Marathon victory for the human race
By John Ezard
30 March 1981
Inge Simonsen, a 27-year-old Norwegian, “officially” won the first London marathon in 2 hours 11 minutes 48 seconds yesterday, the fastest time recorded in Britain for 11 years, watched by an estimated 100,000 people.
Bob Wiseman, of Calvert Road, Greenwich, a 78-year-old part-time storeman with 17 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren, finished proud, physically undistressed and last in just over six hours. “At least they told me that there were still some people behind me. But I think they were just being kind,” he said after trotting, jogging and walking a mile about every 15 minutes for the whole course. “I had hoped to do it within five hours. Next time I shall be better geared up. I’ve never run more than seven miles before.”
Between first and last in Britain’s first great “folk run” – the largest single sporting event seen in the country, some 7,500 other men and women joined one of the world’s most select companies – those who have achieved “a pointless but wonderful victory over doubt and fear, body and mind” by running 26 miles and 385 yards. Although Simonsen and the American Dick Beardsley finished hand-in-hand, Beardsley was awarded second place instead of a tie. The cheers on Constitution Hill were little more than polite as the two leaders ran easily through the tape.
The inspirer for the day, the 1956 Olympic steeple-chase gold medalist Chris Brasher, modelled it on the 11-year-old New York marathon. His experience of sunny and rapturous crowd participation in New York two years ago gave him faith that for one day “the human race can be one joyous human family, working together, laughing together, achieving the impossible.”
The London marathon hardly looked like that at the start. It began as a re-strained British event at 9 o’clock on a drizzly morning in Greenwich Park. Instead of New York’s banners urging “You can make it,” the placards held up by spectators carried messages like “Good luck, Mum.” A woman taking custody of her husband’s track suit top said: “Now don’t overdo it, will you?”
It began with the crack of a 25-pounder as five police helicopters roared overhead against a grey, Wagnerian skyscape. Instead of cheers, there was a spellbound silence as most people saw for the first time what more than 7,000 runners look like in a bunch. There were so many that they took six minutes to pass the start-line.
At Greenwich, the crowds were six deep in heavy rain. At Tower Bridge they were so thick that many runners had to jostle to get through. Towards the Isle of Dogs, conditions were easier as the rain lifted and the race spaced out over miles. The gentle tempo of crowd reaction was maintained as the first few hundred clearly British club runners came in. But then, what Chris Brasher had hoped for materialised. The “New York effect” began as the first-time marathon men and women appeared, their faces reflecting cramp, stitch and concentration. People began to cheer.
Television: Marathon
By Nancy Banks-Smith
30 March 1981
A new sport for all – long distance running underwater in underwear. It did seem hard after the marathon runners, wet and winded, had arrived at Buckingham Palace to find the royal family not at home. Why ever not? I was at home. I made a particular point of it.
“They’re looking for a head-to-head confrontation. That’s what the marathon is all about,” said Brendan Foster obscurely. The idea of the London Marathon seems to be to run without actually winning. Some achieved this by forgetting to put their watches on and starting late. The Irish, who thought it was about winning without actually running, joined in with a well-televised banner, Victory to the Irish Hunger Strike, 100 yards from the end. Because it was more a parade than a race, BBC-1 did not cover it live. That rather wipes the sweat and smile off an event. Edited, it seemed, for one thing, small.
A race after all
By Jeremy Alexander
30 March 1981
Deep beneath the gimmickry which attended the build up to yesterday’s Gillette London Marathon there had always, if barely, been the making of a significant race. The entry included just enough of those who not only run without drinks trays but have recorded times of international standing. In the event an American and a Norwegian, sharing first place, ran the fastest ever marathon in England and Joyce Smith, taking the women’s prize, improved her own British and Commonwealth record by 31 seconds.
Dick Beardsley, a 25-year-old from Excelsior, Minneapolis, and Inge Simonsen, two years older from Oslo, agreed to tie in Birdcage Walk, half a mile from the end in Constitution Hill, and they finished in 2 hours 11 min, 48 sec.
The first Briton to bypass the pasta mountain and pick his way through the balloons was Trevor Wright, of Wolverhampton and Bilston, who came third and lost a minute to the winners over the last 10 miles. The course, he felt, had in strict marathon terms too many twists and turns but otherwise conditions – soaking but cooling – were excellent.
Mrs Smith, who has been the 43-year-old housewife from Barnet AC for as long as she ceased being the 42-year-old ditto, declined to carry even a teaspoon and had the women’s race to herself. She finished 138th overall out of an estimated 7,500 starters, which was 230 places and nine minutes ahead of the second woman, Gillian Drake of New Zealand. Though she does not improve her third position in the women’s world rankings Mrs Smith dipped under 21 hours for the first time. Her previous best was set in Tokyo in November.
Her new mark is 2 hours 29 min 56 sec and, though this is more than four minutes outside the world’s fastest by Grote Waite of Norway. She gave the sodden patriots their brightest moment. In an international athletic context a small cheer was roughly in accord with the event’s importance, but there were brave and personal triumphs behind by the thousand.
All articles are edited extracts.