This is my "Running" home page. Here you will find lots of information about errr... my running ! Use the buttons on the left to navigate to my race reports archive for the last 19 years. Dont bother looking for 2021 race reports.... Nothing happened due to the Covid 19 Pandemic!
			To view my PB's
			Click this button to go to the latest race report
			Click this button to go to my parkrun page
			Click this button to go to my parkrun stats page

Every Saturday 9am My "Home" run is Coventry parkrun @ The War Memorial Park, Kenilworth Road, Coventry. To date I have ran at 48 different parkrun venues: 45 in the UK, 2 in Germany and 1 in the USA, (which I have done twice). Coventry Brueton (Solihull) Braunstone (Leicester) Victoria Park (Leicester) Kingsbury Water Park Leamington Spa  Canterbury Cannon Hill Park (Birmingham) Daventry  Arrow Valley (Redditch) Conkers (Leicestershire)  Perry Hall Park (Birmingham) Walsall Stratford Upon Avon  Clifton (Rugby) Rosliston Bedworth Clermont Waterfront (Florida USA) Market Harborough Banbury Heartlands (Hayle, Cornwall) Sutton Park (Birmingham) Babbs Mill (Chelmsley Wood, Birmingham) Warwick Racecourse Oaklands (Yardley, Birmingham) Windermere Newby Bridge Edgbaston Reservoir, (Birmingham) Dallas Burston Polo Club, (Southam) Woodgate Valley Country Park, (Birmingham) Hastings High School, (Hinckley) Andover (Hampshire) Southampton Sandwell Valley Wolverhampton West Park Sixfields Upton Northampton Market Bosworth Country Park (Leicestershire) Holbrooks (Coventry) Rheinpark (Cologne Germany) Volksgarten (Dusseldorf Germany) Monsal Trail Derbyshire Peak District Tamworth Castle Grounds Aston Hall Birmingham Abbey Park Leicester Watermead Country Park Leicester Brunswick Park Wednesbury Sence Valley Ibstock Beacon Park Lichfield Chasewater During 2024  I hope to get to as many of the parkruns in the Midlands as possible. The nearest "NENDY" (Nearest Event Not Done Yet) is Dudley My first parkrun was at Coventry, event number 2 on 13.2.2010. On 18.6.2011 I joined the parkrun "50" club, the "100" club on  29.6.2013 and "250" club on 18.8.2018. Although not an official parkrun milestone, I completed my 300th run at Coventry 23.11.2019 The next milestone is the "500" club !! In March 2023 I joined the core team for a new parkrun which would be at Holbrooks Park, Coventry. The inaugural run was held on 5th August 2023, with 30 participants. I targetted attaining the "gold obsessive" challenge during 2024 - That entails completing 50 parkruns in the calendar year. I didn't start the year with it in mind, it was around mid year that I looked at my runs to date and saw I had a good chance, as long as I could keep injury free. Totting up the remaining parkruns for the year the maximum achievable was 49, so I looked at the options and found that in Germany they have additional runs on "German Unity Day", so late September I headed off to Germany to do the usual Saturday run in Cologne and then Dusseldorf on the Tuesday. Thankfully everything went well and I hit the target. You can view my parkrun results HERE or use the parkrun stats buttom above

Race for the finish line  - Coventry Half Marathon 2010

Coventry Half Marathon 1st July 1984 Technical Running Gear ? (Vest from C&A)  NO ! State of the art Gel running shoes ? NO ! Lucozade Isotonic sports drink ? NO ! Carbo loading enegy gels ? NO ! ChampionChip timimg ? NO ! They didn't exist in 1984, but they do now  PRICELESS !!!

Anyone who runs 5 or 6 times a week and runs marathons would not describe themselves as either. 

Running 26.2 miles is not fun. You have to be determined, dedicated, and the odd bit of stubborness certainly helps.

I find both terms derisory, and am sure many other runners would agree with me. 

 

I began running in 1981 (I think !) and have successfully completed eight London Marathons, New York, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, 

Boston, Berlin, Chicago, Dingle and Abingdon. 

It could have been very different, when, as a 12 or 13 year old, a friend asked if I would like to go with him to the "Butts Stadium" which is where,

in those days Coventry Godiva Harriers trained. I wasn't interested in running and I didn't go. 

I think I'm a pretty good runner, but wonder what would have happened if I had gone along as a teenager. One thing for sure is we will never know.

My personal ambition was to compete in all 5 World Marathon Majors, which I achieved when running Chicago in 2010. 

In 2012 the Tokyo marathon was added to make 6 Marathon Majors , but I think I'm going to settle at having done the original five.

 

My London times were:

 

1988 - 3 hours 47 minutes and 50 seconds

 

1993 - 3 hours 45 minutes and 21 seconds

 

2002 - Finishing in a PB of 3 hours 28 minutes and 27 seconds, beating the target I had set myself for doing a sub 3:30 marathon.

2004 -The training for the 2004 marathon went really well. For the first time in my twenty something years of running I took 
part in a measured and organised ten mile and twenty mile race. Yes, I had done those distances many many times in training but 
never in a race situation.

The ten miler was the Sneyd Striders Christmas pudding run, where I had targeted a 75 minute finish, and did an actual 
of 70 mins 45 seconds.

The twenty was a killer. I had heard many horror stories about the Ashby 20 but what the hell, I was going to do it anyway !.
The conditions were awful. If the undulating course wasn't enough of a challenge then the rain, hail, wind and low temperatures 
certainly made it one. For this one I had set my target at 2 hours 35mins, and posted an actual of 2 hours 29 mins and 6 seconds.

The rest of the training was made up of the usual runs during the week and long runs on a Sunday morning. My measurement 
of the route for our longest Sunday run is legendary at the club. I had measured it at 19.5 miles which everybody was happy with. 
When we finished running it, we couldn't understand why it took 2 hours 20 minutes to run 18 miles, but to run the newly measured
19.5 miles took an extra 30 minutes. Re measurement of the course revealed it was actually 21.5 miles and not 19.5........ oops !!!

Anyway the 2004 marathon bid failed, when I had to return from London the night before the marathon as my Dad was seriously ill. 
My number and chip were returned in exchange for a guaranteed place in the 25th anniversary 2005 London Marathon.

Most of my London runs and the first Coventry Half  have raised money for the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign. In 1983 I was the 2nd highest fund raiser in the UK running London raising £1,100 In 2002 I raised £1,050 My target for 2003 was to raise over £1,000. The boys of "The Woodlands School" Coventry donated £500 raised from a non uniform day and Data World 2000, Coventry donated a further £250. Peugeot, friends, family and colleagues came up with another £1165 giving a total sum raised of £1,915 easily smashing my target of £1,000. Despite having to withdraw at the eleventh hour in 2004, I ran the Stratford Half the following week.  My sponsors for London agreed to stand by their pledges, and I raised a total of £620.  Since I started running I estimate that I have raised in excess of  £ 8,500 for the charity.

This page was updated 23rd July 2023
© A S Mackness 2023