Lynsey Lawrie started coaching in 2015 and currently coaches within our Development and Junior squads. She used to be an endurance athlete – the longer the better. Half Ironman, Marathons and multi day adventure races. She was a Scottish silver medallist for Half Ironman 2004 and 2005.
Lynsey dislikes athletes who do not try their hardest and likes seeing athletes improve. When asked for a funny story she said: “When the fox steals athletes clothes from the track and then watching the coaches chase the fox to retrieve the items”.
She was born in Edinburgh and currently works as a self employed training consultant and instructional author. Lynsey is married with three boys – all compete for the club and has a pet dog. Her favorites are, Film: Forrest Gump, Food: lamb, Music: ELO and Novo AmorLO. Her hobbies include gardening and driving her kids to their other sports and keeping up with them when out mountain biking!
David Arnott started coaching at Corstorphine in 2011 and has focused on middle distance and cross country/roads with our Junior Endurance Squad (for age 14 upwards) since 2017. He was voted Scottish Athletics Club Coach of the Year in 2019. David loves to run with the athletes whenever he is fit enough to do so and to get the squad out training on trails and hills whenever he can. He has been involved in athletics for over 40 years and is a former East of Scotland 1500m Champion, Scottish under 20 1500m Champion, East of Scotland U20 cross country champion and represented Scotland at U20 level at the World Cross Country Championships in Warsaw (1987). David still competes in masters events and his favourite running hat is significantly older than any of the athletes in the squad!
He was brought up in Dunfermline where he was a member of Pitreavie AAC and this is where his love of athletics started. He was Club Captain when the club won the Scottish Mens League for the first time. He moved to University in Edinburgh where he was chairman of the University athletics club, a member of the Hares and Hounds and has been in Edinburgh ever since. David works in Edinburgh as a Solicitor and his 3 children Caitlin, Jamie and Mhairi are all members of Corstorphine. Athletics takes up most of his spare time but he likes to play and watch most sports.
Jazz Tickner started volunteering to help out at her local club when she was 15 years old, and has been a fully qualified coach since 2016. She joined the Corstorphine coaching team in summer 2020 and is currently working towards her Event Group coaching qualification to specialise in jumps. At the moment she is mainly coaching the junior athletes and helping out with the sprint squad, where she is also an athlete as well as doing long jump and triple jump!
Fun fact – when she first qualified as a coach she was the youngest ever athletics coach in the UK (she had to get special permission to enrol on the course as she didn’t meet the usual age requirement). Likes – she loves coaching technique (such as drills, sprint posture and field events). Dislikes – As a sprinter she hates endurance training and sticks to her motto of “anything further than 100m is too far!”
Jazz grew up in Shropshire on the North Wales border, but has lived in Edinburgh since 2016 where she works as a Front Office Manager in a hotel. She has a pet rescue cat called Sushi and likes baking and cooking.
Mike Rose is another of our Assistant Coaches with our Juniors, he is happy to coach wherever needed, but he does prefer sprints. When asked how long he has coached, he was amazed to find it was since 2018 – time has flown by. Five or six years ago he found it not really worth his while to dive home after dropping his son off at the track, only to turn around a few minutes later to pick him up. So, he brought a chair and read a book during the session. George Key, said, “That’s how I started. You’ll be out here coaching soon.” he thought, no chance But George was right, Mike answered one of the calls for parent helpers and has never looked back. When he first volunteered to help, he let it be known that he knew nothing about athletics and was horrible with names. He added, “not once have I felt out of depth when helping. I was always provided with a plan for the session, and early days I was always paired with someone more experienced”
Mike was not an athlete in his younger days, but he has really started to enjoy running in recent years. He says his head enjoys it more than the rest of his body! He proudly claims his greatest achievement was just lacing up his shoes and taking that first step. Born and raised in Virginia, USA Mike graduated from Clemson University and received his MBA from Loyola College in Maryland. He is the Head of Financial Planning and Analysis at a FinTech company
Lewis Innes is our Junior & Senior Sprints coach and has coached since 2002. He was a thrower as a youngster and recently got back into it. He loves regular attendance and hard work. Lewis has a quotes book and also a list of the best excuses for missing training. At the top of that list there are a few, but his favourite has to be that one of his athletes texted to say they weren’t able to attend training as there was a deer in their garden keeping them hostage in their own house. That’s way better than the dog that ate my homework!
He was born, raised and studied in Edinburgh and currently works as an Engineer with Edinburgh Council. He is married to Kimberly and likes to have a chicken pizza when watching Iron Man or listening to Ria Mae. Lewis also coaches Rollerderby, which Kimberley also plays and is a streamer on Twitch. He volunteers as an official in Scottish Motorsport and loves photography. So there is a lot on his plate every week!
Chris Peggie started coaching in 2012 and coaches the Development and Junior Athletes. He covers sprints, endurance, jumps (long & high) and throws (javelin & shot putt). He was a late starting athlete. initially dragged into playing football by his brothers in his late 20s. A colleague then noted he must be fit and suggested he should join the work 10km charity effort. Chris soon realised he wasn’t fit and found a Couch to 5km plan. He eventually dragged himself round the Edinburgh Bupa 10km in 52 minutes. The following weekend he did the Penicuik 10km and took a minute off his PB and was hooked.
Chris joined CAAC a year after and thanks to his coach he took 10 minutes off his 10km PB in his first year. He was delighted with two Good for Age places in the London Marathon by meeting the qualifying standard of a sub-3:10 time and a second place in the Stornoway 10km (yes there were more than 2 athletes in the race).
Chris says it’s always brilliant to see the Juniors delight when they get to throw a javelin, shot putt or take a leap into the long jump pit for the first time! Chris gets a lot of fun explaining why he has Pacemaker on his club kit – despite not being very fast. He was born in Edinburgh and went to Aberdeen Uni, he has now returned to his hometown where lives with his two cats and works in the governance team with Edinburgh Council. He has a broad range of favourite films, food and music and away from athletics he enjoys gaming and following Hearts.
Petra Cameron started coaching in 2017 and is another coach of our Juniors, but will help wherever needed. She always enjoyed cross country as a kid and runs now whenever she can and has done a couple of marathons and a few half’s/10k events. Petra likes it when the kids turn up ready to take part and enjoy the session, but less keen when it’s clear they’d rather be somewhere/anywhere else. She was once helping with the older endurance kids and joined them on a run with another coach, she ended up being so far behind she almost got lost.
Petra hails from Glasgow is married with two kids and a dog. She works in advertising with the Natwest group, liking Footloose, Thai food, any cheesy disco, exploring new places and going for long walk.
George Key has been coaching our Junior athletes since 2015. He still competes in throws in various leagues for the club but wouldn’t class himself as an athlete! George likes seeing the progression in kids from development squad level all the way up to competition level!!!
He was born and raised and still lives in Edinburgh where he works with the council roads department. George is married to Angie for nearly 14 years and has four kids Robyn & Lewis (sprint squad), Lucas (junior athlete) and Isla (excited to join CAAC when she can). They have two cats Pebbles (21)!!! and Poppy nearly 1. He likes the Shawshank Redemption, anything homemade and all music types. Away from the track he likes football & cycling.
David Henderson coaches the adult endurance group and started coaching in 2000. He is still an athlete, preferring Road running mainly. 10K’s, half marathons, marathons and has even dabbled in some track races for the club. David likes when athletes thank him for their achievements and dislikes wet evenings at training. He enjoys a bit of banter with his group, they give him a bit of stick regarding his pace these days but he soon tells them his PB times and that shuts them up.
David is Edinburgh born and bred, is married with three great adult kids and a dog called Troon. He works as a Team Manager in local government and enjoys James Bond or action films, steak pie and anything that sounds good. Away from the track he enjoys golf, gardening and DIY.
Kara McKenzie-Tait started coaching in 2004 when she was 16 through Kilmarnock Harriers and East Ayrshire Council. She is now an Athletics Coach with our Women’s Squad where she is heavily involved with the resurgence in form of our female athletes. She currently covers track, road and cross country, but she has coached all ages when she was a student.
Kara is still an athlete and her achievements to date include 2019 and 2021 Scottish Aquathon champion, 2021 British Aquathon silver medallist, 2014 5000m Scottish champion and 1000m silver medallist. She does admit to hating the cold winter weather.
She was raised in Kilmaurs in Ayrshire, but now lives in Edinburgh where she works at Edinburgh College as a Student Safeguarding and Welfare Lead. She is married to Calum who is also a club member and they had a baby daughter in 2022. Her favourite food is Pasta and Garlic Bread, and she loves listening to crime podcasts, swimming and yoga.
Mike Harrison is an Assistant Coach and has coached our Juniors since 2019. In his youth he was a sprinter, but now he runs longer distances – half and full marathons. Born in Bridge of Allan he ran for Central AC, please don’t hold that against me, he asks!. His best achievement was bronze in the Scottish U15 boys 4×100 relay champs. He ran the third leg which is where he hears they put the slowest in the team!!!
Mike studied at Edinburgh College of Art and is now a Landscape Architect and Urban Designer, with his own business in Edinburgh. He is married to Debbie, and they have three children. Lewis, Ella and Riley who all train and compete at the club. The Star Wars films are his favourite, they came out for the first time when he was a kid and he has enjoyed the evolution of the new films over the years. Classic films.
Outside of athletics he used to play rugby and still follows Stirling County, the club he used to play for, Edinburgh and Scotland, watching them whenever I can. Mainly my business and family take up my time so with the athletics and running I have a full life.
Carrie Main started coaching in summer 2020 as part of her Duke of Edinburgh Award and quickly got hooked. Originally, she was too young to go through coach education (min age is 16) but she gladly helped out and has recently completed he Assistant’s qualification, along with three other of our younger coaches. Carrie coaches our Development Group and also helps out with our Royal High project on a Friday.
She is still an athlete and was part of the 3X800mrelay team who got silver in September 2019. Carrie likes how it’s helped her develop and all the opportunities it’s opened for her. Indeed, she is now a paid community coach with Hearts, and acknowledges being involved with CAAC has given her the skills and confidence she was needing. Carrie has a pet Dalmatian called Bella and loves tomato pasta.