Mind the gap

The Sunday before last I had the pleasure of a run around central London. I started from the Tower Hotel, where I was staying, and after a short trip around Wapping, I ran back past the hotel and over Tower Bridge.

Thereafter I ran along the south bank of the Thames to Vauxhall Bridge and back on the north side. I diverted past the Houses of Parliament, pretending I was running in the London Marathon again as I went down Bird Cage Walk and along the Mall, before going along the Strand and retreating along the river bank.

The previous time I had run across Tower Bridge, the day before the London Marathon, I had stopped to talk to a couple of 2 hour and 4 minutes marathon runners! This time I saw dozens of runners and joggers that would take twice that time, or more, to cover the marathon distance and my pace was closer to the latter than the former.

I had the amazing luxury of closed roads in the centre of London as preparations for the Tour of Britain cycle race unfolded - I saw a little of the time trial later in the morning.

My main thought whilst running though was what I am about to say now.

30 years ago we could never have imagined so many middle age people running around the towns and cities of the British Isles. But neither could we have imagined the lack of young people doing the same.

Middle to long distance running standards peaked in the early 1980s. Yet, by the time I ran the Great North Run in 1998 I expected to have to go sub 74 minutes just short of my 42nd birthday to be sure of making the top 200. I would say this, but there was a strong head wind year that year and I only managed 75.21 but it was good enough for 140th.

This year's stage managed Great North Run had the poorest standard ever with the 100th finisher much slower than the same position in the very first year when most of the field were locals. My 1998 time would have achieved 57th this year in much better conditions.

There were just 25 runners in the good club runner standard of 70 to 75 minutes.

I'm greedy. I want to keep the slower runners that are so welcome to our sport but I just wish there far more 20 to 35 years old running and committing to some hard training.

In the early afternoon of that Sunday I went walking close to the Olympic Park.

 

The grandeur of the architecture and facilities is to be admired. But there must be so many young men capable of running under 75 minutes, and women the equivalent standard of sub 83, just by using the parkland, the canal paths and the pavements.

We're told to mind the gap in London and of course the gap doesn't exist on the modern underground lines. But above the surface the gap between the elite runners and the average time has never been more exposed.

Towering memories

"Have you stayed with us before" the receptionist asked me as I checked into the Tower Hotel in London on Saturday.

"Yes" I replied. "But it was 31 years ago." I didn't tell her that by the time I checked out on the previous occasion I effectively ended my race walking career after failing in my attempt to win the National 50km championship and ending up in the position below.

Nor did I tell her that I was there to meet some of the people I had raced that weekend at Enfield in July 1983 - even I did not know that I would be seated on the same table as Roger Mills (left) and Amos Seddon (right) at the lunch to celebrate British walkers at the Commonwealth Games since 1966 - had Graham Young been between Roger and I and Chris Maddocks between myself and Amos this would have replicated the seating plan!

In 1983 the 50km championship started at midday in temperatures high into the 80s. So what has changed other than that we measure the heat in centigrade?

There used to be four national road walking championships at 10 miles (March), 20km (May), 20 Miles (June) but replaced by 35km, and 50km (July). They were all preceded by regional championships at the same distances.

30 or 40 years ago there were calls for reform. Too many championships, so they introduced another at 100km.

Who would have thought that in the Isle of Man 30 years later we were disappointed at a field of just over 200 for the End to End walk. On the other side of the coin, who would have thought that great clubs like Sheffield and Leicester would have vanished.

 

Or that Stella Corlett, pictured with me on the Steam Packet ferry on the way to the race, would have achieved 9 finishes in the 85 Mile Parish Walk - more than her husband Roy, who took the photo, and myself combined.

 

Some things don't change. Amos Seddon, who was leading the race in the photo above, can still eat everyone else under the table and 1974 Commonwealth Champion, John Warhurst on the left of the photo above, still has the same hairstyle!

Friends were just as important than as now and I was so grateful to Roy (in photo with me) and Stella for going to support me and record the moments in 1983.

My sister Margaid used to support me at quite a few races so it was nice that she and her husband Alan joined me for breakfast on Sunday.

This blog has not really gone the way I intended so I shall just concentrate on my last 50km race. Here are the reports:

"How was your stay sir? I hope you won't wait another 31 years before you return" she said. Not sure that I will be round in 31 years but you won't have to wait that long to read, or avoid, my next story from the Tower Hotel as I have some more stories to tell reflecting on the past 30 years.

Being a vet should not make much difference

Just over 30 years ago a friend was taking the entries for Boundary Harriers’ cross country race at Ballachrink Farm in East Baldwin. A man gave his name, paid his entry fee and announced “I’m a vet”. The recorder was a little bemused because she didn’t realise that she had to record the occupation of each entrant but because he was insistent she wrote “vet” next to his name.

He was of course a man over the age of 40 and it seems perverse that, as veteran standards have improved, the age at which a man was classed as a veteran, or master in American parlance, should be reduced to 35. There need not be too big a decline in performances by that age - look at sprinter Kim Collins.

In the days when athletics was wholly amateur there was a quirk in the rules. Organisers of open events had to place a value on the prizes awarded and publish a programme with the total value of prizes and indicate who was qualified for each award. It was a pretty good system and the basis for the “one award per person” system.

If the prize values for the first, second and third positions were £40, £30 and £25, and the prize for the first veteran was £20, then if a veteran finished third he would claim the third prize and the veteran’s award would be taken by the second veteran.

One of the frequently misunderstood points was that, in the scenario above, the third placed runner still won the veteran’s section it was just that he forfeited the prize as he accepted one of greater value. In the days when there was a veterans’ race to Peel in the Parish Walk, if the winner then proceeded to win the whole 85 mile event he was still the veteran winner even though he gave up the right to the prize when he lifted a more significant one.

In those days the veterans were in a minority but in some cases they now form a majority. In my view, it is nonsense to award a prize to the first under 35 runner in a road race if he or she finished fifth. They should not receive anything if the open awards are taken by veterans.

In that case, I come down on the side of veteran athletes. In other cases I am less sympathetic to them. Although I work closely with the Isle of Man Veteran Athletes Club to publicise some of their events, and I have some good friends who are members, I did not support the establishment of a separate club. In a perfect world athletes from the same area, and I would say the area should be the whole of the Isle of Man, should coach, organise and compete in a single entity.  I have only ever been a member of one Manx club at a time.

One criticism when fewer athletes retired in their 20s and 30s was that they no longer offered their services as coaches. You could hardly apply such a criticism in the Isle of Man, where some of the top coaches still compete, but the closer aligned the athletes of all ages are the better it should be.

I was staggered once to hear, after a race, a veteran athlete announce that he hadn’t really tried to hold off a senior runner as he was only interesting in winning the veteran’s prize. I admit that I found motivation in chasing Manx records when I turned 40 but the overall performance must surely be the priority.

I have only just read about Anthony Whiteman setting a world over 40 record for 800 metres and his post-race comments were quite telling. He only expected to run 1.49 rather than the record breaking 1.48.05. He concentrated on his race craft and the record took care of itself.

It is right that people should get recognised for their performances as they get older but surely it has to be acknowledged that the higher the age profile the lower the number of entrants. Sometimes I think there are too many awards for veterans. One well known athlete said to me, at a rather long winded prize presentation, “it is like a child’s party – everyone is going home with something.”

With a few exceptions, winning an age group trophy means nothing to me. It is performance, time, distance or height, that counts. We should judge our own performances as we judge others. How well did we train and how close to our potential were we in the event? That applies whether the word “vet” is written alongside your name or not.

Long live the blog

I am almost half way through a lovely holiday in Wengen (Switzerland) to coincide with Marie and my 30th wedding anniversary. On 27 August 1984 we were married at Ebenezer Methodist Chapel in Kirk Michael where family friends Rex Kissack and Ann Crowe conducted the service  and played the organ. They and their spouses and just nine family members attended our reception at the Carmodil Cafe in Ballaugh Glen.

On our anniversary we had lunch at the summit of the Schilthorn where Roger Moore appeared as James Bond in Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Life changes quite quickly sometimes. My plan only a couple of years earlier had been to take part in the Olympics in the Summer of 1984 and not to get married!

After representing Great Britain as a race walker at 20km, 35km (twice) and 50km in 1981 and 1982, and the Isle of Man at the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane in 1982, I made the decision to change my training, move up another gear and have stab at the Olympics.

I failed for two reasons. When I started to work on my weaknesses instead of my strengths it became apparent that they were too great to overcome. My upper body strength is pathetic. Secondly, but it is linked to the first, the additional training brought to a head the damage I had done to my back at school messing with weights (unsupervised). Even during the period of my best results I had been sleeping on the floor to overcome the back pain.

I retired from race walking in November 1983 after consulting with a back specialist in Manchester. It was never  a case that I could no longer take part in race walking, indeed I made a few appearances in the 10 years that followed, but rather that I would be ill advised to continue putting my back under such pressure and the words "wheelchair and old age" were used.

It was only a few weeks later that I met Marie and we chose to marry within eight months of meeting.

At that time I was treasurer of Boundary Harriers and I also took on the role of treasurer of the IOMAA before passing over both roles to stand as chairman of the IOMAA on a point of principle. I had many other roles including newsletter editor and coached a few athletes, or at least mentored them. Running was introduced merely to avoid getting unfit.

I never imagined that 30 years later I would be worried about missing a day of training tomorrow because of a cold (two years ago I also retired from marathon running because of a knee injury and concerns about my hip).

And so, if you are interested enough to read this, don't write off this blog yet.

I have encountered a problem accessing my home computer whilst on holiday and so at this stage I can't update the website.

When I first wrote the blog it was intended to provide context to the website. During the last 10 months I have principally used Facebook to announce updates and post extra news.

During the next few weeks I intend to publish a series of blog entries about issues I have observed in athletics during the past 30 years.

After that my plans may change as suddenly as they did in 1984. I may retire it or I might be writing here in 30 years time that I planned to!

North, south, east and west...but now for something completely different

Over just four days, starting last Thursday, I visited many wonderful spots around the Isle of Man. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. But tonight I flew into London City Airport and I have a fascination with east London too which is consistent with my interest in industrial history.

I'm at a hotel I have stayed in more times than any other, the Ramada Docklands. Marie and I have stayed here a few times but  on four occasions it was also my base, with my running friends, for the London Marathon. Tonight I have the most modest room I have had here but its still more than adequate.

And its just a very long stone's from the scene of  Monty Python's stage show.

I am well aware that I have a lot of catching up to do on some of my websites but until I do this is something completely different.

Too many laps; too little sleep

I'm up far too early this morning. A number of things disturbed my sleep and perhaps my election to run in the 10,000 metres this evening, only my second race of the year, is one of them.

I remember the decision by the IOMAA to introduce the 10,000 metres to the Isle of Man Championships in 1990. We spent about an hour deciding whether, in the event of an over subscription, we would run an A and B race or two heats and a final. In the end just two athletes entered!

That was on the grass track in Peel and my first entry came in 1992 at the NSC as a challenge with Andy Garrett. Somehow, I beat him in the 1,500 metres and he beat me in the 10,000 metres. It should have been the other way around.

My memory seems to recall only every other year because in 1994 the event was held in September and whilst managing the Commonwealth Games team in Canada another challenge arose - I would take walk hero Steve Partington on in a track challenge when we returned. He pulled out of the challenge with injury (I think) and I was left in a field of just 3.

The 1996 race was held in the midday sun on one of the hottest days of the year. Paul Curphey ran his lifetime best and Mike Garrett, who had been training with Paul and I, left me behind with a few laps to go. It would be another 6 years before Mike returned to run!

There were only small fields and the event was dropped for a while. I campaigned on www.manxathletics.com  to have it reinstated and Bridget Kaneen, on behalf of Manx Harriers, offered to put it on during TT week.

On a few occasions it attracted bigger fields than all of the other track races held during the championship weekend. My best two races were winning at the age of 48 in 2005 (a field that included Mike Garrett and Nick Percival) and going under 36 minutes aged 51 a few weeks after starting my morning training runs in 2008.

Last year I won again but with a small field of just three in a slowest winning time of all time.

There is a buzz about the event tonight and I think it will be the best field of 32 to 34 minute runners assembled.

I last raced in the Lancashire Cross Country Championships on the first weekend of the year. I had to pull out of the rest of the cross country season due to family events and planned to run in the Northern 10 before a silly running accident seven and half weeks ago when I think I cracked my ribs.

My furthest session in the 11 days since I started to run again is just four miles so I have to go more than 50% further tonight.
 
But the event is close to my chest and only Andy Fox has run it more than I have in the past 24 years. The extra distance might possibly have contributed to my lack of sleep.

By the time I finish tonight the lap scorers will have gone to sleep. My target is to stay inside my best time for race walking the distance.

Not really coasting

Our family are rather immobile at the moment. Robbie is still recovering from a road accident, Marie has a reaction to medication causing her a good deal of discomfort and she can only walk very slowly and I still have sore ribs after colliding with a gate whilst running nearly four weeks ago.

We are still enjoying the best that the Isle of Man has to offer and are putting the final touches to some great travel this year.

The photo above was from our stroll around Douglas Head last night and the ones below on Saturday and Monday..

Website publishing has consumed as many hours as ever through the winter but like the Manx coastline in the photos it evolves over time.

For a few years I was publishing a new feature each month through the winter about one of the characters of the event on the parishwalk.com website. This has diminished and new features have been suspended this year. I make no apology for this as during the five months that I would have in the past taken time to compile these I have completed five projects that will assist my websites for years to come, and organise our house much better!

My entire collection of Race Walking records were scanned and disposed; I updated most of my event databases and republished them on a single page on manxathletics.com; I have scanned selected parts of my late 70s and early 80s Athletics Weeklies and disposed of these and researched the history of the Isle of Man Marathon building a database in the process and added the regular use of Facebook to the publishing of manxathletics.com