It was a day of races, marked by one mass sprint. At 1.25pm, at Lindsays National Cross Country championships in Callendar Park, Falkirk, hundreds of spectators raced from their vantage points to converge on the finishing line.
Laura Muir, local hero and global champion, was sailing away with the women’s race. It took her precisely 35 minutes to complete the 10,000m in the glaur. It was 14 years since she had last competed on national cross country day. She won then, of course, but that was the under-20 women’s event.
In the 14 years since, she has won Olympic, world and Commonwealth medals, been European champion and won Diamond League twice.
This may all seem some distance away from Callendar Park. However, Muir remains resolutely, well, Muir. She has the facility to seem to glide over the mud but her feet are always firmly on the ground. Half an hour after her triumph, she was still signing autographs and posing for photographs with youngsters.
This was more than a clue as to why she decided to compete in an event that the elite may not normally have pencilled in as a season goal.
Muir explained her reasoning: ‘I am not focusing on the indoor season this year. I am just on one big training block, and it’s nice to race on a Saturday instead. And to come back and see everybody and be here for people to relate to.’
Laura Muir is cheered on by a huge crowd as she wins the 10,000m women’s race
Muir has a chat with On The Road’s Hugh Macdonald on a day when she thrilled the crowds
It’s a day to remember for U-20s women’s winner Ceri Griffiths as she is presented with her medal by Laura Muir
Her status as an inspiration was franked when speaking to winners of the under-age events. She was, and is, a hero to all of them. But Muir admitted that, when she won in 2012, she did not look to anyone to imitate.
‘To be honest, I did not have a running hero then because I never saw myself as being as good as I am now,’ she said. ‘I just wanted to be a vet when I was younger. There were a lot of big sporting icons, but nobody I wanted to be. I never envisaged myself being in this position.’
The 10,000m was the longest race of her senior career, although she recalled the 7.6km of 14 years ago fondly. ‘It was a big race to win, probably the biggest thing I had won to date. So it is lovely to be back.’
There was an air of wistfulness when she said: ‘It was a long time ago and I am a different athlete now.’ She is still the same character.
She not only presented the winning medal to Ceri Griffiths, who won the under-20 event, but chatted freely with the Edinburgh University student who had followed in her footsteps.
‘My coach always used Laura as an example of how to progress,’ said Griffiths. ‘I am obviously a big fan and it is an honour to win the same race as her.’
Griffiths shares her predecessor’s relaxed attitude as an under-20 winner. ‘I am just trying to enjoy it. I was 11th in this race last year so obviously I am improving.’
She was brought up in South Wales but now lives in Edinburgh where she is studying history. Her new life has been made easier by her passion for running. ‘I have a great big training group,’ added Griffiths. ‘It was a big move up here for me, but I live in a flat full of runners.’
Muir congratulates her fellow competitors after an entertaining day at Callendar Park
All eyes are on Laura Muir as she makes her way to the front at Callendar Park in Falkirk
Laura Muir enjoys picking up the trophy, 14 years after she first shone at the same event
It’s a golden moment for Millie Glass-Park, 12, who is first to cross the line in the girls Under-13 race
She had spent the day surrounded by 2,000 runners. The National Cross Country in its February slot is normally mud roots rather than grass roots. Muir sprinkled more than a little stardust on the muddied hills and well-trodden paths, and there was a substantial cadre of elite runners, with world-class mountain runner Scout Adkin finishing second in the women’s race and Jamie Crowe taking the senior men’s race for the fourth time.
However, there were hundreds of other personal stories amid the tents festooned around the parks. They ranged from the 12-year-old to the 86-year-old. They included references to Muir, of course, and, perhaps more unlikely, Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster.
The winners of the under-13 races paid their tributes to Muir. It may seem absurd to say so at such a young age, but 12-year-old Millie Glass-Park is already making a name for herself. She has achieved a succession of victories at her age group and she was in no mood to stop on her trip down to Falkirk from Aberdeen.
As a Brownie, she undertook a challenge of running a mile a day for a month. She chose February. Some years on, she has added a national championship to her inter-district successes. Millie cited Muir and Eilidh McColgan as her heroes and will make her best efforts to follow in their footsteps.
Alfie Whyte, the impressive winner of the under-13 boys’ race, has an obvious connection to Muir as he attends her alma mater, Kinross High. ‘We hear stories of Laura and Eilidh Doyle, who was also at the school, quite a lot,’ he said.
An irrepressible character, he could not hide his passion for running. He devotes all of his considerable energy to it.
It was sobering for this septuagenarian to hear the young lad say: ‘When I was younger, I used to play football but not now.‘ He is 13.
Determination is written all over the faces of competitors at start line in U20s women’s race
What a spectacle at Callendar Park as Scottish star Laura Muir leads the pack
Alex Jackson, 77, has been convener of the event at Callendar Park in Falkirk for 15 years
An enthralling time was had by all who enjoyed a superb day of racing at the annual event
Fortunately, there were those I could identify with, in age if not in energy.
Alex Jackson, 77, has been convener of the event for 15 years. The organisation brushed off all obvious challenges. The event, yet again, ran with a seamless efficiency marked by an atmosphere of fun and friendship.
‘It is a great day,’ he said, chatting while besieged by requests. ‘There have been so many highlights in my time here but I suppose, in retrospect, Laura winning 14 years ago now stands out. If I have one regret, it is that I cannot run today. The legs can’t take it.’
Longevity, though, is the trademark of Murdoch McGregor, now 86. ‘I didn’t take up running until I was 44,’ he said. ‘My wife had left a women’s magazine open on a table and I glanced at it. I saw that Kirk Douglas, or it may have been Burt Lancaster, had been advised to run two miles a day by a doctor and it had changed his life. I decided to do the same.’
Within weeks, McGregor was running the Alloa half marathon and went on, aged 49, to run a marathon in a highly commendable two hours 47 minutes.
There was life after the marathon, too. ‘I started sailing when I was 72,’ he said. ‘It involved wee bit longer journeys.’
When he was 82, he was named UK Sailor of the Year after circumnavigating the United Kingdom in his 25-foot yacht. He was awarded his prize by Chay Blyth, the round-the-word yachtsman.
But does the redoubtable McGregor have another mission in him?
‘I have always fancied a ride in the Grand National,’ he said. He may, just may, have been kidding.
