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 12

Five years on from its inception and the website reflects not only the progress of a successful club, but the steady growth in membership of a club that people might be forgiven for thinking would attract only the clinically insane! However, with full membership currently standing at over 200, as well as the Club’s 50+ ‘wannabes’, either the world is producing more than its fair share of madmen or more and more perfectly sane, intelligent people have found something that not only keeps them physically fit, but perhaps more importantly and maybe somewhat conversely, keeps them mentally well balanced, as well as giving them a real sense of wellbeing.

It also offers them a lifestyle they might not otherwise have enjoyed. With many running every weekend, there is a need to look further afield than the UK for races and it’s not unusual for Club members to finish work on a Friday, jump on a plane on Saturday and run a marathon on Sunday before returning to work on the Monday.

‘When you tell people what you do they react with shock and go away shaking their heads, clearly thinking you are mad,’ explains one member. ‘But it’s a great life, a great way to stay fit and see places you wouldn’t see, if not for the marathon.’

Put like that, it certainly sounds rather more fulfilling, not to mention exciting, than many people’s weekend ritual of car washing, shopping and drinking at the local pub! Not that those who run multiple marathons don’t drink or know how to have fun either. You won’t find many of them tucked up in bed at six o’clock on pre-race night, they are more likely to be found in some hospitable hostelry, making friends with the locals and sampling the ales.

‘It’s a great way to see the world, meet new friends and try the beers,’ says another member.

It would also seem that while running is often cited as an individual sport, conversely, it is actually a great way to make new friends and keep in touch with old ones. Often members of the 100 Club collectively arrange trips away, both at home and abroad, flying out from various UK airports before meeting up in some foreign city, from whence they will eat, drink and explore together as a group.

To keep life interesting, the Club constantly issues fresh challenges to its members, such as running a marathon in the most different countries, or counties (a potential total of 103, including Ireland), or running the most marathons in a year. As well as meeting such challenges and setting records within the Club, several members hold world and nationally recognised records, such as the first Brit to have run a marathon in all 50 American States, the person to have run the most marathons in a career (780 and counting) and the youngest person in the world to have run 100 marathons (23).

Indeed, perhaps one of the most surprising things about the Club is that its members are not all in their dotage, with ages ranging from 23 to 76. Naturally, there are women as well as men and several couples listed as members. One married couple have completed over 600 marathons between them.

Add to that honorary life members in the form of two wheelchair racers and a blind runner, who is guided round races by sighted members and you begin to appreciate that this is a club with no prejudices and only one prerequisite to membership – the completion of 100 marathons. It makes no distinction between race, colour, creed or ability. That in itself must be considered a worthy achievement.

As such, it is a club that is full of colourful, contrasting characters, distinct individuals with idiosyncratic personalities and diverse lifestyles, creating a gargantuan melting pot of humanity. Yet, despite such diversity, one common desire links them all together: to run, and run and run.