Chris Maddocks (right), and 1984 Olympic walker Phil Vesty (seated) with Marie and I at my mother's house in Kirk Michael in either 1984 or 1985. It was the only time that I can ever remember every single piece of food being eaten at one of my mum's Sunday lunches.
Following on from the feature about Chris Maddocks, I have one or two stories to tell.
Here is the first. It goes back to 1990, although it doesn't seem that long ago, and I can still remember where I was when I had the phone conversation.
Chris had been competing at 50km and believed that he was in really good shape. I can't remember where the race was or what the time was but he finished well outside of his target and the performance is not among those listed on my feature. Something had gone horribly wrong.
He was keen to have another crack at a qualifying performance just a few weeks later. I cautioned against the idea and suggested that he would be much better taking a recovery, building up over the winter and proving how fit he was in the spring.
He ignored my advice and the British record that he set still stands to this day!
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