Viewing and Reading

Did anyone see the programme on Channel 4 at 12:35 on Monday? Probably not - Harriers are all abed after midnight. It was called 'Running to the Limits' and was about a chap setting out to run a marathon in 2:20 after two years training. Aged 24 and a slob he set to it and worked hard and................. well, you can see it at 4 on Demand: just go to www.channel4.com, click on 4OD, select the programme and away you go. It lasts 50 minutes and includes interviews with Ron Hill, Bruce Tulloh and Haile Gebrselassie with a horrific glimpse into the future by Frank Horwill right at the start!
On the books front, Colin Youngson sent me a copy of the book about the Scottish marathon championships that he wrote with Fraser Clyne and very interesting it is too. Called 'A Hardy Breed' it covers all the Scottish Marathon Championships from the first one in 1946 to the year 2000 and has a lot of interesting information on the training done by such as Harry Fenion - fastest in Britain and second fastest in Europe in the mid 50's - Emmett Farrell, Colin and the guys he trained with in Edinburgh and many other Scottish champions. If you can get your sticky fingers on a copy, grab it! The other book that I read - am still reading - is called 'Athletics Enigmas' and was written by Alistair Aitken in 2002. Although now out of print you can still get copies via that nice Mr Amazon. It starts with a chapter on Gordon Pirie and goes on to deal with Great Characters David Bedford, etc), Hard Men (Roy Fowler for a start), Great Races and much much more, as they say. Lots of training information there! Get reading!!! Better still, keep on running!