Ian Binnie, b. 15 July 1929. d. 26 July 2007.One of Scotland’s greatest endurance athletes, the holder of 21 Scottish native records.

Ian Binnie, one of Scotland’s greatest endurance runners, multiple record breaker and national champion, became the youngest winner of the Scottish 6 miles title when bettering the championship record by all of 50 seconds at the age of just twenty-two years in 1952 - just 2½ years after starting running.  The following year he won both the 3 and 6 miles titles in the first of three successive double Scottish title wins between 1953 and 1955. His distance running successes were rewarded with the award of the Crabbie Cup, presented to the athlete who records the most meritorious performance in the national Championships, for three successive years - equalling the record held by Eric Liddell in the twenties.  Binnie's success as the first Scot to better 29 minutes for 6 miles, 14 minutes for 3 miles and 9 minutes for 2 miles, came from emulating the tough training sessions and prodigious amounts of work practised by his idol, the great Czech Olympic champion, Emil Zatopek. This involved daily training sessions and a resultant high weekly mileage unknown to runners of that era in Scotland. During his summer track training, Binnie would run up to 10 miles per night after work, consisting of 30 to 40 laps with 200 to 300 yards sprinting and a short recovery period over the remainder of the quarter mile lap before starting again. Winter training consisted of 7 to 8 miles per day with some speed work still an essential part of the programme. In 1953 he bettered the native record held by clubmate Andrew Forbes by 17 seconds when winning the national 3 mile title in 14:01.4 and took almost 40 seconds off his own 6 miles championship record with his time of 29:20.7, which displaced the All-Comers record of 29:59.4 set by Alfred Shrubb in 1904.  Two weeks later, when finishing third in the AAA 6 miles Championship behind world record-breaker Gordon Pirie, Binnie bettered 29 minutes with a run of 28:53.4 - his best ever time for the distance. 

After this magnificent run he was telephoned at his Glasgow home by Jack Crump, the British team manager, who invited him to run for Britain in an international 6 miles race. To Crump's amazement and anger, Binnie declined the invitation, explaining he had already committed to run in an important race at the Cowal Games at Dunoon on the same weekend.  This rejection of British international honours resulted in Binnie, like so many other deserving Scottish athletes, never being selected for British international teams. But his hour run at Dunoon was of the highest quality. Setting a remorseless 5 minutes per mile pace from the start, Binnie, cheered on enthusiastically by a 20,000 strong crowd of spectators, broke all Scottish records above 7 miles.  United Kingdom records also fell at 10 miles (50:11.0) and for the full hour run with his measured distance of 11 miles 1571 yards being also United Kingdom All-Comers record as well as the United Kingdom and Empire records - a distance bettered at the time by only two other runners in history. 

His honed speed enabled him to become the first Scot to run under 14 minutes for 3 miles when placing 7^th in the 1954 Vancouver Empire Games, with a time of 13:59.6 and also to finish 6^th  in the 6 miles (30:15.2), later reducing his best to 13:57.6 when winning the 1958 national title.  His time of 8:58.4 for 2 miles in 1953, later improved to 8:57.2 five years later, was the first time a Scot had bettered 9 minutes for the 2 mile distance.

At cross-country, he was a member of the winning Victoria Park AAC team which became the first team from outside England to win the English cross-country championships in 1952. He was in his winning club team on 5 occasions at the Scottish championships, with his 4th position in 1952 being his best individual showing.

He set himself very high standards, wanting to hold every Scottish distance record from the mile to the marathon. This he achieved, except for the first and last, with 21 Scottish records between 1952 and 1958 at all distances. A brave runner, he only knew one way to run and that was from the front, often setting off at a suicidal pace. His critics often drew attention to this and his lack of finishing speed, but nobody could ever criticise him for his undoubted courage. His belief was that to achieve success you had to do more training than your rivals and you did it faster.

Binnie trained and raced all the year round, winning many road and cross country honours during the winter as a member of the successful Victoria Park team which won national cross country team titles and victories in the prestigious Edinburgh to Glasgow relay race. He was an engineering draughtsman with Glasgow firms and, while working in Bridgeton, he was to be seen running round the adjacent Glasgow Green every lunchtime. He remained an extremely fit person, running for enjoyment and fitness daily, though not as part of the competitive veteran scene.