I was recently writing about the Jogle - the relay from John O'Groats to Lands End - and as far as I am aware there are only two clubs who have done it the Scottish one being Aberdeen AAC who ran it three times and broke the record each time. It is quite an undertaking - they had a whole series of SAAA Marathon champions in the team - Alastair Wood, Colin Youngson, Don Ritchie, George Reynolds, Graham Laing, Fraser Clyne and Peter Wilson - plus very good endurance runners like Mike Murray. A wonderful club feat involving lots of planning over a long period. It was described as very good for club spirit.
Then I thought that when we did the Glasgow to Fort William Relay the club gained a lot from it. The relay was invented by Dumbarton AAC with Mike Lidwell one of the guiding lights. It started in George Square in Glasgow at 6:30 am and progressed via Maryhill Road and Milngavie on to what is now the West Highland Way. It6 followed the current route to Dumgoyne and then went via Killearn and the Queen Elisabeth Forest, Stronachlachar and Glen Gyle to Crianlarich and then followed what is now the WHW to Fort William. It is a longer and more testing route than the WHW is now. After DAAC pioneered the route we took it on and broke their record and then Lochaber AAC and Westerlands also ran it. We are the current holders of the record.
The rules were a bit convoluted: teams were of eight runners in teams of four. The A team did all the hill sections and the B team did all the road sections. There were thirty two stages (too many in the view of most participants) and each runner ran four times. Kinda complicated but the route was superb and much more scenic than the present Milngavie to the Fort route.
To prepare groups of runners went out - usually in Pat Younger's minibus - and ran the various stages in twos. eg two guys would run the Dumgoyne to Ballat stretch and then two others would take over and do Ballat to Drymen and the two guys would do the Drymen to Conic Hill stretch and so on. Over three or four weeks every runner ran every stage. Then came the run and the watches were on and the prayers were for good weather. One year I ran over Rannoch Moor in the snow!
It was very good for club spirit, it was good for morale and at the present time when the club is split as far as venues are concerned a team including Paul Carroll, Ian Robertson, Peter Bowman, Gerry Montgomery and others would be wonderful. And why not a mixed team?
If you want a real challenge why not the Glasgow to Fort William and then straight on to the Great Glen Way??? Glasgow to Inverness??? Why not a mixed team? Come on, we still have the record as far as the Fort, why does not someone start to drive a team effort: pick a date, pick the runners, arrange the training runs and then go for it!
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