ATHLETICS: Mary Hanlon, who is not a runner, is going to attempt her first 26.2-mile trek in Madrid tomorrow.
It’s all in aid of a small, personal, but exceptional cause I’VE ALWAYS said the greatest athletic feat I’ve ever witnessed was my accountant running a marathon off zero training. This was no ordinary marathon either, but 26.2 miles over hilly country roads, in brutal heat, somewhere on the west coast of Jamaica. We’d gone down there on a tourism junket, the only provision being we showed up for the start of the Reggae Marathon. Then our natural competitive spirit got the better of us, and instead of dropping out around mile two, like any sane person would have, we pressed on without mercy, eventually crossing the finish line in a state of severe confusion. What were we thinking At least I was half-fit – but not only had my accountant not run in about three months, he’d spent the previous evening drinking a dozen Red Stripe and smoking two packets of Lucky Strike, before disappearing with two local strangers for the rest of the night. After that I thought I’d lost all respect for the marathon as the once sacred distance, made famous by Philippides and Spiridon Louis, and made great by Emil Zatopek and Abebe Bikila. After Jamaica I suspected the marathon had become a generic test of endurance, even an achievement fraud – unless, of course, it was run in two-hours-something. But that’s what happens when you get caught up in the obscene hype of professional sport. There is no room for the humble tale of human endeavour anymore, inspired not by a personal quest for glory, but of a wider and far more worthy cause. And if that still has any role to play in sport, there is no greater platform for it than marathon running.
A few months ago we were having drinks in the Bottler’s Bank in Rathgar when Mary Hanlon announced her plan to run a marathon. She’d never run one before, and wasn’t even sure where she wanted to run it, but she just knew it was something that had to be done if she was serious about her cause.