It’s all her fault!
Aged about 10, she joined in with some “training” with Linda and me which
was more geared towards sprinting. Clearly not fast-twitch material, I duly
offered to take her for some endurance training and from there did blossom the
ever-expanding junior section of Moorfoot Runners.
And now, having graduated from Robert Gordon’s University
in Aberdeen in July with a first-class Honours degree, she heads off
to York on Friday to start her career as a physiotherapist. Aye, she’s a smart cookie
too.
Her time with Moorfoot Runners has been a catalogue of
firsts from being the first junior endurance athlete I coached, first junior to
compete at National XC level, first East District representative honours, first
District XC medallist, first Scottish champion, first Scotland internationalist
– junior and then senior, first GB junior champion and first GB junior
internationalist.
She has been the main reason I have developed from modest
400m runner in my youth to endurance coach. Our progression, learning and
development have been in tandem. Were it not for Scout, I would not be where I
am today as a coach.
She is a model athlete – attentive, dedicated, willing to
learn, strong-willed and gutsy; everything a coach could possibly hope for in
an athlete. These attributes will stand her in good stead as she slowly returns
from an injury-hit summer and once she is fully back into the swing of things there
is the promise (if that is the right word!) of linking up with No.1 GB hill
runner Emma Clayton and her Leeds-based training group for some long winter
runs and hill sessions.
Her exploits have taken her all over the UK from Cardiff,
to the Olympic Stadium in London, to the top of Snowdon, with many a successful
sojourn to the Lake District and representative trips further afield to Germany,
Italy and Turkey. Hopefully there will be many more to come and I am sure you
will join me in wishing her every success with her new job and her return to
full fitness.
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