The American Clydesdales

I was speaking to Pete Cartwright yesterday when I dropped in on him with the two books he had asked for and one of the subjects was that of weight and athletics. It wasn't long before the American 'Clydesdale and Fillies Club' came up. This is a running club for the more heavily built of our running fraternity (and sorority?) They come in several categories for handicapping and prize awarding purposes. The slimmest category for men is the 190 to 210 pounds category (ie about 13 stones and up) and the heaviest category is 226 pounds and up which I think is upwards of 16 stones. Handicaps are based on size with the slimmer starting last, prizes are awarded in categories as in the vets races but based on various weight groupings. The kind of times that they run are actually not bad considering.

In a recent marathon the top man in the 190 lbs group ran 3:45 and the top two 16 stoners were 4:43 and 4:47. The first woman ran in in 4:34. In the half marathon the top man in the lightest group(who was 37) was in 85:28, the top woman was in 97:28 (she was 24 years old.) The top man in the 16 stones and up category ran 1:40:26 and he was just 25. In the 10K, top man was 45:20 and the top woman 51:04. The best of the real heavyweights was timed at 56:49 - he was 37 years old at the time.

So if we want to recruit - how about starting a Clydesdales and Fillies Section - or would that lead to too many crude jokes about the rest of us?

One American who organises triathlons etc tried to copyright the name 'Clydesdale' for running purposes and claim money from any group usingt the name for athletics purposes. When the C&F people found out about us they emailed non stop for some time and then used the fact that we had been using the name Clydesdale for athletics purposes since 1885 as part of their case against the fellow. They won their case. Their vest is a kind of yuchie browny greeny thing with a big horses head on the front.