What a wonderful "Worlds"!

On the first day of spring in Edinburgh, there was a veritable "Who's Who" of current distance running stars, mostly wee brown blokes - and I don't mean Bog-Trotters. These were veritable bog-hurtlers, none more so than the remarkable Bekele of Ethiopia, who came back from losing and retrieving a shoe to win his 6th World X-C Championships. Perhaps the most incredible recovery I've witnessed since Lasse Viren picked himself off the track after a fall in the Munich '72 Olympic 10000m to win the race.

Around the splendid Holyrood Park setting was a "Who WAS who" of Scottish middle-distance running: I spied Don McGregor, Ally Blamire, Dave Taylor, and George McIvor from the Grim Generation, not to mention the "Posh & Becks" of Westies (the Calders innit), Don Reid, and indeed Alan Anderson, all scrambling round the muddy course, not running, you'll understand, but looking for the best vantage point.

My new mission as a spectator was to spot the runners of Grim quality - like the wee Egyptian lassie who finished at the back of the wummin's race in a hoodie and track-bottoms to appease the mullahs. In the men's race, I spotted a lumbering lad in green at the back of the field, and was about to ask if I could take his place when I saw he was running (sort of) for Palestine. He never reappeared for the following laps - maybe taken out by a Zionist posse from Giffnock North AC? But my admiration went to the barefoot blokes and burdz who somehow kept their footing in the glaur!

Posted by Graeme Orr on Mon 31 Mar 2008 | 6 comments

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