Some things change but others don't

As I have been going through my collection of the old A5 style Athletics Weekly from 1978 to 1987 prior to disposal, I have been scanning quite a few pages and enjoying the build up to the very first London Marathon in 1981.

Many things have changed and although it was remarkable what Chris Brasher and his team achieved by pulling off such an event, when most correspondents were complaining about it, the organisation described above seems quite basic compared to what we have now.

I stayed at the Strand Palace Hotel for five years for the event a decade ago and had no idea that it had been the first marathon headquarters hosting the registration and exhibition.

With just a few months notice the organisers received more than 40,000 applications to run and accepted around 7,500.

And the first 500 ran 2.43.25 or faster.

Now there are hundreds of thousands of runners around the world who would like to run, the entry system favours faster runners and yet only 275 ran 2.43.25 or faster in 2013.

I know lots of people who have run 3, 4, 5 or even 6 hours for the London Marathon and every finisher should be proud of their performance.

But it is quite sad that there are so few club athletes in the 20 to 35 year ago group putting themselves on the line for a marathon. Running standards peaked in the first few years after the London Marathon started.

It is ironic, therefore, that the Isle of Man Veteran Athletes' Club Spring Handicap, which for so long was closed to the older generation of athlete, has been revived by opening the entry to all.

For a while, if you watched the event, you would see the same athletes running a little slower ever year, but last night it was a 23 year old who set the fastest time.

Alan Corlett (below) pushed himself to the absolute limits in running just over 33 minutes for 10km on a cool, windy evening.

The fastest Manx runner in the very first London Marathon was Steve Kelly and all these years later he is still the fastest from these shores to finish. One of Steve's great virtues was that no matter how hard he was trying or fast he was running he always had time to recognise what other athletes were doing and gave them some encouragement as he lapped them!

A generation and more later we have more old runners in the London Marathon and we have young runners in a veterans race but some things don't change. It is a pleasure to witness the way that Alan was encouraging all the other athletes last night.

The sport thrives on having people of all abilities and standards but the best part is the mutual respect for one another.