hour marathon in five separate decades. At London last weekend the first two Britons were added to this small group: Chris Finill who has run in all 30 Londons, and my old combatant from school days (he was at Roan, nr Greenwich, me Raynes Park), Steve Smythe. Steve won't thank me for reproducing this picture of the two of us battling it out in the Mitcham 25km in January 1981 (the Ranelagh gazette records that there was a strong northerly wind and a mid-race snow blast, hence the socks on my hands [running gloves hadn't been invented then nor colour photography it seems]).This got me thinking and so I dusted off my old running records: had I run a marathon each decade? I knew that I went 10 years and then 15 years avoiding the classic distance, so wasn't sure how the dates slotted in. It transpires that I have indeed run marathons in four consecutive decades, the 70's (5), 80's(12), 90's(1) and 00's(2), all at 2.47 or faster, as recorded elsewhere on this blog. So I now have a new challenge: to run a sub 3 hour marathon this decade and maintain my long standing duel with Steve (he ran 2.46 last week). It was only a year ago that I ran 2.47 at Lochaber but, of course, it feels a lot longer than that given what has happened since. But surely I can muster up enough energy to potter round in sub 7's for a 2.50 something over the next 9½ years.
Whilst delving deep into my past I found this old picture from the last mile of the New York City Marathon 1981 (2:26). I might be biased having run six of them, but there is no doubt in my mind that this is the greatest of the city marathons - there is something special about the course, not least the fact that it goes through all five boroughs from Staten Island through Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and The Bronx ("you're in The Bronx now man so you gotta run fast" was the rather frightening proclamation on a banner at the 20 mile mark one year). Standing on the start line you can just about make out the famous Manhattan skyline (changed, sadly, since I was last there) on a clear day, and that's where you are headed. It's tough because it wasn't designed to be fast as later city marathons like London were, but as a consequence takes in all the best bits (and some of the worst, see above!), including the magnificent views onto Manhattan across the Queensboro' bridge and the delights of the rolling hills in Central Park for the last few miles.
Finally, great news from the selectors at uk:a after London on Sunday (you don't often hear that), so everything now geared towards Barcelona in July = hot!
