Author: Admin

Milers in Texas

Justin Chaston: Olympic steeplechaser

The athletes that raced the mile race followed the general plan during the track season except when getting ready to compete in a major mile race. Harriers had a couple of athletes who competed in the mile. Jon Warren ran 3:59.30 is the only athlete to have run under 4 minutes for the mile and 2 hr 20 min for the marathon in a period less than 4 months. David Wittman was the other athlete who ran under 4 minutes when he recorded 3:57.47 in the same race as Jon which was the ‘PRE’ Classic in 1994.

Two different athletes. Jon was the strength runner whereas David was the speedster. Jon had recorded 8:30 for the steeplechase where David was a sub 1:50 800 meter runner and was a member of Clemson University team that won the NCAA Indoor 4×800 meter relay title.

I would put together a Distance Medley team which included David and Jon who won most of the Relay meets in Texas. Most of the coaches welcomed the Harrier athletes with open arms even although we beat their teams.

A few sessions prior to a big race. Morning runs were usually 30 minutes easy.

Sunday –        Easy 1 hour

Monday –       5x 500 with 6 min rest. 400 at 57-58 then sprint last 100 meters

Tuesday –      Easy 1 hour with a few strides

Wednesday – 1600 – 4.16/ 1200 – 3.09/ 800 – 2.04/ 400 – 58/ 3 min rest between

Thursday –     Easy 1 hour with strides

Friday –           3(400 2MR 300) 4 min sets/ jog 10 mins- 400

                      Dave – 55.5 42/ 56.5 41.4/ 56.4 44.4/ 54.9

                      Jon –    57.1 43/ 57.2 42.1/ 57.8 46.0/ 56.5

Saturday –     Easy run or rest day

Sunday –        Easy 1 hour

Monday –       Jon – 400-60.1/ 1200- 3:04/ 400-56.4 all with 5 min rest//

                      Dave – 200-24.9/ 200 jog/ 200 – 25.4/ jog 800/ 200 – 24.6/ 300 walk/ 300-37.5

Tuesday –      Easy 1 hour

Wednesday – 2×200 with 30 sec rest/ Dave – 24.8/ 25.6// Jon – 28.1, 27.7

Thursday –     40 min easy with a few strides

Friday –        Travel to Eugene – 30 min easy run with strides

Saturday –      Mile race – David 3:57.47 and Jon – 3:59.30

At that time I had a great bunch of distance runners. David, Jon, Justin Chaston and Sean Murray who ran a 4:03 mile. Easy bunch of men to coach who helped each other achieve their goals.         

Carol as she is now – international runner is now an international coach

Carol McLatchie (nee Urish) was a very good distance runner indeed.   There is a very good summary of her career on the arrs website at  https://more.arrs.run/runner/3109 detailing her career and achievements – it also includes all her races between 1978 and 1996.   A good track runner, she became an excellent road runner winning many honours.   The coach who made this change possible?    Ayrshire’s own Jim McLatchie.   Read what he has to say about Carol as a runner.

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Carol was unique. Growing up in Kansas prior to ‘Title 9.’ There was no track programs for girls in High School and College. She moved to Houston in 1973 to attend Rice University to work on her Master’s Degree in Geology. While attending Rice she got in involved with several women who ran and started jogging with the group.

The track coaches at Rice University ran a summer track program and held races on Friday evenings. I had moved to Houston that year and formed the Houston Harriers. One of the founding members, Len Hilton who competed in the 1972 Olympic Games was getting back into shape.

Since no one had run a sub-4 minute mile in Texas. I informed him he was going to achieve the goal. I set it up with helpers with me as one of the pacers.

Carol had heard about this race and showed up to watch where Len broke 4 minutes for the mile. She was hooked and joined the Harriers. When she started she could hardly break 40 seconds for 10K. Slowly she began to improve and in the eighties she was a force to be reckoned with in the women’s racing circle.

Carol followed the basic training schedules but when training for a major race the schedule was tailored for her needs.
Her Personal bests:

TRACK
1500 4:28.00
3000 9:19.50
5000 15:45.10
10000 33:03.10

ROADS
10K 32.41
15K 51.22
10 MILES 55.15
20K 1:13.28
½ MARATHON 1:14.50
25K 1:34.30
30K 1:53.30
MARATHON 2:35.10

The following is what she did when running 32:41 for 10K and 51.29 for 15K.
All morning runs were on grass.

1. AM. 18 miles easy
2. PM. 880 – 2.36 440 jog/ mile – 5.17 880 jog/ 2 mile 10.54
3. AM. 4 mile easy/ PM. 9 miles grass – weights
4. AM. 4 miles easy/ Pm. Mile – 5.02/ 1320- 3.53/ 880 – 2.32/ 440-66/ 440 jog between\
5. AM. 4 miles easy/ PM. 6 miles easy
6. AM. Travel to Jacksonville, Florida – 3 mile easy with strides
7. Jacksonville 15K River run – 1st – 51.22
8. AM. 72 minutes easy run
9. AM. 4 miles easy/ PM.2×2 miles 11.06 11.02 with 5 min rest between
10. AM. 4 miles easy/ PM. 12 miles easy
11. AM. 4 miles easy/ PM. Mile – 4.56 lap jog/ 4×220 32/ 220 jog between/ lap jog/ mile – 5.13
12. AM. 4 miles easy/ PM. 9 miles easy
13. AM. 4 miles easy/ PM. 6 miles grass
14. AM. Bayou Classic 10K – first 34.52 – won last 6 years
15. AM. 21 mile run
16. AM. 4 miles easy/ PM. 3x mile 5.07/ 5.09/ 5.10 3 min rest between
17. AM. 4 miles easy/ PM. 9 miles grass
18. AM. 4 miles easy/ PM. 440-73 880 jog/ 880- 2.32 mile jog/ mile 5.21
19. AM. 4 miles easy/ PM. 9 miles grass
20. AM. 6 miles grass/ PM. Fly to New Orleans
21. AM. Run last 4 miles of Crescent City course
22. Crescent City 10K race placed second in 32.41
23. AM. 4 miles easy/ PM. 6 miles grass
24. AM. 4 miles easy/ PM. 8 miles grass
25. AM. 4 miles easy/ 3×440 – 70 -2 min rest/ 880 jog/ 1320- 3.44/ 880 jog/ 3×440 – 70 ,70,69 with 2 min rest
26. AM. 4 miles easy/ PM. 10 miles easy
27. AM. 6 miles easy/ PM. 4 miles grass/ Fly to San Francisco
28. PM. Jogged 30 mins over course
29. Avon 15K finished first in 51.29/ Dietz 2nd in 52.14/ Harriers won team race

Carol’s marathon training followed what I designed for the general marathon schedule except the last few weeks were tailored for Carol. Morning runs were on the Bayou which was all grass.
The workouts below were done 2 weeks after she won Avon 15K in San Francisco.

1. Beach – supposed to run 15 miles – knees sore running on sand- ran 20 mins
2. AM – 4 miles easy/ PM. – 3x mile 5.07/5.08/5.06 with 440 jog/ Jog 880 then 2 times circuit course.
3. AM. 4 miles easy/ PM. – 15 miles easy
4. AM. 4 miles easy/ PM. – 4×440 – 76/74/74/74 /2 miles 10.47/ 440-67/ all with 3 min rest
5. AM. 4 miles easy/ PM. – 1 ½ hour easy run
6. AM. 4 miles easy/ PM. – fly to New York – 30 min easy
7. AM. Breakfast 7:30/ Trevira Twosome 10 mile race placed first in 55:15
8. AM. Easy run around reservoir. Travel to Houston
9. AM. 21 miles easy
10. AM. 4 miles easy/ PM. 12 miles easy
11. AM. 4 miles easy/ 4x 880 2.34/2.35/2.35/2.36 with 4 min rest
12. AM. 4 miles easy/ 1 hour easy run
13. AM. 4 miles easy/ 6 miles easy
14. AM. 5K GAC champs – first – 17.41
15. AM. 15 mile easy run
16. PM. 2x 2mile 11.20 11.28 4 min rest
17. PM. 6 miles easy – grass
18. PM. Fly to Seattle – 6 miles easy
19. Drove Olympic Marathon Trials course – massage – no run
20. Jim drove course I jogged miles 20-23 get and an idea last part of race
21. First Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials – finished 12th in PR of 2:35.10

1981 Carol went to New York to compete in the L’EGGs Mini Marathon which was a 10K road race. Very few people knew her name outside Texas. Greta Waitz, Patty Catalano and Jacqueline Gareau were in the race. Carol’s instructions were simple. Run with the leaders. As the race progressed Carol was still with the leaders and as no one knew who she was they were getting a bit worried. A ‘Dark Horse!’ Carol went on to finish second behind Greta. Now they knew who she was. 

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That is what Jim has to say on the matter.   There is an interesting ‘lifestyle’ interview from their local paper in Bend, Oregon, which reads:

CAROL URISH-McLATCHIE
2019 National High School Girls Track and Field Coach of the Year, with Jim McLatchie (USTFCCCA)
U.S. Women’s Distance Coach, Track and Field, Pan Am Games 2019, Lima, Peru
How do you define success?
“Success is a feeling of accomplishment after I complete a goal. Success might be winning a race, the team racing well at a big event or a new runner achieving a personal record and watching them figuring out that their hard work has paid off.”
Where would we find you when you have free time in Bend/Central Oregon?
“I like to visit the High Desert Museum, go for an easy ski at Meissner Snow Park or pick up litter on trails near my home. I can also be found exploring the Oregon High Desert like Kam Wah Chung (State Heritage Site) and the Painted Hills.”
What is your secret to good health/fitness?
“At my age, I am thankful I have health insurance and keep regular health appointments. One never knows when you will be hit with a health challenge. I was recently diagnosed with a low-grade breast cancer. I chose an extensive surgery and plan to get back to my usual coaching schedule as soon as I can.”
What lessons have you learned so far in life?
“I have learned that I can learn so much from mentors and people with experience that I have met in my life. My hometown doctor told me to “be myself” as I headed to college in the 60s. Glenn Cunningham spoke to my graduating class of 19 and shared his challenges with life and running. Information like that opened my mind to consider so many more possibilities in my life. I ran competitively for 22 years and I learned that the more energy and focus I put into running the more I improved. Improved performances earned me opportunities to travel and race in many places in the world. I also get a lot of satisfaction out of volunteer activities with USATF (USA Track & Field). Coaching at Summit High School with my husband provides daily delights and puzzles in working with those student athletes. In the long run, I hope the athletes will learn some of the same lessons I have experienced through sport.”

JIM McLATCHIE – Fall – USA – 1963

The weather was conducive to getting some decent workouts under my belt. I had decided to arrange my class schedule so that I had time to get in an easy run before lunch. That along with my morning escapades on the grass plus what I was doing in the afternoon should show some improvement in my racing.

Racing cross country in Scotland where I went several years without getting beat and managed to win the National Title as a junior. All the time I spent running in the hills and up and down coal tips made me nearly unbeatable. So I was hoping that with some extra mileage and better weather I would be hard to beat.

Living in a remote village in Scotland I enjoyed getting out in the fresh air and nature and just run along without a care in the world. I fell down a lot running in the snow. Because of the snow I would miss a turn on a road or trail and end up in a six feet drift. I never panicked, I just lay down and rolled out until I could walk out of the drift and then continue my run.

On most days I was running three times a day with a variation of jogging in the morning. At lunch time I ran about 5 miles easy and in the evening on Monday and Wednesday it would be track type workout. The rest of the week easy running up to 10 miles and if racing on Saturday, Friday would be one workout of thirty minutes easy with a few strides. Before track workout I warmed up and cooled down after a workout.

26 days before USA National 10K cross country championships I do not show 30 min easy jogging before class. Started in November 9th 1963

DAYS from National cross country championships 

26 – 20 x220 with 30 sec rest between average 30+

25 – AM 5 miles easy/ PM – 4x mile ave 5:10s with 440 jog between

24 – AM – 4 miles fartlek/ PM 9 miles easy

23 – AM – 4 miles fartlek/ PM – 4×440 with 440 jog 1-5 ave 57s last – 54.5s

22– PM – easy 40 min with mile in 5min/ 10 min easy – mile in 5 min raining cool 59 degrees

21 – Race Gulf Federation 4 m XC – 3^rd in 19:46sec rainy and 60 degrees

20 – AM 9 miles easy – recovery run

19 – AM long easy run of 17 miles

17 – AM – 35 min easy/ PM 5xmile ave. 4:55s with 440 walk between

16 – AM – 30 mins easy with 6×150 easy/ 8×880 with 440 walk ave 2:11.5s

15– 30 min easy with a few strides

14 – Race Houston 10K Trials for Nationals – finished 2^nd in 30:42s

13 – 9 miles easy legs sore – felt tired

12 – Went to beach and ran around 1 hour – legs still sore – stood in water

11 – 1 run around 30 minutes – Achilles aching

10 – Day off

 9 – Tough workout – 4×440 with 110 jog – 58.6,59.0,58.4,58.0/ 10 min easy/ 6×110 run bends/ jogged 10 min/ 440 – 54/  felt good

 8 – AM – 4xmile with 220 walk between – 4:58/4:48/4:49/4:44/ Later in day left for East Lancing Michigan with team from Houston – Driving

 7 – As we were approaching Bloomington, Indiana we heard on the radio that President Kennedy had been shot dead in Dallas Texas. As we had Texas plates on the vehicle we were not so sure what would happen when we stopped for the night and ran a bit to loosen up. We ran indoors – WU – 3 miles fast/slow/ CD

 6 – 4:45pm East Lancing Michigan – 40 degrees – 10 miles easy with some strides

 5 – 9 miles easy with some strides

 4 – NCAA Championships – could not run because of freshman rule ran 4 mile easy with some strides

 3 – 4 miles with some easy hills

 2 – Chicago 4 miles easy with a few strides – sore throat

 1 – National 10,000 meters cross country championships in 48 degrees where I finished second to Tom O’Hara 30:12s to 30:17. I made a move with a mile to go and picked up the pace. I was still leading with 200 from finish and I just fell apart. Jeff Fishback was third in 30:22s.

Friday we drove straight back to Texas and I was dropped off in Beaumont and the rest of the team headed to Houston.

Jim leading Rick Wohlhuter (in the USA vest)

There are not too many coaches who have raced internationally, taken on the best in the world and run in tough races in Britain and America with distinction.   Jim McLatchie is one.   We have looked at his training at home and now we have, in his own words, how he trained in the States after had had emigrated there.   We start with some of the training he did in Texas in the early 1960’s.

 Spring – Summer- USA- 1963

Training in Texas was a completely different as now I was having to deal with heat and humidity whereas in Scotland it was always cold, wet and windy. I arrived in Beaumont at the end of January which was not too bad for running which reminded me of our best days in Scotland. As the months progressed I had a tough time with the conditions. When it got too hot I trained around 9pm at night some days. Every morning around 6:30 am before classes I would jog to South Park High School and run for 30 minutes with a few strides in my bare feet. It was much cooler than in the afternoon which I enjoyed a great deal.

The fall was not too bad as it was much cooler and I got more running under my belt. The following is what I did when I beat Jim Ryun over a mile in Houston. Ryun went on to run in the Olympics and record 3min 51.1 sec for the mile.

Days From race
28 – Rest day
27 – 1 ½ miles of sprint jogs then 2×220 around 27 secs
26 – Warm up 6×220 ave 26 secs with 1 min rest/ jog 10 mins/440 – 53.5s
25 – 5 mile easy run
24 – Warm Up raced 880 in 1min 53.2sec cooled down
23 – 6 miles fartlek
22 – Easy run then 20×110 around bends jog back/ 5MR 440- 54.4s
21 – Rest day
20 – Warm up Time Trial ¾ mile – 3:04s/ 15 MR/ 220 – 25.3s/ 15MR/ 440-54.4s
19 – Easy run with 3 mile Fartlek
18 – Easy run with 3 mile Fartlek
17 – 6 mile run with 1 mile fartlek then 2×200 25-26/jog 440 between
16 – Travel to Brownswood, TX for Conference
15 – Temperature 107 bloody awful. Won mile in 4:23.7s and twenty minutes later had to run 880 where I finished 4th in 1:57s
14 – Travel back to Beaumont
13 – Easy 5 mile followed with 16×140 jogged 300 between/ easy 5 min then 2×220 around 27 sec
12 – Warm up – 10×220 around 30 with 220 jog between
11 – Warm up – 4x 440 around 60 with 110 jog between
10 – Easy 2 miles – 4×880 – 2:08s with 440 walk/jog between
9 – Rest day
8 – Warm up then ¾ mile Time Trial – 3min 3.3s (58/67/58.3) testing kick
7 – Easy run ran through 2 miles in 9min 41s
6 – 8x 220 29-30 with 220 jog between
5 – Easy 5 miles followed with 10×150 pick-ups jog back
4 – Jogged 3 miles with a few strides
3 – Rest day
2 – Rest Day
1 – Mile race led from start to finish first in 4min 7.9s (62,63/63/59.9)

The following week I finished first in the Texas National Championships in Dallas. I jogged easy most of the week with a few 150 and 220’s. Nothing strenuous. This time I held back until the last 660 and ran 4min 10.7s (65,67,60,58.7)

It is a very interesting block of training.   Many runners or coaches tell us in general principles what they did, but few are as open about what they do immediately before and after a big race.   Jim is to be commended for being so open.

Jim winning the Mile from pacemaker Graeme Grant at Westerlands, early 1960’s

Jim McLatchie was a first rate runner from the most unpromising of backgrounds.   From a small mining village in Ayrshire where there was no track, no real sports facilities of any kind and not very much flat,even ground to train on, he made himself into an uncompromising athlete who could run in almost any kind of race and acquit himself well.   He says the following of his training then in his own story:

Early in my career growing up in Muirkirk with no track. I did most of my running in the hills and for strength work I would run up a ‘slag bing.’ A slag bing was created from stones and dirt which was the residue from the coal dug underground. This ‘bing’ was over 200 feet tall and I would run to the summit wearing coal miner’s boots which weighed about four pounds. Each boot had steel heel and toe plates studs in the soles. I would run as many as twenty repetitions. Other days I would run in the hills and visit the local soccer pitch twice a week for speed work. It was a grass surface and I could get about 200 metres around the pitch.

When I moved to Glasgow I was able to train on a 440 yard cinder track and started working on pace. Along with track workouts. At lunch-time I ran on a golf course. Most of the time in my bare feet. There was nothing like feeling the grass as you ran.

I was probably running about 50-60 mile per week, but didn’t really count miles. Time on my legs was more important. Some days due to the weather I would do circuit training indoors. It was effort on many days to open the door and go for a run. We had no indoor facilities. So I was used to running in all weathers: rain, snow, slush and winds.

My schedule was as follows if I was not racing:

Sunday – Long easy run anywhere from 10 to 15 miles

Monday – Track workout

Tuesday – Easy run – if weather was bad in the winter I did circuit training

Wednesday – Track workout

Thursday – Easy run – if weather was bad in the winter I did circuit training

Friday – 3-4 mile – if racing – 30 min warm then strides

Saturday – Race or 1 hour easy

The race where Jim ran his 4:08.3:  Winner Mike Beresford, 23, Jim McLatchie, 7, and Bert McKay, 3, from Motherwell who was third.  Run on cinders.

Below is what I did for 28 days when I ran 4 min 8.3 secs

28 days from race – I ran most days at lunch time on the golf course       usually around 3 miles to loosen up – nice and easy

28 – Warm up/ 10×300 with 2 min rest/ jog 10 min 6×70 walk back

27 – 4×880 in 2:10 with 3 min rest Jog 10 mins/ 2x 440 –   60-62 with 3 min     rest

26 – Rest day

25 – Race – 3ml in 14:46 – warmed up and cooled down

24 – Easy run followed by 6 x 100 and 2 x 400 no times

23 – Rest Day

22 – Race on Grass Track ran ¾ mile in 3min 2.5 sec which I won

21 – Easy run with 6×220 with 1 min rest/ jogged 5 min/ 6×140 with 45 sec   rest between in the middle.

20 – Raced a 3000 meters steeplechase which I won in 9:21.7

19 – Easy 1 hour with 10 x 220 no time 1 min rest between

18 – Raced a Handicap mile won in 4min 03 with a mark off 30 which is 30 yards short of a mile

17 – Easy warm up – grass – 8×400 yards in 54-55 with 2 min rest

16 – Rest day

15 – Track Meet – 880 heats – 1min 52.9/ Final 1:53 off 10 yards – raced 870 yards

14 – Easy run with 6×100 with 1 min rest/ jog 5 min/ 6×140 JB

13 – Easy run with 2 miles fartlek

12 – Warmed up – ran easy mile in 4:13 – cooled down

11 – Lunch time – 20×200 with 45 sec rest/ evening 6×440 in 58 2MR

10 – 20×110 45 sec between (ran the bends on track)

9   – Rest day

8   – Warmed up easy 880 in 1min 57

7  – Rest Day

6 –  30 min easy with a few strides

5 – 3 miles fartlek then 4×220 around 30 with 220 jog

4 – Rest

3 – Rest day

2 – Scottish Championships heats – jogged mile in 4:25.8

1 – Scottish Champs Final – finished second in 4:8.3

Jim ran his 4:08.3 in 1962: in that year he also ran a 1:54.2 half mile, – in addition  a 9:17.0 two miles, a 14:30.5 three miles and  a steeplechase in 9:21.7.   Although he was concentrating on running the half- and the mile, the other distances indicate a strength in depth that many milers do not have: a strength that maybe came from running up pit bings in heavy boots!

His profile as an athlete can be found at    

http://www.scottishdistancerunninghistory.scot/jim-mclatchie/  .

A short quote from it tells us that 

“No track – did zig zags on the football field.   Also ran quarter mile straights on the railway line.   Line ran east/west and I used to run 15-20 seconds slower going west (windy as hell).   Scottish National Coach back then was an Englishman.   He used to write me some workouts like 10 x 440 with one minute rest.   I would mail him my times and he would tell me my pace was all to hell.   I told him he needed to come and see what I was training on as he didn’t believe I was doing 440 along a rail line.   He showed up in the village – couldn’t believe what I had to work with.    I did a lot of zig zag training plus runs up and down a coal bing, runs on the moors.   I only ran on the roads in winter when it got too dark to run up the bings.   Did a lot of weight training and circuit training.”   I asked if he ever went to Ayr to train at Dam Park.   This got the following reply: “Never went to Dam Park to train – took forever on the bus which only ran every hour.   Bus – Strathaven – Glasgow, every four hours.   If I had a race in the Glasgow area, I had to make sure I didn’t miss the bus.   It was an all day excursion some times to get to a Meet. ”  

So that’s the first instalment of Jim’s start in athletics.   It was also the first building block on the way to becoming a world class coach twenty years later.

Training with Jim McLatchie: 2   Training with Jim McLatchie:  3    Training with McLatchie:  4   

Training with McLatchie – the Mile: 5         Training with McLatchie – the Marathon: 6   

Training with McLatchie – the Steeplechase: 7

HAMPDEN PARK

The pre-amateur era.

Clydesdale Harriers (established on 4th May, 1885) was Scotland’s first open athletic club but it was not the first athletic club because there were University and Private School FP athletic clubs in existence before that, the SAAA Championships were first held in 1883.   Competitive athletics however go back well before that, indeed some extant highland gatherings claim to predate the first Scottish Championships.   As a kind of preamble to the beginning of the SAAA and the Victorian era of sport in general and athletics in particular, I will quote from “50 Years of Athletics” , published in 1933 to celebrate 50 years of the organisation, and the chapter ‘Athletics in the Beginning’ by Kenneth Whitton.   It reads

“Although Scotland’s records do not go as far back as the Tailtean Games in Ireland, yet what we have prove the love of athletics among the Picts, Scots and the gregarious Celts.   From the chief downwards, athletics was the joy of the Gael, indeed the chief was often the most accomplished.   At his door lay the ‘clachneart’, literally the stone of strength or the putting stone and on the arrival of a guest he was asked as a compliment to throw it.   The chief’s followers, and those of his guests engaged in all manly sports, and as the honour of the clan was at stake, it is surmised that in the strenuous contests more heads than records were broken.   The Fraser chiefs were noted athletes, and the father of the late Lord Lovat – an excellent sportsman – was an expert stone and hammer thrower.

In a manuscript lately come to light entitled: ‘Ane breve cronicle of the Erles of Ross’, an account is given of how an earldom was gained by prowess in wrestling.   At the coronation of Edward I there was among those attached to his court in London a famous French wrestler from Normandy who was considered invincible.   But during the gay doings, he was challenged by Farquhar Ross from the North of Scotland, a vassal to the Scottish king Alexander II, and to the amazement and delight of the Scottish king, his wife and a sister of Edward , and the Scottish guests, Farquhar overthrew and signally vanquished the unbeaten champion.   So delighted was King Alexander over his countryman’s ‘notabill vassalage’, as he called it,  that he conferred the Earldom of Ross upon him.   To celebrate his victory and to carry out a vow that he had made, Farquhar erected an abbey, now no longer in existence, but its successor in Kincardine, Ross-shire is still used as the Parish Church.  

At the great royal hunts which took place at Braemar and which often lasted for a fortnight, many chiefs with their followers took part.   Malcolm II started at one of these ‘hunts’ the first recorded ‘Games’ by offering as a prize a sword and a purse of gold to the first man to reach, in a race, the summit of Craig Choinneach.   Two McGregor brothers were favourites, but a third and younger brother, who was late in starting won after a terrific struggle.  

It was not however till 1832 that the first organised Braemar Gathering took place.   Queen Victoria was keenly interested in these sports, and in 1889 invited society to Balmoral.   Later the Duke of Fife gave the present Princess Royal Park where the meeting is now held.   The clansmen gather at the spot where the Jacobite standard was unfurled in 1715 – which event is commemorated in ‘The Standard on the Braes o’Mar’ – and march to the sports ground.

Since the year 1314 without a break, except during the Great War, the Ceres Games, founded to celebrate the return of the victorious Fife villagers from the Battle of Bannockburn, have been held annually.   It is remarkable that the name of the Fife agricultural village, Ceres, is that of the Latin goddess, Ceres, the protectress of agriculture and in whose honour great sports were instituted.

Carnwath in Lanarkshire holds annually a meeting of great antiquity.   The Red Hose race is the principal event, and local and popular tradition has it that in the event of the Carnwath estate becoming heir-less, the latest winner of the ‘Hose’ would become proprietor!

Under the shadow of the Duke of Argyll’s stately castle at Inveraray, a gathering of the western clans’ representative pipers, strong men and runners has been held for centuries.   Running was a feature of this meeting, for the chiefs of old encouraged their ‘gille-ruith’, or running footmen, to excel in the Geal-ruith, or running and leaping  games.

Among great athletes in Scotland, the two whose names were, and still are, in the mouths of everyone, were Captain Barclay of Ury and Donald Dinnie.   The former was a great and up-to-date land proprietor in Kincardineshire.   Sprung from an ancient and physically powerful family, he lived during the later part of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth.   Educated at Cambridge, he early joined the army and served as ADC to the GOC of the ill-fated Walcheren Expedition.   He was though of little more than average size, possessed of a great strength, speed and remarkable powers of endurance.   Of the latter his great feat of walking 1000 miles in 1000 hours – that is one mile for every hour, was a record to his stamina.   Others who tried this feat broke down at an early stage, but he continued for a period of 42 days and though he lost much weight was at the finish wonderfully fit.   He was a great runner, walker, wrestler and stone-thrower,  and thus resembled Dinnie, who was born in Aberdeenshire in 1837.   Strange to say, Dinnie’s best performances were done when he was approaching forty years of age, and when fifty eight years old was the recognised all-round champion of New Zealand.   Dinnie was undoubtedly the best athlete of his time, and in addition to being heavy-weight champion, excelled in wrestling, leaping, vaulting, running and dancing.

Over a century ago, the Borders had a remarkable man, Will o’Phaup, so called for his farm in the Ettrick valley.   Like Dinnie in the North his name was a household word.   His tombstone at Ettrick Kirk records that for feats of strength and agility, he was not excelled in the kingdom.  

In pre-amateur days Scotland was famous for its distance runners, and many feats of endurance are recorded in books dealing with origins and history of Scottish Highland Gatherings.”

  Having read through the above, you now know where the heading of ‘the pre-amateur era’ came from.   That is of course how the sport began, and we are now clearly in the post-amateur era.   The amateur era was clearly a diversion but it was also a period when sport in all its guises made great progress and wonderful performances were achieved.  Is it too mischievous to suggest that the standards are falling now that we are all ‘post-amateurs’???  

For a note of the Principal Sports Meetings at the very start of amateur athletics including those organised by the major football clubs, go to

Track and Field: The Sports Meetings

Ian finishing the Nigel Barge Road Race

Ian took up athletics as a Senior Man in 1963.   He had first got into athletics in his National Service days when as an aspiring football player he was drafted into the Battalion Athletics team in 1960 and in the Inter Battalion Sports he won the 5000 metres on grass in standard Army issue plimsolls.    After leaving the Army he still pursued his football dream “until I got fed up carrying other less fit team mates and retired from the sport”.   Having moved to Old Kilpatrick in 1963 he was looking out of the window one day and saw a group of runners going by.   He asked where they trained from, found out it was the Clydebank Public Baths at Bruce Street.   When he made his way there he met club captain Johnny B Maclachlan (who also lived in Old Kilpatrick) and caught the running bug.   He had already seen all the greats on television in the late 50’s and early 60’s.   His words: “I vividly remember Chris Chataway and Vladimir Kuts slogging out a very exciting 5000 metres.   Names like Gordon Pirie, Derek Ibbotson, Roger Bannister, Bruce Tulloh and many others appeared on the magic box bringing live athletics into the living room.”

As said above he joined the club first of all in 1963 and was a first team runner running well enough to win team medals without being spectacularly good or spectacularly bad.   Of that first period he says “I have many very happy memories of club training nights every Tuesday and Thursday down in the basement of the Baths.   There were three different running packs, slow, medium and fast, setting off at intervals with the route laid out on the notice board.   My favourite training run was up Kilbowie Road, along the Boulevard to Bowling AA Box and home along the low road which became a bit of a burn up!

 We were fortunate having these facilities (Bruce Street Baths) which were warmed by the lagged pipes but the ‘piece de resistance’ was the sing-song in the shower afterwards.   Frank Kielty, Pat Younger and Gerry Hearn gave us a rendering of many bothy ballads that made the rafters ring!”

 He goes on to say that another feature of these days was the inter club run at various other clubs’ headquarters.   On one trip to Greenock for a run with the Glenpark Harriers we had a few guys who didn’t turn up and another club didn’t show at all.   After the run it was customary  for the home club to provide a snack: at this one there was a more than ample supply of mince pies to go round and we all felt obliged to consume more than our fair share.   He finishes by saying he never wants to see another mince pie in his life!

 He was a good club runner in those days and his first ever race for the club – the County Relays at Garscube which the club won – saw him walk away with his first gold medal.   The following year when Ian Donald joined the club, Ian was a member of the team which won the Dunbartonshire Relays and gave the ‘other Ian’ his first gold for the club.   He ran well in most races and he turned out often for the club not only in championship and open races but also in inter club runs.  

We were very sorry when he emigrated with his family to Whyalla in Australia in 1966.  He still pursued his athletic activities as well as going back to playing football.   Joining the Whyalla Harriers Club, he rose to become club President.   Athletics were track motivated down under because of the warm weather and there were generally very few road   races which were concentrated in the big cities.   The main competitions in South Australia were called ‘Gift Meetings’ similar to our Highland Games where the Blue Ribbon event was usually the Mile where (unlike the UK) money incentives were the norm.   At the start of 1966 he was torn between ‘soccer’ and athletics and having decided on athletics he ran in the Commonwealth Marathon Trial.   Unplaced, he turned back to football.  Normally a forward he played wing half and when the captain and centre half was injured he substituted in the position.   He was so effective that he kept the position and led the team to the Northern Areas Soccer Association Cup.   He also played for Croatia and City Football Team while there.  He kept on running though and also kept in touch with the club back home.   He returned to Clydebank after only a few years in 1969.

When he returned his running had been transformed.  He enjoyed the cooler atmosphere and the road racing circuit that had been absent in Australia.   He was a now an outstanding athlete who had gained confidence while he was away and became one of a top squad of runners who served the club well throughout the late Sixties and into the Seventies.    Most of us remember him as a very good cross country runner but he was just as much a track and road runner and even dabbled in hill running with some success.   For instance, he ran in the Mamore Hill Race in July 1969 finishing in 1:52:18 as part of the winning team.   Ian also tackled the Big Ben (Ben Nevis) in September 1972 and finished in 3:00:54.

His best years were probably from 1969 to about 1973 and the best single year was possibly 1969/70.   His Cross Country Running in the four years after his return can be summarised as follows:

* In February 1972 there was a power workers strike and the country was restricted to three days work a week.   Depending on the job you were doing, you might not have been able to run on Saturday.   Ian came into this category. 

A YEAR IN THE LIFE …

His form on his return was good and he won so many trophies at the time that it might be appropriate to look at 1969 in a bit of detail.   On the Saturday before Christmas, 1968, he had the fastest time in the club Christmas Handicap being 41 seconds faster than I was and a minute and a half quicker than Phil Dolan.   1969 started with the classic Nigel Barge Road Race at Maryhill and he was twenty second of the 168 finishers – two places behind Ian Donald and two ahead of Douglas Gemmell and the team was third.   A week later was the club’s Six Mile Race for the Hannah Cup and he had second fastest time again behind Ian Donald.   The tables were turned on Ian next week when in the Midland District Championship Ian had what was maybe his best ever run in the event finishing fourth with Ian Donald twelfth and Douglas twentieth.   After the closely fought race the Scottish cross country captain Andy Brown of Motherwell said that had Ian run at a steadier pace throughout he would certainly have had a medal.  He followed this by a superb run in the Inter Counties at Cleland Estate, Motherwell, which he rates as possibly his best ever race, finishing second to International athlete John Linaker of Motherwell YMCA.   The ‘Glasgow Herald’ had ‘Linaker beat the improving Ian Leggett (Clydesdale) by 280 yards in 33:12’.    Ian Donald was twelfth in the race and Douglas twentieth.   He was second again a week later – to Ian in the club championship   But in the National Championships in Edinburgh two weeks later he turned the tables again finishing thirtieth – five places ahead of Ian – to be the club’s first finisher.  

On the roads his summer campaign started with fifteenth place in the Tom Scott 10 Miles Road race in 51:56.  A week later – 19^th April – he was second in the club three miles championship in 15:08 which was four seconds behind Ian.   Came the Clydebank to Helensburgh and he was fourth and first club finisher in 1:30:04.   Back to the ten miles distance the following week – this time in the SAAA Track Championship where he was eighth on the cinders of Scotstoun in 54:14.   He skipped the club 880 and One Mile championships and then ran in the Drymen to Scotstoun 15 Miles Road Race where he was seventh in a good field on a very hilly course.   He stayed on the road for his next race which was the 13+ miles at Airdrie Highland Games where he was second to Victoria Park’s Pat McLagan in 67:13.   A week later (14^th June) and he was third in the 14 Miles of the Babcock and Wilcox Road Race at

Renfrew in just over 79 minutes.   At the start of July the club was involved in an invitation 3000 metres race at the Glasgow Transport Sports Meeting.   Ian was fifth, nine seconds ahead of Douglas and thirteen ahead of Ian Donald.   Later in the month at the Gourock Highland Games (pictured above, left, leaving the ground) he was a good third in the 14 miles road race. His run in the very tough 14 mile Mamore Hill Race in July has already been mentioned.   The Mamore starts in Kinlochleven and has a mile and a half on the road before climbing on to the Lairig Mhor towards Fort William.   After climbing up to the approximately 2500 feet shoulder of the hill, the course drops to the road and finishes with seven miles on the tarmac.   The club has a good record in this race with Ian Donald, Bobby Shields and Phil Dolan all having broken the record at one time or another.  Ian Donald in 1967 was leading by a distance and  within the record when his legs  just  gave  out  on  him  with  the last two miles on the road to go

Behind Lachie Stewart and Dick Wedlock    but ahead of Allan Faulds in the SAAA 10K

. In August he ran in the long 10 miles at Kirkintilloch Highland Games to be again the club’s first finisher.   Three days later he ran the three miles in an inter club with Springburn Harriers where he won the three miles in 14:56 with Ian Donald second in 15:14 on an uneven and oddly shaped track.   Two nights later it was the club’s Six Miles Track Championship at Whitecrook and he won in 30:44.6 from Ian Donald in 31:04, Brian McAusland in 31:34 and Bobby Shields in 32:45.  (He had already won the club Three Miles championship in 15:15 on the cinders of Whitecrook.)    Three good quality races in six days!   Not satisfied with that he ran in the Largs to Irvine20 mile road race and finished eighth in a field of over 50 runners.   Winter started officially for the Harriers on 23^rd September when the McAndrew Trial was held in Clydebank.   Ian won this one by more than half a minute from Douglas with Ian a further eight seconds back.   This was on a Tuesday and on the Saturday a Two Mile Invitation team race was held on the cramped blaes track at Dumbarton FC at half time.   Ian was second to local hero Colin Martin who was in terrific form at this period.   A week later was the McAndrew Relay at Scotstoun and Ian was fastest club runner when he was fourth on the first stage in 14:27; Douglas was 14:30 to retain the position on the second stage before Phil Dolan dropped to tenth with 15:43 on third and Ian Donald pulled the club up to sixth with 14:28.   Two runners in the second team were faster than Phil – Brian McAusland in 14:39 for thirteenth on the first stage and Bobby Shields on 15:20 who dropped to eighteenth on the second stage.   In the County Relays the next week Ian was again fastest in 14:58 with Ian Donald 15:13 to be second fastest in the winning quartet.   Back on the roads     two weeks later for the club Sinclair Trophy 5 Miles Road  Race he was second to Douglas being almost half a minute down.

In the Midlands Relay at Bellshill on 1^st November, he was fourth on the first stage in 11:35 which was the fastest club time on the afternoon – 14 seconds ahead of Douglas.   A week later he was again first club finisher when he was eighth in the Glasgow University Road Race in 26:25.   This was at the time the last road race before the Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay and Ian was asked to run the hard seven miles of the sixth stage.   Not only did he run it well but he picked up a place to be thirteenth at the handover.   Opposition on that stage included Lachie Stewart, Fergus Murray, Alistair Blamire and Eddie Knox which made it among the classiest that many could remember.  On 22^nd November he was one of the club’s quartet to contest the inaugural Allan Scally Relay organised by Shettleston Harriers at Baillieston.   Shettleston Harriers were winners with all their strongest runners out in this race, Springburn Harriers were second but the Clydesdale team was third with Ian Donald on the first stage fastest club man on 24:50 followed by Bobby Shields on the second stage in 25:39, young Phil Dolan third with 26:10 and Ian having a tussle with Edinburgh Southern Harriers’ Coyle all the way to the finish to give the club third place by two seconds.   Ian’s time was 25:11.   He says of this one: “Our prize was a hand operated trouser press each.   When the Christmas Handicap came round, there were four hand held trouser presses wrapped in Christmas paper in the sack.   I always wondered what happened to them.” The next outing was in the County Championships on 6^th December where he was fourth – one place behind Ian Donald and one ahead of Douglas Gemmell.   That was the end of his year – it had been an excellent twelve months with Ian leading the club contingent home on eighteen occasions.   It is fair to say too that at that time Scottish endurance running was on a high and the Clydesdale team was also very strong.   In 1969 Ian was probably the best and most consistent runner in the club. 

1970 started with Allan Faulds joining the club and this strengthened the club immensely but simultaneously made life harder for everybody else – in the best possible way.   Straight away he won the club championship on 7^th February and Ian was second a mere four seconds back.   The local press reported it as follows:

“Allan Faulds who joined us recently had his first race and proved his fitness by fighting off persistent pressure and challenges from Ian Leggett.   Even to the last few hundred yards the result was in doubt but Allan was strong enough to get in front to get clear to win by four seconds.”   Allan’s time was 43:47 and Ian’s 43:51.    Ian went on to be first counter in the County and District Championships but came the National Championships and Allan was first club man home when he was twenty seventh and Ian was four places adrift.    

His running between 1969 and 1972 in the County Relay and Championship  shows his form at this time  in close up.   He ran both in the relays and championships in 1969 being fastest club man in the winning relay team and finishing third in the Championship.  In January 1970 Ian led the County contingent home in the Inter Counties Cross Country Championship when he was eleventh.  In October, he was again in the winning relay team as second fastest club runner and then finished second in the Championship leading the team to second place.   A year later and he again in the winning relay team and was third in the Championship.   In ’72 he missed the relays and was eighth in the Championships and in ’73 was again in the winning relay team with fifth place in the championship.   Came 1974 and he was in the relay team that finished second and his thirteenth place in the Championships helped the team to second place.   His next appearance at the County Relays was in October 1977 when he was in the winning relay team with Doug Gemmell, Phil Dolan and Robert McWatt.   In the Championships that year he was thirteenth and out of the team medals.   That was his last run in any County event over the country before his move to Livingston.   He had run in seven County relay teams which won 5 gold medals and one silver, and in seven County Championship teams which won four gold and two silver after he returned from Australia.   An excellent record of quality runs for the club. 

Ian’s running and racing was always at a high level with good races and times.    If you are looking for the complete endurance runner, Ian is an obvious role model.   He ran ~

on the road at all distances up to the marathon;

on the track up to and including the 10, 000 metres;

on the hills  he raced the Mamore and Ben Nevis races;

all championships for which he was eligible – club, county, district and national;

over the country he was a member of Scottish representative and select teams that competed against other regions around Britain over the country, represented the West of Scotland in the inter area match and represented Dunbartonshire in the annual inter counties track fixture. 

He raced as much as any club member that I can remember and travelled all over Scotland to get to the races – local ones like the Balloch and the Helensburgh, Fort William and Kinlochleven for the big hill races, the middle distance ones like the Tom Scott at Motherwell, longer ones like Largs to Irvine, marathon races at Meadowbank and at Shettleston and many more. He sought out the competition – he didn’t shy away from it like so many.   But wherever he ran the quality was evident – for instance he ran in the last ever Marathon Club 12 Miles Road Race at Springburn winning it from Falkirk’s Willie Day: the next year the race was transformed into the Luddon Half Marathon.  

In the Edinburgh to Glasgow he ran the second stage in 1964 in his first ever race in the event and dropped seven places against runners who were too good for him at that point – he should probably never have been asked to run that stage.    He himself says of it: “Personally the most disappointing race of my life was my first Edinburgh to Glasgow Relay.   I didn’t realise what I was letting myself in for.   This leg was full of international runners and first class runners.  I finished in nineteenth place out of twenty.   I ran straight into the nearest tenement close at the finish and if it wasn’t for Frank Kielty I would have missed the changing bus.”   On his return from Australia he ran the long sixth stage in 1969 and then followed his best three years in the race.   His happiest memory of the race was 1970 when we finished sixth and won the medals for the most meritorious unplaced performance.   He ran on the third stage, had the sixth fastest time and remembers passing John Robson of Edinburgh Southern Harriers hanging over a fence at the A89 junction totally psyched out with other ESH members trying to get him back into the race; the next year he was seventh fastest on the fourth stage and in 1972 he ran into sixth place on the first stage.   This three year spell coincided with his best   years on the country at County, District and National level.  

In general he just did what he did best – running all over the country, doing his considerable best and enjoying it.  He says about persona best times: “I didn’t keep too close a note of my pb’s.   I know that in Australia my best half mile was 2:08 and mile was 4:38.    I ran a 33:33 10K at Westerlands – I think it was a West District Championship; on the road my best half marathon was at the Babcock and Wilcox Sports where I was pipped by Alistair Johnston in the last mile.   Both of us broke Andy Brown’s record for the course.   My best marathon was in Glasgow in 1984 where I ran twelfth, close to 2:30 and didn’t get a prize as first vet was Donald McGregor in eighth.

Although he never won the club cross country championship – the best ever club athlete not to have this honour – he did win several trophies. 

• The Dan MacDonald Cup which is awarded for points scored in County, District and National Relay and Championships was won in 1969 and 1970.   This was a hard one to win at a time when the club was so strong in the events in question;
• The Harold Wright Memorial Trophy awarded to the first senior to finish in the National Cross Country Championship was won in 1969 making Ian the first ever winner;
• The Willie Gardiner Quaich for the Outstanding Club Athlete was also won in 1969;
• The Hannah Cup for the fastest time in the club 6 mile cross country handicap race was won in 1970.
• The Dunbartonshire Cup for the first club runner to finish in the Balloch to Clydebank Road Race.

 Ian and his wife Cathie were a popular couple who came to all the club functions and were among a group with Ian and Helen Donald, David and Evelyn Bowman and Brian and Betty McAusland who attended Marathon club dinners every year.   It was a loss in every sense to the club when they moved to Livingston and Ian joined the local club in the late 70’s.   In 1981 when the World Veterans Road Running Championships were held in Glasgow he ran in the 10,000 metres on the Saturday and then turned out in the marathon the following morning.  He has kept on running and racing all over the country with many races for the Scottish Veterans in Championships and representative races all over the British Isles.  Despite starting later than many, he has had the longest competitive career of any member of the teams of the 1970’s.  Even today at almost 70 he is still racing well and regularly.

He says “I still enjoy competing in our sport immensely.   I owe a great debt to the boys of Clydesdale Harriers who set the standards and helped me on my road.   We had it good in our heyday without realising it and I raise a glass to the boys who are no longer with us and to the ones who still carry the famous ‘C’

 I agree with him that we did have it good in our heyday with good winter quarters and a very good training track in summer – would that the club had them again – but like everything else it is the company that made the wee bit extra difference.   The runners all got on well together, they trained together and there was great team spirit.   Ian had a lot to do with that with his sense of humour and reliability.   Any club would have benefited from his presence.   A final wee tale from Ian:

“The quirkiest race I ever ran was inside Barlinnie Prison.   It was an invitation event to raise funds for an HIV testing unit within the complex.   Rangers’ players such as Terry Butcher, Celtic players and others from the boxing and broadcasting world plus some mixed ability runners and privileged inmates made up the field.   We were met at the gate and taken to our changing facilities and the prison officer had great pride in telling us that these were the gallows and it was the last place that an execution had ever been performed.   Eventually we lined up at the start with the inmates conspicuous in their white T-shirts and black plimsolls.   The course was five laps round the cellblock and the Governor who was 6’6” tall and just as broad started the race.   No starting pistol here – just a burst paper bag.   Off went the inmates like the doors had been left open and paying for their lack of pace judgment on the first lap.   The rest of the inmates in their cells rattled their tin mugs against the bars: it was like a Japanese prisoner of war movie.   The result was irrelevant and after a shower in the gallows and a nice meal, I was more than relieved to hear the gates close behind me on the way home”.

(There is a review of Ian’s career up to and including the M70 age group at  http://www.scottishdistancerunninghistory.scot/ian-leggett/ )

Showing the colours in Australia

Sam Stevenson is the only Clydesdale Harrier ever to have run in an Olympic Games.   Andrew Hannah and A Ross Scott were timekeepers at the 1908 London Olympics, but he was the only man to have run in the Games.

His application for club membership was passed by the Committee on Friday 24^th October 1892 at the regular meeting at 164 Sauchiehall Street when he was living in Coatbridge and his career is an example of consistency and persistence rewarded.   Success was not by any means immediate.   The first record of him winning anything is in 1902 when he was first in the Novice Handicap: ie first across the line not fastest time.   Novice races were held until the early 1950’s in Scotland and were open to athletes who not won any championship race.  

The next references to him in club records or sporting press were in season 1903/04.   He began by winning the Two Miles Handicap in the Clydesdale Harriers Sports at the Partick Thistle ground at Meadowside Quay off 220 yards in 9:26.   Then in the Club 5 Miles Handicap he was third in the actual race behind Scottish internationalists James Reston and Robert Frew.   In the Scottish National Cross Country Championships at Scotstoun he was third and ran well in the English Championships at Haydock Park, Manchester.    The club handbook commented that he was “probably the most improved distance runner on the track” that summer.   He was club captain in 1904/05 and had a great record of success.   Club Champion at a time when the standard was very high, he was third in the National Cross Country Championships, first in the Five Miles Handicap and winner of the annual and highly esteemed Clydesdale Harriers Seven Miles Cross Country Handicap held from Scotstoun Showground.   At that time the Hannah Cup was won for the first runner in a points contest held over a series of races and Sam Stevenson won it in 1905.   On the track, he won the Two Miles in the Clydesdale Harriers Sports at Celtic Park ahead of A Aldred, the English Two Miles Champion but his best run had to be when he was second to Alfred Shrubb in the historic One Hour race at Ibrox Park on 5^th November.   In the SAAA Championships also held at Ibrox he was first in the Four Miles in 20:56.8 and in the Ten Miles in 53:31.4.  

By 1905/06 he was really running well.   When Alfred Shrubb ran the world’s best for one hour and ten miles at Ibrox in November 1905, Sam Stevenson was second and set a whole series of Scottish records at intermediate distances.   Still club captain he won the club championship and the Scottish Championships at Scotstoun, he won the club’s winter Two Miles Track race in 9:56.08, he was first in the Seven Miles at Scotstoun and again took the Hannah Cup.   On the track he won the SAAA Four Miles title in 20:41.4 at Powderhall in Edinburgh but was only second in the Ten Miles at Tynecastle.   1906/07 was a fallow time but he still managed to be club champion over the country and finish third in the national championships and in summer was second in the Four Miles to A Duncan.   He was of course a celebrity by now and like many other Scottish athletes was signed to advocate the benefits of various products.   For example in the programme for the Celtic Sports on 25^th May, 1907, he was quoted as follows: “I have no hesitation in stating that athletes will obtain great benefit from OXO.   From personal experience I can recommend it without the slightest reserve.”   In 1907/08 he was again club champion and was second in the SAAA One Mile which was won in 4:33.8.  (It was a peculiarity of the time that only the winner’s times were given, even in national championships.) 

In 1908/09 he had stepped down as club captain but was still a committee member.   The standard in the club was very high and he was only third in the championships behind A McPhee and Sam S Watt.   He was third in the two miles flat but came the international championship he was one of five Clydesdale Harriers in the Scottish team which was fourth in the team race from Hampden Park.

Before the Olympics at London in 1908 there were a series of qualifying races in Scotland and he won his way through to a place in the team.   For the only time ever there was a Five Miles event.  There were six Heats with only two to qualify from each Heat.   He was placed third in Heat Five in 26:17.       Two Heat winners were timed outside 27 minutes and only ten men actually turned out in the Final.   He had the sixth fastest Heat time in the Games but failed to make the Final!   He was also entered, as were all the British Five Milers in the famous Dorando Pietri marathon with its controversial finish.    Probably because he had never run the distance before he was the only GB athlete not to start the race.   

Some Statistics

International Appearances: Cross Country

1904:   Haydock Park, Manchester   36^th

1905:   Baldoyle Racecourse, Dublin   6^th

1906:   Caerleon Racecourse, Wales   10^th

Track

1905:   v Ireland   Powderhall   Four Miles   1^st   21:08.6

1906:   v Ireland   Belfast          Four Miles   1^st   20:53.0

1908:   v Ireland   Saughton      Four Miles    2^nd 20:46.8

Olympic Games    1908                  London          Five Miles    3H    26:17

Although he ran on after the Olympics he was not seen again as a competitor after the 1914-18 War.  So complete was his disappearance that I have been asked by English writers of marathon histories – most recently Neil Shuttleworth who wrote such a book with Ron Hill – whether he died in the conflict.   The answer to that is that he did not – he appeared in a Clydebank Press column of 28^th October 1932 where Tom Millar reported on a good inter-club run with Monkland Harriers at Clydebank the preceding Saturday and includes the sentence: “President Kirkland then called on Mr S Stevenson a one time stalwart of the club now with Monkland to present the prizes to the track winners throughout the summer.”    So there it is – mystery solved!   Whatever happened after the Great War he had set Scottish records, represented Scotland and Britain and raced some of the world’s greatest distance runners.  

Charles Pennycook not only had one of the longest active connections with the club of any of the founder members, but was a top class runner and Scottish Champion in the 1880’s and 90’s going on to be a senior office holder with the SAAA.    He had started his sporting career as a footballer in Dundee taking up athletics just before he moved to Glasgow and joining the Harriers.

If we go back to the first year when any competitive records were kept, 1887/88,   he was a member of Headquarters District Number Three which covered Kelvin, Maryhill and Milton in the North and West of the City.  He won three first prizes and three third place awards.   A year later and he was Vice Captain with Andrew Hannah as captain and that year he won the SAAA Mile Championship in 4:29.8 which was the first time that 4:30 had been bettered in the championship.   At the same meeting he was second in the 10 miles to Andrew Hannah.   Over the season he won 8 first prizes and four seconds.   The club at that time gave gold medals for setting records and he won two that year: at Queens Park Sports where he was timed at 4:31 and two fifths for the Mile plus another for Camelon Sports 1 Mile of 4:32 3/5^th (both times were off 15 yards in handicap races).   Over the country it was the time of the split with the SCCA and he was second in the SHU Inter Counties in 79:28.  

In 1889/90 he went one better and won the Scottish Harriers Union Cross Country Championship, the individual cross country championship of Scotland and the county cross country championship.    Colin Shields in his official history of the SCCU reported that “Charles Pennycook, despite losing a shoe two miles from the finish won by 21 seconds from Andrew Hannah.”   He was the subject of a pen portrait in ‘The Scottish Referee’ of 9^th June 1890 which ran more or less as follows.

“C Pennycook: Vice Captain, Clydesdale Harriers

 One Mile amateur champion of Scotland, he started as a half back in Strathmore FC, Dundee, before coming to Glasgow three years ago.   There was no superior half back in Perthshire.   At Our Boys FC Sports in Dundee he won the Mile off 50 yards.   The handicapper predicted that he would be the best in Scotland.   “Mr Pennycook knows that it is a mistake to suppose that men succeed through success – they much oftener succeed by failure and knowing this he has always persevered until last year he gained highest honours and surprised himself and all his clubmates by winning the One Mile Championship in 4 minutes 29 and four fifth seconds.   In Cross Country he takes a foremost position and has placed to his credit in this year’s SHU 10 miles Championships.   25 years old, 5’9” and 12½ stone he is of reticent disposition.”

On the track that summer he took seven firsts, one second and two thirds.   In 1890/91 the summer prizes totalled seven: four first, one second and two thirds.   In 1891/92 there were eleven track awards (6 firsts, 2 seconds and 3 thirds) but the big one was winning the Scottish Cross Country Championship from Andrew Hannah.  Colin Shields commented on the race as follows: “Charles Pennycook interrupted his club mate Andrew Hannah’s bid for a hat trick of individual titles but continued Clydesdale’s domination of the individual race.  He scored a convincing victory over Hannah with Carment (Edinburgh) third.”    Now that the split was over he had beaten all the top runners from the top clubs in the country.  

His competitive activities seemed to stop then and from 1892/93 his membership continued although he was not on the Committee in any capacity.    Then in 1895/96 he was back on the Committee and was also the committee representative to the Dunbartonshire Section and for the first time he appeared on the Finance Committee.   After two years in these posts he was elected Vice President in 1897/98 while retaining the Finance Committee and Dumbartonshire Section representative positions.   These were held until 1898/99 when he disappeared from the Committee after a year as representative to the Airdrie Section.   In seasons 1900/01, 1901/02 and 1902/03 he held positions on the Finance Committee and as an auditor.   Coming off the Committee in season 1903/04 he remained as auditor until 1912/13. 

At the Coming of Age 21^st Anniversary Dinner in 1906 chaired by his friend Alexander Kennedy he proposed the toast of the NCCU of Scotland at the Grosvenor Restaurant in Glasgow.  Now on the SAAA Committee as a representative of Arthurlie FC he became President of that body in 1907/08.   The club had several representatives on the governing body at the time, each representing other clubs while still functioning as Clydesdale Harriers.   The work that he had done for the club was recognised when he was elected Honorary President in 1909/10 and held that post until 1912/1913 all the while acting as club auditor.  Honorary President is not to be confused with club President which is a working position in the club – the Honorary Presidency is just that, an honour bestowed by the club.    

After the war he maintained his connection with the club and was one of four founder members – MF Dickson, J Erskine and JC Lawson being the other three – to attend the first committee meeting after the war – the extract from the minutes of the time is above.  

At the 40^th Anniversary Dinner in 1925, Sir Alexander Kennedy referred to the work done by Charles Pennycook in bringing together all the available founders of the movement.  He continued to come around the club and he maintained his friendship with fellow pioneers such as Andrew Hannah and Sir Alexander Kennedy.  In 1928 when Kennedy was ill, and the club sent commiserations, Charles Pennycook replied on behalf of the family because of his long and continuing friendship with them.  

Unfortunately he did not live to see the 50^th Anniversary in 1935 when he would have been 65 years old.   In the club minutes of 22^nd September 1930, under the heading ‘Obituary’ the following appeared:

“Mr J Kirkland, President, referred to the loss the club had sustained through the death of Mr Charles Pennycook, a former President of the club and a Scottish one mile and ten miles champion.   It was agreed that a minute should be made of our regret at his passing and of our thanks for the many services that he had rendered the club.”