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When the badly typed and roneo-ed results arrived about a week later I found that I was 80th of 106 finishers but a footnote explained that "At this point " (3 hours) "the A.A.A. Standard expired and the timekeepers, owing to the very heavy rain, did not continue." So after all my efforts my beautifully produced time certificate had no time on it! Imagine the uproar there would be nowadays if officials gave up before the non-elite runners finished!
According to my stopwatch I had managed 3 hrs 25 mins - a big disappointment. (35 years later in my first London Marathon I achieved 3 hrs 39 mins including several minutes to get across the start line) That was the bad news; the good news was that my club captain came 16th in his first marathon and another club mate, 'Percy' Green who was then Editor of "Athletics" (not yet a weekly) did exactly 3 hrs 0 mins so they both got standard medals. Incidentally the winner's time was 2 hrs 36 mins - a time which would mean finishing somewhere back in the hundreds nowadays.
The first three home were selected for the London Olympic Games where Jack Holden was one of the favourites but dropped out at 17 miles with blisters (with all his experience?). Imagine the excitement at Wembley Stadium when, with two runners already on the track, we saw the shambling figure of Tommy Richards come out of the tunnel and pass one of them to finish second by only 16 seconds. So that was the third British silver medal in succession in an Olympic Marathon. There was to be a fourth, by Basil Heatley at Tokyo.
The BBC had a movie camera following the race and their film was televised during a sports program the following week. My mother happened to know a retired lady who had indulged herself in one of those expensive and rare gadgets so we were invited round and there, on a tiny green screen, we saw highlights from the race, in one of which I appeared momentarily. Strangely enough in my first London Marathon the same thing happened again except that this time it was in full colour and many more people owned TV sets.
"So, what's changed? The best thing is that men and women of all abilities run together - even though the elite may start in front. In major races the route is closed to all other traffic, there are plenty of drink and first aid stations, porta-loos, etc and encouragement from the crowds all
the way. At the finish there are plenty of marshals to take care of you and everyone gets a medal and an accurate time certificate. The disadvantages are the delay in crossing the start line, the difficulty of trying to run in a vast crowd, and all the jostling to get drinks, slipping about on discard paper cups
Did I learn anything from all this? Speaking personally it took me quite a few years for the main lesson to sink in, which was that, sadly, I am not cut out for marathon running. After about 2 hours my brain says "what do you think you're doing?" and my motivation evaporates. 20M races were my best event but there were never many of them. Half marathons did not come into existence until after the 1972 Olympics and the consequent explosion of interest in road running. Give me 10K, especially at Windlesham, any day.
Jim Miller
Pictured on page 2 (no 33, nearest to camera ) Jim Miller
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