29th June 2026.
As our Garmin’s reverberates at 7pm on a Tuesday and Thursday, some new arrivals may ponder why it takes a further ten minutes for the start button to be pressed.
Just ask member Andy Hamilton, and he will quickly explain why the apparent delay makes the club so special.
In celebration of his 10-year club anniversary, it was many of our groups pre-warm-up chit chat ritual that ensued an early sense of belonging.
“I arrived in loads of time but as it turned out, I hadn’t needed to. Everyone stood around and had a big chat for 10 mins before setting off” said Andy.
“Stories of races, night outs, failing football teams, and running mishaps. Now this was my sort of club.”
Nowadays he is a regular and valuable member of the club, returning to running after some gentle encouragement from his wife.
However, his vest colours may have looked starkly different if it wasn’t for a previous parking error a decade ago.
“I was still going out to Portobello to play 5s regularly, so I found a running group out there and organised to meet them. It was a nightmare getting parked so ended up a little late. I thought it would be fine but discovered they’d waited just 2mins before setting off. I went for a run to try and find them, but no avail. Slightly mystified and disappointed I headed home.”
Currently in the senior endurance squad previously led by Jan and Dave, when the duo decided to offer the role out, there were no shortages of volunteers willing to continue their longstanding work. However, as a previous football coach and a confident communicator, Hamilton was not fazed to offer his support too. “My loud voice and natural desire to try and control things seemed to make me a good fit.”
Now as one of five run leaders to rotate trainers for a whistle with Keiran, Jen, Jilly and Andy Nichol, he has progressed, buoyed by guidance from Jan and Dave. “There were four or five of us to put up our hands to just to go through the coaching courses, so it started off just informally stepping in a couple of weeks and kind of just leading the session that Dave would already have planned.”
Although there will be little doubts on his ability to reciprocate his enthusiasm for the squad, it is the club’s continual camaraderie that has had the biggest impact on his social and competitive experience at Corstorphine.
This was especially relevant in his second year, when he made the decision to focus on lowering his 10k personal best. “I had managed it once since joining, but decided to give that distance focus. I got lots of good advice from the group. Not just from the coaches, but from others around me. That is one great thing about the club, not the structured training plans, but hearing the tips, the pitfalls, the varying habits (Andy N and the never-ending fudge to name one of the more unusual ones) and the general encouragement from everyone”.
His choice was successful when he recorded three consecutive record performances over 6.2 miles in the autumn of 2018.
“I signed up to three races in the autumn with the plan of using the first two to really sharpen my pace, before going for it in the third. The target was to break my then record of 46mins. I beat it in the first race! I then went faster again in the second, before breaking through 45mins in the third! I was blown away. I never could have achieved that running on my own”.
The runner built on this form with his fastest times in a CAAC vest in 2019 however, had the momentum of his racing and consistent training thwarted by the pandemic.
“It was of course very hard for a lot of people for a lot of different reasons, but not being able to meet the group, chat, run, train and have a laugh together was tough. The passing of my mum at the end of 2020 made this even more difficult. Dealing with the grief while trying to home school two young children and keep my very demanding job under control was brutal.”
Thankfully for Andy, normal training eventually resumed giving him a much-needed release from his family and working life. Despite not overtaking his 2019 heights, he remains positive on reaching further milestones.
“My first 10k post pandemic was almost 3min slower than my best and I realised there was a lot of work to do. Once again, the club supported me and the times steadily started to fall again. I am 44 now, but still have aspirations to get back to my 2019 times. Perhaps I am being optimistic, but running with this crowd will do that to you.”
We are all grateful for the efforts of all coach’s at Corstorphine, and Andy is a fine example of how you can make a positive impact on others. Also, in true CAAC style, he highlights the benefits of his loud voice at temporally hushing the chit chat during instruction time.
“Having done some coaching with kids, and then coaching with adults, you kind of develop slightly different skills, although both, no matter what age it is, people still chat away, but thankfully my voice gets their attention okay”.
If you would like to nominate yourself or someone else at the club who you feel deserves a mention, let us know and a member of our publicity team will be in touch.
Well done, Andy!
Read more about Andy and more of our coaching team here.
Write up by Telfer Gray