by Stan Eldon
The Mini Marathon winners were Russell Trimmings and, for the second successive year, Vicki Stevens.
The pre-race Pasta Party was held at the Three Men in a Boat at the Caversham Hotel, and to accommodate everyone the event started at 4 p.m. As always the leading race entrants attended and mixed with the ‘also rans’. This was another established tradition that disappeared from the event in later years.
There was a huge entry of over 100 people running for the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, and they were motivated and led by Alice Gostomski from Reading, who turned out masses of runners for the charity every year. In this particular year the race hit the national headlines again but perhaps for the wrong reasons. It concerned a cancer victim, twenty-three-year-old Karen Still from Reading, who was one of the squad from the charity. She had been determined to make it around the 13.1 miles, even though like many she had never done anything like it before. She completed her challenge in close to three hours forty-five minutes, but when she arrived at the finish virtually everyone had gone home, and there was no one around to present her with her finisher’s medal. The Daily Star presented her with their own ‘Gold Award’, and I arranged to meet her at her home along with some friends who had run with her to present her medal and other ‘goodies’. It would be easy to list reasons why this happened, but the story did have that happy ending and all was forgiven, and both the event and the charity made national and local headlines yet again.
A very popular T-shirt for the 1989 event was produced with the Reading Gold Lion leaning on the event medal.
As in all the earlier years, the official on-street collection was carried out by the Rotary Club of Caversham, who with a large army of volunteers, collected around £5,000 from the spectators around the route; a task they took on for a number of years, raising a very considerable sum for various charities.
At the end of April that year, Digital brought someone from their Belfast office to see me to discuss how the results system worked. They had just taken on responsibility for producing the results for the Belfast Marathon, to be held on 1st May. After a quick discussion, it was decided that it would be better if I went to Belfast and did the results myself. For a couple of years I made the trip to Belfast on the early-morning shuttle from Heathrow, on the early May bank holiday. It was always a very enjoyable experience, even with the security that had to surround me and the event. After two years a young local man had learned enough about producing quick and accurate results, and he was able to take over.
Producing the results swiftly was not easy in Belfast, as there was not only the full normal marathon, but a marathon relay of the same distance run at the same time. The very small office, almost a cupboard, where I had to work my magic, was also used to store the emergency stretcher and medical equipment, so at times it got a bit cramped. I always arrived early in the morning, and was driven from the airport and through the various check points, before arriving at the leisure centre to find that the sniffer dogs and Army personnel were checking out my ‘office’. Despite the limited facilities, I always managed to get the full results out and with the Belfast Telegraph, before I caught my shuttle flight home in the evening.
My most vivid memory of these race days, was the occasion when towards the end of the race (bands were playing and everyone was enjoying the day, including the ample supply of Guinness), the commentator, a mature man, a local journalist, got very emotional. He went away from his commentary on the race and said “What a wonderful day. Why, oh why can’t we always be together like this?” Within days, when I had returned home, the violence that had been missing on Marathon weekend returned and people were dying again.
There were three races as part of the Reading AC Grand Prix Series run in July. The first was a 10K along the Thames, south of the river to Tilehurst and back, and then two races were run on the attractive Mapledurham Estate, north of the river; one a 8K and the other a full 10K again.
In October 1989 I helped with the organising of a 10K race in Guildford for the British Heart Foundation.
The three representatives from the Reading, England race, who ran in the Historic Reading 10K in Pennsylvania in October did very well, with Tim Butler from Reading AC winning the event. Chris Hallam won the wheelchair race and Caroline Hughes (now Stevens) from Reading AC, was second lady.
By the late 1980s the Reading race was being organised almost entirely by Marion and myself, with the help of fewer volunteers. A lot of the previous key people had gone from the scene for one reason or another. These included Terry Lewins, who had been a great help in setting up the finish each year and helping with the timing. He had tragically died at a young age and was missed, not just by the Reading race, but by other events where he was involved. Terry Harding had moved from Reading to a new post at Strathclyde, and Ian Moir had left the university at Reading. John London had also retired from the scene.
It was a tremendous workload. Apart from the actual organising of the race itself and all the setting up work, which included printing and delivering notes to all business and private premises on certain parts of the route, both as a courtesy and to ask them to keep vehicles off the road. We even made special parking arrangements for people who had nowhere else to keep their car but on the road. We received and dealt with all the entries, and this in itself was a major job that in many events would be handled by another agency. We did get valuable help from a few good volunteers with the mailing out of the race programmes and numbers, etc. One of these was Janet Robson, who along with husband Mike, had set up the International Spinal Research Trust Runners Network. They did, and do, great work for the charity, persuading runners to run and raise funds for them. They honoured me by making me their patron. The media were kept fully informed on the entries and stories as they emerged, from months before the race right up until the day. Entries would be received right up until the event, and team declarations would also arrive in the last couple of days, so that on the night before the race the computer would still be going at 3 a.m., putting in all the data and running off final print-outs for the media. By 5 a.m. I would be up and away to the venue to supervise the setting up of the gantries and barriers around the route.
The day of the race would last nearly twenty-four hours, as after the event we would be at home producing the results until they were accurate and ready for publication.
The first event to organise in 1990 was the second running of a Reading AC event; the Claude Fenton 10K run at Theale on the outskirts of Reading. The winner in 32:51 was Kevin Flavin (Reading AC) by just one second from Ernie Cunningham (Aldershot Farnham and District), a previous winner of the veteran category in the Reading Half. Tom Munt, also from Reading AC, was third in 33:16, and a runner from Holland was fourth.
The next race was the half marathon held on 1st April 1990, again from the South Reading Leisure Centre, for what was to be the last time. The race from that venue had drawn the biggest entries in the history of the event, and in many ways was a great venue, but it had one large problem, it was on a large housing estate and there were a lot of children in the area who could find nothing better to do on race weekend than climb all over the marquees and cause damage. They were particularly bad on the day before this final event from South Reading, and to get help to restore order and clear the site, I had to get the mayor out from an event so that she could put pressure on the police to do something so as to prevent further damage. We managed to keep the tented village in place and it was the usual 5 a.m. start next morning. There was a foggy start to the day, which later turned out to be very warm which brought the crowds out in the largest numbers since the race was first run in 1983.
The race started in spectacular fashion with the release of thousands of red and white balloons. This race was to be one of the most memorable, as it was to be not only the closest race in the history of the event, but also one of the closest half marathon finishes anywhere. Four runners finish
ed within two seconds, and the first two could not be split. The referee was Derek Bradfield, a very experienced man from Reading AC, and after some debate and discussion Steve Brace (Bridgend) and Nick Trainer (North London) were given the joint first place in 63:32, with Greg Newhams third in 63:33, and Gary Nagle fourth in 63:34. The race winner was in doubt right up to the last 200 metres when they came around the last roundabout side by side. In that final dash the two eventual winners just edged ahead of the other two, but it was some race and is probably one of my lasting memories of that great event. The photo of the two winners crossing the line was to be used on race medals for events all over the country for some years after the event. The women’s race went to Angie Pain in 72:21, still the second fastest time recorded by a woman in Reading, and the twelve seconds that she missed it by cost her an extra £1,000 that had been put up for a new course record. The wheelchair race saw Chris Hallam back in the driving set with his third win and a new record of 62:06. The veteran over forty winner was Ernie Cunningham for the second time in 67:54. Steve Brace led his team of Bridgend to victory in the team race for the first time. Reading AC were second with Windsor and Eton third, and Reading AC “B” team fourth. Reading Roadrunners were fifth. Accountants Ernst and Young won the Company team award.
In the Mini Marathon, which was being run for the fourth time, Craig Siddons ran the fastest time to date; 13:41. It followed on a good cross-country season for him, where he won a Berkshire title and finished forty-fifth in the English Schools Cross-Country. A new face won the girls’ race; Claudia Lawrence in 16:40.
Some runners found the going a little hot, including Reading Jogger Arthur Abbott who was dressed in a red lion outfit for the race. A total of fifty runners were treated for heat exhaustion by the St John Ambulance. Reading girl and TV presented Kathy Tayler ran to raise money for the British Sports Association for the Disabled. They had a bonus on the day as an event sponsor who had put up the prizes for the course records on this occasion and did not have to part with the money, gave a special donation of £500 to the charity as a thank you for the excellent performances by the wheelchair athletes. Blind runner Bill Gulliver ran the course in ninety-nine minutes, and staff from the Special Baby Unit of Buscot Ward in the Royal Berkshire Hospital, raised over £2,000 for their good cause.
It was a very successful event, and as one local newspaper put it “The course was well marked and traffic well controlled by police. By early afternoon, the runners, plastic cups, all the usual debris from a race had gone, and the wonderfully supportive Reading population was left to enjoy the unexpected ‘summer afternoon’.”
In November it was back to Reading University for the annual Reading AC ten mile race, which attracted one of its largest entries, with over 400 taking part. The race had the quantity but perhaps not the quality on this occasion, and it was won by Mark Cooper of Southampton AC in 51:34, from Ian Van Lokven (Burnham Joggers) in 52:38, with Tom Munt third in 52:57. The team winners were the home team of Reading AC from Aldershot and Reading Roadrunners A and B teams. This was a time when the decline in running standards was beginning to notice for the first time.
Before the next half marathon could take place there were more changes to deal with, and the course had to be measured yet again. I had got quite used to working with various course measurers over the years. The first person I worked with was John Jewell of the Road Runners Club, an ex-long distance man himself and one of the characters of road running. John was still measuring courses on his old cycle up to around eighty years of age. He was meticulous and had passed on a lot of his skills to others. One of these was Richard Whybrow from Reading Athletic Club, who was now responsible for measuring the more recent half marathon routes. In a busy town like Reading this was not easy, as the course had to be measured on the shortest possible route a runner might take on the closed roads on race day. Normally the measuring was done at first light with Richard on his bicycle, and if we were lucky a police escort to assist, especially when he was cycling on the wrong side of the road. There were always some hair-raising moments covering the 13.1 miles around Reading.
The slogan for 1991 was “Everyone’s a Winner”, and out of an entry of over 6,000 there were 4,425 finishers. The race had moved to a new venue; the Rivermead Leisure Complex near the Thames at Caversham. It was a very windy day and not conducive to fast times, but Steve Brace had another win, this time in 64:28, not a fast time but he had a good margin over second runner Greg Newhams, 65:09, and Gary Nagle third in 65:22. The race was used as an inter area competition by the AAAs. Pete Marsh from the Army was the winning vet in twentieth place with 69:49. Tom Munt (Reading AC) in twenty-second place with 70:09 was the first local runner. The winning lady veteran, Celia Duncan, was well back in the pack in 139th place with 78:59. The team race went to Bridgend again, with Bournemouth second, and Norwich Road Runners third. In the women’s race it was one, two, and three for Reading Roadrunners, who also won the award for first vet men’s team. There was the now familiar sight of the Essex Police regular runners at Reading. Group Ten as they were known, were running as usual in police uniform, except on their feet and legs that is. This year they were aiming to raise £10,000 for research into leukaemia and kidney disease. Another uniformed runner was fireman Steve Beard, who found the going ‘hot’ over the 13.1 miles. Three other runners made running tough on themselves by pushing wheelchairs around the course. Brian Bacon (Reading AC), fifty-six years old, pushed nine-year-old Daniel Cooney and finished in 1:40.26. He pushed many youngsters from the Avenue Special School in Reading, where his wife Stella was a teacher, in all the half marathons from 1985 to 2000. With his faster runners taking under ninety minutes. While thirty-two-year-old Joe Gregory pushed friend Karl Hodgson round in 1:49.
The wheelchair race again attracted a great field of entries; twenty-six in total, with David Holding winning in a time of 59:50 to leave Chris Hallam, the winner of the previous year, well behind in 67:58. Rose Hill again won the women’s race in the slightly faster time of 75:42. Chris Hallam’s comment after the race was “The b...r took it from the start racing past me at nineteen-twenty miles an hour; there’s always next year.”
The largest of the charity groups was the Imperial Cancer Research team, with sixty-eight runners raising around £6,000 for their charity.
The winner of the Mini Marathon was someone who a few years later was to feature in the main event; sixteen-year-old Steve Smith from Newbury won the three mile event in 15:5 from over 300 young men and women. Claudia Lawrence repeated her win of the previous year with a time of 15:45.
The Reading AC ten mile was run again from the university in November, and over 200 runners took part. The first three runners all came from the home club, with former Bournemouth AC runner Tim Butler first to finish in 50:48. Dave Ramsay was second in 51:20, and Andy Neatham third in 51:53.
There had been some eventful and frantic moments around the half marathon since its inception, but nothing so dramatic as what happened just prior to the start of the 1992 race. We had always been aware that there could be some sort of security incident on the day of the half marathon in any year. I had discussed it with the local police chief on more than one occasion, and I remember what I said to him when he asked whether the runners would stop if asked after the race had started. I told him nothing would stop them and if they put cars across the road they would probably run over them! To his credit he agreed and we just hoped it would not happen. But this was the year when something did happen; as all the runners were lining up on Richfield Avenue, the wheelchair athletes were ready to be sent on their way by the mayor. Suddenly I got a message to see the police superintendent in charge of the policing of the event. He was very close by so I was able to meet him at once. He told me that he had just been notified of a suspicious car left abandoned outside the Army Recruiting Office in the St Mary’s Butts, Reading, right on the route the runners had to go. They had called in the bomb exp
erts and the whole area had been cordoned off so the runners could not go that way. I had to make one of those instant decisions; delay, postpone, cancel or go over a shortened route? I did not feel I could keep the runners hanging about, and what do you do with 6,000 people waiting to run? So the race was started and the runners did not run a full half marathon that year. I estimated afterwards that it was about 750 metres short. It was announced to the runners before the start, but in the excitement waiting for the start few heard the news, and when they returned to the finish many thought that they had run personal best times; some may never have realised and have kept their times as PBs. The winner of that eventful race was Steve Brace for the third successive year. His time 62:20, probably equated to about sixty-four minutes for the full and correct distance. His team Bridgend also got their hat trick of wins, by carrying off the Sweat Shop Trophy for the third time. Gebriye Tsegay (Reading Roadrunners), finished in twelfth place, with a time of 65:57, to be the first Reading man home, but because of the shortened course his time was probably worth about sixty-eight minutes for the full distance, but still a very big improvement on his 1991 time of 72:05. David Holding won the wheelchair event again, with what would almost certainly have been a new record, 55:30, and Rose Hill won the women’s wheelchair race for the third successive year. The Arlington Business Trophy went to the Whitbread Beer Company, Gloucester. The first athletic/jogging club for women winners were Ravishing Rampert Runners.
In the mini marathon the winner of the Reading Leisure Trophy was Jonathan Cooper, and Claudia Lawrence took the trophy for first girl; her third successive win.
Yellow Pages 10K; Grant Thornton 10K; Rockfort 10K; Littlecote 15K; Stratfield Saye 10K; Courage Half Marathon; Oxford Half Marathon; Okehampton Half Marathon; Claude Fenton 10K and ten miles; Mapledurham Grand Prix; Fulham FC Fun Run; Nabisco Fun Runs; National Children’s Fun Runs for SportsAid; New Year Midnight Runs through Reading; New Year’s Day 10Ks for National Playing Fields Association in Hyde Park; and even some one mile road races in Milton Keynes - these were all good events that helped to encourage people to take up running.