Ian Champion, ARC Committee
member and Chairman of the Road Runners Club, reviews a
recently published book about one of the great ultra
runners of yesteryear.
 |
On sale from 10th
August 2009
‘Tea With Mr Newton’
– 100,000 Miles the longest ‘Protest March’ in
history - by Rob Hadgraft
Published by Desert
Island Books
Foreword by Prof. Tim
Noakes
(author of ‘Lore of Running’)
224-page illustrated
hardback
ISBN
978-1-905328-64-2 Price £18.99
Order from:
www.desertislandbooks.com or
Amazon.co.uk, on or after 10th
August,
or Pre-order now via any bookshop |
|
“At last
the definitive autobiography of the late truly great
ARTHUR NEWTON."
Arthur Newton a ‘self-taught’ runner became
an ‘ultra-distance’ running legend. In his later
years he became guru to many international runners
who were happy to ‘take tea’ with him at his home in
Ruislip, London. He was a very modest and private
man. He always avoided publicity and often never
revealed physical or medical injury problems he had
during his competitive years. Some of his private
life he does mention in his books but now at last we
have a far more detailed version. It makes
fasinating reading.
After very lengthy and detailed research,
experienced author Rob Hadgraft launches his fourth
book about a ‘running legend’. He reveals many
previously ‘unpublished’ facts about his every day
life style, relevant to his training and racing. He
also records previously little known or published
reports on some of the events Arthur took part in as
well as illustrations.
I recommend this as a very readable book and a
‘must have’ read for anyone with any ‘historical’
interest in the people and the races which have made
up our chosen sport of ‘road-running’
”.
Ian Champion
Additional to the above Arthur Newton
himself, wrote four books. ‘Running’, ‘Running on
Three Continents’, ‘Races and Training’ and
‘Commonsense Athletics’. They are now out of print
and are rare items to buy. However they are still
available from some libararies. For any aspiring
road runner, the book ‘Running’ is worth a read.
It tells the full story of how Arthur ‘taught
himself’ to run and why during the 1920’s and
1930’s. (He raced and trained, some walking but
mostly running, 109,000 miles). He won the
‘Comrades’ Ultra distance road race in South Africa
five times. He set new record times for the London
to Brighton race in UK, Bath to London 100 miles on
the road, 24 hours on the track and ran in
Trans-continental races in in America. It is very
interesting reading and nearly all of its aims and
principals are still applicable today.
For inexperienced runners and those prepared
to seek and learn it can be of benefit as a guide to
find out what is ‘best for the individual’ runner.
There are various running styles to suit various
needs and this book will give you some ideas as to
how to find out what is best for you. |
Do you
have Sports Massage at your event?
An increasing number of events
these days are providing on the day sports massage
facilities for competitors, pre race, post race or both.
Many organisers already have contacts with qualified
sports massage people who can come along to their event.
But for those ARC club organisers who would like to have
sports massage at their race but don’t have a source, we
draw attention to the service provided by the Sports
Massage Association (SMA). This is a nationwide
organisation and they have a facility on their web site
which allows race organisers to notify their need so that
SMA members in the area of the event can get in touch with
them. (Go to
www.sportsmassageassociation.org and click on “SMA
Events Service” ). Alternatively the same site gives
contact details of SMA members in various areas of the
country (click on “Find a Practitioner”).
Survey
of ARC clubs - Summer 2008
We have been asked to put on the website
a note of the results of the Membership Questionnaire
that was carried out earlier this year, so here is a
brief summary of the responses.
Level of
Response
The
Questionnaire was sent to all ARC member clubs. We had a
response from 19%, which, at first glance, is
disappointing but is not, we understand, far from
typical for such surveys. Could, of course mean, that
everyone is totally satisfied!
The
following is a brief summary of the Survey results.
1.
Reasons for joining ARC
The weighted responses indicated that decisions to
join were chiefly influenced by:
Less administration
Support of grass roots running
Fees and costs
Simple Permit procedures
(ARC Comment: we were quite pleased with
these reasons because they tally closely with why ARC
was established)
2. Did
club vote about joining.
Asked whether their club had voted on
whether to affiliate to ARC, 35% had done so without a
vote by members.
3. How
many held dual membership (with EA)
80% of the responding clubs said they
also belonged to EA and gave the following reasons for
joining that body
·
Members want to enter EA races and
championships.
·
To avoid the unattached levy.
·
To secure London Marathon places.
·
To allow juniors to compete in T&F.
·
Training and qualification for coaches.
(ARC
Comment:
These reflect the concerns some clubs expressed when
ARC was founded and which stopped many from affiliating
to ARC. We said at that time that such worries were
overstated and the past 18 months have proved that to be
the case, although we fully understand why many of our
members have taken a cautious approach)
4. Views
on having ARC Championships
Only 15% of responding clubs said they
did not want any ARC championships. Most favoured
staging 10k and ½ marathon races, but 30% also wanted to
see a 10 mile and marathon included.
A hefty
majority thought any championship should be staged in
conjunction with an existing race. Regionally based
races were favoured. Any championship must be
held at a weekend to stand any chance of success.
(ARC
Comment: We will take these comments into consideration
in planning for 2009. We do agree that ARC championships
should be staged in conjunction with existing ARC
permitted races and we feel that race location should be
such as to ensure a championship entry of at least 100
ARC club members).
5. Views
about the
Website (www.runningclubs.org.uk)
All clubs thought that the
website fulfilled current needs of the membership. The
following additional comments were offered:
·
There should be a Diary for races staged
by ARC members with a link to the
entry form.
(ARC Comment: There is a
complete list of ARC permitted races on the website with
links to the race/club website whenever supplied by the
organiser. The entry form/online entry is, with very few
exceptions, available on the event website).
·
More advice for race organisers would be
welcomed.
(ARC Comment: Agree the
desirability of this. Some very useful advice already
exists on the ARC website but we will endeavour to
continually build on this).
·
Not enough current news.
(ARC Comment: AGREE! We hope
to improve this but ARC is run by a small group of
unpaid volunteers and we would appreciate receiving news
from right across our membership. So if you have
something you think might well feature just email it).
·
Find your nearest club by inserting a
postal code.
(ARC Comment: We have an
England map (with key) upon which the location of all
ARC clubs are shown. This is updated regularly).
·
Change membership page so that club links
are HYPERLINKS.
(ARC Comment: The club
membership list is based on an SQL database. These links
are not live due to a limitation with the script that
displays the links on a web page. The links can be
copied and pasted into the address area of an internet
browser. However, we are seeking ways of improving on
this set-up).
·
What about on-line permit applications?
(ARC Comment: Forms are
already available on line but because associated
documents need to be sent through the post we believe on
line application is not currently practical. We believe
that most members are happy with the system and many
have favourably commented on the speed and ease of the
ARC permit process).
6.
Should we have a Newsletter.
Over 80% of those responding thought we
should The majority wanted the newsletter, if produced,
to be downloadable from the website. Suggestions for
topics included:
·
News of committee meetings, areas of
development, club news, What are EA up to,
national perspective.
·
Feature member clubs
·
General running related topics e.g.
health & safety legislation
·
Committee member profiles (UGH!)
·
Race reports of all ARC races not just
championships
·
Progress and benefits of ARC
·
Hints for race organisers
(ARC
Comment: Agree in principle, and a web based Newsletter
would be the economic way to go BUT in practice there
are two difficulties – first, we need to have a
dedicated editor and, secondly, it won’t work without a
constant flow of news from members. If there is anyone
out there who would volunteer to edit a newsletter
please get in touch with the ARC Secretary. The problem
of getting news in was touched on in the Website
comments above and we repeat the request for members to
not hesitate in sending news, views, reports etc.)
7. Other
Comments
A number of respondents added ad hoc
comments, many of them congratulatory (e.g. “Keep up the
good work”) and we have noted all of them for future
reference and action where relevant.
