John Henning, Spitzbergen Marathon - Road Runners Club of the UK

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ArticlesThe pair eventually reached Londonderry and John sufferedmuch barracking from the Blues fans who accused him oftrying to save money on the bus fare.More problems followed after the match, the members ofJohn’s Howardville Supporters club had decided to stay onfor a meal in a pub. John never frequented pubs; so he hadno alternative but to walk around the streets of Londonderryin the cold until the club bus was ready to bring him home.There is little doubt that John slept well that particularSaturday night!Dublin RunOne of the highlights of John’s life came in 1960 when hedecided to celebrate his 50th birthday by running fromDublin to Belfast. The 108 mile effort involved a great dealof preparation; John increased his weekly mileage yet againand had to gather together a team to help him with all thearrangements for the run.It was eventually decided that he would start at the GPOin Dublin’s O’Connell Street at 11:00 pm on Friday 12thAugust and that he would finish, the next afternoon, at theRavenhill Rugby Ground in Belfast. Ravenhill was selectedbecause the Belfast Highland Games was scheduled to takeplace that afternoon and several thousand spectators wouldbe present to witness John’s final lap of the track.During the run, John was accompanied by two runners(Jimmy Kennedy and John Cranston) who would run partof the route in relays and a cyclist (Billy Sands). Also in theparty which left Belfast by car were John’s son Roy and areporter from the Belfast Telegraph.John had a very clear memory of the car journey down toDublin on the Friday night: “We had arranged to meet theLord Mayor of Dublin but we seemed to be in good time;so we stopped at Santry and I had a pre-run meal of banana,tea and toast. However, when we got back to the car, it hada puncture and there was a mad rush to get this fixed in timeto allow us to meet the Mayor”.They arrived on time and John got changed quickly, shookhands with the Mayor and set off in a northerly direction.Despite the late start, the streets of Dublin were lined withpeople attracted by John’s epic record attempt. But beforelong he was running alone through the darkness of thecountryside.As usual mid-race drinking was not high on John’s agenda:“I ran virtually non-stop with only a brief refreshment haltat Dundalk to quickly drink a cup of tea”.He can also remember how the record attempt nearly cameto an abrupt end when in the middle of the night he strayedonto the wrong side of the road and was nearly flattened bya lorry. He found the hilly stretch between Newry and Banbridgehard going but at no time did he doubt that he wouldmake it home to Belfast.John arrived at Ravenhill during the Saturday afternoon andrecorded the excellent time of 16 hrs: 20 mins for the 108miles. The Northern Whig reported “The large crowd in thestand rose to their feet and applauded 50 year old John Henningwhen he ran into the ground. First to congratulate himwas Belfast’s Lord Mayor (Alderman Robin Kinahan) whosaid: How are you feeling John? To which Henning replied:I’m fine Sir but a wee bit tired”.The run had obviously taken a lot out of John and matterswere not helped by the fact that there was no hot water atRavenhill: “The run was OK but the shower nearly killed me”,he joked. After the shower, he was shivering so much he hadto be helped into his clothes. Later that night his wife was soworried she decided to go out to buy him a whiskey – thatwas the only alcoholic drink John ever took in his entire life.The next morning, he still felt very weak but he was determinednot to break his record of attending church at 8:00amevery Sunday morning. He spent ages trying to complete theshort walk to the church which was just around the corner.He told me: “I had to lean against the walls of houses all theway along our street; I was glad that there were not many peoplearound to see me”! True to form, John went to church twicemore on that Sunday and was back training the following day.Final Races/RunsFew people are still physically active after their 50th birthday,but in later life John just kept on going. He entered manyraces and managed to win World Veteran Championshipmedals in Toronto 1975, Hanover 1977, Gothenburg 1979and Christchurch 1981. He still kept up his links with Linfieldand ran 100 laps around Windsor Park at the age of 60.One of John’s proudest moments occurred shortly after thefootball club appointed football legend Jackie Milburn astheir new player-coach in the late 1950s. ‘Wor Jackie’ as hewas known, quickly decided that his new team were not fitenough. John recalled “somebody told Jackie that I was a fitnessfanatic and during pre-season training a coach load of playersregularly arrived at my front door in Battenburg Street”.John took the players out for long runs on the Belfast Hillsand, needless to say, none of them could keep up with theShankill pensioner!When the Belfast marathon was born in 1981, John wasasked to come out of semi-retirement to run one last race. Heremembered increasing his training mileage for this race: “Atthat time I was running around the Shankill Graveyard on awinding ¼ mile long path which the City Council workmen hadmade especially for me. I built my training up to 50 laps of theGraveyard and was well pleased to finish the marathon in 4:30,ahead of almost 200 other runners – not bad for a 70 year old”.When he reached the age of 80, John was still a very fit man.His daily training workouts at the Shankill Leisure Centreconsisted of weight training sessions and 20 lengths of thepool, in addition to his runs around the graveyard.(Continued)21
ArticlesJohn made so much use of the Centre that he was awardedan honorary life membership and thus joined an elite groupwhich also includes footballer Norman Whiteside, and boxersDavy Larmour and Wayne McCullough.Just when it looked like he would never stop, John’s runningcareer sadly came to an end in the 1990s due to injuriesreceived when he was hit by a car.Random Thoughts on Life and RunningThe famous running coach Franz Stampfl said of John, “Hehas the rare capacity for self-absorbing enthusiastic activity.Once he set his mind on a job, he will finish it withoutpermitting any distractions to deviate his entire interest andattention. No matter how trivial an activity, John Henninghas the same approach”.John told me that his motto is “I want to make a good jobof whatever I do”. Anybody who has ever been described asIreland’s greatest ultra-runner will inevitably know what hardwork means and John was no exception.Apart from running, John was active in other fields. In hismid-40s, he went back to college to study Maths and Englishso that he could make up for time he lost as a boy.One of John’s favourite pastimes in later life was traininggreyhounds. He said, “You can’t get the best out of your dogs bylying in your bed. I often had them out for a 40 minute walk at5:00am; followed by another 1 hr in the afternoon. My two bestdogs – Rocks Rukura and Brent Close – were never as fit as mebut they won more money – over £700 in total”.Long distance running requires the ability to occupy themind and John had some unusual techniques: “I ran alongreciting nursery rhymes, singing hymns (There’s a Green Hill farAway was my favourite) and doing mental arithmetic (I wasparticularly keen on vulgar fractions)!”Diet is now becoming increasingly important for runners.John always took care in what he ate. He took daily doses ofwheat-germ oil and consumed raw eggs for breakfast eachmorning. Following advice from Franz Stampfl, John did noteat potatoes for a week before any major race.In 1951, the magazine Athletics weekly asked John aboutchanges that he would like to see in athletics. He replied:“I would like to see clubs taking more care of their novices; toomany lads are burnt out owing to too much fast running andgruelling racing before they are properly developed. I wouldadvise them to put themselves in the hands of a qualified coachand pay heed to what he tells them and not to pay any attentionto advice offered by anybody else”.Wise advice but we can also learn from the last words thatJohn whispered to me a few years before he died: “I’m wellover 80 but still acting like a wee lad – it’s been a great life”.Spitsbergen Marathon5th June 2010By Tim Boone (RRC 11182)It was cold.No, I mean, it was really cold!Which figures, I guess, seeing as how the Svalbard archipelago– including the main island of Spitsbergen – is just afew hundred miles from the North Pole.And this far north, way above the top of Norway, the sunshines 24/7 in summer – even in the middle of the night,when I arrived. Unless it’s snowing hard.Midnight, 3rd June. Broad daylight and snowing. Thethermometer at the one-shed airport read -1°C.“Yes, it’s got a lot warmer in the past few days,” said the taxidriver as we lurched and bumped along the main (only)coast road. Out in the fuzzy grey-white fjord, thousands oflumps of pack-ice jostled together like ice cubes in a G&T.I shivered.And was still shivering the next day on the marathon startline. Three tops, long bottoms (which felt like I was runningin pyjamas), gloves and hat. Not a bare arm or leg insight. All forty of us had stayed in the warmth of the communityhall until the very last minute.What – on the roof of the World – was I doing?Stamping my feet and swinging my arms in a patheticattempt to keep warm, I wondered how bemused Phidippides– the ancient Greek messenger – would have been,seeing this frozen homage to his epic run of 490 BC (afterwhich, allegedly, he dropped dead). This was a world awayfrom the heat and humidity I experienced when I ran the‘Classic’ Athens Marathon a few years ago.The Spitsbergen Marathon claims to be the northernmostmarathon held on solid ground – as opposed to the NorthPole Marathon, run on ice – although with half the routeconsisting of loose gravel tracks, I question their definitionof ‘solid’ ground.And it’s hilly, which I hadn’t expected. There were longgrinding hills, not quite steep enough to justify walking up,and short, brutal descents that were torture on the tops ofmy legs.But the distant views were truly stunning. (The snow hadstopped. The sun had come out.) Sparkling snow-coveredmountains all around. An intensely blue sky above a deep,azure-blue fjord scattered with sugar-lump ice-floes.The nearer-to views weren’t so stunning. Shades of grey.Not green. Grey. No trees, no grass, no bushes. Just bare22
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John Henning, Spitzbergen Marathon - Road Runners Club of the UK

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