Don Macgregor

The record books show that on the major international stage, Don Macgregor had just two top ten marathon finishes at the Commonwealth Games and one at the Olympics. That does not, however, tell anything like the full story of Macgregor, who was a major influence on distance running in Scotland. He won three Scottish AAA marathon titles in 1973-74, and 1976, and also finished second six times between 1965-86. His 24 sub 2-20 marathons was a Scottish record, and one of them came when he was 43-years-of-age.

Macgregor attended the Daniel Stewart’s school (now Stewart’s Melville College) in Edinburgh, which had an excellent reputation for producing fine rugby players. As he did not take to the sport, however, Macgregor concentrated on running instead. After Stewart’s, he went to St Andrews University from where he qualified as a French and German teacher. Also, during his time at university, he became an excellent cross-country runner and a good distance runner on the track, winning the Scottish AAAs 6 and 10 mile titles. He tried his first marathon in 1965 and finished in a promising 2-22:24. Two years later he finished third in the AAAs marathon at Nuneaton behind Jim Alder and fellow Scot Alastair Wood. Macgregor also finished third again at Manchester in 1972, this time behind West Germany’s Lutz Philipp and Ron Hill.

At the 1972 Olympics, Macgregor finished seventh but was rightly proud of his achievement because he was just 1:26 seconds off a medal place. Macgregor won the world veteran 10,000 metres title in 1979, and added the marathon title the following year at Bellahouston, Glasgow.

Macgregor ran for Edinburgh Southern Harriers and then Fife AC, for whom he became a coach later in his career. In 1980, when part of the David Puttnam film Chariots of Fire was being filmed on a St Andrews beach, Macgregor was requested by a journalist to assemble a team of runners who could be used as extras in the shoot. He duly obliged, but did not appear himself because he did not want to take a day off from his teaching job at the local Madras College. Following retirement from teaching in 1999, Macgregor took an active role in the St Andrews community and local politics.

Personal Best: Mar – 2-14:16 (1974).