Graeme Reid
When Graeme Reid joined the club in 1994 no one thought that less than ten years later he would win the Scottish Cross Country title. In doing so he was the first club man to be Champion since the legendary Dunky Wright won it in a club vest in 1923.
Graeme on his way to winning the National 2003

Graeme was part of a very good Balfron High School team along with his twin brother Alistair and David Moore who were also members of Clydesdale Harriers. At first a cross country runner his track potential showed in 1995 when he won the Scottish Schools 3000 metres in 9:12.8 and had a personal best of 4-15.1 for 1500 metres.  As an Under 17 in 1996 he won the Scottish Schools 5000 metres in 15:46 and was second in the SAF 1500 in 4:06.  In 1997 he broke an ankle bone in the Scottish Schools 5000 metres but ran on to finish second in (for him) a poor time of 16:06. He had bests that year of 8:44 for 3000 metres an 3-58 for 1500 metres. He had always been a good cross country runner and that year was third in the Scottish Championships behind training partner Jamie Hendrie of Springburn Harriers. Still an Under 20 in 1998 he won the Senior 3000 metres Indoor title in 8:25.25 which put him over a minute ahead of the second ranked Scottish Under 20 at the end of the summer season that year. He also won the West District 5000 metres at Scotstoun in 14:40.4 (again by over a minute from the next Junior) and had a best of 3:57.3 for 1500 metres.

He had been running well on the country all his career and had represented Scottish Schools and the various SAF age groups but this year saw him win his first Scottish Cross Country Championships when he won the Under 20 Championships comfortably on a muddy and wet Irvine course.   Having left school that year he investigated the possibility of running at an American University and through the good offices of training partner Des Roache was put in touch with Iona University in New Rochelle.   He started a four year course there after winning the Under 20 Cross Country Championship and continued to improve his track times and widen his experience of the sport.  

Graeme racing in USA

In 1999 his best times were 3-48.95 for 1500 metres, 8:20.37 for 3000 and 14:59.73 for 5000.   The 1500 only improved by half a second the following year and the 3000 came to 8:19.0 but in 2001 he really started to show what he could do.   His 3000 metres remained a relatively pedestrian 8-19.4 but his 5000 metres time was slashed to 14:04.6 - 36 seconds from his previous personal record.   He also ran 32:34.2 for 10000 metres.   In 2002 he brought his 5000 metres time down to an amazing 13:52 but could not get it down the small margin to 13-45 which would have qualified him for the Commonwealth Games in Manchester.

Returning home on completion of his studies in December 2002 he had a break from serious training before getting down to it for the National Championships for which he was not quoted by any of the pundits.   That was strange because he won the Scottish Indoor 3000 metres in late January,    had the two runs under 14 minutes for 5000 metres and had previously won the National Under 20 title.   However he won and won well at Linwood where the underfoot conditions were similar to those at Irvine in 1998.    He returns to America in May to graduate and is undecided as to his future career.   But to keep up with his progress, check out the club results pages regularly.