The Scottish Athletics Short Course: Playing at the Big Boys' Table

Luck Has Nothing to Do With It

In the midst of the COVID summer past, I tried and failed to get the Good Lady to watch The Sopranos, the seminal and rightly acclaimed HBO series centered on the Mafia Boss, Tony Soprano, as he tries to juggle the demands of being the Boss, and a disfunctional family. Within the particular episode that I failed to get the Good Lady to endure, there is a formal poker game which takes place among the gentlemen. The card game is invitation only, and only the best get an invite. There is careful control implemented of who enters and leaves the premises, the game is set within formal surroundings, there is an expectation on standard of behaviour, and there is very much an expectation of a certain standard of performance in the game. Make no mistake; this is the big boy's table. The cigar smoking, brandy drinking, assemblage are at the top of their game, and they are ready to play .

The Short Course last Saturday was the Big Boy's (and Girl's) Table. Only the best men and women got an invite, and in these current exceptional circumstances, that is correct in the opinion of this correspondent. With the lights dimmed, the starter readied, and the competitors circled around the table, they sat ready for the cards to be dealt, and readied themselves to react accordingly.

The dealer for the game - Mark Munro - stood ensconced at the top of a hillside looking down, ready to supervise the action. With the deck in one hand, a Twitter feed in the other, and the weight of British Athletics weighing heavily on his shoulders, our soon-departing CEO of Scottish Athletics could finally breathe a sigh of relief as he saw a return of our beloved cross country.

The Women's Race

When I switched on the coverage for the women's race, and as the camera panned across the front elevation of 19th century Scone Palace, I thought I had mistakenly tuned into some nauseating BBC adaptation of a George Eliot novel...but then the cross country runners came into view, and all was well again.

Under a beautiful low winter sun, and buoyed by what was probably one of the most masterful displays of female front running this writer has seen in the last couple of years last week at Lochgelly, it was unsurprising that Annabell Simpson of Fife AC went hard from the gun, followed almost toe-to-toe by Morag Millar, with those two then being tracked closely by Megan Keith and Naomi Lang. As the race progressed, and keen to join her fellow two Haries - Sarah Calvert - joined in the fun at the front.

The footage provided doesn't permit a close assessment of the proceedings, but at some point, Keith must have gone 'all-in', and thrust away showing the field a clean pair of heels. Regardless of the actions of Keith, this close-knit game was drawn to a premature close. A bit like anticipating a wearied 4am close of your poker game, but the lights then being violently switched on at 3am by your parents, proceedings finished early. With the course measuring at around 2.7K across the majority of GPS devices, the course was short, and presumably many were scrambling to reach the finish line.

 

                                           Annabel and Morag to the fore (Photo by Bobby Gavin)

Irrespective of the premature finish, Keith took a sizable 7 second win. With such a magnificent display it is very difficult to see past her in the U20 race at the National. 2nd was Holly Page with a strong run, having not featured at Lochgelly. Naomi Lang, having finished 2nd at Lochgelly showed superb consistency by placing 4th.

Similar to Lochgelly, and from a team perspective, it was the Haries that showed dominance across the race, placing 2nd, 4th, 6th, 7th, 9th, 12th and 14th. Ignoring the fact that they are a university, Scottish Athletic clubs would be well advised to take instructions from the Haries as to how best to recruit, retain, and encourage women to toe the start line of cross country races.

The Men's Race

As the cards were thrown down, it was beginning to feel like a repeat of Lochgelly with the slender Jamie Crowe and the muscular Jonny Glen meeting each other's early calls. That would have been the case had it not been for the early pressing of Lachlan Oates, who seemed keen to keep the early rounds honest. As these early rounds unfolded, Aidan Thompson and Sean Chalmers sensibly sat back, checking the calls as the early rounds went by.

As the game gradually progressed, Crowe wasn't just taking a call on the cards, but raising at each opportunity. As soon as each corner of the course presented itself, Crowe raised the bets, and through a quick injection of pace, began asking questions of the other players. Corner-by-corner, round-by-round, Crowe raised the stakes thrusting pace and chips into the game, and with the competitors beginning to fold, Crowe was left at the front with a stack of chips.

 

 King Crowe (Photo by Bobby Gavin)

Despite a valiant all-or-nothing play from Chalmers, Crowe took the win and always looked comfortable. To be honest, him losing that race was about as unlikely as meeting Eliud Kipchoge in the queue for the toilets at a warehouse rave in Paisley.

Mention should go to Aidan Thompson; his first race back since The Monument Mile Classic in September, with a 3rd place in that standard of race, is impressive. Also, a tip-of-the-hat to Alex Carcas who looked to have paced his race perfectly sitting near the back in the early stages, before coming through impressively for 5th place, finishing but 2 seconds behind his brother. Sean Chalmers, having finished 4th at Fife, and now 2nd at Scone, needs to find himself a fast flat road 10K after COVID is over, as he is surely in sub-30mins 10K shape now.

The Last Lap caught up with Crowe after the race, and in a moment of honesty confided "I just need a consistent run of races to take advantage of the pubs being closed.". Crowe also confirmed his enthusiasm to defend his title at the forthcoming National in early March, which is encouraging for all who are keen to see that the best athletes that Scotland can produce, compete at the National.

The Fourth Estate

A record of thanks must go to Scottish Athletics to answering the call for some media coverage. For those senior athletes who waited huddled around their laptop with their nearest and dearest awaiting that e-mail invitation 'ping' from Mark Pollard (only to be met with awkward deafening silence), or those stuck inside staring at the four walls of their Tier 4 nightmare, the YouTube coverage provided therapeutic relief for many. For this correspondent, he had a bit more to rely on than just a carrier pigeon and a hotline to the 9th Earl of Mansfield in his drawing room at Scone Palace to establish what was going on his grounds. 

Having the ability to actually watch some cross country for the first time since February was like an ambient emotion tugger, bringing a stream of tears to a glass eye. In a spirit of pat-on-the-back bonhomie, well done to Scottish Athletics, albeit, can we have full-length coverage next time?

On the media point, and with the BBC having hardly any of its own sport to show these days (other than Escape to the Country and Crufts), perhaps Auntie could be pressed to give some coverage of the best athletes in Scotland?

The Last Lap 

I have always adopted a mantra of why use one word, when ten will do, and it is of seldom occasion that I am lost for words. The performance of Morag Millar last Saturday is one such occasion. Against the 25 best elite female runners in Scotland, Morag ran hard, and upgraded herself from 4th place in Lochgelly to a 3rd place on Saturday, some 6 months from giving birth....6 months from giving birth. Just let that sink in for a moment. Words alone won't do justice to it.

 Michael Wright, 9 December 2020

 

Scottish Distance Running: How We Get What We Value

The Start

 

Welcome to this inaugural edition of this new blog, The Last Lap. 

 

For as long as this retired athlete can continue to summon the adrenalin fuelled, sweaty, panting, edge-of-your-spikes excitement to keep it going, this blog proposes to provide an independent opinion and assessment of the Scottish endurance running community spanning the disciplines of track, road and cross country. 

 

Equipped with a precarious wi-fi signal, but a steadfast belief in the value of his own opinion, I will seek to make some sense of the Scottish distance running community. Where are we going and who is going to get there first?

 

Reflection

 

Rather than jump into short term forensic examination of the runners and riders within the community at present, on this inaugural week, I thought that it might be an opportune time to take a moment to reflect on our Scottish distance running community following nine months of stumbling from one metaphorical steeplechase barrier to another, interspersed by some particularly traumatic water jumps. Whilst trying to show COVID a clean pair of heels, sometimes it feels that we're into a good stride, and sometimes it can feel like we're flapping around in the deep end of the water jump with one spike on.  

In the 2020 edition of the BBC Reith Lectures, Dr Mark Carney - the former Governer of the Bank of England - provided a free public lecture titled 'How We Get What We Value'. At the outset, former Governer Carney poses some paradoxes; why is water - which is essential for life - virtually free, whereas diamonds - which have "virtually no utility beyond their beauty" - are so expensive?

 The reader will ask what this inaugural blog on endurance running in Scotland seeks to gain in referencing a former Bank of England Governer, but as the proverbial coach said to their athlete: "Hold on".

 

We as a sports community have had ample time in recent months to reflect on what holds value in our lives. Dr Carney notes, in his lecture, that there are areas of our lives which seemingly hold no monetary value, but which we spend much of our time and effort in engagement with. Dr Carney goes on to assess the celebrated study of how to incentivise children who are raising money for charity. Do the students raise more money if they were paid? The answer is - no. The children motivated only by charitable and civic virtue raised the most. 

In the face of a COVID pandemic, there was no government funding for the groups that sowed and donated make-shift PPE, for those that helped elderly neighbours in their communities, and those one million people that volunteered for the NHS. It seems that we get what we value, irrespective of what the market dictates.

Dr Mark Carney went on to note that values and value are related, but distinct.

"When people are engaged in an activity that they see as intrinsically valuable, offering them money weakens their motivation, by depreciating or even crowding out the intrinsic interest or commitments. In these ways, the spread of the market can undermine community, one of the most important determinants of happiness."   

"Our general failure to put a price on social infrastructure and social capital can lead to underinvestment in what matters for wellbeing."  

I know that many in the endurance community in Scotland will agree that we do matters for wellbeing and matters for community. Social infrastructure isn't the term I would have readily applied to the Scottish Athletics distance community, but actually, it does feel quite apt. When our weekly gatherings are torn from us, it is perhaps in the time that follows that we come to realise the inherent social value of our competitive sport; our gathering together in the pursuit of common goals; to run faster, and to break some PBs. #SALBelong begins to ring true.

So irrespective of whether you, the reader, have been fortunate enough to be able to attend and play your role in the cross country in Perth this weekend, or whether you are going to have to wait a few more weeks, do take confidence in the knowledge that we get what we value. If we as a Scottish Athletics distance community value our sport, then we will get it, and no matter how adverse the circumstances. The virtual races, the return to formal training, or simply lacing up and getting out the door, are all testament to this.

The Last Lap

During the course of the coming weeks, this blog will begin its task in reporting the news of the distance running world in Scotland. Will King Crowe continue his reign over the country? Will we get the National in our usual format? Will some Scottish athletes come home with some hardware off the plane from Tokyo?

That will follow in the future editions of the blog, however, at this early part of the race, this correspondent would like to take a moment to highlight a young man named Stuart.

Like many people in his Scottish community, Stuart found himself developing a fondness for running in summer 2020. On his own, and with little else to do, he would head out every other day, and run a steady 10K at his own pace. Having developed some initial enthusiasm, in October 2020, Stuart signed up to his local athletic club, started training with a keen group of runners there, and continued to develop. 

Last Saturday, as part of the Scottish Athletics Virtual 10K, Stuart set off on a bid to break 36mins with the support of some fellow club members. He had run around 36:20mins in late summer on his own, but having trained with a Scottish Athletics club, he was hopeful of improving this time, and perhaps even getting below a coveted 36mins barrier. Last Saturday, Stuart ran 35:01mins. 

There is no monetary value associated with Stuart's run on Saturday, but it was achieved within a social infrastructure that seeks to better their members, create community, develop happiness, and it means more to him than diamonds. 9 months into a pandemic, with little formal club training, and with almost no physical races available to this new-comer to the sport, Stuart just ran a 10K PB. Irrespective of the chaos around us, it does seem that we get what we value.

 Michael Wright, Sunday 6 December 2020