Life on the Run (28 page)

Bridgend again won the team race from Sunderland, with three local clubs taking the next three places; Bracknell AC, Reading Roadrunners and Newbury AC, in that order. The very comfortable winners of the women's team race were Reading Roadrunners, with nearly 3,000 points to spare over second team Basingstoke and Midhants. The Charity Fun team winners were Imperial Cancer with only 171 points, against the second team Avenue School with 2,289. The race was used as the South of England Championship for the distance. Brian Fozard (Reading AC) won the over sixty age group with 84:56. I ran again but had slowed considerably, and it took me 124:16. But it was almost forty years to the day since my greatest ever race in 1958.

On 14
th
March 1999 the last Reading Half Marathon of the century was held on a bright sunny day. It was not the best day to chose for the race, as it was Mothering Sunday, and two other major half marathons were on the same day; Portsmouth and Hastings. In my years of organising the event, Mothering Sunday was the one Sunday that the police always said the race could not be run, because there was more traffic on the road that day than any other day in the year. Amazing how they changed once the race was controlled by those who paid their wages. There was a good entry for the race, although the field lacked quality, except for the inclusion of two of the many Kenyans on the British running circuit.

The wheelchair race, which had been such an important part of the half marathon day, was a disaster. Several of the top names in wheelchair racing had entered, including David Holding the four times winner, and Tanni Grey; but they did not show, and just one unofficial wheelchair, propelled by a local lady who had multiple sclerosis, lined up for the start in front of the 4,000 plus runners.

The race organisers had brought a few gimmicks to the event, such as a musical warm up which a few of the runners took part in. Perhaps the best attraction of the day was the appearance of Sally Gunnell who spent all day at the event, and encouraged both the half marathon runners and the runners in the mini marathons.

The winner was Kenyan Sammy Nyangincha (Team Puma) in 64:18, from Carl Warren (Birchfield Harriers) 64:58, and Michael Kimitei (Kenya and Team Puma) 65:15. There was a very good run by a Berkshire runner who had a few years earlier won the Mini Marathon, Steve Smith (Newbury AC) was sixth in 66:52. It was an easy win for another overseas runner from Russia, Lyubov Belavina in 75:18. Local girl Lesley Whiley (Reading Roadrunners) was second in 81:56, which gave her the first over thirty-five vet prize, from Joy Noad 83:56, and Caroline Stevens (Reading AC) 84:38. Another local runner from Reading Roadrunners, Margaret Clark was first over forty-five years with 94:23. The category winners in the men were forty plus, Nick Sirs (Exeter Harriers) 70:03; fifty/fifty-four, John Exley (Oxford City AC) 73:59; fifty-five/fifty-nine, Keith Scudamore (Burnham Joggers) 83:10; sixty/sixty-four, Brian Fozard (Reading AC) 86:58; and sixty-five plus John Cullingham (Reading AC) 99:42.

The team race went to Sunderland H and AC, with Portsmouth second, Newbury AC third, Reading Roadrunners fourth, Advance Performance fifth, and Reading University sixth. Reading Roadrunners were easy winners in the women's race, from White Horse Harriers and Headington RRs. Imperial Cancer were the charity team winners.

Sadly the last race of the century had lost its magic. The fancy dress costumes had more or less disappeared, the wheelchairs had gone and the quality of the field was not very good. There was no Pasta Party the night before as in the early years, and the sponsors were more interested in their own publicity rather than the good of the event.

The event is now organised by people who are not athletes and not even fun runners, and they have no real feel for this huge event. It is run for profit by the local council, who do not produce any accounts of the event, which must be making a lot of money.

The organisation of the event did not get better in 2000. They were completely unable to give sensible information about entries to the media. In the early days I had regular spots on local radio, as well as news stories in the local papers, and some times even the nationals. We fed the media and they responded, but sadly the Reading Borough people do not have that level of enthusiasm and interest in the event.

Surprisingly the event did get the highest number of entries for a number of years, and around 5,300 finished the race on a very nice warm March day. There was a good race at the front, although the time was nothing special. The winner was another one of the many Kenyans domiciled in the UK, Sammy Bitok, in the best time for a number of years 62:56. A fellow member of Team Puma, Stephen Ariga was second in 63:04, with Morpeth Harrier, Ian Hudspith, next in 63:19. Eric Kiplagat, also Kenya, was fourth with 63:43. There was a good battle for first Reading runner, which was won by Richard Usher (Reading Roadrunners) taking thirty-third place in 73:48, just one place in front of Tom Munt (Reading AC) 73:49. In the closest and best ladies' race for years, Ethiopian now with Essex Ladies, Birhane Dagney, was first to finish in fortieth place with 74:23, chased home by Ukranian, Yelena Plastinina, in 74:36; Lynne McDougall (City of Glasgow) 74:50. Local runner Lesley Whiley was seventh and beat the eighty minute barrier for the first time with 79:59. The age category winners were Men: - Vet forty/forty-nine, Peter Embleton (Chester Le Street) 70:03; fifty/fifty-four, Roy Treadwell (City of Oxford) 75:48; fifty-five/fifty-nine, Liam Hanna (Maidenhead AC) 79:39; sixty/sixty-four, a regular award winner from Reading AC, Brian Fozard with 85:21; and the sixty-five plus winner was Professor Norman Myers (Headington Road Runners) 88:32. Women, thirty-five/thirty-nine, Y. Plastinina; forty/forty-four, Joy Noad (Maidenhead AC) 84:58, from Carol Pagan (Reading Roadrunners) 86:25.

In the team race, Thames Hare and Hounds took the trophy from Highgate Harriers, with Advance Performance third, Reading Roadrunners fourth, Oxford City fifth, Reading University sixth, and Reading AC seventh. The team winners for the women, were Reading Roadrunners from White Horse Harriers and Herne Hill Harriers. The Company Team Trophy went to
Runners World Magazine
who just beat the sponsors Yellow Pages. The women's trophy went to London Solicitors Allen and Overy, who also beat Yellow Pages into second place. Another strong team from Imperial Cancer enabled them to take the Charity Trophy again.

The event did go off well, which despite my anger at the way I was dumped by the council, still gave me some satisfaction as the basis on which the race was built must have been sound, and much of what I had done in organising the race continued. The event deserves success on the basis of the work done by volunteers in setting it up, and running it for twelve years. Even as late as 2000 I was still receiving congratulatory letters about the event, but fortunately I do not get the complaints today. If it was being set up now by those that run it today, it would not have got past year one. One noticeable change was the total lack of police around the event. The volunteer marshals had to take full responsibility for the runners and traffic. That one big mystery remains though, and that is regarding the finances of the race. With over 7,000 people entered, and some paying £16 for the privilege of entering late, the cash income without sponsorship would have exceeded £80,000. Even after six years, no accounts are ever produced to show where the money goes, or more important where the profits go. It is certainly not like the early years when most of the income went to charity, especially the British Sports Association for the Disabled for whom the race was set up. My one big mistake was possibly not setting the event up as a charitable trust or foundation, so that money could continue to go to the charity. It would also have dissuaded Reading Council from getting too involved with the race.

After eighteen years of the event, it was interesting to find about twenty runners taking part who had run in all those eighteen Reading Half Marathons. Some may have struggled to be fit for 2001, but at the moment their 100% record is intact. These include Nicholette Sayer and Arthur Abbott, two stalwarts of Reading Joggers, as well as some individuals; Mike Baldwin, a former orienteering expert; Roger Woolven-Allen, a tennis and table tennis player; Mick Sheehan, a local footballer; Brian Williams who took up running on the loss of his wife with cancer in 1982, to raise money for charities connected to cancer; David Wise, a local bookmaker; Gordon Crutchfield; Ken Carmichel, a company director and Group Scoutmaster; David Moseley, who was one of the founders of another local club, Wargrave Runners, as a result of that first half marathon; John Cullingham, a long-standing member of Reading AC, and others from Reading Roadrunners, including Andrew Breakspear; Martin Bush, a man who can rival marathon legend Ron Hill for the number of marathons run, and Patrick (Paddy) Phillips, who is seventy-three years old, and is another of those responsible for me putting all my life down on paper. All these runners ran in every Reading Half Marathon to date, and have raised a very large sum for a great list of charities. But it was a great disappointment that once again the event that first took wheelchairs had only one entry, and that was not an official racing wheelchair athlete, but a local lady who had run in the event before suffering from MS, and who was the sole entry in the previous year.

I am flattered that the race has continued to be a success, and I know that it was because it had very firm foundations, and had been developed by a lot of hard work by dedicated interested people. I do wonder how long it will survive without the enthusiasm of people interested in running? I believe its on-going success has partly been due to the fact that many people who still run the event, think that the original team are still running the race. I hope the record has now been put straight.

The lack of interest and enthusiasm by Reading Borough Council was highlighted again in 2001. Their own Leisure Services Mini Marathons for younger age groups, had in recent years been held on grass alongside the Thames, and it was obvious from November of 2000 that, with the excessive rain, it was not going to be possible to use that area for races in March. Instead of preparing to run the events on a road course or elsewhere, the organisers left it until three weeks to go before announcing that they were cancelling the Mini events for 2001.

It did appear that the main event, the half marathon, was going to be a great success, as a number of major events disappeared from the running calendar, so that even with their very poor promotion and advance publicity, the entry kept up. But on Friday, 2
nd
March, disaster struck the event just ten days before it was due to be run. The ‘Foot and Mouth' outbreak was the alleged reason for the cancellation of the race, and so for the first time since 1983, there would be no Reading Half Marathon. The cancellation in its own way confirmed what I had always known, and that was that the council were not interested in the event itself, but only in making money from it. They put out a short announcement that the race was cancelled, and then started bleating about the cost of the cancellation. For the first time in seven years there were clues as to the money involved in the event. They talked loosely about the £120,000 event, which I would agree was about the total income from entry fees and sponsorship. The letter they sent to competitors was very cryptic. They explained the cancellation, and pointed out that on the entry form it had said there could be no refund. They then offered a refund, reluctantly to anyone applying by 6
th
April; just four weeks after the event. If a refund was not claimed they would keep the money, and there was no suggestion that the money would buy a place for the following year. They also claimed that most of the income had been spent before the event, and that any refunds would be at a loss to the organisers and sponsors. The only way that the large sum of £100,000 could have been used before the event, was if the fees charged by the council for staff and outside help was exorbitant. They commented that if they had to refund to everyone, they would lose in excess of £40,000. I could not sympathize with them as their actions a few years earlier had cost me at least that figure, and I had to pay out that money personally. Perhaps justice has been done.

Will the event continue? I have my suspicions that it will not happen again, but I hope I am wrong.

Chapter Nineteen: Statistics of the Reading Half Marathon

It is interesting looking at some statistics in the Reading Half Marathon, and these generally show a decline in performance over the years, which is surprising as many people in those early days had not been runners. The table below reflects on the general downturn in performance, and similar statistics from other races over the years would, I am sure, produce the same picture.

It should be pointed out that if it were not for the many overseas, in particular Kenyan athletes, who have competed in recent years, the times of the leading places above would be very much worse.