Five miles or 8160m's of undulating tarmac south of Newton Mearns - known simply to Glasgow Southers as 'The Running Course'. The home of activities such as the Rope Swing, 'Listening in' at The Forest, the Survival Club, the Scaring and even some occasional running.
Savour the memories created just by the mention of names like 'the detour', 'the smelly burn', 'Harold's corner', 'Nae Heid's bit', 'pylon hill' and the 'avenue of trees'.
The Running itself required Crusaders to do the 5 miles in under 50mins to get 'on the board' so to speak. If you did the course in over 50mins it was advisable to feign some kind of injury or just hitch hike home and emigrate if possible. Below 50mins Mars Bars were awarded if you lowered your time by certain margins.
Running past 'Nae Heid's bit' (below) was always sure to quicken the pace of even the unfittest runners.
At the competitive end the course record was 31.30mins by Gregor Thomson - this is the time mentioned in David Campbell's 1990 Crusader Mag article entitled 'Sub 30' as the one to beat.
Apparently Tommy MacKay had offered to give anyone beating the 30min barrier £100 - which was a lot of money in 1978! We assume that this offer still stands.
The records we have include times such as -
1980/1: Mark 'I spewed up on the way - horrible brown stuff it was - but I just kept on running' Scott 33:46; Gregor Thomson 34:17; Tommy MacKay 37:29; Douglas Sanderson 37:30; Craig Barclay 38:13; David MacDonald 39.00; Martin Boyd & David Allison 40.07; Robert Scott 40:54; Eddie Anderson 40:58; Crawford Thomson 41:20; Andy Hunter & Graham Galbraith 42:45.
1984/5: John Mowat 40:23; Tommy Mackay 33:30; Andy Hunter 33:24.
Below Left: The killer section that is Pylon Hill;
Below Right: The Avenue of Trees, not far to the home stretch of the Stewarton Rd.
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