Life on the Run (24 page)

In October I was asked to help with the Great Sam Run Half Marathon which had been running since 1981. I had run in the event in 1984 when it was held at Virginia Water in Surrey, and I had a rival in the race that day, my fifteen-year-old niece Lucy Dancer, running the race although she was under age. We both did around 1:40.

My first duty with the event was to act as starter, and the programme said they could not get Diana Dors but had someone far less cuddly, Stan Eldon. The race was now run from Easthampstead just outside Bracknell, and four of the key people involved with the event were related to me by marriage; Les Webber and Jackie, and Reg Morton and Patricia were relations of my sister's husband.

For the next ten years Marion and I were to enjoy working with the team from the Bracknell, Wokingham, Ascot and District Samaritans, who organised the event to raise money for their very worthwhile cause. Our function was to produce the results using the very good system that had been developed for use at Reading. Like so many events, circumstances surrounding them demand changes, and in 2001 the half marathon changed to a 10K race at Wellington College.

The build up on events continued into 1988, and I was involved with a large number that had started the previous year and some that were new. The first event of the year was a new one for us, when we took over an established event, the Burghfield ten mile near Reading. It was sponsored by accountants Grant Thornton, and was run to raise money for the 1988 Olympics.

The next event was the Reading Half Marathon, and on this occasion just one record was broken, and it was again in the wheelchair race. It was not Hallam this time but ‘the new kid on the block' David Holding, who took the record down to 63:57. The sun shone on the race this year; it was a very fine day and it brought out very large crowds all round the route. The team winners were London Irish, and Paul Cuskin won the Digital Trophy with his win in 63:16. The Klime twins returned and again took second (63:21) and third (63:22) places but in the reverse order with Petr getting the upper hand this time. The winning lady was Karen Macleod from Bristol in 74:09, a personal best time by over a minute, and a new vet winner emerged, Ernie Cunningham, who lived in Reading but ran for Aldershot, Farnham and District. His time was 65:13, so the outstanding veteran times were being maintained. Veteran Martin Duff, who had previously been a member of three Berkshire clubs and well known for his contributions to
Athletics Weekly,
was also running for Aldershot and finished twenty-second in 68:10 and fourth placed veteran. The over fifty winner was Ron Pannell with 73:36, with Reading AC's Brian Fozard third in the category with 78:19. The over sixty men included some runners who are still running today, including Patrick Phillips (Reading Roadrunners) and Bernard Dembo (Maidenhead). The winner was Tom Shilling (Basingstoke) in 93:54. The winner of the women over forty-five, Karin Downs, 80:47, was way ahead of the first over forty woman Jackie Clark in 87:04.

In the mini marathon Mathew Lockey was the winner, and the first girl was Vicki Stevens. A runner with a fine pedigree from the Stevens family in Reading. Father Don a very good cross-country runner, and uncle Gerry a former British record holder for the steeplechase at both 2,000 and 3,000 metres.

It was either in this year or the following year that a problem occurred with the police. They did not turn up on time for the road closures on an important part of the course. A group of about eight turned up in a minibus at the start/finish venue well after the time they should have reported. I noticed that the sergeant in charge of sending them to their points did not say much to them, so I enquired why they were late and why he had not at least drawn their attention to their poor timing. I have not forgotten his reply “Oh they are a special group and we have no control over them; they do their own thing.” I was not amused or impressed.

This was the year I had another strange incident, which I really did not understand until a few years later when I had time to reflect. I was approached by an Italian about bringing a few of the runners he managed across to Reading for the half marathon. We got permission from the then AAAs, and agreed to provide a hotel and pay for their air fares. I collected the three from Heathrow on the Saturday morning, and one of the runners from the start insisted he ‘had to get to London'. After we had got them to the Post House in Reading, this one individual could not wait for me to get him to the station and a train to London. He was very vague about his ‘mission' or where he was going. He arrived back later that evening and turned up for the race next morning, but he did not get very far; was ‘ill' and dropped out. It was all a bit strange, and it was only much later that I put two and two together. I now think he had gone to London to collect some drugs, either performance enhancing or recreational. Either way he did not get it right, and whatever he did certainly made him quite ill.

I have always been surprised that the drug testing, that is carried out on track athletes and in major marathons like London, has never been introduced into these other events where there has been fairly substantial money rewards for the winners and others.

In May there was a 10K race at Cantley Manor in Wokingham; this was a new venue for the race that had been held at Stratfield Saye on the previous two years. In the same month the Littlecote Challenge 15K was held again, and this time for the benefit of the West Berkshire MacMillan Cancer Care Appeal. The event was again a sell out, and was proving to be very popular at the attractive Littlecote House.

I had been asked by my Rotary District to use my knowledge and skills to organise a major half marathon in the City of Oxford. The purpose of the run was to raise money for the Rotary International Polio Plus Campaign. The object of which was to eradicate polio and other diseases from the world by the turn of the century. There was a lot of work involved in putting together a race on the streets of a city like Oxford. We had all-round cooperation, and in June 1988 the race was on. Over 3,000 runners took part, and perhaps the most interesting feature of the race was that a woman, Paula Fudge, took second place, in the very good time of 72:59, behind the winner Bill Domoney from Oxford City AC in 71:14. This must have been one of the highest placed women's positions in any mass running event. The race raised a total of £15,000 for the very worthwhile cause.

The race was run four more times, in 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1992, and although the numbers were never as great as in that first special year, the event did raise worthwhile money for the charities that were chosen in each year by the Rotary Clubs of Oxford who were responsible for the event. The only reason the event finally came to an end, was the ageing of those who had worked very hard to make it a success.

The Nabisco Family Runs took place again in the same month in Prospect Park, Reading.

In September there were two races; the Courage Half Marathon again, where I provided the services for receiving the entries and producing the results; and also running the Reading AC ten mile race sponsored by Claude Fenton at Reading University again.

The year 1989 saw the Reading Half Marathon move into a newly-set up Star Ranking. It was also the first year that the race was run without the major sponsor Digital, although they still gave support to the race by providing the computers and technical support, and the sponsorship was shared between six companies. The other five were headed by Barclays Bank, who had been involved in the race from the start, and four other companies; Clark Whitehill, Horncastle Ford, who always did a great job of providing the lead vehicles all very smartly decorated with the event logos each year, Dunster and Morton, Surveyors, and TNT Printed Leisurewear, who provided T-shirts for several years. The race became one of the Star Rank HOT 100 races, which were set up to give individuals a personal ranking in their own category. The event produced a first back-to-back winner, when Paul Cuskin returned to win again in a slower time of 64:11. It was also one of the wetter race days. There was another huge entry, and the team race trophy went back to the 1986 winners, Westbury Harriers. The Barclays Bank Trophy for women went to a local girl, Marina Samy from Bracknell (the third twin to win that trophy), who won in 73:43. Chris Hallam took the wheelchair race for the second time, although he could not match the record time set by David Holding the previous year. The winning male vet was previous race winner and veteran winner Mike Hurd in 66:20, and the first lady vet was a local runner who had taken up running later in life, Jackie Jeffery.

This was the Stars and Stripes race, as we received three guests from Reading; England's twin Reading in Pennsylvania. The three had won their trip to our race as they had won or finished second in their category, in what was known as that town's Historic 10K Run. The team of three was led by their race winner, twenty-five-year-old Randy Haas, who had a best time of just over thirty minutes for the 10K. There was a last-minute replacement for the women's entry; Donna Anderson replacing Shelly Steely who had won the Historic Reading 10K, and the third team member was Tim Whitehead, an eighteen-year-old wheelchair athlete. In exchange, the Reading UK race was to send three athletes to compete in the US event later in the year. Randy Haas ran a very good race to finish thirteenth in 66:36, just one place in front of Tim Butler the first man from Reading to finish and earn his trip to the US. He was to be joined by the first Reading woman to finish, Caroline Hughes, 78:29, and the wheelchair winner Chris Hallam. Donna Anderson finished 270
th
in 83:38, and in the wheelchair race Tim Whitehead finished sixth out of twenty-four in 78:29.

The Mini Marathon winners were Russell Trimmings and, for the second successive year, Vicki Stevens.

The pre-race Pasta Party was held at the Three Men in a Boat at the Caversham Hotel, and to accommodate everyone the event started at 4 p.m. As always the leading race entrants attended and mixed with the ‘also rans'. This was another established tradition that disappeared from the event in later years.

There was a huge entry of over 100 people running for the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, and they were motivated and led by Alice Gostomski from Reading, who turned out masses of runners for the charity every year. In this particular year the race hit the national headlines again but perhaps for the wrong reasons. It concerned a cancer victim, twenty-three-year-old Karen Still from Reading, who was one of the squad from the charity. She had been determined to make it around the 13.1 miles, even though like many she had never done anything like it before. She completed her challenge in close to three hours forty-five minutes, but when she arrived at the finish virtually everyone had gone home, and there was no one around to present her with her finisher's medal. The
Daily Star
presented her with their own ‘Gold Award', and I arranged to meet her at her home along with some friends who had run with her to present her medal and other ‘goodies'. It would be easy to list reasons why this happened, but the story did have that happy ending and all was forgiven, and both the event and the charity made national and local headlines yet again.

A very popular T-shirt for the 1989 event was produced with the Reading Gold Lion leaning on the event medal.

As in all the earlier years, the official on-street collection was carried out by the Rotary Club of Caversham, who with a large army of volunteers, collected around £5,000 from the spectators around the route; a task they took on for a number of years, raising a very considerable sum for various charities.

At the end of April that year, Digital brought someone from their Belfast office to see me to discuss how the results system worked. They had just taken on responsibility for producing the results for the Belfast Marathon, to be held on 1
st
May. After a quick discussion, it was decided that it would be better if I went to Belfast and did the results myself. For a couple of years I made the trip to Belfast on the early-morning shuttle from Heathrow, on the early May bank holiday. It was always a very enjoyable experience, even with the security that had to surround me and the event. After two years a young local man had learned enough about producing quick and accurate results, and he was able to take over.

Producing the results swiftly was not easy in Belfast, as there was not only the full normal marathon, but a marathon relay of the same distance run at the same time. The very small office, almost a cupboard, where I had to work my magic, was also used to store the emergency stretcher and medical equipment, so at times it got a bit cramped. I always arrived early in the morning, and was driven from the airport and through the various check points, before arriving at the leisure centre to find that the sniffer dogs and Army personnel were checking out my ‘office'. Despite the limited facilities, I always managed to get the full results out and with the
Belfast Telegraph,
before I caught my shuttle flight home in the evening.

My most vivid memory of these race days, was the occasion when towards the end of the race (bands were playing and everyone was enjoying the day, including the ample supply of Guinness), the commentator, a mature man, a local journalist, got very emotional. He went away from his commentary on the race and said “What a wonderful day. Why, oh why can't we always be together like this?” Within days, when I had returned home, the violence that had been missing on Marathon weekend returned and people were dying again.

There were three races as part of the Reading AC Grand Prix Series run in July. The first was a 10K along the Thames, south of the river to Tilehurst and back, and then two races were run on the attractive Mapledurham Estate, north of the river; one a 8K and the other a full 10K again.

In October 1989 I helped with the organising of a 10K race in Guildford for the British Heart Foundation.

The three representatives from the Reading, England race, who ran in the Historic Reading 10K in Pennsylvania in October did very well, with Tim Butler from Reading AC winning the event. Chris Hallam won the wheelchair race and Caroline Hughes (now Stevens) from Reading AC, was second lady.