Lothian Running Club (#Tier One Cross Country Club)

Cross Country Season 2025-2026

Lothian RC is a diverse community of runners, who take part in many different activities across the year from ParkRuns to Ultra Marathons and everything in between. The one activity that brings everyone together, old and young, fast and slow, at the same event is Cross Country. Where PBs don’t count, or even matter, only the position and more importantly the number of our finishers do. Where the nervous banter in the tent is as crucial as any warm up, where a variety of sugary snacks replace hi-tech energy gels. For me Cross Country is not about winning or losing, it is all about beating Fraser, so you can imagine my delight when his laces came loose at the Nationals last season. You will find your own reasons for running Cross Country, it may be to build strength and endurance, possibly to forget about the horrors of the Champions League qualifiers, hopefully they will include companionship and camaraderie.

Quick recap on how the season works, it starts off in October with the East District Relays at Dechmont Law and then the National Relays at Cumbernauld House (made famous in the closing scenes of Gregory’s Girl), these are 2.5km for Juniors and only 4km for Seniors. We will have lots of Teams in the various age groups and plenty of places for those that want to run.

These are quickly followed by the National Short Course Champs (only 4km for Seniors) at Lanark Racecourse, Lanark.

The East District League Races are at Beveridge Park, Kirkcaldy in November, Camperdown Park, Dundee in December, Balbardie Park, Bathgate, January, these include races for U11s to Masters. Distances vary in length depending on age category. With junior races taking place first on fresh ground and Senior Men in the mud at the end of the day. At the beginning of December we also have the East District Championships, with the chance to be selected for the Inter Area Competition. Finally, at the end of February we have the National Cross Country Championships at Callendar Park, Falkirk. For those familiar with this park, you will know that the spectacular Antonine Wall passes through the Park, many competitors, as they run up it, have questioned why did the Romans have to build it so big?

At each of these events there are Team placings based on the finishing positions of a certain number runners from each club. So in an event where the first 4 runners from each club count, if we had runners placed 8th, 40th, 52nd and 84th this would give us a Team score of 184 points. The team with the lowest points total are the winners and so on. The number of counters varies depending on the competition. The beauty of Cross Country is that you do not need to pick the team beforehand, club members just run and the finish positions determine the counters. Even if you are not a counter the chances are you will have made a contribution to the team effort by coming in front of a counter from another team and forcing them to have a higher score. Also, the club pays for the Relay entries and all three East District League meetings, so it is as cheap as chips. You do have to have a club membership and be a member of Scottish Athletics in order to compete.

Last season we had a grand total of 77 different club members run cross country, possibly a club record. In the Team events the Senior Men’s Team impressed with a 3rd place in the East District League Race at Dundee, 5th in the East Championships at Stirling, 5th in the League Race at Bathgate and 14th at the National Championships. The Masters Women finished 12th overall in the East District league and the Senior Women were 18th at the National Championships. Of the whole of Scotland only 10 other Clubs had a top 20 Men’s Team and a top 20 Women’s Team at the National Champs!

In the Young Athletes we had competitive Teams, both boys and girls, at the two relay events with the boys gaining an impressive top 20 place at the National relays. At Bathgate in the final East District League Race we had impressive teams in the U11 Boys (7th), U11 Girls(6th), U13 Boys(8th) and U13 Girls (12th).

So if you did not run Cross Country last season don’t have FOMO and we will see you in October at the relays or the East District League in November.

#We are a Tier One Cross Country club due to the total number of finishers we had at the National Short Course Champs, The National Relay Champs and the National Champs at Callendar Park. We have been promoted from Tier Three and then Tier Two in successive seasons.

So if you can, please help us to stay in Tier One by completing at least one of these Champs, yellow in the table attached.