Mike & Jayne Haywood.
Jayne and I used to look in amazement when
we saw people running marathons, etc and never imagined we could even run 5 miles.
We knew about half a dozen people who were regular runners and had run several London
marathons between them, and we really admired them.
It was Ron Sutton that really started us off though when we decided to go and watch him
run the 1996 London, also running with him that day were other C.P.J. members Clive
Dunnico and Lynn Harrington.
The day really captured our imagination and inspired us, and as Lynn had looked so fresh
after 13 miles we thought it couldn’t be that hard this marathon lark, or can it?
About a week later, I thought I’ll give it a try and ran about a mile as fast as I
could. That was the worst thing I could have done, gasping for breath I mumbled "No
way, forget this lark". And walked back home.
I can’t remember what it was that made me want to have another go, but I did a couple
of days later, slowed it down a bit and managed 2 miles with out stopping! What an
achievement this practically was a marathon for me at this stage.
I then talked my wife Jayne into having a go and the results were exactly the same.
We would run about 5 miles a week. Sometimes on a Wednesday we would spot the Castle Point
Joggers running up Essex Way and we would comment on how good they were, actually running
all the way up that massive incline!
We didn’t feel we were ready to join this elite group yet.
Ron Sutton finally talked us in to coming down to the club one night and we haven’t
looked back since. Jack made us feel so welcome and we felt we’d known everyone
years. It was also a nice surprise to find out we weren’t going to be left behind
even if we were the slowest, which incredibly we weren’t.
Nine months later we were heading down the Mall towards the finish line of our first
London Marathon.
We had made it and now really felt like proper runners.
At the moment I’m training for my third London and it doesn’t seem to get any
easier but hopefully faster!
Mike's Times
5K 21:18
10M 1:18:10
10K 45:15
5M 36:30
15M 2:16:00
Marathon 4:35
Favourite distant 10k
Train 3 times a week, mostly alone
Email MIKEJAYNE@AOL.COM
Age 36
