MARATHON fever was gripping the nation. Everyone wanted to run one. Or at least, watch someone they knew grind out 26.2 sweat drenched, gut pulping, strength draining miles – preferably from outside of a pub on a sunny Sunday afternoon swilling cold beer, bellowing encouragement.

But in 1985 something quite calamitous hit the pages of this newspaper. After a trio of successes during which it had attained the status of Swindon’s Largest Annual Sporting Event, raised thousands for charity and lured countless spectators away from their tellies and onto the streets, the Swindon Marathon – gasp – had been scrapped.

It was a crushing blow to those already in training. Gutted, they were. Dismayed Swindon Marathon veteran Brian Phillips of Wroughton summed it up: “I’m going to miss taking the orange slices, ice lollies, cups of water and sponges handed out along the route by the marvellous people of Swindon.”

Time can play tricks on the memory but I can recall with reasonable clarity a gang of us marching purposefully towards the editor’s office after a lunchtime session, banging on his door and pronouncing, with some urgency: “We have to do it – run the marathon.”

“I won’t stop you,” he responded. “No - we’ve got to run it, the paper, organise it, the marathon, us lot, the Adver!”

Without breaking stride (sorry) Pat Wheare grinned “Oh, alright then” and even agreed to drive the car which seven months later led 450 runners around the course, happily discovering areas of his patch – Swindon - that he had no idea existed.

Thirty years ago the Adver laced up its training shoes, Vaselined its nipples (it stops them bleeding - honest) and saved the Big Race, much like health charity SEQOL has done to rescue the 2015 Swindon Half Marathon which takes place on October 11.

The Swindon Marathon’s driving force, Dave Roberts had called off the 1985 event due to his commitments to Thamesdown’s Aid to Ethiopia.

But he kindly agreed to become our “technical advisor” so long as we did the leg-work (sorry) – illuminating us on the likes of marshals, drink stations, mile signs, bollards and asking the police to close some roads please.

For the next seven months we produced a weekly, marathon-related page of news, views and invaluable tips (“running shoes are essential.”) And also, a fool proof, week-by-week, get-fit-for-the-marathon training programme guaranteed to transform your average wheezing couch potato into a sleek, Farah-like athlete.

Miss Thamesdown Anna Dinning and Page Three Girl Janine James modelled our trendy new line in sportswear which featured a rather splendid logo. “Girls, you too can look like Anna and Janine….in our fashionable Adver Marathon T-Shirt.”

Swindon Town physio Kevin Morris answered queries on running readers’ injury ills from torn ankle ligaments and ‘runner’s knee,’ to how to cure a bursa (it’s a sack of fluid where the tendon passes the bone, explained Kevin) and needles and pins (“keep running and they will eventually disappear.”) On one occasion, a woman limped into the Adver offices complaining to reception staff, who normally deal with small ads or back copies, of mystery pains in her thigh and hip. Seconds later we were on the blower to Kevin.

A veteran of five marathons and former distance runner for Northern Ireland and the Republic, Gerry Hannon, Swindon’s newly appointed council recreation officer, became our ‘marathon guru’ “What could be better than entering the Swindon Marathon and raising money for people who would give their eye teeth to be able to have an option to go running,” Gerry told readers, as we strove to lure as many Swindonians as possible off their bums and into the event.

Naturally, we could hardly organise The Great Swindon Slog without having our own representatives joining the healthy, ruddy faced hordes as they swept like ants through the town for the best part of three-and-a-half to six hours on the magic day, Sunday, September 22.

As a key cog in the organisation of The Fourth Swindon’s People’s Marathon, I could hardly be expected to run the thing as welI: far too busy organising.

So after plying them with several vats of wine at our favourite hostelry, The Wheatsheaf in Newport Street, two woozy Adver reporters Sue Royal, 25, and Ruki Sayid, 24, finally agreed (in front of witnesses) to give it a bash.

Naturally, our running gels reported on their progress in our Thursday news bulletins and were amusingly photographed trying not to laugh while demonstrating a series of tendon stretching pre-run exercises - pigeon-toe sit-ups and the like.

Sue, in particular, soon discovered she had no natural ability or love for plodding the streets of Swindon. Readers, however, were amused to discover that she could whinge for England.

“With five months to go running the marathon seems about as likely as pushing a reluctant camel through the eye of a needle…Let me tell you running in the heat is horrid.

“It’s humiliating to be seen by passers-by gasping for breath...The face still turns puce, the legs still feel as if iron bars are being tightened around them.

“Morale has slipped to an all-time low…I don’t think I have a fitness problem, it’s just that my legs are too short.”

Best of all: “Women runners have an additional hazard to cope with other than pulled muscles, blisters and joggers nipple. It’s called the opposite sex.

“When you are wheezing ferociously the last thing you need is someone shouting ‘Har Har, Har I love it.’”

Not that Ms Royal was in any way incapable of firing off a few well-chosen insults to sniggering oiks with builders bum.

But she at least found something to enthuse about - her improved bowel movements. “It has to be said that running makes them models of efficiency,” she declared. Err, thanks for that Sue.

Ruki too vowed to chuck away her running shoes as soon as the ghastly thing was over. “I’ve realised I don’t want to be super-fit – I want to be a super-slob. I want to indulge in wicked pleasures where the only thing that runs is wine.”

Our snappy, really well-written eight-page souvenir supplement featured a map of a route which snaked curvaceously through Swindon while helpfully pointing out all of the pubs along the way. Cruel, I guess, if you happened to be running.

For those who considered it a race, the previous year’s winner Paul Trimnell held off Mike Bowering – victor of the first two Swindon Marathons – in a time of 2.31.21.

Both sportingly stopped along the way to help Kevin Young (who came third) after he was bowled over by a maniac on a bicycle.

A month before her 50th birthday, Almuth Prowse arrived at The County Ground to much applause take the women’s race in 3.26.29.

Just over 400 of the 450 competitors (more than half first time marathon runners) completed the course, while nearly 200 who paid the entry fee stayed at home (nothing to do with our running tips, hopefully.) In 288th position Ruki attained a respectable 4.23.04 while Sue, gasping and cursing, secured the 404th spot having spent a relaxing six hours, nine minutes and 23 seconds on the road.

Oh well, her bowels were presumably in decent nick – although none of us quite had the nerve to ask!

  •  ONE of Britain’s most remarkable runners came 57th in the Fourth People’s Swindon Marathon.
    Ken Shaw was not among the elite when it came to speed. But as far as endurance went, he was virtually unstoppable.
    When Ken, 44, ran the Adver Marathon in a time of 3.18.07 he was heading for a tonne-up – his 100th marathon - the following year. Swindon was his 89th marathon but for a man who had taken part in 50-mile road races the classic 26.2 miles was hardly the mountain it was for most competitors.
    At the time Ken, of Calne, had clocked up 50,000 miles on the road – or twice around the globe.
    By 1985 he held a string of records including 19 consecutive London-to-Brighton races (54-and-a-half miles) and 17 Two Bridges races in Scotland (36 miles.) However, the big stuff included five 24-hour endurance races, on one occasion attaining 132 miles, and a 48 hour track run at Gloucester in May, 1983, notching-up 167 miles.
    Oh yes, and a couple of 100-mile road races. “Events like that can give you brain damage,” said Ken.
    l Barry Illing trundled home in 402nd position after five hours, 45 minutes and 49 seconds. However, it was some achievement as he had arrived at the start in Princess Street shortly after pushing a wheelbarrow all the way from Weston-super-Mare – 65 miles. “He’s nuts,” said his wife Shirley.