Jamie Crowe on racing his pupils and going for his 3rd national title

When Crowe, a double Scottish cross-country champion, reveals he’s a high school teacher, his motivation for keeping his talents on the down low become apparent – teenagers aren’t always the most supportive audience when it comes to applauding the achievements of their teachers.

But Crowe reveals one very specific reason as to why he keeps his running talents somewhat more secretive than you’d think he might.

“I really try to avoid talking about running too much to the kids because if I do, they just want to race me all the time,” he laughs.

Crowe is a PE teacher at Craigie High in Dundee and he admits that while he does his best to keep his professional and private life separate, the inevitable overlap comes when he’s spotted on his daily commute which comes in the shape of his 10km run from his home into school and back.

And so, with his pupils well aware of his running prowess, the odd challenge has been accepted by Crowe and he’s taken on the more confident of the school kids in a race.

“The pupils do know I run because the other teachers tell them about it, and the school is good at letting me have days off to race so I sometimes disappear for a day or two,” he says.

“Sometimes I’ll run to a park with them, round the park and then back to school but I’ve never raced any of them properly.

“Except once, at our sports day. We do a relay race and I was racing a couple of wee wideos but it was only over 400m, which is so short for me so I was pretty nervous because I was thinking running is my one go-to thing so I have to beat them. 

“I pulled it off, thankfully.”

Crowe lines up at today’s Lindsays National Cross Country Championships, which take place at Callendar Park in Falkirk, in the hunt for his third title in the event.

Having become Scottish champion in both 2020 and 2022, Crowe is aiming to continue the pattern and having found something close to his very best form in recent weeks, he’s quietly confident of putting in a strong performance today.

“I’m pretty happy with my season so far and especially since the new year, I’m pleased with how things have gone,” he says.

“I’m feeling pretty confident for the Scottish Champs. I always seem to run reasonably well at Falkirk.

“I do feel the pressure on me, though. I’m getting more used to that now but in the past, I worried about the pressure all the time. In the first lap I’d get really nervous knowing that the other guys were looking at me and I’d worry about when to make my move. But as the years have gone on and I’ve been running faster, I’ve handled that better.

“So I’m looking forward to this one and I hopefully won’t be too nervous in that first lap.”

Last year saw Crowe hit something of a crossroads in his career.

The 28-year-old spent a few years somewhat uncertain as to what direction, athletics-wise, in which to head and after an unsuccessful attempt to qualify for Team Scotland in the marathon for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, as well as a lack of motivation on the track and the struggle to combine elite athletics and full-time work, Crowe was somewhat disillusioned with the sport.

What has ended up being his saving grace was spending last summer running purely for enjoyment and that has, he says, successfully reignited the spark within him.

“Last year, I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” he says. 

“I wasn’t enjoying running that much and I was doing much less training than I had been.

“So I decided to do a season of running races I wanted to do – things like local races that had old records that hadn’t been broken for a good few years. I had a lot of fun doing that and that really got me back into wanting to race.

Crowe’s primary contenders for the Scottish title today are likely to come in the shape of Ben Potrykus, Scott Stirling and Lachlan Oates and while Crowe is not a natural lover of the wet, muddy conditions that the national championships are so often held in, he admits that neither is he one to shy away from traditional cross-country conditions.

Whatever the state of the course, however, there’s one type of runner he absolutely refuses to be defeated by.

“I’m not one of those people who loves wet, muddy conditions but I do seem to run well in those conditions,” he says. 

“I don’t mind the dry either but the mud and rain makes it harder and it’s always good when you know everyone’s hurting. Tough conditions add that extra element to the race too because you’ve to stay on your feet and pick the right line through the mud and that’s always good fun.

“Whatever the weather though, I’ll be in shorts and a vest – my dad (who’s also running today) would really slag me for wearing gloves or even worse, arm sleeves. I’ve always sworn I’ll never lose to anyone wearing arm sleeves.”

In the women’s field, Scotland’s most successful runner in recent years, Megan Keith, is missing as she focuses on attempting to secure Olympic selection on the track but despite her absence, there’s no shortage of quality with defending champion Scout Adkin, Alice Goodall, Kirsty Walker and Nancy Scott likely to be in the hunt for podium places.