England Marathon Team Manager

Photograph Quiz:

Photo no. 55:- This is the head stone of an athlete who was a world record holder. Where is it? Who was he? What was his record? Why did he move to London? Why was he disgraced? What was his connection to Coventry Godiva Harriers?

Dear Blog,

          No worries mate, I’ve cracked it. I am fire proof. I can go public with my evidence of a short long leg in the National Road Relay without fear or favour. How come, you ask. Well, it’s like this .... You blackmail the blackmailer. You rob the robber. You walk the walk, talk the talk, dance the dance, beat the drum and splat the rat. ENOUGH. Enough. Enough. Enough. You would not believe that an England Marathon Team Manager would not have the best interests of his athletes at heart, would you? You would think an England Marathon Team Manager would not take advantage of any of his charges would you, exploit their good nature. But that is what happened. I have got the low down on the England team manager’s actions and I can find the evidence to prove his lack of integrity. The evidence is in the public domain already. Easy peasey for you to check Blog. That is going to be my firewall. I will be allowed to tell about the short long leg at the National Road Relay with photographic proof or I expose the England Marathon Team Manager with irrefutable evidence of not having the best interest of his charges at heart. Tit for tat. Glass ceilings or something?

Read on Blog. ..... I noticed that last Sunday was the Amsterdam Marathon. I was selected to race the Amsterdam Marathon some eons ago. Two of us were in the team, managed by a gentleman whose name escapes me and whose pension payouts were well and truly into their second decade. Selfish or what? He was as much use as a pair of worn out trainer with no laces. Example:- He only took us half way round the marathon course in our official car because he wanted to use the transport to go shopping in the city. I kid you not. Such help. Perhaps he was going into the city to find us a little chemical help? Amsterdam, wink, wink, nod, nod, if you get my drift Blog?

 I knew I was going to win the race despite his best efforts but unbeknown to me, the fates and the team manager were engineering events differently. In the race, I’d dragged two clear of the field but I could feel neither was a happy bunny. You can always tell, can’t you Blog. They are with you, but they’re not. At about 40k I applied a little pressure to get rid of them and got a small advantage; sufficient to keep me happy. THEN. THEN. THEN. I was suddenly waked from my concentration by the sudden appearance of a ditch across the road in front of me. A ditch as in a hole in the ground, big and sort of long. And an earth banking with plastic taping stretched across the top, presumably to stop a pedestrian falling down the said hole, not to mention offering something of a surprise challenge to the poor sod of a marathon runner who just happened to come along that way. I must have strayed from the course. Don’t know why, don’t know when. But I knew I leapt the ditch that sunny morn, over the bank and under the tape back onto the road. The other two were now alongside on the other side of the road, no repair work there for them to inspect!! And so. Into the stadium and onto the track three abreast, with only the home straight to run to the tape. A sprint finish or a stagger by three drunken men falling out of the tap room bar at closing time? My careful assessment of the quality of the road repair works and my subsequent report to the Amsterdam Municipal Authorities concerning the state of their street drainage works had just taken a slight edge off my finishing effort!!! My comfortable win had drained away into the ditch! But wait, Blog. There’s more. More you ask. How could that be, you wonder? We three stars finished close up ... one second? .... two seconds? When the results were announced, I was twenty seconds adrift. TWENTY, I kid you not. I was not happy. Not happy at all. I asked my England Marathon Team Manager to lodge a complaint about both the road works fiasco and the published finish time. HE REFUSED. We were guests and it would not be polite to so do. They would pick up the problem at the presentation, no doubt, I was not reassured. And I was even more not happy when on the following morning, the papers carried a photo of the close finish but still had me 20 odd seconds behind in the results. So the Dutch sub editors are as bright as the local Coventry sub editors? If I had stood still and not moved, it would still have taken me considerably less than 20 seconds to fall over the finish line. I was lumbered. Shafted by the Manager. The time still stands, as far as I know. So thank you very much Marathon Team Manager. I hope the shopping went well. Did you manage to get our per diem expenses sorted?? So the Marathon Team Manager did not do what was expected of him. He took advantage of me.

Thank goodness that sort of thing could never happen in 2010/2011. England Team Managers today would never take advantage of the marathon runners in their charge, would they? England Athletics would not allow such events to take place. UK Athletics would be down on such behaviour like a ton of bricks. The press would have a field day about such shenanigans. Neither governing bodies would appoint someone to such an important post who did not have a 110% interest in the athletes. How times have changed since my experience. Thank goodness.

                               Colin

P.S. My elder daughter who ran in the Coventry Half Marathon is soon to close her sponsorship collection for the Coventry children’s charity Tiny Tims Children’s Centre. Have you coughed up yet Blog???

P.P.S, My younger daughter who ran the Abingdon marathon last Sunday is soon to start to hobble again!!!!!!!!!!!!