Standing on that starting line, the smell of deep heat attacking all the senses. There are handshakes, fist bumps, and good lucks before the 2 minute warning comes, and now you can hear a pin drop. Focus. Eye of the tiger and then we are off, almost in slow motion.

Elbows everywhere.

A lone spike flies through the air, detached  from a Central AC foot.

We are up the first hill and I kind of zone out. It’s not yet coming together and I am toiling a bit over the next climb. We get to the top corner, the muddy section…

Now theory and practice are two very different things, as my fellow runner went wide to avoid the only real mud on the Cumbernauld course I would skip through on the inside like a graceful gazelle and start chasing down PH who were currently, and literally, running away with the M50 race. In practice I faceplant in the mud with the grace of drunken baboon and by the time I get up I can no longer see PH and feel that the rest of the M50 cavalcade are ready to come flying past.

This wasn’t the plan for today.

Plans? Me? Why? “Come on Mark,” I hear you say. “You’re a 54 year old not even has been. A never was.” But do you know something it does matter. And it matters a lot. There are more and more of us auld yins taking part now. It’s more competitive, it’s a much better standard, and it means a lot to us.

The Lindsays National Cross Country relays at Cumbernauld is a true highlight of the running year. From the youngsters, the future of the sport, to the current stars and beyond, and I am one of the beyond.  This is a big one for us oldies, like the Road relays in March we have the over 40s  and over 50s categories. And it’s something we aim for and target, well in advance.  In my club it’s an achievement to make the M50 team these days. With only 3 to run, very capable runners can miss out, indeed my cross country focus this year was just to try and make the team, I’d worry about the actual race after that.

There is a lot more to Masters running than what you see on social media. Yes the focus and highlights are on the elite going to far off places to compete in the European and World masters championships in glorious sunshine in glittering GB tracksuits, coming home with bags full of medals, but that’s only a part of it. I am in awe of these guys, and rightly so, but there’s so many more of us out there running every week ,wind and rain, for the bread and butter. You might not see us as we can’t compete with you youngsters, but we are there in every race trying to get the best of out of ourselves, pushing our own and age group boundaries. Many of us late to the sport having never ran a race as a senior, and setting PBs even as we get into our 50s and 60s. Genuinely, it’s at a different level now. It takes the likes of the relays though for us to get our place and our own wee recognition and target. We get a podium that we will fight hard to get on, and if we don’t we will respect the ones that do, because we know what it is taking to get on there.  Like the seniors many of us are working full time, running homes, dealing with life’s obstacles, but also working as hard as we can to get the best out of ourselves. For many of us the pinnacle of that isn’t the Olympics, the Europeans, even the inter districts (oh bring in a masters category in that, please! The buzz it would give for people that love running) but the Scottish events in which we are recognised so thank you Scottish Athletics and Lindsays for this event.   

So yeah, I’m an old man. Working full time as a financial controller and dealing with the many other things that life throws at us, but I want in that team for the national relays. I’m mid 50s, younger people are coming into the age group, most of them even have their own hair and styles that make me sick and I am well aware that every team I make could be the last, and every podium I go for could be the last. Am I the most talented? Nowhere near it, but what I lack in natural ability I try to make up for in enthusiasm and hard work. I have a coach at my club helping me and I am banging in 50 plus mile weeks. Track and XC sessions keeping the head as focussed as I can even when I am getting left behind at the Saturday morning XC sessions by the young team. They are faster aye, but I am working just as hard because that’s what we do. But we are that bit slower so you might not notice. It doesn’t mean we want it any less.

The relays come fast though, there isn’t much chance to get a lot of races in the legs. Two races and that’s it, the first being the trial for the masters XC international. Now I only ever qualified once for the international, 3 years ago. I had a stinker over in Dublin and haven’t been considered since and that’s fine, so this was just going to be a first run out. Or you tell yourself that and even in the aftermath of storm Amy you end up in a massive downer after getting your tactics wrong and getting utterly owned by runners at the top of their game who looked as if they wanted it more. The race had done it’s job in giving me a run out, and learning a bit about racing, but it had also showed me that at that moment in time that forget about the Scotland team, I wasn’t even showing that I was capable of being in the Cambuslang team.  

I had one more chance, the West District relays at Kilmarnock. Cambuslang’s unofficial trial. I simply had to have a decent one, there were no second chances. The Scotland team was selected and despite my most consistent year to date my performance in the trial had fallen so far short I couldn’t be considered and knew that. We put a 50s team in the 40s event and gave it a right go and our 50 plus team, that probably had an average age of 57 ,took the bronze in that Masters race, and I was fortunate enough to run the fastest M50 leg of the day and put myself back in the reckoning for a place in the nationals. What a difference a week makes, the run was also enough to get me a reserve spot in the International team. In fact I had a spot in the actual Scotland team for one day, but by Wednesday I was back in the reserves again but that really is a story for another day 😊

It’s a week later now. Track sessions done, Double session days with XC session followed by continuous hills later that day, recoveries, long runs, even old man stretching and strength. I have done all I can, trained the best I could, ran my backside off to try and make the team knowing there are people like me not just in my club but in others too. Edinburgh AC will be doing Extra sessions. PH will be doing Pan Handle loops in a rapid fashion. Cumbernauld and Corstorphine will be doing things that start with a C that they will keep secret. The teams come out and I have been fortunate to make our 50s A team on leg one, the stampede. There are people in the B team that could easily have been ahead of me and I know come the Saturday the three chosen won’t end up being the three fastest but I just need to do the club justice now. I’m tasked with bringing us in in first, no pressure. Myself and Justin chat on the Friday about our team mate Colin who is sadly no longer with us and the advice he had given us over the years. I remember what he said to me last time I had made the team and felt like an imposter “Don’t worry about others, let them worry about you”. This was going to get me through the day.

It’s Saturday. The sun is shining on the nervy procession from the school to the park, the park itself a kaleidoscope of colours, with club tents and vests as far as you can see.

Excitement, nerves, excitement, nerves.

 I watch the tail end of the junior races then the female races. In awe of our M50 womens team making Cambuslang History with our first ever medal in that event. Watching our ladies team fight valiantly for 4^th but again being in awe of Megan Keith’s last leg for Inverness.  

And then, all of a sudden, here I am, just over a K in, way behind and on the deck in the mud.

 It could have gone one of two ways, in a solo race head no doubt down, but it’s the relays. It’s about the red and white. Justin. Stevie. And of course Colin. I am able to pick it back up a bit on the long down hill before we turn to climb back up the long drag. This is the back of the Cambuslang tent where 2 years ago Colin roared at me to relax my running and expend less energy and it worked for me. And this is where I started to pick up places. Up the hill well, and descended decently (for me) too. I am passing people but I am aware of M50 presence right behind me too. It’s a repeat of two year ago, my old pal from Garscube is on my tail, but I am looking only forward. PH are now back in my sights. I have nothing to lose. Up the last hill and I take the lead for the first time with about 400 or so to go. I kick early on the downhill and feel it the last 200 where the legs wobble and I can’t get the pace I would like but I manage to get over the line over 30 seconds faster than last year and in 1^st place in the 50s race, the job I was tasked to do. I have to say that us Masters, we are competitive but in the main we are supportive of each other too, and I was gutted to see that PH had to withdraw from the race after that first leg after an injury to their next runner in his warm up. Even gave him a hug, and those East Coasters don’t know what to make of that. It’s then a case of getting all round the course cheering on my team mates. All round the course others are doing the same. Cheering on team mates, friends, and even their rivals, it’s just what we do. Justin has a superb run to stretch our lead and Stevie brings it home, hair still impeccable and hands in the air.

And we are excited on that podium. As are Edinburgh and Cumbernauld, our rivals, but friends, in second and third. Genuine happiness for each other. Medals, photos, then kicked off so the big guns can get their glory but that 2 minutes up on that podium meant the world to us. We won’t get the headlines, and most of you won’t have even seen us up there, but every single one of us have given as much of ourselves as the senior winners. Maybe in the future it’ll be you toeing the line with your greying or indeed lack of hair, wondering if the old body will get you round. But know, when you see those masters runners, those veterans, those oldies, that we want it as much as you, we work as hard as we can, and you know something? We are grateful that we can still get out there and compete, and that’s a win in itself. 

Thanks to Iain Wallace, Bobby Gavin (thatonemoment), Jennifer Beattie, Jordan Orr for the photos. Blog away into retirement again.