At A Club 25 x 1 Mile Relay in 1995: from the left Des Roache AAA’s Junior Indoor and Outdoor 1500m Champion in 1995; Grant Graham AAA’s Senior Indoor Champion in 1995 and Shane Daly, an Irish International who had just joined the club while in Glasgow for three years.
Over the years Clydesdale Harriers have held various promotions in Clydebank to raise money for the club, for good causes and for members who appreciated it. For instance during the second world war there was the War Fund which raised money for club members in the armed forces. Mainly Army men it also went to Tommy Arthur in the Navy and others in the Air Force. Phil Dolan organised an event to raise money for the Occupation Centre at Auchentoshan in the late 1980’s. The picture above is from an event that we ran during the mid-1990’s to raise money – more about that later but almost everyone in the club took part in it.
The concept was that
- there would be a continuous relay round the Business Park on a Saturday with all the runners being sponsored.
- The short distance meant that anyone could do it – 14 and 15 year olds could run round the trail and so could 60 year old club coaches.
- Even at 5 minutes a mile (and just about everybody went more slowly – much more slowly) it would take several hours to complete so the club member chose his time – if he wanted to go to the football in the afternoon, he could run anytime at the start of the event which was usually 10:00 am
- There could be two or even three running at the same time: which meant that Mums or Dads and their children could trot round together.
- There was no restriction as far as ability was concerned: Scottish and British internationalists (we had four of them) could take part; club veterans could take part; coaches and administrators who hadn’t run seriously for years could go out.
Lots of money was raised, most of it, it must be admitted went to the club but it also went to other causes. I particularly a family in which the mother had cancer and after checking what they wanted they chose to use the money for a final family holiday in Paris.
There is no reason why the club should not do something similar now.
