Welcome to Anorak’s Corner.  This will consist of a mixture of ranking lists, statistics and nostalgia.  I have been running for a long time so there is an awful lot of nostalgia to draw on.

To give you an idea of how long I have been in the sport when I first started competing Blackpool Football Club were in the top division of the football league. Pound’s, shillings and pence were still in use and over 50 of Wesham’s membership had not even been born.

In the nearly 40 years I have been running there have been many changes to our great sport some for the better, some not so good and some forced upon us by outside bodies Police, Council, even Government.

Another facet of the sport that has changed beyond belief over the years is the clothing and footwear. When I first started training, the standard kit was t-shirt and shorts with pumps.  If it was very cold we wore woolly tracksuits with elasticated waists which were O.K. if the weather was dry but, when it rained, they just soaked up the water and got heavier and heavier and you finished up running with one hand holding up the tracksuit bottoms as the weight of the water pulled them down.

Yet another difference between races now and the good old days is that, nowadays, races tend to be at standard distances 5k, 5miles, 10k, 10miles etc. Back then races would start at a church hall or club house, go round a circuit and finish back at the same place. So, all races were different with titles such as the Thornton-Cleveleys 7 ,Waterloo 8, Gower 11 ,Chris Vose 7, [actually7.2], and Eastham’s 7, with the distances always a bit[ish]   The Thornton-Cleveleys race started and finished at Thornton library, and  was organised and sponsored by Cleveleys Trading Association.  Eastham’s 7 started and finished at the Mount in Fleetwood, and was sponsored by a local manufacturer of electrical goods who gave a washing machine as first prize one year and caused a sensation! Prizes were normally of the towels, cutlery, and blankets kind.  When the sponsorship stopped, the races folded. Another difference between then and now, races then lost money and needed to be subsidised by clubs or firms.

 I hope to cover all aspects of running in forthcoming articles – Road, Track and even Cross Country.  I hope to produce various sets of statistics and ranking lists including Annual Lists, and All-Time Lists, you have been warned…… it could get very boring………...

Written by: Anorak Man

Submitted: 9^th February 2006

Edited by: Brenda J Earnshaw, WRR Website/Magazine Editor

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