After his serious racing career over, Jim moved to Houston in 1975 and, with Allan Lawrence (who had been third in the 1956 Olympic 10000m) and Len Hilton (who ran in the 5000m at the 1972 Olympics), started a running club called the Houston Harriers which was modelled on the British club system and was very successful.   Outside running he had been working in the computer field.   Houston was to be where Jim McLatchie’s athletic career as official, administrator, organiser but mainly coach, took off in the most spectacular fashion.    Any doubt about his status in the community is removed by the following report when he retired in 2002.

McLATCHIE RUNNING OFF INTO THE SUNSET

They call him tough, rough and crusty – a running coach with a philosophy of ‘my way or the highway’    But when Jim McLatchie shows up at the track with his famous red-covered clipboard containing the day’s workout, runners know they’re getting the best.   Now Jim and his wife, champion runner Carol McLatchie – Houston’s first couple of running – are heading into retirement and moving to Bend, in central Oregon.   McLatchie will leave behind nearly 30 years of coaching success stories and the well-known club he helped to start in 1975, the Houston Harriers.   He has coached some of Houston’s most talented runners for years, runners who continue to dominate the winner’s lists at area races, such as Sean Wade, Jon Warren, Justin Chaston, Joe Flores and Joy Smith to name just a few.  

A champion runner himself, McLatchie knows what it takes to give one’s best and improve on it.   He never recruited runners – they came to him.   And he didn’t take them all.   ‘Don’t come out if you don’t mean to follow the instructions,’ McLatchie said, ‘There was always only one boss – me.   And that’s how it has to be.   Someone has to take control.    I always tell people to tell me what they want to accomplish.   If they can’t tell me that, I’m not interested.   There are enough sheep in this life without me getting any more of them.   If you could come to track and be disciplined in the workouts,  it would help you in your life outside the track.’

His coaching offered a support system –    runners helped each other reach their goals, and the workouts were not based in the star system.   ‘The key to success is, can you build upon each previous workout,’, said McLatchie.   That philosophy helped spur a host of champion runners and a series of titles through the years. What had inspired

Carol McLatchie is on sabbatical from running right now, but she continues to hold titles – like the American Female Masters 30K, and was named by Runner’s World as Masters Runner of the year in 1993.   She is in her sixth year as Chair of the USA Track & Field Women’s Long Distance Running Committee.   She met Jim at a track meet and starting training with him in 1979.   They have seen young runners blossom, succeed and become champion Masters.   But their ranks are slow to fill.   ‘There’s no really good young ones coming up,’ says Jim McLatchie.  

In March, Jim will retire from his long time job overseeing systems and programming operations in Information Systems Administration for the City of Houston, the job that paid his bills all these years but an occupation few people knew about.   The coaching he did was never a money maker – it was what he gave back to the sport.   From his early days in Scotland, working in the coal mines at 15, running offered him the freedom nothing else could.  

‘Jim’s an enigma really,’ said Chaston, ‘the only way he viewed running was from a runner’s perspective – that’s what really made Jim click.’    ‘The best thing that ever happened – him leaving town,’ joked Wade, then he stopped laughing. ‘He’s going to be missed, especially by the more serious runners.’   Warren, now men’s head track coach at Rice, said McLatchie had been the single biggest influence on his own coaching career.   ‘Jim’s done a tremendous job with tons of people.   He’ll work with anybody but you have to be able to make a commitment.’

McLatchie will keep in touch with many of his runners,    Email makes it easy to communicate, and ‘the telephone still works,’ he said.   

He’s 60 now and hasn’t raced in five years.   But he was still good enough at 50 to run a 5K in just over 17 minutes.   ‘I’d like to do something for myself – I’d like to do some running and get myself in shape,’ he said.   ‘I know everything I have to do; I just need to apply it to myself.’    Some have suggested that he write a book, and he’s not ruling it out.    But he’s packing the red covered clipboard too in case it’s called into service in Oregon.”

What had inspired this eulogy?   Quite simply he had had success on a large scale and he had a personality that they Texans took to their heart.   He was by now a coach first and foremost – just look at the following tables to illustrate this.

Mitte Hamrin (Sweden)

The first table is the list of Olympians he has coached.

*  Hamrin was a Swedish marathon runner who won the Stockholm Marathon twice (1990 and 1991), the Chicago Marathon once (1991), and represented Sweden in the European and World Championships as well as running in the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1984.

*  Sean Wade is a long distance runner from New Zealand who ran in the Atlanta Olympics marathon in 1996 and also competed in the Commonwealth Games steeplechase in 1996.

*   Justin Chaston was a Welsh distance athlete who specialised in the steeplechase and competed in the European Championships in 1994, the World Championships in 1995, and three consecutive Olympic Games in 1996, 2000 and 2004.   His personal best was 8:23.4 from 1994.

Sean Wade (NZ)

World Championship Competitors

 ….  and these are only the major championships  – there are even more in World Masters, PanAm Games, State Champions, etc.   Little wonder that he was interviewed for the post of Scottish coach, a wonder that he was by-passed!  He was a genuine hero for his coaching in Houston.   He hadn’t forgotten his old Scottish friends however.   In the mid 80’s Brian Scobie had a wonderful squad of endurance runners and he took some of them to Houston for the marathon there.   Runners like Angie Hulley/Pain ran well but Veronique Marot was third in 1984 (2:31:16) and won it three times (1986 in 2:31:35, 1989 in 2:30:16 and 1991 in 2:30:55) and Brian won the Masters race in 1987 with a time of 2:30:59.   Jim’s own runner Martin Froelich won it in 1985 in 2:11:14.   These coaching feats had to be recognised and Jim had brought himself to the forefront of USA endurance running coaches and his reward was international coaching assignments which are shown in the table below.

Having been a very good runner and then a top class coach in the States would have been enough for most – a pipe dream in fact – but Jim wasn’t finished.    He was also a bit of a fixture on several Coaching Committees and Action Groups.   Have a look at these –

• 1984 – 1994:   Worked with Nike as coach of regional athletes to raise them to a level where they could compete nationally.   His women’s team won the cross-country title in 1988.   He was a member of several committees with associated coaches to develop a master plan to try to improve distance running in the USA;
• 1985 – 2002:   Member of the Women’s Long Distance Running Committee where he was one of the selectors for international competition.   He also held a post lecturing and coaching marathon development at the Olympic Training Centre;
• 1990 – 1993:   Member of the USA T&F Development Committee to develop a plan for distance running.   He received an award from the USA Women’s Track & Field for outstanding service to the sport;
• 1994 – 1999:   Member of the USA Women’s Cross-Country Committee to promote the development of sport for women;
• 1999 – Present:   Member of the Great Britain elite coaching squad for the steeplechase;
• 2003 – 2009:   Volunteer Coach at Pilot Butte Middle School;
• 2010 – Present:   Distance Track Coach at Summit High School

The fifth of these, the GB elite coaching job,  was unexpected but he explains that he went to England two to three times a year to work with Mark Rowland and the UK steeplechasers – and remember that Justin Chaston who was being coached by Jim competed in three Olympics and one World Championships for Britain.   Jim clearly had something to offer on that front.   Mark is now in Eugene, Oregon where he is the coach for Oregon Track Club.

What about the club that he set up with Al Lawrence away back in 1975?    Houston Harriers?   Well. he was a coach at the club from 1975 until 2001.   The club has approximately 100 members and the focus is on middle distance, distance and marathon running for High School, College, Open and Masters athletes.   The club was/is very successful and members have won more than seventy five USA National titles in twenty five years in events on the track, on the road and over the country.    Quite a record.

Sylvia Mosqueda

All coaches will now be asking what he did with the runners.   Information in the public prints is hard to come by but there is an interview with Donna Stevens easily available on the internet and in reply to the question ‘Can you give an insight into training in Houston in the 80’s?’ she gave this answer.   “ In 1979 I started training with Jim McLatchie and the Houston Harriers.   In a few years we had a group of 25 – 30 totally dedicated distance running athletes who met at Houston Baptist University on Mondays and Wednesday nights for track workouts and Saturday mornings for long runs.   On the track we were separated into groups of four to five runners that could run close to the same times.   Jim would have our workouts in his “black book” that he brought to the track.   Lots of  Mondays, we would run 6 x 1 Mile or 12 x 800 with a 200 jog between.   On Wednesdays we might have a mile breakdown of Mile, 1200, 800, 400 with 400 jog between.   We always ran hard on the track, holding nothing back, my heart rate was over 200 bpm.   Our long runs were 18 – 30 miles.   During marathon training, I did 2-a-days by running 4 miles in the morning and 6 – 12 miles during the evening (including our track days) with a 20 plus mile run on Saturdays and an 18 on Sunday.   I always built up from 70 miles a week in the off season to 100 – 120 peaking before a marathon.

We had a group of 4 – 8 women that consistently trained together and pushed each other to the limit.   Jim coached 8 of us to the Women’s First Olympic Marathon Trials in  Olympia, Washington.   Many of us PRed that day and it was an awesome experience and McLatchie’s training really paid off.”

Justin Chaston

More detail and an example of the planning, content  and record keeping is shown in the work done by Justin Chaston leading up to the  the 2004 Olympic Games.   Note that most of this work was done at 6000 feet in Colorado Springs.    You can see the work done on a day by day schedule by clicking  here

He is now at Bend in Oregon where he is coaching at the local high school – the Summit High School referred to above – and enjoying retirement.   The boy from the coal mines in Ayrshire has come along way in every sense and it is all down to his own attitude and hard work.    And to me, one of the most amazing things is that he has done it all while holding down a serious day-job.   It was never paid employment.

Jim with one of his girls teams in November, 2015

I had thought that I had finished the profile there but Jim had other ideas.   We left him coaching at Summit High School after retirement – then in March 2012 we had an email saying that three of his girls had been 1, 2, 3 in the State Championships in the 1500m.   The first time it had been done!   He had coached the mother and grandfather of the girl who won.   Michelle Dekkers won the NCAA Cross-Country but was originally from South Africa.   She had moved up to Bend just so that her daughter Ashley could be coached by Jim.   Ashley who won also won the 800m and is headed for a scholarship at University of Oregon in the autumn.   The link is at  http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?event_id=118&do=videos&video_id=46503 .

In May 2012, his athletes won the Men’s and Women’s Leagues at State Championships and there are three videos to be seen showing some triumphs:

Girls 1500m:  http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?event_id=118&do=videos&video_id=68808

The Girls won their league of 12 teams with a total of 106 points with second placer on 74 points, and the Boys won their with 88 points ahead of the second team’s 67.5; there were also 12 teams in the league.    And as of August 2013, they have continued to do him proud winning State and League titles with amazing regularity.   Right up to the present and we see Jim winning the Oregon State High School Coach of the Year award and it was right that he did so given the results of his young men runners.   The family double was complete when wife Carol won the women’s High School Coach of Year  in 2015 and went forward as a nominee for the National award.  

 I once spoke to a senior, experienced coach who commented: “At this stage of my career I ‘m not going to work with youngsters any more.   I’ve done my stint with them.”   The man was an international coach and the comment, to say the least, surprised me.  It  is not a sentiment that you would hear from Jim.   When he  retired he was invited to help coach at Summit and he went willingly – he is still there many years later, enthusiasm undimmed working his magic year after year, with boys and girls, young men and young women, all year round, on track and on the road,  and over the country.    The athletes never look driven or anxious – they always look happy and enjoying their sport.  He is of course aided and abetted by his wife Carol who is an excellent coach in her own right and has been recognised as such by the American athletics governing body.   They make a formidable coaching team.