Hi everyone. This is the second of our interviews looking at the benefits of running as we get older. This time I’ve been chatting with the multitalented Roddy Simpson, who had a very special birthday earlier this year.
When did you join Linlithgow Athletic Club?
I had done some running when I was younger, but I hadn’t been for a long time because of other commitments. I ran my first Linlithgow 10K in 2009, age 61, after being encouraged by my daughter-n-law. She said ‘if I can do it, you can do it’. At first I did a mixture of running and walking around Rosemount Park and gradually built up from there. After that I started going to some of the Linlithgow Athletic Club sessions and entering the races which were part of the club championship. I have been going to parkrun since 2013, mostly at Falkirk, as a regular weekly run where I bump into lots of familiar faces from LAC. I have got to know many of the club members over the years and there is a great sense of camaraderie.
You have coached lots of runners through the Couch to 5K programme, including me. How did you get involved with that?
In 2018 Lorna Simpson, who originally set up the club’s Couch to 5K programme, was looking for club members to give her a hand. I volunteered along with Alex Wood and did my Jog Leader training later that year. I’ve been involved with Let’s Go Linlithgow ever since. It’s such a great way to get people running because so many people just don’t see themselves as runners. Last year I started helping Rachel Waugh with the Walk/Jog group. I’m also hoping to set up a walking group next year.
Many of us will be aware of the fantastic photos that you take for the club. Tell us about that.
I was offered voluntary redundancy in the 90s and I used the opportunity to make my part-time photography full-time. I did work for newspapers and magazines and lots of different organisations, including the Scottish Poetry Library and Scottish Volleyball. I was official photographer for Scottish Athletics for several years, although I wasn’t running at the time. In 1995 I photographed The World Mountain Running Championship at Holyrood, a spectacular course designed by Martin Hyman from Lothian Running Club. I took photos at the first ever Linlithgow 10K and recently had a photo of the 0K on the BBC website. I regularly take photos at our local junior parkrun, West Lothian Cycle Circuit. It’s a great way to keep my hand in with photography along with lecturing and archiving. My real passion is black and white film photography, though I only get to do this very rarely now.
Tell us about some of your running highlights
I always enjoy running with my daughter-in-law, Kate. I’m so grateful for her encouragement. One of my LAC highlights is being part of a Veteran 70 relay team at the Shale Trail in December 2021 along with Alex Wood and Graham Burrows. We ran 5 miles each. I have run 270 parkruns and volunteered over 70 times. I’m really proud of this because I never ran a parkrun until I was 65. My parkrun highlight has to be being mentioned in a Ronnie Scott poem at a Falkirk parkrun briefing!
You had a special birthday earlier this year. What was your birthday treat?
It was my 75 th birthday and I treated myself to some carbon plate trainers. I only wear them for racing. They’re fantastic. I’m about 2 minutes faster over 5K when I wear them!
I hope you enjoyed reading this. A huge thank you to Roddy for talking to me. As you can imagine Roddy had some great photos to share, a few of which you will find below. By Claire Emery, Linlithgow Athletic Club Inclusion Group.
