Tag: London Marathon

Chris Brasher co founder of the London Marathon

Describe a man who has positively impacted your life.

“To believe this story you must believe that the human race be one joyous family, working together, laughing together, achieving the impossible. Last Sunday, in one of the most trouble-stricken cities in the world, 11,532 men and women from 40 countries in the world, assisted by over a million black, white and yellow people, laughed, cheered and suffered during the greatest folk festival the world has seen.” Chris Brasher’s article in the Observer 1979 after completing the New York Marathon the first and at the time the only mass marathon of its kind.

Brasher came to prominence

With the four minute mile

Pacing Roger Bannister

Who brought it home in style.

But was through the Marathon

He really influenced me

Opening up the distance

To ordinary blokes like me.

It was once a race for athletes

Late in their career

We mere mortals wouldn’t run

We’d just be there to cheer.

Brasher ran and was inspired

By that race in New York.

He brought it back to London

And this transformed our sport.

It was nineteen eighty one

They ran it the first time

When Beardsley and Simmonson

Joined hands on the line.

I watched it from the sofa

Recovering from bad knees

Still in slow recovery

With physiotherapy.

But I determined then and there

It was something I would do

And completed my first London

In nineteen eighty two.

Then began the running boom

The whole thing just took off

Suddenly the running thing

Accessible to us.

It became a lifestyle

A big thing in my life.

I ran London five times more

And hoped to bust three hours.

Of course I never made it

Three fifteen my best

But running makes me feel good

It helps to swell my chest.

The race grew exponentially

It really is huge now

And of course the charities

All benefit as well.

So raise a glass to Brasher

A man who influenced me

And opened up the marathon

To all us ordinary.

I was first across the line in the London Marathon

What’s something most people don’t know about you?

I’ve run the race a few times

Of course I’ve never won!

But strangely first to cross the line

Is something I can claim.

The race I want to tell you of

Was nineteen ninety three

Eamon Martin won it

So he’s famouser than me.

Eamon Martin

I didn’t run the race that year

Was only helping out.

They started twenty five thousand

So needed lots of help.

We were finish marshalls

Stationed on the bridge.

In the days before the chip

Complicated stuff.

The runners all had bar codes

The ‘pluckers’ would strip off.

Put a hand upon a chest

And gently rip it off.

Then there’d be the ‘spindlers‘

Who put them on big spools

Then they’d be collected

And matched up with the watch.

So the pluckers and the spindlers

Had their different jobs

But we were ‘separators’

What would be our task?

We took them through the funnels

We’d each take through a batch

Get them to the pluckers

Who’d rip the bar codes off.

We’d hand over our batch card

And then go running back

‘Well done, well done,keep moving’

Was what we’d always shout.

A complicated business

We had to get it right

So of course we’d practice

Which is where I made my mark.

Before the race was started

We had a quick run through

So all the separators

jogged towards the line.

I was first to get there

So hand on heart can say

That year’s London Marathon.

I was first across the line.

Wibble Wobble Legs

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Runner stops to help rival metres from the finish line. Sun photo from 2017 London Marathon.

Wibble Wobble Legs was inspired by a story from last year’s London Marathon and is dedicated to everyone running tomorrow.

 

When you’re wibble wobble legged with the finish line in sight

And you’ve only got to get from here to there.

If your legs won’t stand the test, though you really do your best

That’s when you need another runner there.

 

I could not leave you there, there was not too far to go

And the effort that you’d put in really showed.

You were wibble wobble legged but you did not want to rest

So determined you would get there; make that line.

 

I told you to go on, for the time was marching on

You were on for sub three hours and losing time.

But you wouldn’t leave me there, took my arm and gave a steer

Stopped to help me, damn the time, let’s make the line.

 

You were wibble wobble legged and could barely do a step

But I wasn’t going to leave you, not so near.

Spectators looked appalled but when I stopped

They’d all applaud.

We’ll do this thing together, make that line.

 

When a runner hits the wall, then there’s nothing there at all

But I didn’t mean to stop I would press on.

I said to leave me there; just carry on.

There were rival runners passing

You were losing time and placing

To sacrifice your own run really wasn’t fair.

But my legs were just like jelly

And although I’d got there nearly

Those last few yards were just too far to go.

 

I knew what you’d put in, 

All the hours and miles you’d done

And I couldn’t leave you there, that near the line.

The race already won, one victor and one crown

But there’s still a human race that must be run.

There are medics with a chair, 

They’ll  haul you off if you’re left there

So I’ll help you carry on and get you to the line.

For now that’s the only thing on my mind.

 

Even when a Marshall came and took my other arm

You wouldn’t go but stuck there just the same.

Though I didn’t know your name, you helped me all the same

You took my arm and got me to the line.

You forgot about the clock, you just took my arm and stopped

But we both beat three hours and there’s no shame.

With the race already won, one victor and one crown.

There’s still a human race that must be run.