Two References

This week's "Athletics Weekly" has an interesting article by Glen Grant on endurance running: Glen was a very good middle distance and cross country runner in the 70's and early 80's with times inside 1:50 and 3:40 for the 800 and 1500. He talks about the value of steady running as the most important building block in training for his events and seems a bit doubtful about Seb Coe's reputed maximum training distances of 50 miles a week. He also speaks of the importance of the annual club road relays and National Cross Country Championships for the development of any athlete's year. Certainly Scottish athletics suffered greatly from the murder of the Edinburgh - Glasgow Relay. We still have the National CC Championships and all runners should support the club in these. It is important for the club and is at least as important for the athletes themselves. The course this year is the eminently runnable Callendar Park course. Have a look at the article.

When I was researching the club history in the 1970's and 80's the relevant copies of the 'Scots Umpire' dealing with the founding of the club were missing - the whole 1885 volume was missing - but I recently discovered that it is now available on microfiche. The text of the article is as follows:
"At a meeting held on Monday evening of a number of gentlemen interested in athletic matters it was agreed to form a harriers club for Glasgow and surrounding district, the name of the club to be known as the Clydesdale Harriers. The following members were elected office-bearers - President Allan Kirkwood; Treasurer - AM Campbell; Secretary - Alexander MacNab, 99 Eglinton Street, from whom all information regarding the club may be had. Clubs holding athletic sports kindly send forms to the Secretary."

Since that day, the club has had thousands of members and currently has a good number of young athletes. It has always been the case that the club does not belong only to the current members at any time - it belongs to those who have been members and done their work for the club over the years and also belongs to members of the club in future and we are only temporary custodians. Remember the club motto of 'Excelsior' which means 'the best'.