West & East Districts Cross Country

Westies set new world first.

The plot was hatched over a drink after a Wednesday night run in October 1990. I made some observation about the fact that the East District Cross Country Relays and the West District Cross Country Relays were being held a mere 25 miles apart, although at the same time on the same afternoon. Geoff Mitchell and myself were two of only four people privileged to have been accepted into the ranks of both Westies and the Bog Trotters (that's a matter of opinion Ed). At the time we held dual membership and agreed to try for an unprecedented feat to run in two different races at different locations at the same time.

Twechar is an old mining village just off the Forth and Clyde canal and nestling among rolling hills covered in beech woodland with pretty paths meandering through them. It came as no surprise therefore that the West District Committee had chosen a fast flat course around the village playing fields. This did have one good side it meant a short and fast leg and more time to get to Alloa where the East District Relays were being held. The Alloa course was based at a school which was nestling among rolling hills covered in beech woodland with pretty paths meandering through them. It came as no surprise therefore that the East District Committee had chosen a tough hilly and muddy course which was slightly long and definitely slower than the Twechar course.

We calculated that we had about 20 minutes to drive between the races and Geoff and I persuaded Westies and HBT to cooperate and put on the first leg for the West Relay and the last leg for the East Relay.

Doug Gillon wrote a piece in the Herald that Saturday morning claiming that Annan and District (with fading stars Steve Ovett and Steve Binns) would win the West event and their first ever District medals. Little did anybody know that there was a more famous event about to take place. Sadly history will not record our feats. We had not been able to register for both races in time (names must be entered at least 2 weeks in advance and we had only two and a half days from the germ of an idea to the execution of a brilliant plan). In the event the entire running order of the Westies teams was thrown into chaos as Andy Freer pulled a muscle warming up and a reshuffle after declarations meant nobody ran under their own name.

From the gun at Twechar we sprinted round a slalom course dodging young trees and goal posts. After crossing the line we headed straight for my car and screeched off. We had no idea whether we would be there on time. Either race could have started early or late, nobody could predict the timings exactly and we had no idea how long it would take to drive to Alloa. We headed for Cumbernauld, the motorway to Stirling and then towards Alloa, with a three minute detour due to a mistake by the driver. We found a parking space right next to the start at Alloa and carefully pulled off our Westies vests before emerging. We were in luck. YP welcomed us enthusiastically and gave us our numbers. We had several minutes to don brown vests and pin on our numbers; then first Geoff in HBT 3rd team and myself in the 4th team set off. Geoff had about 45 seconds lead and as he disappeared I wondered if I would catch him. We both felt pretty knackered by the first leg and the adrenalin of the drive from Twechar. Slowly I hauled him in and at the start of the final hill I caught him. By the top of the hill he had 20 yards on me again, my legs buckling with fatigue (or was it emotion?). I charged downhill to the finish in pursuit and we crossed the line together, hands held aloft. We had done it!

Of course the Scottish Cross Country Union was not known for its affection towards errant athletes and the West District secretary in particular was famous for his campaigns to ban athletes who had erred from the course of righteousness, so we had to be discrete about our feat. A month later Alex Jackson, one of SCCU's top officials whispered to me that he had heard a rumour that I had competed in both East and West relays on the same afternoon. "Alex", I said "That is a scandalous rumour and I am surprised you would ever believe such a thing said about me". "Well I think what you did was brilliant", he said "Whatever gave you the idea?". "Because it was there, and I didn't think it had ever been done before" I said. And he smiled.

Posted by Matt Ogston on Wed 30 Nov -0001 | comments are closed

Category cross country