Ultra Distance

There suddenly seems to be a lot of stuff in the Press and even in 'Athletics Weekly' about ultra distance running. Well, here again the Clydesdale record is a proud one and goes back many years. One club man told me that 100 miles in 24 hours was easy: just run for 15 minutes and walk for 5 and don't stop. That's as may be but without going all the way back to AP Findlay in the 1880's, one of my favourite stories is from the 1930's. A group of Harriers - only four or five of them - decided to meet on the Sunday and go for a walk round the three lochs. There was some doubt in the mind of my informant which the third loch was but Loch Lomond and Loch Long were two of them. The chaps met at the Kilbowie Road/Boulevard Junction early in the morning and set off. On the way back Jock Semple decided that with his blisters he couldn't make the last 12 miles home so took the train from Balloch Station. He was roundly abused for having failed!

In the 50's and 60's the top ultra men were David Bowman and Roy Clark who did the Edinburgh - Glasgow 50 miler. Roy was a Naval Officer who was stationed at Helensburgh and was recommended to join the club by Bill Linton, a former Harrier, and he specialised in ultras such as the London to Brighton but I can assure you that he wasn't all that good in the McAndrew Relay! Two very good club runners.

In the 60's and 70's it was Bobby and Jim Shields. The story is that the straight through Glasgow - Fort William was started as the result of a challenge between Bobby and his friend Duncan Watson in 1987 and is now established on the calendar. One Monday night at Postie's Park in Dumbarton Robert McWatt and George Carlin were running very badly so I waited until the end of the session to ask what the trouble was. Robert explained that they had been feart to tell me but they ran from Glasgow to Fort William at the weekend with Bobby and Jim with Pat Younger providing the back up. "But I'll never ever do it in a group of four again - there's ALWAYS someone wanting the toilet!" Pat himself was no mean athlete but maybe his most impressive endurance feat was in a dinghy! His yacht had engine failure and it was too calm to use the sails. So he lashed the dinghy to the front of the boat and rowed for four hours up Loch Leven towing the yacht behind him.

The Island Peaks race was well supported by Clydesdale in the 80's and 90's with Pat Bonnar, Ian Murphy, Brian Potts, Andy Dytch, Christine Menhennet and company all competing and all doing well. Look it up to see how hard it is. A wee story - one year Pat and Ian were teamed up in a weekend of mist and rain. At the top of the last hill on the way down to the boat Ian took Pat's rucksack and added it to his own to see if he could run downhill with twice the usual weight! You don't have to be mad but it helps.

In recent years John Kennedy and Marjorie Small have tackled and conquered such as the Laraig Ghru run - and they do it the hard way (south to north) in the race. At present Michael Diver is the hardest working hill runner having done the Devil of the Highlands from Tyndrum to Fort William with Aileen Scott and Peter Halpin not far behind him in terms of ultras done in the past few years.

So if you want a new challenge - try running long instead of running fast!