete who asked the question “How can I ….?”    and not “Can I …….?”

Mike made a point of getting into the heads of his opponents, playing wee mind games with them and as a man more interested in winning than in times, it seems to have been very successful.   But for me it was even more important that he psyched himself up and got the very best out of his abilities.   If you are interested in any of this then Barry Magee had a series of seminars for his runners and at one of them Mike spoke of the mental approach.   You can get access to them via the Wesley AC website at www.wesley.org.nz