Osy Waye running his 100^th marathon at the North Pole

The aims of the Club are:

2 To maintain a database of marathon statistics relating to members’ achievements.

3 To promote and organise various marathon challenges for members.

4 To assist members to enter races of marathon distance and longer, individually and collectively.

5 To share knowledge and experience and encourage newcomers to the sport of marathon running.

6 To assist the organisers of road marathons in the British Isles by providing constructive feedback.

Club Bank account:-

Alliance & Leicester Community Account No. 72-06-00 574245189

Club Magazine:-

Published quarterly Feb May Aug Nov

Editor – Peter Graham

Articles & letters for inclusion should be with the Editor two weeks before publication date.

I first met Phil at the Derby Marathon in 1990 when he finished literally seconds behind me and then congratulated me on breaking 3 hours. He went on to say that but for being stung by a bee during the race, he would have also broken the 3 hour barrier. After chatting for a while, it turned out that like me, Phil was from Coventry and that we had ran in many of the same races during the 1980’s without our paths ever crossing or even knowing that we lived within a few miles of one another. Phil said he saw me pass him at the 24-mile point and if he had known me before, would have probably kept up. Although he ran a PB that day, I could tell Phil was disappointed at not breaking 3 hours. I guess it wasn’t funny at the time, but the bee sting incident still makes me chuckle as I was to learn that this was typical of Phil, a chap who would make light and humour out of any incident that befell him over the years.

After that day in Derby we were to run many races together, most of them marathons. We were on the road most weekends, distance no object, we would travel anywhere in the UK to run a marathon, sometimes we would even run abroad. Looking back, we certainly experienced some amusing times together and Phil would always have a story to tell about our exploits. Like having to get changed in a telephone box on an extremely cold and wet October morning somewhere on the outskirts of Rotherham for a one off marathon that was held there. Or the time we crossed the finish line in the Gainsborough marathon absolutely covered in black flies. There was the haunted house we stayed in at CrossMichael and the time we got locked in the children's crèche on the overnight ferry back from the Brussels Marathon. He once drove all the way to the Isle Of Skye only to miss the last ferry by a matter of minutes in pursuit of running the Benbecula Marathon in the Western Isles, over a thousand miles round trip and he missed the last boat!

Sometimes we ran marathons on consecutive days and Phil would always remind me of the time we did the Black Isle Marathon in the Scottish Highlands on a Saturday. Then, having traveled south all night to get to the outskirts of London the following morning we ran the Harrow Marathon, only to be told at the finish line that they had run out of finishers T-shirts. The fact is, I happened to finish ahead of Phil that day and never did have the heart to tell him that I actually got one of those few remaining T-shirts!

Don't get me wrong, being runners, we still had that competitive streak and on occasions tried to outsprint each other in the final miles of a race, sometimes I would come in ahead, sometimes Phil did, sometimes we came in together. Looking back, I realise that Phil was always ahead in every way. You see, he was 20 years my senior, yet there were times when I could hardly keep up with him such was his strength. Marathon running became a way of life for us and sometimes we would put our competitive instincts to rest and just run round together from start to finish, chatting, having a joke and putting the world to rights. It seems difficult to imagine now, but there were days when we would just glide round a marathon in 3 and a bit hours without even realising we had just run 26.2 miles.

The other thing I remember about Phil was that if he was travelling with you to a race, you knew that you would always reach your destination. Having been a long distance lorry driver, Phil knew the road network like the back of his hand, all the shortcuts and the back ways, it was like having a ‘Sat Nav’ system before it was ever invented! Personally, I learned a lot from Phil about running and had a lot of respect for him. He was a strong gutsy runner and always gave one hundred percent. In the time that I knew him, from his late 40’s through to his 60’s, I witnessed many occasions when he would completely outpace much younger runners, including myself! He always told me how he would love to break 3 hours for the marathon and he came close on so many occasions, but it was never to be. Over the last couple of years I also know that he found the running tough, but he never gave up such was his love of this great sport. During his running career, he notched up some 300 marathons, not to mention the hundreds of half marathon, five and ten mile races that he also competed in.

Now they say that behind every good man, there’s a good woman and Mary is certainly that. Phil loved his running, but sometimes, us marathon runners don't quite realize just how selfish we can be, wanting to go here, there and everywhere to run. However, his wife Mary would nearly always travel with him to the various races and I know that Phil really appreciated her support. So I greatly admire Mary for supporting Phil over the years and being there to tend to his needs after he crossed that finish line.

Well Phil, you have now crossed your final finish line down here on earth but knowing you, are probably still running in God’s kingdom. I think I speak for all runners that knew you, when I say that you were an inspiration to us all, we all loved you, your humour, wit and personality. You certainly were a character and will be sadly missed.

If you can hear me Phil, I would like to say that I wish it had been me that was stung by a bee that day in Derby, then you would have broken the 3 hours, you certainly deserved to. I also wish that I had given you my Harrow Marathon T-shirt when I had the chance, hope you’ll forgive me. Finally I would just like to thank you for the good times we shared together, I will miss seeing you at the various races, but you can count on one thing, you will always be in my thoughts whenever and wherever I run.

Good bye Phil.

1. Editorial

I am sorry that the Newsletter is late and we have missed one out. If you would like a hard copy sent by post please let me know. Those who wanted a hard copy of the first 2006 Newsletter but did not receive it please let me know.

In this edition of the Newsletter a touching Memorial to Phil Duffy who sadly died written by Steve Edwards. The 100 Marathon Club sends sincere condolences to his wife Mary and family at the sad loss of Phil.

Please note on the 17^th December we are putting on a NEW marathon, the 100 Club AGM Handicap Marathon which is open to Members and guests. This will be followed by the AGM, which we used to hold at Luton Marathon. Many Members could not wait for the AGM after finishing the Luton Marathon. Our marathon, on a 14-lap course, will be run as a Handicap so everyone should finish around the same time, 2pm with the AGM at 2.30pm, and everyone has a chance of winning!

Also note the new UK Marathons which are available such as Mablethorpe on September 10^th and Jersey Marathon on October 8^th as well as our Handicap on December 17^th.These events will count towards our Competition to find who can run the most UK road Marathons. Note that on 28^th 29^th 30^th October you can run three Marathons in three days at Beachy Head Marathon, Snowdonia Marathon and Dublin.

There are a few 100 Marathon Club Members who did not rejoin the Club in 2006. Please tell us what we did wrong. Your feedback would be greatly appreciated.

If you are interested in completing the UK and Ireland Counties List Peter Burns would be pleased to receive them. As a guide he has listed events by County (though it is out of date) so please send Peter Burns your filled in lists either by email or by post.

Lastly welcome NEW Members Osy Waye and Bill Young who completed their 100^th Marathons at North Pole Marathon and London Marathon in April 2006.

Peter Graham
Editor

Of course when you are at your busiest in your home life, work comes along and throws in a great big spanner. The day after London, with trips most weekends thru to October and beyond, I started work at Boots at their Beeston (Near Nottingham) headquarters. I say Boots, but actually I was just moved from the Co-op at Aldgate, London to Boots by my company Xansa.

Well, this gave me the excuse to buy myself a rather expensive, but very compact laptop, to enable me to do most of the things I could at home. Well, that was the theory! Hotel life is not quite like that, and you waste so much time packing and unpacking, and waiting for meals. Just when I was running so well, and while I’ve joined the local club Long Eaton, it’s quite a while to find your way in a new club, not helped by my first injury for years.

So what am I trying to tell you? Yes, you guessed it, it has been very hard to keep up with things, not helped that I am now 130 miles away from the other 2 officers. I’m doing a catch up as I write this, and hopefully by the time the newsletter is published I will have caught up a bit, and managed a few updates to the website.

I said it in the last newsletter, and will repeat in this one. As hard as we try, the Committee cannot take the club forward on it’s own; we do need your help. Take a look at the sections on the Website and the 2006 AGM Marathon, and consider if there is anything you can do to help.

While I will pick up results from the Internet, it is your responsibility to keep me up-to-date after I’ve had the original lists. This is why I encourage spreadsheets, so that you can just add new races on the bottom and re-send. If this is not for you, telephone; text; bits of paper; anything will do.

Our website has a forum, but this hasn’t really taken off. It might be because I just haven’t had time to sell it. I’m sure it could be valuable to the members, but needs someone to drive. If anyone out there would like to give it a go, then let me know. In the meantime there is a link from the home page of the website, and you will need to know the following to get access: User id: 100Clubber, password: Alaska - both are case sensitive!! Obviously we would appreciate if comments are appropriate, non-offensive and clean!

In overall terms the 2 things I use all the time are the foreign marathon links, accessed via the ‘links’ button, and the UK marathon list, accessed via the ‘events’ button. I think we have hit a bit of a lull again with photos, so do keep them rolling in. We usually manage to get photos up fairly quickly.

Is there anyone out there with the skills and/or inclination to help me with the website? If so, please let me know. Even just 1 hour spent each week would make such a difference.

Back in March at Little Rock, Arkansas, I met up with my American friends Bob & Lenore, who handed over a big bag of pins. No doubt this will be mentioned elsewhere, but Peter Burns has taken on the role of distribution of these.

Around about the same time, the Committee decided to go ahead with replacing the current centre with an embossed centre. These should be available by autumn and details of cost will be advised then. This will form part of the package going forward, although we expect a lot of members to prise out the existing centre and replace it with the new one.

At the AGM a handicap marathon (slowest start first) was suggested as a pre-cursor to the 2006 AGM. The marathon will take place on Sunday, 17^th December 2006. It will be run on the 3k lap used by Fairlands Valley Spartans within the Fairlands Valley Park, Stevenage, at the location of the Fairlands Valley Challenge. I would not get involved unless it was a properly constituted marathon, as such it will be measured and count towards the Challenge competition.

Entry Form attached below

Don’t forget that all the contact email addresses have a purpose, so do use them. Using the addresses below gives you a better chance of getting through to the correct person, especially when I’m not around.

As previously stated, in most cases the recipient will reply from his/her personal email, but that’s fine, as you have now made contact with the appropriate person.

Use 'contact us' link to obtain email address

General Enquiries - 
Members Broadcast Messages - 
Members race results - 
Order Club Kit - 
Interested in a trip! - 
Photos for the Photo gallery - 

Roger Biggs
Chairman 
100 Marathon Club

The Stats so Far! by Roger Biggs:

Below are those members who have submitted their races for scrutiny. This is updated to the last point I was advised by you.

I will continue to gather results from the Internet etc, however, I will only advance marathon totals when specifically advised by the member. It has to be your responsibility, as spelling mistakes and duplicates (we now have 2 ‘David Lewis’), mean I can’t guarantee I have these correct. Of course, you never run in someone else’s name, do you?

(For the record, I’m going to refer to the Blackheath David as ‘Dave’ and the Eltham David as ‘David’)

The debate will always go on about what is and what isn’t a marathon. If you disagree or would like the opportunity to mention other events outside of the rules, we would welcome linking an article to your race history online. Going forward this could be achievements and include a photograph.

The 100MC UK & Ireland Road Marathon Shield - by Roger Biggs

As mentioned in the last newsletter, the competition in 2006 will be the same as per 2005 with the exception that the anomaly around the London Marathon has been removed, hence no trail events will count in 2006. All marathons in the United Kingdom & Ireland that are defined as 26 miles 386y (42.195km) will count and will be shown in this newsletter and on the website in capitals. The competition was a big success in 2005, and I think we can expect the main players to be much the same this year!

Photo of the Year - by Roger Biggs

Not really got my head round this in 2006, but once I’ve got the website up-to-date, I’ll see where we are with photos. We certainly have some photos online. Do keep sending in your photos, and that can be by post as well as by email.

Please send your photos to "photo" leaving the photo in a high resolution.

I have not been overwhelmed with entries to the Counties Challenge. To be precise, five people have let me have their records and four of those, including myself, are on the Club Committee. Steve Edwards, Chairman Roger, and Treasurer Tad have managed to achieve the magic 50 figure and so qualify for the special certificate that will be presented at year end.

I appreciate that not everyone will want to enter but I wonder if some people might simply have been put off because they are not able to pinpoint the counties in which certain races took place? I am including a table that Tad has prepared showing the races and their respective counties that were on the calendar in 2002. This may help. If not, don’t be discouraged. If you let me have your list of completed marathons I will endeavour to allocate these and include you in the league table (see below). You may be surprised at how many counties you have conquered. I was with my count. So come on, let’s be having you (to quote Delia Smith).

Peter Burns

The list of 2002 races by county and the Counties Challenge form are appended.

7. Forthcoming Events by Roger Biggs

The Jersey Marathon is back on Sunday, 8^th October 2006

The Windermere Marathon returns after a 20 year absence on Sunday, 20^th May 2007

Want to run in 4 States in 4 days without moving Hotels?? If you do, read on!

The 50 States Club is organising 4 marathons at the Four Corners, ie. Where Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona & Utah meet.

There two possible dates, with the actual date to be advised within a month.

The contact in club terms is the co-ordinator only, and cannot be held responsible for race cancellations or travel problems.

Personal insurance is advised.

All communications should commence to "trips" , although subsequent emails will be to/from the individual co-ordinator.

Benidorm & Calvia are done through "Running Crazy", and as such, there is no real hurry, and almost certainly, the ability to book late. All other events will have some form of limit depending on the mode of transport and the particular event. If you are remotely interested, then let us know sooner rather than later.

Due to work commitments neither of us are able to put out details at the moment, and will email out through the 100 Club distribution list when we can. If you are not email, then telephone Roger on 07748 326301, and we will make sure that you are not left out!

Results are only being shown for current members, including events completed before they signed up.

Due to sheer size, this is a limited list. The full list can be seen on the website under ‘results’. If you require a full printed list, then just let me know.