Odds and Ends

I see that there is a website at www.clydebankrestoration.com (or even.co.uk - I've found it at both addresses) which has a fairly comprehensive gallery, or series of galleries, containing pictures around the Burgh many of which are of interest to the Harriers - four of the Bruce Street Baths for a start. At least two Scottish Internationalists reckon that they were the best winter training headquarters in Scotland. An email from Allan Faulds last night added his voice to the praises. The big room down in the basement was always very warm, there was enough space for everybody to change, the massage table was in the corner, some exercise mats on the floor when we wanted them and there was still enough space to go for a jog around before or after the run. If it were icy or foggy outside, there was another basement room which was as long but not as wide as the changing area where we could get some running done. There were also hot water pipes running round the room above head height where you could hang the towels while you were running and they would be warm for your return. The communal showers were excellent. The women who chose to train there used the upstairs baths area and could have a bath when they finished. There was even the option of a swim if you were not too late back and the Baths did not have a synchro club session on. All very civilised. And the fact that it was closed to the outside world with only true believers (ie Harriers) there added to the club team spirit. Any memories of the Baths out there?

I see from today's 'Herald' that Alex Ferguson is banning the wearing of snoods by his players. (Snoods are tubes of warm cloth that can be worn round the neck like a scarf and/or pulled up over the head and neck for added warmth), He is dismissive of players wearing gloves and leggings as well! Good for him. I reckon that all sports people these days (except Bobby Young) are a bit soft and generally wear too much clothing. If you are running for any length of time, any normal circulation will warm up your hands and feet pretty quickly. I won't go into the "I mind one time ...." line but we do mollycoddle ourselves too much these days. The reverse is also true - how often in the summer do you see runners with tops tied round their waists? It it is cold enough for a top, wear it; if it isn't then go without it in the knowledge that you will within five minutes be more than warm enough!!! The only exceptions I would make would be for serious hill runners - by the time you get up there (a) you are tired; and (b) it really is colder than at sea level. A cagoule round the waist on an elastic loop in these situations is not anything like a bulky top tied round the waist and dangling behind your knees!

Running in the snow: I note that Callum Hawkins was running round a golf course last week with snow 'up to my shins' in places; I further note that Steph Twell's group ran round the trail beating the snow down with their feet and then doing the session in long spikes. Good for them: in bad weather the question is, as ever, "HOW do we get the running done?" and not a feeble "We can't get the running done because it is cold, wet, snowy, slushy, etc." If it is worth doing or needs to be done, find ways to do it.

Sorry to see that the Hannah Cup was postponed because of snow - this time I will say it - I mind one time when we had an inter-club with VPAAC and Garscube at Milngave after several days of snow but it went ahead over the four golf courses in snow which was very deep; I also mind one time (actually at least two) when we ran the Hannah Cup in the snow, and I even mind one time when we ran the Club Championship in the snow, and, furthermore, I have video footage of the Christmas Handicap being run in the snow!!!

Children in Need

So BBC Scotland organised a race for the CiN this week and the field included John Beattie, Chris McLaughlin, Mark Daly (ex-Clydebank Post), Brian Burnett ..... and former Clydesdale Harrier Kheredine Idessane. The race as shot from the BBC building can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibz19rwn-e0
You need to know that Kheredine is wearing the gay yellow top!

Happy New Year

I quoted some training mileages and training sessions in some of the blogs recently - with Cliff and myself having some years at or around 3000 miles in the diary and on the feet being at the lower end of some of the sessions! Some thought that it was a bit much what the Harry Fenions were doing so a couple of words about John Graham's training! He really was a mad trainer but a superb racer. Speak to Phil if you want a character reference! How about 10 miles, three times a day with full wet suit on at about 5 minutes a mile??? Before an evening track session he'd do over an hour and a half in the morning. That's just to cheer you up before the bells. I mean the ding dong kind of bells, not the Famous Grouse/Black Bottle kind of Bell's! The worst New Year I can remember was when I was racing at Beith on the 1st January and folk kept coming in to the bedroom to tell me that they respected my principles, breathed booooze over me and wished me a Happy New Year! Sleep and I were strangers that night. I didn't drink at all when I was running and that's probably the best way.
Anyway, keep getting the miles in - no excuses - and have a super 2010 with all the success you deserve.

Kheredine

Clydesdale Harriers Old Boys are appearing quite often in the papers these days! Last week it was Struan Marshall and this week it is Kheredine - he had a jocular write up in Tam Cowan's column in the 'Daily Record' on Wednesday. It was Kheredine's birthday last week when he reached the 40th milestone on his journey through the vale of tears that we call life. As we all know, Kheredine has been the BBC's man following Andy Murray around the globe. Apparently he got a card from Andy saying "Have a great night. And thanks for being my stalker for the past year!" Tam took the chance to re-recycle one of his old jokes about Kheredine being a dead ringer for La-Di-Da Gunner Graham from 'It Aint Half Hot, Mum!' If you want to read the piece it's at www.dailyrecord.co.uk/tamcowan and just go down the page until you get to the article.

Two points about the West District

There were several interesting points about the West Districts such as the mix of older and younger members in the team and Michael's excellent performance but I want to draw attention to two in particular. The first Harrier to beat an Eritrean racing for Shettleston Harriers was on Saturday. Step forward Marina! Amleset Tewelde is a class athlete who performed well for most of last winter. Now it's up to the men to follow suit.
Second the men's teams were the first local club to finish in the men's races being 63 points ahead of Garscube and with no VP team out the question has to be "what happened to us the week before?" The Men's Vets were also first County team to finish - they were fifth with 199 points while Westerlands were seventh with 267. Helensburgh ninth with 288, Garscube eleventh with 326 and again no VP team out. so how come we were so far back the week before?

Finally I have had an email from Frank McGowan in Spain where he has set up a training camp with John Graham (the Olympic and Commonwealth marathon runner) and they have started on a website of their own at www.jfpacemakers.com where you can get some of the details of the area and their abbreviated life stories. One of the stories is that John Graham wants to join the club. John was a notoriously hard trainer and at one time he took his dog with him on training runs to give it some exercise but it had a heart attack and had to be restricted to less demanding walkies! Watch this space!

Some Information

The Local Athletics Partnership Championships are on Sunday at Linwood. They are great frun and the club always does really well. This year we have 40 athletes entered in a total of well over 100 events (like three each for some, four for others and one or two for the Seniors). Rumour has it that Gerry Montgomery is making his track debut at the meeting in the 3000 metres race. If any of the senior club members who are not competing want to go and watch then they will be welcome and if they are prepared to help Phil out with the organisation of the team (eg get an athlete to an event in time!) they will be even more welcome!

James Austin was on the phone last night: he has had an injury that has set his training back a bit but will be out at the County Relays in October. He had an unfortunate week last week with two car mishaps. On Monday he was driving his friend's car when the timing belt broke and caused all sorts of damage. there are cheap repairs and expensive repairs for cars: this was a very expensive one. Then on Friday he was coming over the Kingston Bridge in his own car when the car behind ran into him. Plenty of witnesses and the other driver admitted culpability but his car was a write off all the same.

The Scottish Athletics AGM is on tomorrow and the club mandate is being carried by Colin Shields. It is quite important that we are represented as there are several quite important items up for discussion - the Six Year Plan for a start - and we know that Colin will not give the executive an easy ride!

And finally, there will be a final collection of Harriers brief lives following the last three collections. This one will be available from October and includes people that I was told I should have included in previous books (Bobby Boyd, Jack Boyd, John Morgan, etc), some that came to my attention as maybe coming into that category - the Three Amigos get ten or eleven pages to themselves for instance and after being hassled - and I DO mean hassled - by Allan Faulds, Doug Gemmell, Ian Leggett, Cliff Brown and Phil Dolan, I have a bit about myself. Let me know if you are interested.

The Club Vest

The club vest has been in existance since 1911 when it was designed by T Barrie Erskine and approved by the club. Prior to that the uniform was just a white T shirt with black edging and the club crest in a shield on the left breast. It is not the only vest in the world which is white with a capital C on it - when Cornell University competed against the Scottish Universities we were surprised (and pleased) to see that it was white with a maroon C front and back. The great Herb Elliot used to race for an Australian club (whose name I can't remember offhand) whose vest was white with a black C. There was a sports shop in the Clydebank Shopping Centre just after it was opened which agreed to do 13 dozen club tops in various sizes. Unfortunately the owner decided to make the C a three dimensional block C. After some hassle he took them back and had to stand the loss - his instructions were quite clear and then we did not receive a copy of the order he had sent to the manufacturer for approval.

Then there are the Clydesdale and Filly Clubs in the United States which are clubs for the 'larger' athlete. The men are Clydesdales and the women are Fillies and their handicap races are based on weight categories - ie the heavier you are, the bigger allowance you get. They enter teams in most of the mass marathons in the States. We have a T shirt from one such club and it is in a murky green colour with a horses head in the centre at the front. At one time and American entrepreneur tried to copyright the name Clydesdale for athletics purposes and a lengthy law suit was pursued and finally broken largely, but not exclusively, because we had been using the name in an athletics context since 1885.

At odd times in the past members have suggested changing the strip - Dunky Wright wanted narrow black and white hoops and in the picture that Charlie Middler had it looked dire. Then there was a wee crusade for it to changed to black and white vertical stripes but that was easily outvoted. The move that could have had some traction was to have the traditional vest for cross country with the black and white vertical stripes for the track and field team. That failed as well. The basic truth is that any classic sports strip is kept because it is that. Many football clubs have changed the colours or orientation of their jersey but the big teams - Rangers, Celtic, Arsenal and company - never change. When we won the Young Athletes Relay in the eighties and became the first club other than Springburn to win it, there was a boy shouting that 'the club with the big C was winning' and everybody knew exactly who he was talking about.

The women's vest has switched back and forth quite a bit since their inception in the 30's. At first the men would not let them use the big C design but eventually relented after they won the SWCCU Championship three times! In the fifties when I joined the club they wore a kind of blouse with a square cut neck edged in black with the C front and back. It changed subsequently to the familiar white V neck with the club crest in a shield on the front and the name n the back and then Jolene Ennis and a couple of others persuaded the committee to allow them to have the black C back again. And what have we now? Well, I think I've seen both in the same race at times!

The design is clear, unmistakeable and has a great tradition.

Home On Holiday

Yesterday I was paid a visit by Allan Sharp and Eric McMahon who is home on holiday from New Zealand. They had been to Killin and cycled via Kenknock to Glen Lyon, Brig o' Balgie, Glen Lawers and back to Killin. So they looked in on their way back and it was a bit of surprise to find that Eric had emigrated almost 50 years ago - as much because Billy Hislop and I had been delegated to buy him a gift (we got him a hip flask from the Big Store in Alexander Street.) It got me thinking that the club atmosphere was one where we sent telegrams on wedding days, bought gifts for members being married (kitchen tools sets were popular), bought going away gifts for members leaving the district or country (clocks, paintings, etc) and sometimes even gave them cash if that was desired/required. It had long been a custom that we recognise milestones in the lives of club members - when Andy McMillan and Jean Tait married just before the War a collection was rounded up by the committee to the grand sum of 30/- (£!:50 in new money) and Tom Millar (who had done the club reports in the 'Clydebank Post' under the pen name of Excelsior received a fountain pen. However, back to the real reason for this post: Eric isn't the only emigrant home for the holidays - his cousin John Hume will arrive next week from Canada and with any luck at all, Allan will bring them both up to see us.

Assorted Items

First off, it was a surprise to hear a few weeks ago to hear that outstanding club member of a few years ago Pat Younger had bowel cancer and had to be operated on. The operation was two weeks ago and it seemed to be successful then at the start of this week, it was discovered that one of the stitches was leaking. This meant another operation after which the medics said that they were happy with the result and the outlook is positive. Pat has won medals for the club on the rpoad and over the country, he is a noted hill climber, sailor, singer and has many other talents. he was for many, many years 'the harriers' harrier' and we all wish him the very best.

Prasad Prasad is back in action and will have his first race in weeks when he turns out in the Glas Tuileachan Uphill Only race this week end at the Spittal of Glenshee. Watch the papers on Sunday for a result.

I was talking to a senior member of the scottishathletics coaching team earlier this week and he was lamenting the standard of road running in Scotland. "None of them want to run track," he said, "that's where you sharpen your speed, where you learn to run in a tight pack and where you learn how to pace yourself." Certainly the standard in the country on the roads just now is dire. In 2007 there were only two men in Scotland who were inside 2:30 for the marathon inside Scotland, in 2008 there was only one inside 2:30 in Scotland and his time was 2:29:57! Slightly slower, there were only 30 inside 2:45 in 2008, there were 32 in that bracket in 2007 and 33 in 2006. At the league match last week, I changed the habits of a lifetime and spoke to several people. They all said the same as the gen already referred to - with many road runners in their respective clubs, they had difficulty getting them to turn out for the club in league meetings. What seems to be the problem?

Finally, the Monday night field event coaching takes place at Postie's Park on Mondays. Next week we will have Paul doing the high jump, Donna (just back from a brilliant holiday in Gran Canaria) at the long jump pit and Bobby Bell working with Lewis Wood, Donald Macleod and any other throwers there. Yes, I said Donald Macleod! A few years ago Donald did some throwing for the senior men's team and last week he ventured into the hammer cage and Bobby gave him some tips on how to get event further. Any other Seniors who want a go at jumps or throws, don't be blate, just come along for 7:00 pm!

The Scottish Schools Track and Field Championships are at Grangemouth on Friday and Saturday, 12th and 13th June and the Masters T&F Championships are on Sunday 14th June at Pitreavie. As already said, Prasad is at Glas Tuliachean this Saturday while the Gargunnock Hill Race in on the same day but a bit nearer home. Meanwhile congratulations to John Kennedy who was first club runner in the Kilpatricks Hill Race and also first veteran. Michael Diver, Craig Calderwood, Jim Shields and Marina McCallum all ran as well.

Unofficial SAL Website

Since the demise of the Scottish Athletics website forum (scared or what?) there have been two unofficial forums set up. The first was at www.saforum.org.uk and has been fairly well supported and the second is at http://z3.invisionfree.com/Unofficial_SAL/ and seems to be slightly better supported. Have a look and see what you think.

Three Things

Good to see Gary Dick racing again - and winning things! He took part in the Civil Service Sports at Grangemouth on Wednesday and won the 5000 metres in wet and windy conditions in 18:20 and then followed up with a leg in the 4 x 100 relay and the final stage of the medley relay. They seem to be running the medley in the 'English' fashion these days: the traditional Scottish fashion was to do it 800/200/200/400 and the English way was 400/200/200/800. It's probably true that the the latter makes for a closer race but it's six and half a dozen. While a fast 800 runner can give a team a good lead in the Scottish way, the good 800 runner can turn a race into a 'no contest' in the English way. Either way, Gary won the race!

Prasad has got over the trouble with his lungs and has been running a bit since the week after the Stuc race and also been doing some cross training and biking. If the legs are OK he might well run the Callendar Crags race.

I noticed on the Wikipedia the other night that while there was six or seven lines about the Clydebank Rugby Club there was one line about the Harriers! Aw c'mon was the immediate thought. So I have registered and started by putting a wee bit in last night. I'll add to it. It's on the 'Clydebank' page if you scroll down to 'Sport in Clydebank' you can pick your section.

And was it 'our' Shelagh King who appeared in the results list as a Gala Harrier? Shelagh was a very good Harrier turning out in all the hill races - she even ran many events including the 400 Hurdles for the T&F team. On one occasion, Jimmy Bryce protested that our A Hurdler (Shelagh) was 19 seconds slower than our 'B'hurdler (Caroline Evans). But when I explained to the referee that Shelagh had run the Ben Nevis race the previous day and hurried back to hurdle on Sunday, he was quite understanding!

And the Clydebank Library is quite keen to look after the club memorabilia. Pat Malcolm who looks after local history, etc, is on holiday for three weeks and when she returns we will transport the stuff (posters, handbooks, photos, medals, etc) down to Clydebank

http://athleticsdaily.proboards.com

Since the demise of the forum at the scottish athletics website there have been many developments. Apart from the new one started by Gary Condie at www.saforum.org.uk there is the English site at http://athleticsdaily.proboards.com which has a Scottish Board. there are several immediately interesting threads - one under the title 'Scotstoun Track' is illuminating as to who will be the dominant partner in the joint rugby/athletics venture. It has a reference to www.glasgowwarriors.org which is worth a wee look. There is also another board under the heading of 'New Low in Scottish Athletics' by Walter Bisset (Walter and I once shared a bottle of undiluted Scotch Whisly in Cardiff one Sunday night). There are several references to employees of scottish athletics infiltrating independent forums and the last word so far is under the headline 'Kiltrunner sorts out the spin doctor'. It's worth a look if you are into Scottish Athletics.

Clydesdale Trivia

Which former Harrier is the chief European Football agent for the SFX Sports Management Group? Which former Harrier played rugby for New Zealand despite being a full blooded Scot? Which son of a Harrier is a famous director of such movies as 'The BFG'?

The answer to the first one is Struan Marshall. Struan was a good standard 400 and 800 metres runner who ran for us in the late 80's on track and over the country. His father was the athletics correspondent for the 'Herald' in the pre Doug Gillon days and also at another point head of sport at STV. Struan started by doing boot deals with sports companies on behalf of such footballers as Eoin Jess at Aberdeen using the family phone and the career spiralled from there. Look him up on the internet and read about his high profile star studded wedding reception!

Rory Kerr was the club sprinter and long jumper who played rugby for the West Of Scotland and as a regular member of the Scottish squad although he never had a game for the 'big team'. His speed ensured that he played in many sevens tournaments around the world and on one occasion played for the Scottish Sevens team in Hong Kong. The team went out in the early rounds but there is a rule that if any team is in need of a player, they may co-opt one whose team has been eliminated. New Zealand chose Rory! His brother Jamie still holds the club U15 100 metres record and won the West District Under 15 100 metres title.

The Film Director is Gavin Millar. His Dad Tom was the man who wrote the Harriers Notes in the 'Clydebank Press' for approximately 20 years in the inter war years under the pen name 'Excelsior' (the club motto meaning 'the best'). Gavin has directed and produced many top rated films and done a lot of work for the BBC including the excellent Arena series of arts programmes and 'Foyle's Law' - a very popular mystery series set in war time Britain. You can Google his name and see what you get or just look him up in Wikipedia.

Bonus point: the great New York Times journalist James 'Scotty' Reston who interviewed many world statesmen and every American President for decades was the son of James Reston a Clydesdale Harrier who emigrated in 1920. Look him up in Wiki!

Gallimaufry

1. So lack of facilities is not our problem alone. I see that the Julie Rose Track at Ashford in Kent was about to be closed. The track was used for many international matches and national championships over the last twenty + years. Because they could not raise enough money to keep it going, the trust that organised it was on the verge of closing it when the local authority made an offer to take it over and that's what happened on the night that was to be the track's last night. When will local authorities and other relevant bodies realise that athletics is the best and - for them - the cheapest way of dealing with the sport of athletics plus the growing health problems in every part of the counry. It is also the basis of every other sport - apart from general fitness training, it has specialists in speed training (Scottish sprints coach Stuart Hogg has worked with Aberdeen FC, followed by Dunde United, then Rangers FC and is currently back at Aberdeen while Derek Ibbotson has worked with a range of English clubs). Throwing is throwing whether it is from the shot circle or in a lineout in rugby and jumping is useful in most other sports. So tell West Dunbartonshire.
2. The summer is nearly on us. The young athletes who competed last year must be looking for a slight increase of work done. If we look at the progression of training in terms of sessions done, then we get something like this - Under 13/Under 15: two or three days a week; Second year Under 15/Under 17: three or four days a week; second year Under 15/Under 17: four or five days a week; second year Under 17/Under 20: six days a week. There must be progression.
3. One training session need not be only one session, if you see what I mean. If you do a jog, then some mobility work, then some strides, then the session itself, followed by a couple of miles on the road or grass, you could be doing three things. A training schedule often speaks of so many mobility sesions, so many strength sessions, so many speed sessions, etc. The session above includes the session with its own purpose, the mobility/stretchng work which is another element in the training and if you are a sprinter the final couple of miles jog is strength training. One sesion can have sveral training elements in it. Don't skip any of them!
4. Have you seen 'Athletics Weekly' recently? Last week's and this week's are both pretty good. They used to have a section on Athletics Basics which told you how to get started in athletics, how to learn about field events and so on. They now have a section called Performance Basics which do the same thing but for athletes with some experience and who want to develop their road running or high jumping or whatever. It's worth a look.
5. A word for road runners - if you do more than five or at most six 10K's in a year, you are probably doing too many and need to get in some races under and over distance instead. Have a look at races outwith the central belt as well - there is a limit to what you learn from racing the same guys every time.

Sports Show

The club had a stand at the West Dunbarton Sports Show in the Play Drome on Saturday. With a clash with the Scottish Cross Country Championships, many club stalwarts were unable to help out as they did last time. However Donald Macleod had willing assistance from Johnathan Farrell, Mary Ann Savage and Natalie Quinn who had been up until 5:00 am after performing with her girl band the night before. They had the stand decorated with pictures of club members in action and were giving out handbills advertising the club. For activities there was the Standing Long Jump mats at the stall and many youngsters had a go in the course of the day. Then the club had a half hour slot to demonstrate their wares. Some of the club's younger members were on hand to demonstrate things and many visitors to the exhibition took part in the activities that included indoor javelin throwing and the use of agility ladders which was very popular with everyone. As well as providing the club with much needed publicity Donald and the others managed to do some networking with local councillors and officials as well. So it was a very successful day in every sense of the word. Thanks to the Council for putting it on, to all the club members, young and old who made it such a success and to Donald for working so hard organising on the day.

Seven Random Things about CH

Facebook is apparently encouraging members to list 24 random things about themselves. Taking a leaf from their book, although I'm not a member, here are some random things about Clydesdale Harriers and there may be more!
1. Clydesdale Harriers women won the Scottish Cross Country title three times in succession in 1936,'37,'38 but have only had one individual winner - Jean Tait in 1937.
2. The last Clydesdale Harrier to win the Scottish Men's title was Graeme Reid in 2003.
3. John Mellish was President of CH when he was approached to be president of the Rangers where he was a founder member. He was the only Rangers President who had the honour of being CH President as well.
4. Willie Maley of Celtic won the Scottish 100 yards title in 1886 - Celtic FC was founded in 1888. In 1886 CH trained at Ibrox. So did Willie Maley, the great Celtic manager, train at Ibrox? Only a thought!!!
5. CH members have had some unusual occupations. Declan McCusker, javelin thrower in the late '80's and early 90's was a tenor with Scottish Opera and was on their own Three Tenors CD; staying with singing, Natalie Quinn is a member of the girlband Atlanta; Bobby Bell and his wife Lily were professional ballroom dancers in the 60's and 70's; Kheredine Idessane of course is a sports broadcaster and journalist with articles in such as 'Sports Illustrated' and had a talk show of his own on OnDigital.
6. If you count patrons and honorary members then the most illustrious post held by any CH was Prime Minister when Bonar Law held the position in the 20's. Club Patron, he died when in office or he might have got us a track! Look at what Pitreavie has got. Chief Scout Lord Rowallan was also a club patron
7. The club had four GB Internationalists at Senior or Under 23 level in the 1990's - Jason Allan as a high jumper, Ewan Calvert at 800 metres, Des Roache at 800 and 1500, Grant Graham at 800 and 1500.

Cover Boy!

I note that this years Calendar for the Hill Runners' Association has a Clydesdale Harrier on the cover! Michael Diver no less who is running in the Slioch Horseshoe, we think, and he is clearly not doing it for charity as he is fully clad and wearing a club vest. Well done, Michael, I'll take my cut of the additional sales drummed up by the blog.(click photo for enlargement)

I said that the women's team that was third in the vets championship at the weekend was the first set of team medals since the men in the 1950's. I've just been corrected and it was pointed out that the men were third at Troon in 1992 when a certain Phil Dolan was fourth to finish. That's two National Championships where Phil was fourth. He occupied the position in the National Championships in 1977 after a battle up the finishing straight with Jim Brown of Monklands with Phil just missing the third spot by the thickness of an old fashioned vest. And of course in the early 1990's the Under 15 boys were third. I'm not sure of the counting runners but the team included Alan Moore, Craig Lyle, Jamie Hood and Robert Emmanuel. Alan could possbly have been in the first three but he had an ongoing duel with Stuart Gibson and they battled it out at the front of a big field before Alan (who had been of school with a cold all week) dropped back in the finishing straight.

Roll on the National Championship - there is a clash on the 21st February with the Local Authority Sports Show being on the same day as the National. Some of us have big choices to make but there is something for everyone that day!

Two things

The first meeting of the Young Athletes League was held on Sunday in Kelvin Hall and the turn out was fairly good although there were several of the older ones surprisingly absent. Those who were there all enjoyed the morning and there were many parents and grandparents in attendance to provide support. There were quite a few girls and boys there who were new to me and it's good to see that recruitment is proceding well. Many good peformances were on show. Unfortunately Rachel Busby was not one of them because her asthma combined with the current cold weather was causing problems. Never mind, Rachel, it'll pass!!! It was especially good to see Donna Campbell there and working as an official. For those who don't know, Donna was a considerably good athlete at all levels from Under 11 to Under 17 before going to University in Edinburgh to train as a PE teacher. She is now back home for a bit and could be a real asset to the club as athlete and /or coach.

'Athletics Weekly' continues to irritate me and several others! This week, ahead of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award', they have a two page spread on Lewis Hamilton, racing driver, because he goes out running as part of his fitness regime. Well, whoopy doo! He can go running if he likes and I will encourage him as much as I encourage all who want to be runners, but it is a whole different game from being an athlete and I would suggest that coverage in a Sunday supplement or colour section would be more appropriate than in AW. And Merry Christmas to me too! Grumpy? Me? Never!

Some Festive Comments

With the Festive Season almost on us, maybe some comments on racing and training would not go amiss. First about racing - the Nigel Barge has always been a good local road race which the club has supported. Since 1985 it has been doubly important because it is a counting race for the Centenary Cup. This is awarded to the Dunbartonshire club with highest points over all the races organised by county clubs. The McAndrew Relays, the County Championships, the Nigel Barge Road Race, the Dunky Wright, etc, all count. We need at least six runners in the race: more than that would be good because it adds to other clubs' points. It is also the traditional start to the New Year with a lot of handshaking and kissing going on before and after the race so it's worth going just for that!
Training should increase over the holiday period. It is hard enough to get the miles or sessions in all year round so when the chance comes to do some extra training it should be grabbed with both feet. When I lived in Lenzie we (the three from three different clubs who trained together) all went out on a Sunday morning for between two and a half and three hours running at 8:00am; at Christmas we went out on Christmas morning at 10:00 for an hour so that we could do our duty and be back for the rest of the day's fun. If you currently do 60 miles per week, can you knock it up to 80 mpw over Christmas? Remember - the opposition won't be missing a day!
Finally Johnathan Farrell is running in the New Year Sprint at Musselburgh Race Course - if you would like a day at the races, you could do worse than head through and enjoy the day watching 90 metres, 110 metres, 1600 metres, 3200 metres races on grass.

Odds and Ends

Last week the club had an email from USA asking for information from the 1920's for a former member of the club Robert Ross who is 105 years old. That makes him the oldest club member - he competed for the club from 1919 - 1921 before emigrating. That puts Willie Howie at 94 in second place and Jean McMillan (92) third.

On the coaching front, 17 year old Megan Reid has started helping out with Donald on Wednesday nights at the Kelvin Hall with a view to gaining the appropriate coaching qualification. It's good to see the younger athletes helping the even younger ones: it's part of a trend throughout Scottish athletics and one to be encouraged, I think. Many a young runner/jumper/thrower gives up when the pressure of school work gets too much for three or four days a week training and they (with whatever they have learned) are lost to the sport. This way the connection is maintained, they learn themselves by teaching others and they may well be back competing when the studying eases back.

Coaching is an interesting topic. It used to be that when you went to any club track, you would see groups of three or four young athletes talking with a Senior athlete. Coaching was a natural evolution. It was also the case that most coaches of whatever discipline had an endurance background: in the 90's the club coaches were BMcA for middle distance, Billy Hislop for sprints, Bobby Bell for throws and David Gibson for the Pole Vault - all had distance or middle distance backgrounds. It was the same at the national level with cross country runner Eddie Taylor of Shettleston being national coach for multi-events. I might come back to this soon.

There is a move to award LAP Trophies (two of them) for county cross country champions this year. The idea is that athletes are awarded points for where they finish in the District, National and County Cross Country Championships and the athlete with the highest points total, from whatever age group they come, wins the cup. It is one for Boys and one for Girls and all age groups except Senior and Veteran are eligible.

Brian McAusland and Johnathan Farrell were at the EACA Coaching weekend last Saturday and Sunday along with Duncan MacNeill, Bob Burness and Alan Craford of West Dunbarton and most groups were covered - endurance, sprints, jumps and combined events all had local representatives and it's hoped that the information will benefit local athletics.