Читать книгу Running Crazy - Imagine Running a Marathon. Now Imagine Running Over 100 of Them. Incredible True Stories from the World's Most Fanatical Runners - Helen Summer - Страница 10

During the running boom of the early 1980s, a number of runners kept bumping into each other at marathons around the country and they would tell each other what their totals were – 40, 50, 60 marathons. One of the most prolific was a man called Richard Bird, who ran 76 marathons in a 12-month period, setting a World Record.

‘He was probably the biggest influence in setting up the Club and getting other people to do numbers. Everyone knew him, he was at every race,’ Dave tells me.

However, it is believed that it was another man, Harry Martin, who was actually the first to reach 100, which he did at Blackpool in about 1987.

‘He bought a bottle of cheap champagne to celebrate afterwards,’ Dave recalls.

While the group of runners celebrated Harry’s achievement, they decided to form a club exclusively for those who had run 100 marathons and to call that club the ‘100 Club’.

One of those most involved with the setting up of the Club was an Irishman called Brian Doherty, or ‘The Ladder Man’, as he was popularly known – because he was a window cleaner who ran every marathon carrying his ladder!

Initially, the newly formed Club decided to present each new member with a special medal to mark the completion of 100 marathons but a few years on, Brian purchased a silver trophy from a second-hand shop, which became known simply as ‘The Cup’.

‘Every new member had their name and details of their 100th marathon engraved upon it and would keep The Cup for a year,’ says Dave, whose own name appears thereon as the 25th Brit to complete his 100th in 1991.

Others who ran their 100th in those early days, and whose names appear regularly in old newsletters, were Peter Sargeant, Andrew Radgick, Derek Appleton, Don Thompson (50K Walk Gold medallist in the 1960 Rome Olympics), Sid Morrison, Mike Olivera, Eddie Edmonds, brothers David and Richard Tann, and Steve Edwards, who at that time also took the World Record for the greatest number of marathons run in 12 months to 87. There is also, among the names engraved on that trophy one Ron Hill, probably the most famous multi-marathoner in the world.

But the 100 Club didn’t want to encourage only Brits to run marathons, they were keen to encourage everyone and therefore the Club and The Cup boasts the names of runners from all over the world, regardless of whether they are members of the Club.

Of course, once they’d passed the 100 mark there was only one place to go – and that was 200! It is believed two men, Edwin Bartlett and Colin Greene, were among the first to notch up a second century.

And then there were the ladies.

Rita Banks of Staffordshire is believed to have been the first woman to complete 100 marathons, which she did at Nottingham in 1990. She also set a new World Record for Most Marathons Run in One Year By a Woman (52). At the time she was 45.

‘After her 100th, she had a party to celebrate in the car park,’ Dave recollects. ‘She set up a table and we had cakes and coffee.’

Trust a lady to do it properly!

‘That was the real start of the tradition of partying after your 100th, and if you didn’t have a table, you just did it out of your car boot!’ Dave adds.

‘Sue Goddard from Luton was another one of the original ladies,’ he continues. ‘She liked to write about the races and was a regular contributor to the newsletters and early magazines we used to produce.’

Dave should know. With his accountancy background, the club very quickly utilised his particular skills in making him their first treasurer, not to mention first secretary and magazine editor/printer.

‘In those days,’ he remembers, ‘we weren’t affiliated to the AA (Athletic Association) or anything. It was just a matter of us all meeting up at races, celebrating our centuries and forming friendships. It was all very informal, but also very positive.

‘It was also seen as a way to promote marathon running in England as a whole. In fact, the 100 Club were responsible for setting up 79 new marathons in the UK during the 1980s. Unfortunately, that number dropped to around 30 during the 1990s as the popularity of marathon running decreased.’

However, it’s now back on the up again to around 50, with a running boom being reported right across the land, no doubt fired by the impending London Olympics in 2012.

At some point, though it’s not clear from the records exactly when, there was the introduction of ‘wannabes’ to the Club. These were runners who had run 50+ marathons and were now working towards their century.