Author: The Author

The Princes Street Mile races were held, as you might expect, on Princes Street in Edinburgh in the early 1990’s.    They were glittering affairs with races for Men, Women, Masters, Juniors, Youths and Intermediates.  All were invitation only and the race organiser had a good budget to work with.  The results were class races, good coverage and live television coverage.    They were probably too good to be true.  The programme cover above was for the first ever such race which was held with great razzmatazz, celebrity milers of the past from all over the world with Scotlnd being represented by Frank Clement, Ian McCafferty and Hugh Barrow in the parade.

The starting lists make interesting reading.  The headline races were for the Senior Men and Women.  The Men’s line-up was printed in the programme as follows, although there were some changes on the day, all the stars did turn out. Fermin Cacho (23) Spain, Olympic Champion;               Steve Cram (31), England, ’83 World 1500m title, ’84 Olympic silver, World records for 1500m, Mile and 2000m in 1985;                   Tom McKean, Scotland, 800m specialist.; Mohammed Suleiman, (23), Qatar.  Olympic bronze behind Cacho;     Jens-Peter Herold (27), Germany.  European 1500m winner;               William Tanui (28), Kenya.  800m gold in Barcelona. David Kibet (28) Kenya.  Winner of the  Dream Mile in Oslo. Joseph Cheshire (34) Kenya.  Olympic 1500m fourth in 1984 and 1992. Jim Spivey (32) USA  USA Olympic trials winner. Tom Hanlon (25) Scotland.  Sixth in steeplechase in Barcelona. Kevin McKay (23) England.  Silver in 1988 800m World Junior Championships, semi-finalist in 1992 Olympics. Steve Crabb (28) England.  Double Olympian and 3:50 miler.

The Women’s field was: Hasib Boulmerka (24), Algeria.  Olympic 1500m champion in Barcelona. Ellen van Langen (26,) Holland.  Olympic 800m champion. Kirsty Wade (30), Wales.  Double 800m/1500m winner in  1986 Commonwealth Games Violet Beclea, (28), Romania.  World Indoor 800m silver medallist. Tatyana Dhorovskikh (31) Ukraine.  World 300m champion, 1988 Olympic 1500m gold, 1992 Olympic 1500m silver. Lyudmila Rogachova (25), Russia.  World bronze, Olympic silver and fastest in the world in 1992. Doina Melinte (35), Romania.  World indoor 1500m and Mile record holder,  sixth fastest outdoor Mile of all-time, Olympic gold (800m) and silver (1500m) in 1992. Yvonne Murray (27), Scotland.  1988 Olympics 3000m bronze, 1990 European champion. Sonia O’Sullivan, (22), Ireland.    World Student Games 1500m champion, fourth in Olympic 3000m Letitia Vriesde, (27), Surinam.  Fifth in world championships.

So two very good fields indeed and the Masters race had David Moorcroft, Sydney Maree, Graham Crouch, Thomas Wessinghage, Eamonn Coughlan and John Robson, at 35 the youngest in the field!   “Scotland’s Runner” previewed the races in their September 1992 issue.     “It’s not often we Scots get a chance to see the world’s top middle distance athletes battling it out on our own doorsteps but that’s exactly what will be happening on September 13th.      The Princes Street Mile, a new event originally conceived over two years ago by a small group of athletics enthusiasts including Hamish Henderson and top coach John Anderson, has found the funding it needs to go ahead on this date.  Split into five separate mile races, which will take competitors from Shandwick Place at Princes Street west end to its east end, the Princes Street Mile will provide its onlookers with an afternoon of top quality athletics against the dramatic backdrop of Edinburgh Castle.  Featuring ‘past masters’,  women’s men’s and youths’ races, the Princes Street Mile should contain something for everyone.  As an invitation only event, the quality of the field in each race is extremely high.  John Anderson who has been charged with the responsibility of finding competitors for the event has already secured some major names and is waiting for confirmation from more.    “We’ve already got the men’s and women’s Olympic 800m champions in each of the two major races,” reveals Jamie Henderson, project executive for Gameplan which is organising the Princes Street Mile for the Princes Street Mile Ltd, the company set up following the birth of the original idea to hold such an event. 

Among those confirmed to be taking part in the women’s race alongside Barcelona two lap gold medallist Ellie van Langen are local woman Yvonne Murray, the formidable East European duo Tatyana Dhorovskikh and Lyudmila Rogachova, Doina Melinte, Patti Sue Plummer and Anne Williams.  It’s a race which is potentially one of the best in Olympic year, not least from the point of view that it provides Murray the chance to redeem some pride and exact revenge for her crushing defeat in the final of the 3000m in Barcelona.    In his home city Tom Hanlon lines up in the men’s race facing not only 800m champion William Tanui but Peter Elliott, new sensation Curtis Robb, Steve Cram, Steve Crabb, Kevin McKay and Europeam 1500m champion Jens-Peter Herold of Germany.  The past masters event which includes former world record holders David Moorcroft and Sydney Maree also looks as if it should be well worth watching.  There will also be two events for athletes with disabilities – a wheelchair race for athletes who can complete a mile within five minutes, and an ambulant event for athletes with other disabilities who must be able to achieve the same qualifying mark.  “I think it will be too tight for Special Olympic participants to make it back for our event,” explains Jamie Henderson, “However, the good thing about this is that it gives those wheelchair athletes who didn’t make it to Spain a chance they might not otherwise of had.” 

Where the Youths events are concerned, a fine quality field comprising the top young men and women in the country is expected.  “The SAF is advising up on the most competitive option,” says Henderson.  “Like other races youths will be invitation only and should therefore feature some of the brightest talents of the future.”  As Henderson himself points out, the elite nature of each race by no means detracts from the ‘Sport for All’ framework of the Princes Street Mile.  With races for young and old as well as disabled, this is an event which goes further to representing the whole spectrum of the world’s athletic community than many others. As such, it is good news to learn that the Princes Street Mile is set to become a regular event on the athletics calendar.  “We are already developing the idea for future years, there are lots of ideas in the pipeline,” says Henderson.  This year’s Princes Street Mile  is a part-private, part-public venture.  Edinburgh based Standard Life has teamed up with Lothian and Edinburgh Enterprise, who put up £50,000 to help fund a business plan, sponsor search and initial marketing, and have since agreed to put up a further £75,000 to finance the prestigious event.  Meanwhile Lothian Region have agreed to match this with £75,000 of their own. “The Region has been very helpful in supporting the idea and granting permission for the race to take place in the first place,” says Henderson.  “The event will help to extend the tourist season beyond the Festival and adds to the city’s profile abroad.    Other private sponsorship worth £150,000 is helping to get the project off the ground.  Ian Skelly, for instance, will be providing the necessary courtesy cars while Edinburgh Crystal will be laying on specially designed trophies.  Meanwhile Phillips and Canon will be providing equipment and furniture for the media centre and Strathmore Water refreshments for the runners.  Other sponsors in kind include Bird Semple who are acting as legal advisors, Inter Flora who will be supplying flowers for the winners and Grant Thomson who are doing all the auditing.  Most of these companies will be adding to their hands-on contribution with cash.  Television coverage, every race organisers dream, has been secured courtesy of the BBC.   “The BBC will be giving the event half an hour live coverage on Sunday Grandstand and will be previewing it on both the Friday and the Saturday,” says Henderson.  “BBC Scotland will also be adding to the coverage by giving it an overview on the Sunday evening.”

I have reproduced the preview in full because it give the complete range of organisation that had to go into the race, the sums of money required to get it all off the ground and names all the main participating sponsors.  On to the actual races. On the day, the programme of events for the spectators had eight races and six more items on the programme.  The order of proceedings was: Event 1.    1:30     International Parade Event 2.    2:15     UK Youths Mile Event 3.    2:30     UK Intermediates (Girls) Mile Event 4.    2:45     UK Wheelchair Mile Event 5.    3:00     Presentation of Awards for events 2, 3 and 4 Event 6.    3:10     The Standard Life Masters Mile Event 7.    3:30     The Standard Life Women’s International Mile Event 8.    3:45     International Wheelchair Mile Event 9.    3:50     Past Champions Parade Event 10.  4:00     The Standard Life Men’s International Mile Event 11.  4:05     Presentation of Awards for Events 6, 7, 8 and 10 Event 12. 4:10      Parade of Champions

For the actual report on the race we go back to “Scotland’s Runner” of November 1992..  There were some changes to the starting line-up which is always inevitable in such an event which is planned so long in advance and with athletics injuries and illnesses and so on to contend with.      How did the races go?  “It’s not often that you will find two international athletes vying with each other not to represent their country, but that’s exactly what happened after the men’s race at the first ever Princes Street Mile event.  Matthew Yates had just been beaten into fifth place.  Steve Cram who had locked 3:55 – a time which he ‘couldn’t believe himself’ – had come in third.  Yates conclusion?  That Cram should go to Havana for the World Cup instead of him.  Cram however had other things on his mind and had no intention of going to Havana.  “Karen is expecting any moment,” he said at a Press conference later in the afternoon.  “Edinburgh’s as far as she’ll let me travel.  My plans are to run the Great North Run and then a 10K  Anyway I’m more in tune for road running than the track at the moment.” 

Cram’s performance in Edinburgh certainly seemed evident of good road running form.  Coming in behind Kenya’s David Kibet and Qatar’s Mohamed Suleiman, who took first and second place respectively, he put in a strong run which appeared all the more remarkable in the light of what he had to say about his training.  “In the last few weeks all I’ve done is a little bit of track work,” he confessed, “the first five or six hundred metres hurt  a bit as a result  but after that I settled down.  I didn’t get any more tired.  I was catching people which gave me an incentive to keep the pace up.”     Late entrant Tom McKean was less fortunate in his form.  Suffering from gastroenteritis and still on medication he was forced to pull out after 800 metres.  McKean for whom 1992 has hardly been the happiest in his athletics career  was planning to take a holiday before starting winter training.

In the women’s race it was Olympic 800m champion Ellie van Langen who took the honours.  Despite having a gold medal from Barcelona under her belt the Dutch woman was surprised at her win.  “I don’t do too many 1500m,” she explained, “and I don’t do many road races either.”  This inexperience she thought explained what she thought was a misjudged race.  “When I got to the three-quarter mile mark I was surprised I still had another quarter mile to go,” she revealed, “I realised I’d have to slow down or else I’d have blown up.”  Whatever her own misgivings about the race, it must surely bode well for van Langen’s proposed move from 800m to 1500m – something she hopes to do gradually over the next few years.  Behind the Amsterdam business economics students were two athletes with a lot more experience over longer distances, Sonia O’Sullivan, who placed fourth in the Olympic 3000mfinal and first in the World Student Games 1500m, and Yvonne Murray.  Although admitting disappointment at not winning such a prestigious event in front of a home crowd estimated at around 30,000, Murray said she had enjoyed herself and would be back again next year.  “I was surprised at how easy it felt,” she said afterwards.  “I enjoyed it.  The crowd were right behind me all the way and I got a real lift from them.”  Ireland’s O’Sullivan who had caught Murray and was within a whisker of van Langen by the closing stages of the race, had perhaps more to feel disgruntled about.  “I was going at the same pace as Ellie at the end of the race but I couldn’t pick it up enough to catch her,” she said.  “I think I waited too long  before challenging.”  

*

In an afternoon of athletics which lived up to all the preceding hype, it wasn’t just the men’s and women’s international miles which proved exciting viewing for the spectators.  In the ‘past masters’ event, Eamonn Coghlan outsprinted a tiring Sydney Maree to clinch first place in 4:07.  His sudden burst of speed took the American by surprise but was, from Coghlan’s point of view, easy to find.  “I saw Sydney looking around about ten times,” he said.  “It’s a sign that someone’s tiring when they do that.  So I told myself to hang on, chose my moment and went for it.  It was a case of the hunter and the hunted.”  Coghlan who said he enjoyed the race and thought the whole event extremely well organised , nonetheless had at least one refinement for next year’s event which he said he would be putting to the organisers.  The 39-year-old who will be 40 in November said, “There should be a real legends race next time – for the over 40 brigade.  There were some guys running today who were in their early thirties.  There’s quite a big gap between that and 40.”  Coghlan, by the time the event comes around again, may have dipped below four minutes for the mile.  At any rate, this is something he hopes to achieve indoors during the coming winter season.  His chances of realising his ambition are very good.  Clocking 4:07 with self-proclaimed ease at the Princes Street event was, he said, a good indicator that he could manage his goal.  “I wasn’t really trying very hard out there,” he commented after the race.  “If I can do that sort of time with that amount of effort then I think a sub-four minute mile could be on the cards.  Second placed Maree said he’d be back next year – although for him, at 36, an over-40’s race would be out of the question.  Maree who thought he was ‘safe’ when nobody had challenged him by 1200m joked that the lure of a prize car would be more than enough to bring him back to reap revenge.  (For the record, there was prize money of $20,000, $17,500 and $15,000 for the winners of the men’s women’s and past masters races respectively, but the bonus of a Volkswagen Golf and Polo for the first placed in only the first two of these categories.)

In the invitation intermediates and youths races there were strong performances from Isobel Linaker (Pitreavie) and Kevin Farrow (Derby).  Linaker, who  amongst numerous other achievements this year was recently named ‘Young Miler of the Year’, once again proved that she is one of Britain’s biggest middle-distance hopes when she pulled away from a strong field to finish five seconds up on second placed Julie MacKay (Shaftesbury) in 4:53..   The international and UK wheelchair races were won by Faeke Waquna and Martin Kettrick respectively.  Kettrick, from Stoke on Trent, who is a member of the British Wheelchair Racing Association only started wheelchair racing at the end of last year and even then has participated mainly in 10K and half marathon events.  “I’m quite surprised to have won,” he said later, “there’s a lot of technique in wheelchair racing and didn’t think I’d acquired all that was necessary yet.” The overall consensus from competitors and spectators alike was that the afternoon had been an enjoyable one.  The net result would seem to be that there is every likelihood that there will be a Princes Street Mile next year.  As Steve Cram so eloquently put it, “When you get people who can cater with the roads and the police side of things, but can also understand the needs of the athletes, you get a good event. ” “

 It was run on a good and successful course – so they altered it for 1993.    More later, but it had been a great success and there was really no doubt that having seen it the spectators wanted more, the council wanted more of the same publicity and having run it, the athletes wanted more.  So Gameplan organised another for. 12th September that year.

There was only a short preview in ‘Scotland’s Runner in 1993 but the race itself was reported in the magazine’s very last issue – October 1993.    However there was an interesting build up to the women’s race.  As part of the Grampian Festival of Road Running in Duthie Park, there had been a women’s 5000m road race where Liz McColgan faced Yvonne Murray at the head of a good field.  They raced shoulder to shoulder – often literally – with Liz leading and Yvonne dogging her footsteps and often accidentally knocking or nudging her with her shoulder, arm or foot.  She broke away at the finish to defeat an exhausted Liz who was not happy about the way Yvonne had run the race, implying that the physical contact had been deliberate.  Both women were invited to the Princes Street Mile of 1993.  In the September issue of the magazine, the headline read “”Liz v Yvonne in Princes Street.” and the article read:    “Arch-rivals Liz McColgan and Yvonne Murray are set to clash in next month’s Princes Street mile road race in what will be their first contact since elbows and cross words flew at the Grampian Festival of Road Running.  McColgan presently battling against injury, has declared that she will run if fit in an attempt to avenge Murray’s triumph in Aberdeen.    The Edinburgh race is living up to its billing as ‘the world’s premier road mile’ with Philadelphia based Irishwoman Sonia O’Sullivan – currently world’s fastest woman over 1500m and 3000m – and last year’s winner and reigning Olympic 800m champion Ellen van Langen both confirming they will run.   Kenya’s David Kibet, 1992 Dream Mile winner, returns to defend the men’s race, while Eamonn Coughlan will try to become the first veteran to break four minutes when he defends the masters title.  Coughlan, who holds the worlds fastest time by a 40 year old, comes up against former world 5000m record holder, David Moorcroft, currently fastest veteran for the outdoor mile and another who would dearly love to become first vet under four minutes.  Said Coughlan, “David and I and several others, having been knocking on the door all season, and given good conditions and strong opposition, I see no reason why the barrier can’t be broken in Edinburgh.”     Charged with the task of ensuring that there is a world class field in Edinburgh is Kim McDonald who is also Liz McColgan’s coach and is confident of ‘delivering an unprecedented line-up of world class milers for what is now the world’s top mile race.'” The two top Scots v the fastest woman in the world v the Olympic 800m champion in the women’s race, vets going for a sub-four and a classy men’s race – it really was shaping up to be possibly ‘the world’s best street mile!    On to the race. “A sun-filtered, thronging Princes Street provided the perfect venue for what proved, despite aspersions about the validity of the world-class billing, a true top-quality road mile.  The Standard Life Princes Street Mile was described afterwards by Matthew Yates, admittedly as winner of the men’s mile a biased commentator, as ‘definitely the premier road mile in the world.’  Yates’ obvious delight was highlighted by unconfined celebrations on crossing the finishing line of the revised course after a controlled, carefully judged performance which he attributed to lessons learned from last year when, after trailing home fifth, he was sick on the steps of the Balmoral Hotel.  Winning in 3:56 this year he believed the round course – and the closing hill – was every bit as hard as last year, and said “I think the fact that I won was the only reason I wasn’t sick.”   The Kenyans struck up an outrageous pace at the starting gun with double world steeplechase champion Moses Kiptanui, last year’s winner David Kibet and Spain’s Olympic 1500m champion Fermin Cacho scorching to the front, but the race almost ground to a bizarre halt when Kiptanui took a wrong turning to follow a television bike through the traffic islands just yards away from the clearly coned turn.  Despite the mishap the turn was reached in 1:55 and, sprinting away from the mistake, conversely, ended their hopes and determined the Englishman’s strategic win.  Later Yates explained, “they went faster off the turn and made up five metres on the rest of the field.  I stayed calm and collected at that point.  If I had gone with them I wouldn’t have won.  I have seen runners take the wrong turning this year, at the Aberdeen meeting, but they should have run the course before the race like everyone else.” 

The front runners who had made all the early pace faded badly.  Kiptanui hung on well to finish fourth in 3:58 while Kibet crossed the finishing line in 4:01 for eighth, and Cacho ended in ninth suffering from a muscle pulled during the earlier blunder.  Obviously the early leaders misjudged, a mistake not made by Yates. who remembered the energy reserve needed after covering the straight course last year.  “I found out about the hill last year,” he grinned, with a Citroen car to give his Mum for her birthday and $3000 richer.  Yates beat countryman John Mayock into second place in 3:57 while American Jim Spivey crossed the line half a second behind, with Steve Cram, enjoying a return from 5000m to the distance he dominated through the 80’s coming fifth in 3:58.   But for Yates the win indicated the world quality that British middle distance running maintains now despite slurs from past greats this year.  Steve Ovett enjoyed a race with a group of youngsters in the Race with Stars in the morning, and Yates fired a triumphant blast at his friend when asked why celebrations were so euphoric.  The 24-year-old whose season was plagued with injury last year said, “I’m getting fed up with Steve slagging of British middle distance running.  World athletics is so much harder now, especially to win middle distance events.  But we’ve got me and Curtis Robb who are up there,” he said. 

It was interesting that Steve Scott, perhaps the world’s greatest, unrecognised 1500m runner of all time, said he believed that Yates would be the man to watch for future Olympic honours at that distance.  Scott himself enjoyed his Edinburgh date, winning the Past Masters Mile with a time of 4:14, just ahead of Eamon Coghlan, both of whom are still very much chasing honours and recognition despite respective ages of 36 and 40.  Both are the front runners in the bid to be the first veteran to break the four minute mile.  Scott said, “I’m just hoping and praying that nobody else does it so I can be the first.”  Scotland’s John Robson provided a rare home performance to be proud of with a time of 4:17 in the Past Masters.  The Scots performances in the International Men’s race was poor.  Phil Mowbray was best placed in tenth with 4:03, Glen Stewart came twelfth in 4:06 and Gary Brown and Tom Hanlon traipsed over the line fourteenth and fifteenth.

Yvonne Murray raised home hopes in the women’s event but not halt the roll of Itishwoman Sonia O’Sullivan.  Winner of four Grand Prix races already this season  with a silver medal in the 1500m World Championships and a fourth behind the Chinese trio in the 3000m, the 23-year-old looked every inch what she is – world class.  Nervous before the race at the lack of motivation she felt, her failure to ‘psych’ herself up was not noticeable as she stuck to the shoulder of early front runner Boulmerka, the Algerian Olympic 1500m champion, before easing away with Murray hot on her heels in the home straight.  Murray hung on for much of the race but eventually began to struggle as O’Sullivan piled another garland on to her season’s pile, marking a natural progression from last year’s second place.  Home in 4:25, Murray was nehind at 4:26 while last year’s victor Ellen van Langen from Holland was third on 4:29. Murray was not too upset by her second place and said: “Everyone says I have got home advantage, but that hill gets me every time.  It’s a bit of fun at the end of the track season.  All the girls just go out and have a bit of fun.”  The presence of the Scot on her shoulder was amazingly never noticed by the Irish woman who said the intensity of the track and closeness of competitors was lost on the open road.  Running in only her second road race in two years, O’Sullivan, meanwhile, recognised that her season’s fun may soon be coming to a halt.  “I’m probably getting towards the end of my roll,” she admitted.  O’Sullivan’s season has been dogged by a continued amazing run of results from the dubious Chinese and her happiness at the win was tarnished by the news that five Chinese had beaten the 3000m world record in the semi-finals of their championships.  “I thought everybody was pulling my leg,” the unofficial number one said.  “I’m not surprised at all.  We’ve been hitby three times already this week, so you’ve just got to accept it.  There’s nothing you can do about it.”   

In the Junior Women’s event a truly striking performance stole the show.  Claire Martin from Wales knocked 17 seconds off her previous personal best for the mile, taking Lisa Palmer from England and Kirkcaldy’s Hayley Parkinson by surprise.  Parkinson will be joining Edinburgh University in the autumn to study sociology and enjoyed the visit to her alma mater.      “I was quite pleased,” she said, “I had hoped to do better as the girl from Wales has a slower personal best for 1500m.  I think she surprised us all.”    Karen Kirk was placed eighth.     In the Junior Men’s race Tom Winter of Edinburgh Athletic Club and Scott Taylor from Babcock Thorn Pitreavie were not expected to make any impression against the mighty Victor Malakwen.  Based at the same military camp in Kenya as Moses Kiptanui and with a personal best in the 800m of 1:46.6, he romped the course in 4:14 with Winters running a time of 4:18 and Taylor a second behind in 4:19.  The 19-year-old Malakwen said later: “I enjoyed the race but the ground was too hard for me, but then it was my first time in a road mile.”     Heinz Frei of Switzerland had no trouble manoeuvring the turn in winning the wheelchair mile in 3:21.  The turn varied from last year’s straight mile but the new course provides a better arena dor  the 25,000 spectators police estimated had turned out for the day.  Promoted by Standard Life and supported by Lothian Enterprise and the city council the event is now one of true world standing and Mike Wilson of organisers Gameplan said an announcement would be made in the next four weeks on its future.

Results: Men:  1.  M Yates (England)  3:56;  2.  J Mayock (England)  3:57;  3.  J Spivey (USA)  3:57. Women:  1.  S O’Sullivan (Ireland)  4:25;  2.  Y Murray  (Scotland)  4:26;  3.  E van Langen (Netherlands)  4:29. Wheelchair:  1.  H Frei (Switzerland)  3:21;  2.  D Holding (England)  3:29;  3.F Waque (Netherlands)  3:30. Past Masters:  1.  S Scott (USA)  4:14;  2.  E Coghlan (Ireland)  4:16;  3.  J Robson (Scotland)  4:17. Junior Men:  1.  V Malakwen (Kenya)  4:14;  2.  T Winters (Scotland)  4:18;  3.  S Taylor (Scotland)  4:19. Junior Women:  1.  C Martin (Wales)  5:04;  2.  L Palmer (England)  5:14;  3.  H Parkinson (Scotland)  5:16.

The former course of course would have prevented the leaders from leaving the straight and narrow of the race trail, had the leaders who went of the course not jogged over the route before the race as Yates suggests then they should have done.  The race organisers however seem to have done a good job – with Kibet, Kiptanui, Cacho, Cram and Yates in the field it was a  quality event; the women’s race with van Langen, O’Sullivan and Murray was also of a very high standard, the wheelchair race had the same athletes competing as the year before and the presence of a 19 year old Kenyan in the Youths race was also a coup.    The fact that Youths were defined as being Under-17 is maybe a quibble.  It was undoubtedly a well organised event.  Mind you, Eamon (and was it Coghlan or Coughlan?  Both spellings were used by the various reporters). must have been disappointed that they had not taken up his suggestion of a proper Over 40’s Mile with youngsters like Steve Scott and John Robson being in the field.     BUT   The race had seen its two best years.  There was no Princes Street Mile in either 1994 or 1995.  Doug Gillon reported in the ‘Herald’ on 17th September 1994 as follows.  “The Princes Street Mile road race was cancelled yesterday juts a week before the event which was expected to attract international athletes to Edinburgh.  The illness of the promoter, Mr Mike Wilson of Gameplan, had thrown organisation for the event, due to take place next Sunday, into turmoil.  The main sponsors, Edinburgh and Lothian Enterprise Ltd, Lothian Regional council and Standard Life went to the Court of Session earlier this week to have a Judicial Factor, Mr Mike Gilbert, appointed to take over the running of Gameplan in the hope of saving the race.  However Mr Gilbert said yesterday that after carrying out as full a review as possible, he was recommending the appointment of a provisional liquidator.  He had been unable to determine the full range of financial commitments which had been made.   The women’s mile would have been a race of the highest quality.  It was to be a gala homecoming for Musselburgh athlete Yvonne Murray making her first appearance in Scotland since her Commonwealth Games 10000m victory in Vancouver last month.  There was to have been a rematch between Murray and Ireland’s Sonia O’Sullivan, who beat Murray for the European 3000m crown in Helsinki, with Olympic champion Hassiba Boulmerka of Algeria dn England’s Kelly Holmes also taking part.  About 25 world-class competitors had been confirmed.  The men’s race was to include Spain’s 1500m Olympic champion Fermin Cacho, Olympic 800m champion William Tanui from Kenya and Scotland’s European Indoor Mile gold medallist David Strang.  The multi-race programme included events for the disabled, .  The local enterprise company had already put up $17,500 of its total sponsorship commitment of $27,000, Lothian Region had given Gameplan $22,500 of the $50,000 promised and Standard Life had forwarded $200,000 for this year’s event.     Mr Wilson had set up a subsidiary company, Gameplan Events Management Consultancy Ltd, to stage the event and around $200,000 of the sponsorship money remained in a special trust account for the race.  “I have not been able to establish how much income was coming in and what the total cost would be,” Mr Gilbert explained.  “There is not enough time to establish the exact financial position to allow sponsors to say this is the likely level of commitment for the event to go ahead.  I could not suggest to sponsors that they should enter into something that was open ended.”  Neither Mr Gilbert nor the sponsors had been able to speak to the promoter to ascertain the financial position.  This would have been the third race and the third consecutive year that it has hit financial difficulties.  The Regional Council and LEEL had come to the rescue of the first race in 1992 when it had made losses of $50,000.  This was on top of $75.000 funding from each body and commercial sponsorship of $100,000.  Last year again, the Council was asked to $65,000 in to let the event go ahead with LEEL donating $50,000 and Standard  Life $150,000.  The race still made a loss which was made up by the public bodies.  It is not the first time Mr Wilson’s promotions have run into difficulties.  Last year the World Robot Championships in Glasgow had to be cancelled with weeks to go when it emerged that there was “a very significant shortfall” in confirmed sponsorship deals, and at last year’s European Sea-Angling Championships in Caithness, organisers discovered a promised sponsorship deal had failed to materialise a fortnight before the contest.”

That was it then for 1994 and again in 1995 but in 1996 there was an attempt to resuscitate what had been an event popular with the public and the athletes.  It was down to Doug Gillon that the public knew of the possibility of the race.  Almost two years later to the day, on 18th September 1996, the article appeared in the ‘Herald’ under the headline “Princes Street Mile Back On The Agenda.’  It was short but encouraging and also shed more light on the finances of the first two races.  It read “Plans are afoot to revive men’s and women’s races along Princes Street as part of this year’s Great Caledonian Run a week on Sunday.  Miguel Mostaza, the leading Iberian marathon coach who acts as Cacho’s agent confirmed to ‘The Herald’ that Cacho would run.  John Mayock, the AAA’s 1500m champion for the last two years, and winner of the 2000m at the Sarajevo Solidarity meeting this year, is also likely to run.  As yet the Scottish Athletics Federation has allocated a permit only to the 10000m , but with no counter-attraction on on the day, a permit for the Mile would seem a formality.  The Princes Street Mile was axed three years ago.  Former organiser Mike Wilson who was not contactable yesterday, may still hold copyright to the title.”

Sure enough the race did go on in 1996, but it was as part of a package including the two 10K road races referred to by Doug in his article quoted above.  That led to a headline reading ‘MURRAY MAKES AMENDS’ in Athletics Weekly which had some of us thinking she’d won the Mile at last but instead it referred to her victory in the longer event in 33:16 from Esther Kiplagat of Kenya (29:11).  The men’s race was won incidentally by Christopher Kelong of Kenya in 29:11 for the difficult course.  But there were only two mile races this time – a men’s and a women’s – each with good field but not with the same strength in depth as in 1992 and 1993.  The report  read:

“Ann Griffiths thoroughly enjoyed her return after a long lay-off winning the women’s race by a second from European Cup champion Olga Churbanova.  Organised at short notice by thanks to sponsorship by Lothian and Edinburgh Enterprise Limited, and sportswear firm View From, the Edinburgh Mile followed the BUPA Caledonian Run.  It marked the reappearance of road miles to Princes Street after the point-to-point races folded three years ago.    Unlike its predecessor, organisers designed a course with three turning points allowing spectators regular opportunities to follow the races.  Griffiths, the 1990 Commonwealth 800m silver medallist, bided her time for a sprint finish, a strong wind blowing in the runners faces in the first half of the race preventing any fast times.  Then the relatively slow pace (440 in 75, 880 in 2:31 and three quarters of a mile in 3:56) allowed the field to stay virtually intact until the final burst for the line.  The Russian and Kenyan looked favourites until Griffiths turned on the speed over the final 200m to win by a second in 4:49.  Griffiths whose Olympic ambitions were ruined by a chest infection at Easter said, “It was a tough race, and the wind gave everyone a lot of bother.  That’s why I thought I’d wait until after the final bend then go for it.  I know I’m stronger than most women.”  Now Griffiths is looking towards gaining a 1500m place in the World Indoor Championships.  “I’ve got no injuries or illnesses.  I’m flying and winning, like today, is what it’s all about.” she said.     Having helped promote the meeting John Mayock was also hoping to give the race backers a British victory.  But a long hard season has taken its toll on the British number one.  After a 62 second first quarter mile, the 17 starters were still bunched together.  Like the women’s event, the 880 went by rather sedately in 2:08 and three quarters in 3:05 before a sprint for the line decided the winner.  Even with 20 yards remaining that seemed likely to be Scotland’s Glen Stewart.  But practically on the line Italy’s Massimo Pegoretti eased his torso ahead to cross the line in 4:07.  Five others, including Mayock, remained in the frame almost to the bitter end.  The Commonwealth 1500m bronze medallist shrugged off his defeat in his final race of the summer season.  “I just wasn’t good enough,” said Mayock.  “I gave it my best shot but it just wasn’t there.    I’m feeling really tired and I’m looking forward to a long rest.” 

Results:  Men:  1.  M Pegoretti (Italy)  4:07;  2.  G Stewart (Scotland)  4:007;  3.  A Abelli ((Italy) 4:08;  4.  J Mayock (England)  4:08;  5.  N Caddy (England)  4:08;  6.  C Impens (Belgium)  4:08;  7.  R Kibet (Kenya)  4:09;  8.  B Treacy (Ireland)  4:10;  9.  D Roache (Scotland)  4:10;  10.  D Spawforth (England)  4:11;  11.  S Fairbrother (England)  4:12;  12.  S Healy (Ireland)  4:13;  13.  T Whiteman (England)  4:13;  14.  A Wanderi (Kenya)  4:14;  15.  T Martin (Spain)  4:19;  16.  M Hibberd (England)  4:20;  17.  V Wilson (England)  4:24.  Women:  1.  A Griffiths  4:49;  2.  O Churbanove (Russia)  4:50;  3.  J Kiplimo (Kenya)  4:51;  4.  S Griffiths (England)  4:52;  5.  K (Hutcheson)  Hargrave (Club Sportif Nantfl/Scotland)  4:58;  6.  A Buysse (Belgium)  5:00;  7.  H Pattinson (England)  5:00;  8.  I Sluysman (Netherlands)  5:04;  9.  M Zuniga (Spain)  5:07;  10.  T Ashcroft (England)  5:10;  11.  M McClung (Scotland)  5:17.

It is interesting to note how close so many of the men were – six within two seconds of each other and nine within three seconds!  The appearance of Karen (Hutchison) Hargraves was also a feature of the race, the former Scottish Commonwealth Games runner was racing in the colours of her French club team after having gone to stay there.

That was the last of the Princes Street Miles – Mike Wilson may well have held the copyright of the title for the race in ’96 was billed as the Edinburgh Mile.  Sponsorship wasn’t as good, the course was not as athlete-friendly as in earlier years with several very tight turns (almost U turns in fact) and the races shared the limelight with the mass fields of the BUPA Caledonian 10K.  It was a pity that they had to go because everyone enjoyed them but the financial demands on the organisers were probably such that they could not afford to keep it running.

Thirty one years after Aberdeen AAC’s initial 1972 effort, there was a reunion for runners, drivers and organisers.   Sadly Alastair Wood had died only months before, but his wife Jean and son Duncan were present.   Martin Walsh wrote an article for ‘Leopard’, the Aberdeen magazine.   Here is an excerpt:

“Memories were rekindled.   The little world of each dormobile, with its two running mates and two dedicated drivers, came back in a series of vivid snapshots.  

For the runners the imperative had been to push themselves as hard as possible during the five or ten minute bursts, keeping just enough left in the tank to finish each two hour session.   Beyond that, the hope that the body would somehow survive until Land’s End.   The drivers’ job was to maintain the exact speed demanded by the runners, while map reading, negotiating traffic and effecting runner exchanges on the dot.   Sometimes, to protect a runner from the elements, a driver was expected to drive so closely that the runner’s pounding arms were actually inside the open rear door of the van.   And woe betide the driver who got his speed wrong.

After each session, having taken whatever abuse the runners hurled at them, they fed their charges, astonished at the monumental quantities of food disappearing into such emaciated bodies.   Five vans – five little worlds passing each other like ships in the night.   Brief moments of connection at the start and finish of each session and then the inexorable drive south, sometimes passing a lonely runner battling up a hill in the middle of nowhere.   Not exactly a spectator sport, but in the minds of all the participants, an epic personal drama.

Images from the relays.   April 1972, John o’Groats, cold wind from the Pentland Firth: Alastair Wood starts it all off.   Same year, somewhere north of Inverness, night time, runner on the road, headlamps disappear into a ditch!   Total darkness.   Run with arms outstretched.   Road Junction.   Terror …. Which way?   How long can he maintain speed?   Will anyone ever find him?

     Corryairack Pass – a sneaky shortcut – but no chance of van accompaniment.   A strong guy will have to run it alone.   Give it to Don Ritchie.   But no one bargained for snow.   20 miles, sometimes knee deep.   Don quietly heroic.

     The wee small hours, northern Britain, a lonely mountainside: the skirl of Gordon Casely’s bagpipes.   A huge lift in spirit.

     Somewhere in the north of England, 1973, freezing: canal bridge opening to passing coaster, no time to waste.   “I’ll just swim it,” says Peter Duffy, champing at the bit.   Quick thinking drivers narrowly prevent him.

     Clever shortcut through English town, 1982: runner to detach from mother van, co-ordinator to guide through – but overtaken by greyhound runner.   “Ah’m nae waitin for him,” says Peter Wilson.   “Turn left, turn left! gasps rapidly receding co-ordinator.

     Somewhere in Devon, 1973 and again 1982: everyone exhausted, behind schedule, near despair.   Throw everyone into two vehicles, cut down the running interval.   Miraculously the speed picks up, everyone feeding off each other’s encouragement or abuse.   One runner clocks 18 mph down a hill in Devon.   The last 150 miles pass in a blur of euphoria.   Runners join hands to cross the final line at Land’s End – the record in Aberdeen’s!

Footnote: On the last relay, two photographers accompanied the team – Frank Woods and Monty Orr.   Frank donated to the participants a dozen wonderfully evocative photos of the event.   A personal favourite perfectly captured the spirit of the enterprise – a lone runner in the headlights of a van at dusk against a brooding mountain.”

(The 1994 Guinness Book of Records states that the Jogle record was broken in 1990 by Vauxhall AAC in 76:58:29.   However, although the Dornoch Bridge shortcut was not open until 1991, they had the advantage of using the Kessock Bridge, which reduced the distance run by at least 10 miles. (The Kessock Bridge was opened in July 1982, several months after AAAC’s April 1982 run.)   Since they only outpaced us by 25:39, it can be argued that the 1982 Aberdeen AAC team remains the best ever. Vauxhall AAC are free to disagree.)

Colin writes: After the successful completion of the 1982 relay, I wrote a short essay trying to describe what a typical Jogle session actually felt like.   (This was later slightly fictionalised in my book ‘Running Shorts’.   [This might be reproduced in full later on.   BMcA] It focused on a section Don Ritchie and I did over Shap in the middle of the night.   Here we are bashing on towards the top.

“Last half hour of our stint, past Shap village, and the real hills have appeared – long relentless drags winding over the fells.   The temperature has dropped with the gain in altitude and a cutting Arctic wind whistles into us, piercing our sweat- stained tee-shirts.   A grey cheerless place and an insane time to be running.   There is an air of unreality about it all – the pool of light sliding along the tarmac behind the floodlit vehicle, the lone figure struggling to keep up, pursued by the shadows of night.   Tiredness eats insidiously into your whole body but can be ignored if the incentive is sufficient – and we really want to reach ‘Halfway’ before handing over.    Every five minutes is a flat out effort – thirty seconds to loosen up and get into full stride behind the van, and then fighting uphill at maximum tempo, fists punching rhythmically, oxygen sucked hard from the icy air until ‘three minutes gone’ is called; then an attempt to maintain pace until ‘Thirty seconds’, when the comfort of the windbreak is brusquely removed as the van accelerates, leaving the runner alone to stride out of the darkness to his team-mate before bouncing up the step and crashing heavily on to the bed.   Purr of engine, reek of exhaust fumes, gasping for breath, throbbing in the head, dryness of throat, sour smell of perspiration – these are the sensations of a leaden-legged Jogle runner nearing the end of the session.”    

1982 Team At The Finish:

Mike Murray (aged 23), Colin Youngson (33), John Robertson (24), Peter Wilson (25), Graham Milne (33), Alastair Wood(48), George Reynolds (21), Fraser Clyne (26), Donald Ritchie (37), Graham Laing (25)

“At 12 noon exactly, on Saturday 3rd April 1982, ten runners rushed off down the road heading south from the John O’Groats Hotel, Britain’s most northerly building.   But this was no local race – nine of the runners halted at the first bend – and only one, Fraser Clyne, Aberdeen Amateur Athletic Club’s best cross country runner, continued onwards at around 12 mph.   This was the start of an attempt to break the record for the End to End Relay, certainly one of the most peculiar (and gruelling) events in the athletics calendar.

Preparations had been going on for months – finding the shortest road route (avoiding motorways), identifying short cuts through awkward city centres, devising a computerised pace schedule, organising sponsorship  and selecting runners and drivers.

The main sponsor, Access, had injected thousands of pounds into a fairly sophisticated operation, and had stimulated a lot of publicity which was to continue before, during and after the run – what with receptions, press releases, interviews, articles, photographs, pipe bands, radio and television coverage, it would have been embarrassing to fail!

The tactical system, based on experience gained from the club’s two previous J.O.G.L.E. attempts was very important.   The fact that Aberdeen’s 1963 record had withstood several assaults proved that they knew what they were doing.   There were to be five Dormobile vans, each containing two runners and two drivers, as well as co-ordinators, press and sponsors’ cars.    Each van was to be responsible for a two hour spell the runners splitting it up as they thought fit.   (Anything between 20 minutes and five minutes had been tried in Aberdeen’s three Jogles)   If everything went to plan and no one dropped out through injury, this system would give eight hours ‘rest’ between sessions – time for washing,  eating and sleeping as well as driving about 80 miles to the next change over point.  

Unfortunately there was a severe headwind the whole way so that the athlete was forced behind the van most of the time – rather  suffer from carbon monoxide poisoning than fall behind schedule.   In fact Aberdeen maintained record breaking speed throughout.   Fraser Clyne and Peter Wilson were ten minutes up at the end of the first session; Graham Laing (who must be close to a Commonwealth Games marathon place on this form) and Graham Milne sped over the notorious Berriedale Braes with apparent ease; Mike Murray and Alastair Wood continued rapidly to Golspie; Don Ritchie and Colin Youngson kept up the good work over the hilly Lochbuie shortcut to Bonar Bridge; and George Reynolds and John Robertson pushed hard up and over the long drag of the Struie to Dingwall, where Innis Mitchell (Inverness Harriers and VPAAC – an ex-JOGLER himself) revived the combatants with home brew and cake. 

Dawn on Sunday 4th January saw the cavalcade pass through Ballachulish and Glencoe in a downpour.   The ‘Reporting Scotland’ TV crew filmed the section from Loch Lomond to Glasgow where a local expert led the way on a bike for twenty crazy minutes up one way streets, over parks, through a carwash, etc – trying to cut corners on the way to Cambuslang, the A74 and England.

On the second night at the top of the Shap summit (the halfway mark in the Jogle) Aberdeen were an hour up on schedule – but by breakfast time on Monday fifth, they were only just ahead.   This was a shock but it was a relief to learn that the cause was not runner collapse or vehicle failure – the route simply omitted ten whole miles of road.   The strain was beginning to tell by now – lack of sleep and sore muscles were  affecting both runners and drivers but morale was high because the communication system was excellent (CB radio contact between vans was a godsend) everyone was seen to be trying suitably hard and the relay was progressing steadily in a controlled fashion.  

By now the athletes stomachs had adjusted to the workload and vast amounts of several foods were consumed: cornflakes, peaches, glucose, milk, bread, jam, scrambled eggs (heavy on the salt), yoghurt, orange juice, strawberry milk, shortbread and potato crisps was a fairly typical diet.  

Colin and Don, Shropshire 1982: Dehydration was easily overcome.

Now that the running/resting routine was second nature, participants began to snatch moments of relaxation from the grind – enjoying hot baths in hotels, visiting restaurants or even searching out ‘real beer’ pubs.   [Click on the picture above and count the glasses!]      The route passed through Hereford and over the Severn Bridge into the last night.   There was an organisational ‘hiccup’ when the occupants of one van slept in and missed their turn but others came to the rescue and even the switchback Bickleigh to Crediton section was negotiated quite well.   Shortly afterwards the ‘sprint’ began: the most gruelling (but exhilarating) part of the whole relay.   Two vans (each with five runners) alternated for an hour each and the speed increased rapidly as team mates encouraged each other to push to the limit. absolutely flat out before collapsing into the van again.    A weird sense of elation  was widespread despite the wear and tear on the muscles and the drain on stamina reserves.  

The procession crossed Bodmin Moor and went through Penzance in the rush hour before rolling on to the finish.   Weary but exultant, all ten runners completed the final yards together finishing at the Lands End Hotel precisely 77 hours 24 minutes and 08 seconds after leaving John O’Groats (one and three quarter hours inside the 1973 record).   Champagne, photographs, presentations and a civic reception in Aberdeen – all very gratifying but nothing to the joy of being able to stop!

On the way north, some people (mainly pressmen) were talking about trying it again!”

A note about the runners:

Mike Murray was well known as a middle distance track runner and member of the elite British Milers Club with pb’s of 1:53.4 and 3:50.58

Colin Youngson was a three time Scottish marathon champion with a pb for the distance of 2:16:50

John Robertson was a member of many good teams with a marathon pb of 2:28:21

Peter Wilson won the Scottish marathon championship in 1983 and he had a pb set in London of  2:20:05

Graham Milne was a club stalwart for many years with a marathon pb of 2:21:27 and many more inside 2:30

Alastair Wood is a Scottish not just Aberdeen legend.   Six times SAAA Marathon champion, GB internationalist on track and road with a pb of 2:13:45.   Even at the age of 48 for the 1982 Jogle he was indispensable.

George Reynolds was Scottish Marathon champion in 1984 and had a pb for the distance of 2:20:41.

Fraser Clyne five times Scottish marathon champion with a lifetime best of 2:11:50

Donald Ritchie is another Scottish distance running legend but specialising in the ultras – 100 miles and more, 24 hour races, etc – where he was one of the best in the world.   He had a marathon pb of 2:19:35

Graham Laing another top class athlete over several distances, winner of the 1980 Scottish marathon and a placer in the top six of the London Marathon with a pb of 2:13:59.

(Those who could not/did not make the team would make very interesting reading.   It would maybe not be an Aberdeen B team but might well have another four or five top runners who would walk into another club squad.    BMcA)

Before AAAC’s final Jogle, Colin Youngson wrote the following hint sheet for inexperienced participants.

“An Idiot’s Guide to JOGLE THREE

(you do need to be an idiot to attempt it!)

• DON’T eat absolutely enormous meals on the two days before the start – you’ll only add extra weight wich may be hard to shift
• DO drink lots of fluid during the relay, being sure to include glucose, salt and potassium (Bananas?   Dried Fruit?)   Yoghurt is an easily digested fuel
• Don’t be rigid about the ten minute sessions.   be prepared to share hillwork and switch to five minute stints when tired.   Remember the idea is to keep up speed not end up dead before halfway.
• Use the van as a windbreak if there is a headwind.   Get the driver/navigator organised to tell you or press the horn at half time in your stint, or when there’s a minute to go – it’s a real incentive.
• If runners overlap, they don’t need to touch hands at takeover.   This can be done by one running straight up the step into the van while the other, cautiously checking for dangerous traffic, takes off down the side of the van.
• Try to have the occasional shower/bath/meal out.   A ‘pint’ a day helps morale and sleep (as well as containing valuable minerals!)
• Get sleep while you can – before someone gets injured and the rest periods are automatically ‘chopped’ too six hours or less.
• Remember – 150 miles out, the final ‘sprint’ begins, and we can easily recoup any losses in the middle part of the run.
• The target time per mile is about 5:30 to 5:35, so don’t run sub-fives all first day unless your name is F. Clyne or G. Laing.
• Massage those aching legs with olive oil, embrocation, etc.   Do gentle stretching exercises and don’t run in racing shoes all the time.
• KEEP CALM – WE CAN BEAT THE RECORD.
• Suggestion to tactics committee: how about trying to avoid the mid-race slump in speed by going over to one and a half hour sessions in the 200 miles before the last 150 mile ‘sprint’?

The 1982 Route

The club was back in action the following year with a new determination which is well shown in the report below.

(Captain Steve Taylor wrote  this article for the Road Runners Club magazine.)

“Never again!” was the unanimous opinion of ten sweat-stained and weary runners at the end of last year’s unsuccessful attempt by Aberdeen AAC on the John O’Groats to Land’s End Relay record.

However with the usual unpredictability of the athletic animal, ten of us, along with drivers and officials found ourselves heading north on Friday 6th April in the new familiar Commer Highwayman Motor Caravans.   As the rain and wind buffeted the convoy, there were no more than the usual recriminations and from the drivers, clear indication that they considered us ‘off our heads’.   However our sponsors, Aberdeen and District Milk Marketing Board, had been exceedingly generous in the financial outlay, and we were determined not to let them down.

Saturday, 7th April dawned cold and clear, with just a hint of snow showers in the surrounding Sutherland hills, but the gale had blown itself out.   It was decided that the order of running would be  : Peter Duffy and Derek Bisset; Alistair Neaves and Martin Walsh; Alastair Wood and Rab Heron; Steve Taylor and Colin Youngson; Innis Mitchell (an Aberdonian ex-Scottish Schoolboys cross country champion who was to win ‘blues’ from both Strathclyde and Glasgow Universities) and Joe Clare (Royal Navy and Blackheath Harriers stalwart who had run 2:18 for a marathon after starting seriously in athletics with the Aberdeen club).

This year the Time and Distance schedule had been computerised, and another innovation was the route deviation over the Forth Road Bridge, which saved a few miles.   The routine was as before, with four vans on two hour stints and one van on one hour only.   At 12 noon Pete Duffy set off with a fresh wind at his back.   An hour later – disaster.   Derek Bisset cut his foot during his stint and was to be a passenger for all but a few miles of the whole run.   A quick re-organisation and Teams Four and Five were amalgamated to form a three man team.     The result of this was to reduce the rest period between runs to a desperate six hours.   However the spirits remained high, and the first 100 miles, including the crossing of the snow covered Struie Pass, were completed approximately 25 minutes inside the schedule which was based on a time 13 minutes inside Reading’s record.   The next mishap occurred at Inverness, when a breakdown in communications resulted in a van failing to link up; consequently the combined team were four hours on the road, followed by two and a half hours by Van 2.   By now it was snowing fairly steadily, but the underfoot conditions were quite good.   By 11:00 am on Sunday, the runners were going through Perth and still pulling up on schedule.    On the approach to the Forth Road Bridge there was a bitterly cold wind blowing down the Firth.   The end of Princes Street in Edinburgh was reached in an incredible one hour twenty minutes ahead of schedule.   It was here unfortunately that Van 1 had an argument with a pedestrian barrier and was to be out of commission for the remainder of the run.   Nine sweaty bodies were now squeezed into the remaining four vehicles, not without the usual grumbles – all good natured, of course!   Further south on the stiff climb to the summit of the Devil’s Beeftub the pace was maintained, but the runners were now preparing  to enter their second night with the daunting prospect of crossing a snow covered Shap in the early hours of Monday morning.   By Gretna the team was one and a half hours up on the schedule, and this was the high point of the run.   The conditions on Shap were worse than we at first feared and a temperature of twelve degrees below freezing began to take a heavy toll on tired legs.   By the change-over  just outside Kendal, the time on hand began to dwindle and from then on it was to be a battle of sheer guts to keep ahead of schedule.   Later we learned that it had been the coldest April night in the area for 50 years!

The third day brought its inevitable problems, and despite the bright sunshine the average was dropping drastically; a situation further aggravated by a five minute wait at a bridge on the Manchester Ship Canal.   As the runners swung off the main road just south of Hereford, the gain on schedule was now a perilous 31 minutes and the worst of the night was yet to come.   By the Severn Bridge there were still 210 miles to go and things were beginning to look black.   By Crediton on the final morning – the low point – the schedule showed that we were now 20 minutes behind the record and with only 116 miles left it was hurriedly decided to make a drastic change in tactics.   Two teams (one of four runners and one of five) were quickly organised with each man on a very short stint.   As Okehampton was reached, the watches showed that the rot had been stopped, and in fact a few precious minutes had been pulled back.   By now with 97 miles to go, and in bright sunshine, weary limbs began to take on a more springy action, and as the two teams changed over on the steep climb out of Okehampton, there was a decided air of optimism spreading through the whole party.   By the 800 miles point, just south of Bodmin, the 5 minute 3 second per mile pace of the last 60 miles had pulled the red and white vested Aberdonians  back on to their schedule, and it now became apparent that the record was going to be beaten.   The distance done by each runner was now little more than a glorified sprint, and hills were easily demolished in this way.  

Local news bulletins had alerted the population to the success of the ‘Northern Invaders’ and the flashing headlights and the honking horns provided the extra incentive to get to the finish.   At 7:05 pm the four men on the road together were joined by the remainder of the team, who joined hands and did a delighted jig over the line to the strains of Amazing Grace played on the bagpipes by co-ordinator Gordon Casely.   It was a proud moment for the Aberdeen club as referee Bill Donald announced the time – 79 hours 8 minutes 8 seconds.   Almost 32 minutes inside the previous record.

The team was given a reception by the Chairman of the West Penwith Rural District Council, who delighted the party by telling them of his close association with the Gordon Highlanders, Aberdeen’s own regiment, during the war.   Then it was off to Penzance to a hot bath and a bed.   The record had been achieved largely due to: the knowledge gained  from the previous year’s run; the efficient organisation by the co-ordinators; and of course the overwhelming generosity of the sponsors, who catered for every whim of the runners”

*****

Rab Heron later wrote

“TOUCHING THE BLOOD or COMING THROUGH:

notes for a brief epic novel of pedestrianism on the High Road (and other sundry places in South Britain) in the company of disreputable Coachmen and Sundry Footpads and Broken Men.

·         Great Meaning but no purpose.

·         Free tracksuits – bring your own shoes

·         “We anticipate no communication problems between five motor-homes and one link car….”

·         Sore legs after the first session

·         Good at the beginning; good at the end; a bit of a drag in the middle.

·         Chafing, as in sand in the jockstrap

·         Invading small quiet hotels and monopolising the bathrooms

·         The A9 Munros rising up to greet a cold pink dawn

·         The rolling English road

·         Drunk on the first pint of ale in Tewkesbury

·         The side of the van all over the bloody street in Edinburgh

·         The Pipes, The Pipes

·         Crapping in a nice front garden in a quiet and furtive manner, somewhere

·         Tatties with eggs mashed into them and lumps of cheese

·         Yoghurt any time of the day or night

·         “Ninety seven mile to go!” quoth a Devon roadmender

·         Didn’t see the Loch Ness monster

·         Jamaica Inn

·         The partners – Youngson (1972) and Wood (1973) – thanks for the memories and the laughs”

The Jogle is one of the toughest tests of collective endurance that could be imagined.   It is a ten man relay race against the clock between John O’Groats and Land’s End requiring ten good athletes, an efficient back up team, determination  and team spirit in abundance.    The great Aberdeen teams of marathon and distance runners of the 1970’s and 1980’s were probably unique in numbers and quality when they tackled the event and set records.   Colin Youngson ran in all three record breaking runs and his introduction to our coverage of the event is below.   He remarked that the team of 1983 contained a 3:50 1500 metres guy, a 2:29 guy, a 2:21 guy plus six Scottish marathon champions and the world’s greatest ultra runner!   It was probably inevitable that they got the record.

“The first attempts at setting records between John o’Groats and Land’s End occurred in the 19th Century.   By 1880, both runners and cyclists succeeded in setting times between the two points.   The advent of rules governing End to End attempts by the early 20th Century set the pace for the present day.

Since 1959 many teams have tackled the euphemistically abbreviated JOGLE (or LEJOG, depending on the direction chosen).   For example Cambridge University broke the record at one point, and this has been written about by Roger Robinson, who used to run with Mel Edwards in the 1960’s.   Roger is not only one of the very finest of athletics journalists but was also an English and later New Zealand cross-country international and a World Veteran marathon Champion.

By 1967, Reading Amateur Athletic Club, at the time European team marathon champions, broke the Jogle record in 79 hours 40 minutes.   Ron McAndrew was one of their best runners.”

I’ll record the actual relays separately below for ease of access to the individual attempts and they will be in the words of several of the participants – mainly Colin Youngson but Steve Taylor is responsible for the 1973 report, Martin Walsh did the Postscript and there are contributions by Rab Heron and others.    

The Links below are in chronological order from left to right and the ‘Helpful Hints’ should be read, as it was written, before the 1982 account.

Jogle 1972   Jogle 1973    Helpful Hints 1982    Jogle 1982   A Typical Jogle Session   Postscript

Alastair Wood

 Aberdeen made their first attempt, north to south in 1972, starting on Sunday 9th April.   Donald Ritchie remembers Steve Taylor and Alastair Wood chatting about the possibilities during Sunday runs.   Most people were incapable of speaking or thinking during those knackering sessions!   Steve was captain of the team in 1972 and 1973 and arranged sponsorship from the Evening Express.   We turned up at Aberdeen Journals on the Lang Stracht for a publicity meeting.   Particularly chic tight fitting red tracksuits were handed out.   These were mainly used as pyjamas during the actual relay!

After our attempt started the John  O’Groat Journal reported that each pair of runners was accompanied by a dormobile with a driver and co-driver.   Messages from the Lord Provost of Aberdeen and Provost Mowat of Wick were sent with the team to the chairman of Penzance Council, conveying best wishes from folk at “the northern end” to “those dwelling in the vicinity of Land’s End.”   “The system employed by the team throughout the long run was a combination of time and mileage turns – three spells of 20 minutes for each runner, with intervening 20 minute rests in one of the escorting vehicles, and then repeating the process after 60 miles”.   In actual fact we quickly realised that the best system, apart from during the last 100 miles, was for each pair of runners to share two hours of five minutes on, five minutes off.

The article continues: “The first man off, Alastair Wood, sprinted away from the John O’Groats House Hotel promptly at 4:00 pm, the time keeper’s signal being immediately translated publicly by the Provost giving a blast on the team’s “trumpet” – a horn  once carried by a railway track look out man and used for warning workmen that a train was approaching.

A Scottish and British Internationalist, Alastair Wood is holder of the world 40 mile record.   he is a lecturer on the staff of Robert Gordon’s College of Technology, Aberdeen.   The second man to take the road was Graham Milne, a former Springburn (Glasgow) Harrier.   He is a teacher in Robert Gordon’s College.   Number Three was Steve Taylor, a former three and ten mile champion and Scottish Internationalist.   He is on the advertising staff of the ‘Press and Journal and was the paper’s head organiser for the race.

Caithness has a special interest in the runner who became the fourth man out – Alexander Keith, a Royal Air Force cross country team regular, who comes from Castletown although he is now a Senior Aircraftsman based at Waddington, Lincolnshire and works as a survival equipment fitter.   He joined Aberdeen AAC last year.”   (Sandy became a regular British marathon international in the late 1970’s)

“The other six members of the team were Donald Ritchie, a marathon runner and engineering student at Aberdeen University; Colin Youngson, a teacher in Glasgow who ran cross country and track for Scottish Universities; Peter Duffy of Ashton-Under-Lyne, Lancashire, an exciseman and fell runner currently based in Wishaw; Robert Heron, a Scottish Universities international cross country runner and post graduate student at Aberdeen University; Martin Walsh, ex-Cambridge University track runner, now a marine biologist at Torry Research Station, Aberdeen; and Alistair Neaves a twenty year old apprentice watch maker and track runner.”

This was a very good team with Wood, Taylor and Keith outstanding, but we lacked understanding of the specific difficulties posed by this gruelling event.    We had to maintain ten and a half miles per hour to beat Reading’s record.   At first, all seemed to be going fairly well but our chosen route proved a handicap – cutting through Glen Quaich slowed us down, as did sending poor Din Ritchie on a solo struggle over a snowbound twenty mile stretch on the Corryairack Pass.   Then it became clear that we had an extra six miles to do that had not been accounted for.   Vans broke down, runners slept in and the so-called co-ordinators (including the abnormally enthusiastic and energetic Mel Edwards) succumbed to sleep deprivation.   Injuries took their toll but young Neaves performed heroically as did Martin Walsh, the fastest hirple in the north, who maintained the pace despite suffering due to a steel pin in his left leg which had been inserted after a bad motorcycle accident.   As exhaustion hit, and dreadfully stiff legs, things became so bad that they began to seem hysterically funny.   Rab Heron and I fantasised about a Kestel hovering overhead actually being a vulture, waiting to pick at our skinny bones.

In the end, despite a valiant attempt to speed up over the last hundred miles, we finished  45 minutes outside the record, in 80 hours 25 minutes 53 seconds.   This was the second fastest team time and the fastest north to south, but we were very disappointed.

When I came to live in Lenzie the club already had close links with Springburn Harriers and regular inter club fixtures were held on the country and occasionally we met up in an inter club on the track – my first ever inter club was at Springburn where I ran the Three Miles against Springburn and Garscube.   They were a considerably good club at the time and to give an indication of this, I’ll set out the athletes here who were in the Scottish rankings for ’66.

* In the Senior Mile, as in all endurance events at the time, the athlete splitting Dunky Middleton and Eddie Knox was Ian Stewart who went on to win the European and Commnwealth 5000 metres titles as well as the International Cross Country Championships.

In the Junior Age Group, Eddie won the SAAA One Mile in the time noted above from Robert Linaker (4:22.9) while Robin Souter won the SAAA High Jump with 6’0″ from Alex Peggie of Montrose (5’9″)

George Jarvie won both the Schools and the SAAA Championships for the One Mile and Nickie Souter won the Schools Championships (the SAAA Championship was not held because of poor support).

A lot of the Springburn endurance success was down to Eddie Sinclair’s training – some said that he worked the boys too hard but there was undoubted success over a very long period.   His top men at this point were Eddie Knox who won the Junior International Cross Country Championship, Dunky Middleton who won the British Indoor half mile championship and Harry Gorman but the list was almost endless and included, as well as George Jarvie and Nickie Souter, such as the Beaney brothers, the Picken brothers and the  Lunn bothers, then there were other outstanding athletes such as Johnny Buntain, Davie Tees, Billy Minto, Stewart Gillespie, the great Adrian Callan  and of course Graham Williamson.   They were always a force to be reckoned with but for some reason they were not the ever presents that they should have been in the Edinburgh to Glasgow eight stage relay.   They used English based  – well not ‘real’ Scottish athletes  – at times such as John McGrow of Longwood Harriers, Peter Knott of Portsmouth (?) and Ian McIntosh of Ranelagh Harriers in some of the major events.   Longwood was Derek Ibbotson’s club and had lots of top distance runners such as Ibbotson, McGrow and Denid Quinlan but McGrow was the only one who seemed to have any Scottish connection.    The thing is that they did not need the Anglos because their own strength was such that they would have given any club in the land a run for their money.   I’d be interested to hear what the connection was between any of the Anglos and Springburn.   They always attracted a number of Scottish athletes from other clubs quite legitimately with Mike Bradley joining from Paisley Harriers (Mike was a GB 1500 champion) and Colin Falconer from Forth Valley being among joining in the late 1960’s and then of course Alistair and Doug came on board in the very late 60’s and early 70’s.

The rankings for 1981 when I left were vastly different with only four male athletes appearing.   Graeme Williamson was fourth ranked in the 1500 metres behind John Robson, Frank Clement and Gordon Rimmer with 3:46.4, Graham Crawford was twenty eight in the 5000 metres with 14.51.68 and in the marathon Alistair McFarlane was eighth with 2:21.01 (run in Glasgow in October) and Doug Gunstone was twenty second with 2:26.52 (fourth in the SAAA Championships in Edinburgh).    Alistair was one place ahead of Don McGregor in the rankings and also had two more times in the list for that year – 2:22.18 which he ran in London in March and 2:22.25 which he clocked when finishing third in the Scottish Championships in Edinburgh in June.

Apart from the trails that we used to run on there were the various open races held in the area at the time from the Springburn Cup, to the Marathon Club Twelve Miles and the Kirkintilloch Highland Games Ten Miles (which was universally recognised to be the longest ten miles in the civilised world).   Some of the roads have been so messed about by road works that they are no longer runnable as proper races and I’ll have to go out and have a wee look at them to see for myself how they have changed.   Anyway, this is how they were – all interesting, all testing and with a degree of overlap.

The Kirkintilloch Games 10 Miles started at Adamslie Park (the Rob Roy FC Park).   Coming out of the park after a lap of the track the runners turned right and headed out past the town centre on the low road all the way to Inchterf and turned left up Antermony Road.   The three mile marker was held up there and one year I came through with Ian Donald of Clydesdale and the time on the car at the side of the road was well inside 15 minutes and the temptation to drop out with a pb was great!   Anyways. the trail them just made a big semi circle round via Milton of Campsie and Lennoxtown to Torrance, up the big drag to the roundabout where it was left again and into Adamslie and once round the track.   10 miles?   I don’t think so.

There was the year when I jogged out from Lenzie, knocked myself out on the race and won the handicap prize which was a big box with a water jug and six highball glasses nicely packed.    See running back to Lenzie carrying that lot?   And trying not to break it?   Part of the attraction was the notion of having a Highland Games in Kirkintilloch  (My Heart’s in the Hielans my heart is not here, my heart’s in Kirkintilloch a chasing the deer…).

The Scottish Marathon Club was a fine organisation run by secretary Jimmy Scott and his committee of fine men such as Jimmy Geddes, David Bowman and others.   It organised a whole series of races over the summer with a championship that included specified races – the Scottish Marathon was one that HAD to be in there, the Clydebank to Helensburgh was another and the Springburn 12 was yet another.    This one started outside the Springburn clubhouse at the bottom of the hill with the start being in line with Crowhill Road.   The race progressed straight up past the Littlehill Golf Club and round to where there is a very sharp uphill turn to the left and over the railway bridge into Crosshill Road.   It then went right round that back road past what we called the Barrage Balloons (where these were moored during the War) and where the Golf Driving Range is now.   Down Cole Road to the Torrance Roundabout, right across the road and in to Kirkintilloch.   We then turned left up Campsie Road to Milton of Campsie via Birdston and then left again and back to Lennoxtown (where there was a watering point – a rarity in the 60’s) and down to Torrance.    Back up to that bloomin’ roundabout then right along the main road to finish just before Colston Road.   Another hard, hard trail to race although pleasant enough to run.

Jim Bremner was a very good guy, one of the nicest chaps you could ever meet and a member of Springburn Harriers.   He was a very good 800/1500 runner and he came out with us on some of the Sunday runs but always doubted his ability to complete it.   That was his one fault – excessive modesty about his own ability.    Well, one year in the Marathon Club 12 I came off the Torrance roundabout and crossed the road to head for home while Jim who was a few yards behind me(40?50?) stayed on the other side of the road but looked much fresher than I felt.   He caught up with me on the other side of the road until we came to Bishopbriggs Cross where he had to cross the road in two directions and I only had to cross in one.   As we got up past the pub on the left he started to catch me big time.   I saw a car in front and swung out well before it kind of inviting him in to the inside which invitation he accepted.   Then as we came up the hill  and he started to pass me I cut him off at the back of the car – he had to stop almost dead.   Quiet unassuming Jim was so annoyed that he came back and rook about 20 yards out of me in the finishing straight!  Lesson:   Don’t try to cheat if you’re not good at it.

The Luddon Half Marathon was an excellent race and one of the best sponsored in the country – thanks largely to Hugh Barrow and his team at Strathkelvin.   It started at the Monklands outside the Baths and headed to Eastside before turning sharp right and heading out towards Twechar before coming back up to the Campsies then it was round to the Torrance roundabout, across the road, up the Cole Road, past the Open Prison at Lowmoss, round the back road to the top of Gallowhill Road and down to cross the Lenzie – Kirkie Road at the Baths and across the grass to the finish.   It was a hard race  over a varied course and to keep the spectators interested there was a Street Mile which, on the invitation of Hugh Barrow, I organised for the BMC.

There was the year when I was running in the race and having been brought up in the days when there were designated feeding stations, I was seriously irritated by the number of times that wives, girl friends and no doubt lovers as well, were standing roadside handing out drinks to their chosen runner.   Eventually when I saw a woman giving a guy a sponge at the road down into Torrance I snapped!   As I passed I grabbed the sponge: she said “But it’s only for him”: I sucked mightily on the sponge – which had been soaked in very soapy water!   The taste of soap does not aid running.

The Street Mile started at the off license in Lenzie and came straight in the road through Lenzie to finish in front of the Baths.   This attracted many very good athletes and the prizes were good.   There were races for Senior Men and the Senior Women and Under 17 Men ran against each other.   The ingenuity in the prize list was wonderful to behold with meals for two at a restaurant in Bishopbriggs at one end and the winner of the Under 17 Men’s Race getting his weight in mince and tatties at the other.   He didn’t have to take them all at once and the winner, Glen Stewart,  made several journeys to collect his goodies.   Liz Lynch (as she then was) won the Women’s Race in the first year and Yvonne Murray the year after.   If you ask me nicely face to face I’ll tell you about the relative expenses!

I always ran the the women against the Under 17 Men to add an element of unpredictability to the event and give the top women a really hard race.  They appreciated the chance to race against the U17 Men such as Glen, Frank McGowan, Bobby Mooney, etc, in all three such races that I organised at three different venues each year.   In 1986 I was appointed Scottish Staff Coach for 5000/10000 and went on an already arranged three week holiday just before the Commonwealth Games.   I asked Lachie Stewart to organise the Street Miles at Stirling University that year and when I returned from holiday and went in to the Village the first person I met was Liz Lynch.   Wee and in a red tracksuit she started by saying that she could have won the 3000 metres the night before (Yvonne was third) and then started complaining that the Street Mile at Stirling had separated the Women from the U17 Men.   She had brought a friend over from Alabama University otherwise she would not have had a good run!   Never mind, she won the 10000 metres in the Games!

The first Springburn Cup race that I took part in was a Relay Race with teams of one Under 15, one Under 17, one Under 20 and a Senior Man.   That finally fell away because so few clubs have strong (or indeed any) runners in all four age groups at the same time.   There were subsequently three other trails that I know of for the trophy now renamed the Jack Crawford Cup.    The one I ran most often came out of the back gate at Huntershill into Avon Road, turning left and making for Crowhill Road where we went under the bridge and through the cross before turning very sharp left up Kirkintilloch Road to Colston Road then up Auchinairn Road to Springfield Road and into Avon Road before going round again.   There were three laps of that one.