100 Marathon Club

atched. Obviously, if you could find a friend or relation who is prepared to pass on emails etc, that would be great! To
make things equal would mean reducing the current service to email users, which I don’t think anyone would agree is
taking the club forward.
Lastly in my opening gambit, could I thank outgoing committee member Merv Nutburn for his efforts in 2005, and
welcome aboard new committee members Peter Burns & Dave Phillips. It goes without saying that thanks go out to Peter
Graham (Secretary), Tad Lancucki (Treasurer) and Dave Major (kit), who remain on the committee into 2006.
Vetting & Statistics
At the time of going to press I had received lists from 85 members, not bad, but still a few to get!! We have said it’s not
compulsory for previous members, but of course we would prefer that you did. We want to be the UK encyclopaedia of
marathon running, and be able to say without contradiction that the figures quoted are correct, so if you can find your way
to producing a list, that would be great!
While I will pick up results from the Internet, it is your responsibility to keep me up-to-date after I’ve had the original lists.
This is why I encourage spreadsheets, so that you can just add new races on the bottom and re-send. If this is not for
you, telephone; text; bits of paper; anything will do.
Amended Rules
At the first committee meeting of 2006, the matter of what is and isn’t a marathon was discussed. A year in, with a lot of
lists submitted it was agreed that the current rules did not best fit the actual position. To follow the constitution, then we
are not actually allowed to change the rules outside of an AGM. We are hence calling this an interim measure that
hopefully you will endorse at the 2006 AGM.
Personally I had always intended that the words ‘road’ and ‘trail’ were tags to represent accurate and not accurate. For
the vast majority of marathons these tags fit the bill. The only obvious exception I can think of is the White Peak
Marathon. This has a permit, is called a marathon, hence must be accurate. So while we know this as a trail marathon, it
actually gets put in the road category.
Ok, that’s the easy bit. Our rules state that 26 miles can count, as the distance is an approximation. To take the rules to
the letter of the law, 26.1 miles doesn’t, as this suggests that it has been measured in some way and is therefore short.
As 26.1 miles is very close to the metric equivalent of 26 miles, ie. 42km, it would make a nonsense if we allowed 42km
and rejected 26.1 miles. There are a variety of events out there that may or may not call themselves marathons, that
come up a little bit over. As those of us who do these on a regular basis know, in actual terms the advertised distance
does sometimes mean very little!
Ask any Ultra runner, and they probably tell you that an Ultra starts at 30 miles / 50km. So what do we do with the in
between? At the end of the day we are a marathon club, so we have decided to draw the marathon limit at 26.9 miles
(43.3km), with anything above being called an ultra. As I have always said, what you do with your personal records
outside the club is up to you, but for stats inside the club, this rule will apply. I guess the first casualty that I can think of is
the Daffodil Dawdle, which this year is advertised at 27 miles!
Website
Although transparent to the members, the website has been upgraded to allow for the forum and quite a bit of data. The
‘forum’ can be accessed from its own button on the left. You will need to key a user-id and passport. To start with this will
be the same for all. This is intended to be a members’ only section, so please do not pass on the details to non members.
User id: 100Clubber, password: Alaska - both are case sensitive!! Obviously we would appreciate if comments are
appropriate, non-offensive and clean!
The committee suggests that members use this to say where you are running. This may help with transport and tell you
that there will be a friendly face when you arrive.
In overall terms the 2 things I use all the time are the foreign marathon links, accessed via the ‘links’ button, and the UK
marathon list, accessed via the ‘events’ button. I’ve split the foreign marathons geographically and kept them all in date
sequence. The UK list includes all the marathons in the competition plus any of the trail marathons that meet the rules.
(See above)
I’m sure you will all agree that the ‘photo gallery’ took a giant step forward recently. Unfortunately, the local person who
was helping me is unable to continue. Simply put, I cannot find the time to do this plus keep everything else going. As I’ve
always said, when you start to work on a website, time ceases to exist!
Is there anyone out there with the skills and/or inclination to help me with the website? If so, please let me know. Even
just 1 hour spent each week would make such a difference.
(At the time of going to press, I had 2 volunteers, so keep those photos coming in. There will probably a lull while I get
things rolling, but after that we should see regular photo updates.)
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