Dreams become reality

Is running an art and the runner an artist? The best answer is that of Picasso. 

When asked, "What is art?" he replied, "What is not?"

So running is an art with everything else we do. When I run, I know this to be true.

Running is my art and I am an artist however ordinary my performance.

Running is for me what the dance is for others. The oldest and highest of the arts.

My ancestors ran before they danced. And it is running, not dance,

that gives me perfect conformity of form and matter.

-Dr George S.

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the following is a great story from behind the scenes at the Fifth Avenue Mile

Dreams Become Reality: The Really Cool Story Of The Guy Holding The Tape At The Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile

LetsRun.com
September 28, 2010

Editor's note: We received this great email on Monday, September 27th. We highly recommend  you read it.

Hello Letsrun,

You always recommend to readers like myself to go to professional races when the opportunity presents itself. Well on the behalf of me and 3 of my teammates at the University of Maryland Baltimore County I would like to say, 'Thank you for that advice.'

        If you look closely at the photo on the home page of Amine Laalou winning the race you will see on the right hand side of the picture the person in the blue shorts holding the finishing tape. That happens to be my teammate who traveled with me to watch the race. You may ask how he got to hold the tape as the fastest runners inn the world sprinted at him? It is very simple actually, it is because the people of the New York road runners are some of the nicest people my teammates I have never met, and they truly like to see the joy running brings to  their members and fans.

       All this started because, well we are running nerds and wanted the best spot possible to watch the race. We arrived at the finish line at 9:30 and planned to stand their until the pro race at 1 (all of us wore black UMBC shirts because our coach tell us to wear them at any race we go to). We chatted with the announcer for a little while and he was amazed that we would travel  from Baltimore to see the race. Next to us was standing a small lady who had finished her mile race in just over 8 minutes. With very little going on we started talking to her. As it turns out she knows everyone in the new york road runners. This nice lady told the announcer, who as she said always supports her, that he should interview us. He did, and after none other that Mary Wittenberg came up and introduced her self thanking us for traveling to watch the race.

        Ten minutes later a man come over to us telling us Mary would like us to be on the live show and that we could watch the race from the media and sound area by the finish. After our interview, which from what our coach says the best quote was "we're looking to run fast next week at paul short", Mary came and thanked us and said to feel free to talk to  any of the runners after the race, and to let her know if we plan to come to new york to  see any more races.

        To us the day was better then we ever could have imagined but it was about to get better.  Two minutes before the men's race a man came up to us and said "I'm about to make one of you really happy, pick a number from one to 10." The lucky number was 5 and my teammate who guessed it was told he could hold the finishing tape.

         After the race, which we watch with Coach Lee and Julia Rudd, and about 50 pictures of my teammate standing at the finish with his mouth wide open in awe, our dreams really did come true as we got to chat with the pros. The best of which for me was Bernard Lagat who has been a hero of mine since I started running several years ago.

        Because of this wonderful experience, I am emailing you guys at letsrun to first thank you for your advice. But mostly to give a huge thumbs up to Mary Wittenberg and the people of the New York road runners. They were able to make a trip a few college kids took to burn some time on the weekend into one of the most inspirational and awesome experiences of our lives. They truly made our Dreams Become Reality.

Thank you,
UMBC xc runner

(Editor's Note 1: We found out the author of this email is Tim Jones and his teammates are Roy Jones, Sam Boimov and TJ Cowing. TJ was the lucky one who got to hold the tape in the photo below.
Editor's Note 2: Coach Lee is Bernard Lagat's coach and Julia Rudd is Alan Webb's fiancée. UMBC (University of Maryland Baltimore County) is our new favorite NCAA XC team.
Editor's Note 3: If this story doesn't prove once and for all that Mary Wittenberg and the people at the NYRR "get it" - what our sport is all about - then we don't know what does.

Hall withdraws from Chicago Marathon

I'm not really surprised. After a very sub-par performance at the Philadelphia Half-Marathon, Hall decides against racing the Chicago Marathon. Ryan Hall is extremely talented, no doubt about it. Mr Hall has a 2:06 marathon personal best from 2008, yet has been unable to get close to that mark since then. 

IMHO, Mr Hall has had too many marketing commitments, personal appearances, etc. These diversions may not be the only reason for his regression from the world's elite marathoners. He has also not raced  5000's, 10000's or road races (except half's and marathons) over the last year. He has become stale and really has no definite race goals. If I were him I would re-evaluate my entire training plan, goals, etc. He needs a fresh start.

I hope he gets it before its too late.

**************************************************************************************

September 28, 2010

U.S. star Hall withdraws from Chicago Marathon

By Philip Hersh

Ryan Hall's goal for his Chicago Marathon debut was to break the U.S. record.
That isn't going to happen this year.
Following a disappointing performance at the Sept. 19 Philadelphia Half Marathon and some poor workouts over the past week, Hall said Tuesday he will not run the Oct. 10 Chicago race.
``It has been a rough last couple months for me,'' Hall said in a Tuesday interview with the Tribune.  ``I've invested everything in my training, and sometimes things do not turn out the way you had envisioned.

``I was very excited to run the Bank of America Chicago Marathon but my workouts haven't been good.  I'm very much a guy that when I show up at the starting line, I believe everything is possible, and I go after things with my whole heart, so if I'm not ready to go, I'm not going to show up and have a performance that doesn't reflect that.''
Hall, the leading U.S. marathoner since 2007, finished 14th in Philadelphia, four minutes slower than his career best time for a half marathon.
In a posting on Facebook the day after the race, Hall said, ``I was pretty bummed. It's not

easy to still really believe anything is possible on days like today when I raced half the (marathon) distance slower than I typically come through halfway in a marathon, and I

have only three weeks left until Chicago.''
Hall, 27, was the 2008 Olympic trials winner and No. 2 U.S. finisher (10th) at the Beijing Olympics.   His time of 2 hours, 6 minutes 17 seconds at the 2008 London Marathon 

made Hall the second fastest U.S. performer behind Khalid Khannouchi, who set the U.S. record of 2:05:38 at London in 2002.
``It's been a long time since I have been in a paced race on a flat, fast course like Chicago,

and I was looking forward to seeing what (time) that translates to,'' Hall said.  ``That adds 

to the bummer of not being able to go.''

(Photo:  Ryan Hall celebrates winning the 2008 U.S. Olympic marathon trials.  

Nick Latham / Getty Images)

Samuelson aims for 2012 Olympic marathon trials

By Clarke Canfield, Associated Press Writer

PORTLAND, Maine — Olympic gold medalist Joan Benoit Samuelson says she will run next month's Chicago marathon, with hopes of qualifying for the 2012 Olympic trials.

The 53-year-old Samuelson told The Associated Press on Monday that she will try to break 2 hours, 47 minutes, the time she says is needed to qualify for the trials, in the Oct. 10 race.

Her No. 1 goal, she said, is to break 2:50 for the third time since turning 50.

"Being realistic, running a sub-2:47 is really going to take a huge effort," said Samuelson, who ran last year's New York City marathon in 2:49:09.

Samuelson, who lives in Freeport, Maine, won the women's marathon at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

She competed in the 2008 Olympic trials in Boston, saying then that it would be her last competitive race. She finished in 2:49:08 to set an American record for the 50-54 age group but did not make the Olympic team.

This time she won't say whether Chicago will be her final competitive marathon.

She said still runs about 80 miles a week and was interested in running in Chicago because that's where she set an American record 25 years ago. The Chicago marathon has grown fivefold, from 9,000 to 45,000 runners, since Samuelson ran the course in 2:21:21.

Race director Carey Pinkowski said he invited Samuelson to run one more time because she set the tone for an entire generation of long-distance runners.

"We're excited to have her back," he said.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

2010 Fifth Avenue Mile

The runner does not run because 

he is too slight for football or hasn't

the ability to put a ball through a hoop

or can't hit a curve ball. He runs because

he has to. Because in being a runner, in

moving through pain and fatigue and suffering,

in imposing stress upon stress, in eliminating

all but the necessities of life, he is fulfilling himself

and becoming the person he is.

-Dr George Sheehan

2010 Fifth Avenue Mile Recap And Results: Shannon Rowbury And Amine Laalou Cap 2010 Seasons With Wins In New York

by: LetsRun.comSeptember 26, 2009

The 5th Avenue Mile is the end of the season for a lot of track and field runners and while some in Sunday's field will be continuing on to the Commonwealth Games, Shannon Rowbury and Amine Laalou ended their seasons with wins in New York. Women's recap first, then men's.

Women's Race: Rowbury Times It Perfectly

Shannon Rowbury knows how to run on Fifth Avenue in New York. She showed that on Sunday by timing her kick perfectly to repeat as Fifth Avenue Mile Champion, overtaking Erin Donohue in the final ten meters.

Donohue, dumped by Rowbury's coach John Cook last year, has had a tremendous 2010 (1:59.99 for 800m) and she almost capped it off with a 5th Avenue Mile victory. She, like many before her, however, just slightly misjudged her kick and was overtaken in the final ten meters.

The pace was a modest 2:16 (estimated split) the slightly uphill first 800m and Donohue was in the lead picking up the $1,000 prime. The pace would only quicken on the downhill to the finish. 1,200m was in roughly 3:20 (Carmen Douma-Hussar in the lead) and then Donohue started making her bid for home. At 200m from the finish, she opened a gap on the field. 200m is a long way to sprint and Rowbury took advantage of that. With 100m to go, Rowbury was still in fifth (Donohue still had a couple of meters gap on the field with Sara Hall, Morgan Uceny, Hannah England and Rowbury in close pursuit) with Donohue still out in front. Rowbury, however, saved it all for one final perfect kick. Donohue put up a game fight, but roughly ten meters from the finish, Rowbury overtook Donohue and held off Hall as Donohue slipped to third.

Afterwards, Rowbury told the NYRR, "To be honest, I thought Erin had it at the end." She said however she had learned to look at the signs put out that say there is 200m to the finish and then 100m to the finish. Obviously pleased with her repeat win, she said, "I love this race; it's such a fun way to end the season."

1	31	Shannon Rowbury	26	San Francisco	CA	USA	Nike	4:24.12
2	40	Sara Hall	27	Mammoth Lakes	CA	USA	Asics	4:24.34
3	34	Erin Donohue	27	Haddonfield	NJ	USA	Nike	4:24.40
4	42	Hannah England	23	Birmingham		Great Britain	Nike	4:25.29
5	39	Molly Huddle	26	Providence	RI	USA	Saucony	4:25.92
6	33	Morgan Uceny	25	Mammoth Lakes	CA	USA	Reebok	4:26.27
7	43	Amy Mortimer	29	Kansas City	MO	USA	Reebok	4:27.07
8	35	Carmen Douma-Hussar	33	Ardmore	PA	Canada	New Balance	4:27.53
9	36	Elisa Cusma Piccione	29	Modena		Italy	Nike	4:28.50
10	41	Treniere Moser	28	Knoxville	TN	USA	Nike	4:28.84
11	37	Nicole Edwards	24	Ann Arbor	MI	Canada	Saucony	4:29.14
12	50	Gabriele Anderson	24	Minneapolis	MN	USA	Brooks	4:30.95
13	47	Heather Dorniden	23	Minneapolis	MN	USA	Team USA Minnesota	4:31.05
14	48	Hilary Stellingwerff	29	Le Mont sur Lausan		Canada	New Balance	4:32.06
15	44	Megan Wright	28	Morgantown	WV	Canada	New Balance	4:35.28
16	45	Liz Maloy	25	Washington	DC	USA	New York Athletic Club	4:37.06
17	49	Aziza Aliyu	24	Bronx	NY	Ethiopia	West Side Runners	4:37.84
18	46	Brenda Martinez	23	Alamosa	CO	USA	New Balance	4:46.36

Men's Race: Amine Laalou Gets Some Respect

If Amine Laalou didn't have your respect before now, hopefully he does now, as he ran 3:52.83 to defeat a star-studded field at the 5th Avenue Mile.

Laalou had the fastest 800m (1:43.71) and 1,500m (3:29.53) this year in the field. He made the finals of the 800m and 1,500m at last year's World Championships. Yet heading into the 5th Avenue Mile, all the talk was on which American would win the race.

After a slow (over 2:00) uphill opening 800m, the real running began. Former NCAA champ Alistair Cragg, who ran a half marathon last weekend, threw down the gauntlet the third quarter, opening up a ten-meter lead at 1,200m, figuring the only way he was going to win the race was to steal it.

The field behind him, however, had too much talent and savvy to let that happen. They caught Cragg with 200m to go and all the main contenders (Laalou, double world champ Bernard Lagat, last year's champ Andy Baddeley, Alan Webb, Leo Manzano, Nick Willis) were all there ready to go all out to the finish. Lagat had the lead but Laalou was positioned perfectly on him and they would battle it out the final 100m. Laalou passed Lagat the final 20 meters and got the win.

Lagat held on for 2nd, Baddely closed well for 3rd, Webb was a very respectable 4th, Manzano didn't quite have his great last 100m and was 5th, and Nick Willis, who had been in great position with 100m to go, was 6th.

Afterward, Laalou dedicated the victory to his 15-day-old daughter. Webb told the AP, "I give myself a C-plus for the day. I have come a long way this year. It's good just to be in the mix and competing with these guys again."

1	3	Amine Laalou	28	Rabaat		Morocco	Nike	3:52.83
2	2	Bernard Lagat	35	Tucson	AZ	USA	Nike	3:53.30
3	1	Andy Baddeley	28	London		Great Britain	New Balance	3:53.34
4	6	Alan Webb	27	Portland	OR	USA	Nike	3:53.72
5	4	Leonel Manzano	26	Austin	TX	USA	Nike	3:54.17
6	5	Nick Willis	27	Ann Arbor	MI	New Zealand	Reebok	3:54.81
7	9	Will Leer	25	Eugene	OR	USA	Oregon TC Elite	3:55.02
8	7	Tom Lancashire	25	Manchester		Great Britain	Nike	3:55.22
9	8	David Torrence	24	Berkeley	CA	USA	Nike	3:55.43
10	11	Adrian Blincoe	30	Bryn Mawr	PA	New Zealand	New Balance	3:56.07
11	14	Garrett Heath	24	Palo Alto	CA	USA	Saucony	3:56.15
12	17	Daniel Huling	27	Geneva	IL	USA	Reebok	3:56.77
13	22	Pedro Antonio Esteso	33	Madrid		Spain	Strands.com	3:56.96
14	10	Haron Lagat	27	Lubbok	TX	Kenya	New Balance	3:57.43
15	12	Taylor Milne	29	Guelph	ON	Canada	New Balance	3:58.05
16	15	Tim Bayley	28	Lafayette	CA	Great Britain	Puma	3:58.29
17	18	Alistair Cragg	30	Mammoth Lakes	CA	Ireland	adidas	3:58.59
18	21	Abiyot Endale	24	Bronx	NY	Ethiopia	Westchester TC	4:02.41
19	20	Sean Brosnan	33	Wantagh	NY	USA	Mizuno	4:04.92
20	19	Jon Rankin	28	Seattle	WA	Cayman Islan	MarathonGuide.com	4:12.06

--
*****************
run for your life
*****************

1981 Fifth Avenue Mile

The Record That Won't Go Away
By AIMEE BERG

Photo Credit: David Getlen/New York Road Runners

Sydney Maree leads the pack on the way to his record time of 3:47.52 in the 1981 Fifth Avenue Mile, a mark that still stands heading into Sunday's 30th running of the event.

Twenty-nine years ago this Sunday, a dozen of the world's greatest 
middle-distance runners chased Sydney Maree down Fifth Avenue on 
his way to a blistering 3-minute, 47.52-second mile—a course record 
that stands to this day.

The reason the record remains, according to some of the elite athletes 
who ran the inaugural race in 1981, is because back then, no one had any
 idea what they were doing.

They'd never run a straight mile on a street, and they had no sense of
 pacing. So they went all-out 'til they crashed.

"We just wanted to see how fast we could run in a straight line," 
said Ray Flynn, who placed fifth that year.

Once again, on Sunday, some of the world's best milers will take aim 
at Mr. Maree's time in the 30th running of the Fifth Avenue Mile.

The field will include Alan Webb, the American record-holder in the
 mile (3:46.91); Bernard Lagat, eight-time winner of the prestigious
 indoor Wanamaker mile who has run 3:47.28 outdoors; and Nick Willis 
of New Zealand, the 2008 Olympic silver medalist at 1,500 meters.

"Trust me, I'm hungry," Mr. Lagat said; yet he balked when asked if 
the record would fall.

Despite faster times on the track and more scientific training methods in 
the ensuing years, the 2010 field simply will not be as deep as it was in 
1981 when the mile was track and field's marquee event.

Today's runners are more familiar with the road mile and will try to conserve
 energy rather than sprint from the gun to the tape.

And while its effect may be negligible, a slight course change in 1998 
essentially eliminated two downhill blocks. That year, the course moved
 two blocks south, to its current start on 80th Street and finish on 60th Street.

Even if the improbable happens this weekend, Mr. Maree won't be in 
New York to witness it.

On Sunday, he will be 7,900 miles away in the Pretoria township of 
Atteridgeville, forbidden from traveling internationally.

In August 2008, Mr. Maree was sentenced to 10 years in prison—with
 five years suspended—for defrauding the National Empowerment Fund 
of almost 1 million Rand (approximately $142,500 U.S. at today's rate).

Maree had been the CEO in charge of reviving the flagging NEF, an 
organization created to support black business ventures and economic
 equality in South Africa.

Mr. Maree pleaded innocent to all the charges and, according to his 
lawyer, Titus Mchunu, maintains his innocence. "He had no intention
 to defraud, steal or prejudice anybody."

Mr. Maree has been out on bail since his 2005 arrest and is appealing 
the judgment.

During apartheid, Mr. Maree, who is black and was born in South Africa,
 competed for Villanova, and in 1984 gained U.S. citizenship at a time 
when South African athletes were banned from international competition 
and competitors feared sanctions if they ran against them.

As a result, during his prime, he was both discriminated against in his
 homeland and unable to compete freely outside it because many other 
nations were protesting South Africa's racial policy.

In separate interviews this month, Mr. Maree, 54, and his youngest son,
 Daniel, 23, spoke of that record day in New York running history and 
what transpired afterward.

In the summer of 1981, a year that marked the height of mile mania 
in Europe, Mr. Maree was having a superlative season. The president 
of the International Amateur Athletic Federation had determined
 that since Mr. Maree was married to an American woman and was 
applying for U.S. citizenship, he was under United States' athletic 
jurisdiction and cleared him to compete overseas.

In September, a month after Britain's Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett
 took turns lowering the world record in the mile three times, Mr. Maree
 beat Ovett in a one-mile race in Rieti, Italy, running lifetime best on the
 track: 3 minutes 48.83 seconds.

"I had trained very, very hard and was coming into my own," Mr. Maree said,
 so when he lined up at the foot of the Metropolitan Museum of Art just 17 
days later and waited for the start of the Fifth Avenue Mile against a field 
he called "fearless," he said, "I was possessed."

Two years after his historic victory that day in Manhattan, Mr. Maree
 lowered Mr. Ovett's 1,500-meter world record in August 1983, and 
the following May, Mr. Maree gained U.S. citizenship just in time to 
qualify for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

Mr. Maree relinquished his berth in the 1,500 meters, however, when a
 pulled left hamstring refused to heal. Four years later, he represented 
the U.S. at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, and finished in fifth 
place in the 5,000 meters.

"South Africa received a lot of publicity," Mr. Maree said, as a result of 
him competing there while his homeland was banned from the Games 
until 1992. "It was nice for the youth of the country [to see that] given
 an opportunity, nothing is impossible."

Mr. Maree was often criticized for not speaking louder against apartheid,
 but he firmly believed that had he been more critical, he would not have
 been allowed to return to South Africa, and the way to effect change, he 
thought, was on the ground, person-to-person.

"Instead of calling for a revolution," his son Daniel said, "he called for steps."

Mr. Maree officially retired from competition in 1991, but agreed to run one
 last Fifth Avenue mile in 1992. He put his economics degree from Villanova
 to use and worked in the New York office of the international investment 
firm Fleming Martin, where he marketed investment opportunities
 in South Africa.

Mr. Maree had five children with his college sweetheart Lisa Rhoden, 
the American whom he married in 1980.

And in 1995, he transferred to Fleming Martin's Johannesburg office.

"When we went to South Africa in 1995, we all stopped running," said Daniel,
 except the youngest, Christina, who was 3 at the time (and is now a 
freshman on the University of South Florida's track and
 cross-country teams).

"Wherever we'd go in South Africa, we knew he was somehow famous 
but he was not very emotional about the challenges he faced. For me, 
I only learned in college about how he came to the U.S. and his records.

"It blew my mind what I didn't know about my dad," he said.

The summer before Daniel's senior year of high school, his parents had
 already separated and he was visiting his mother in the U.S., when he 
Googled his father's name and read about the accusations of fraud. "I 
was blown away," he said. "I think I was the first in my family to find out."

The Maree children stayed in the U.S. and started to lose touch with 
their father when he suspected that he was under close surveillance.

"You'd hear clicks when he'd call," Daniel said. "We'd hear voices, 
interference. It would hang up randomly. He stopped using his cell
 and email, so for two or three years we were in the dark."

Mr. Maree lost his job during the legal trouble, divorced in 2004, sold 
his car and much of his property in Johannesburg as the court fees
 mounted and, for a time, moved in with his mother in a house he 
had bought for her in the 1980s, while trying to support his brothers 
and sisters at the same time.

To ease his father's debt, Daniel, as an undergraduate at American 
University three or four years ago, started to send money home so 
his father could buy groceries.

He also began filming a documentary to chronicle his father's plight.

"One of the hardest parts for me is watching him deteriorate," 
Daniel said, "and yet he remains incredibly physically active."

Every day, Mr. Maree wakes up at 6 a.m. and runs 10 to 20 kilometers. 
On the road, he said, "I think about the same things as I used to: solve
 problems, analyze my life to date."

Copyright 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

'I'm 80, but I can beat 80 per cent of field'

Note: Sir Chataway ran the Great North Run (half-marathon) today in 1:51:01. Congratulations are in order.

But even at the end there is strategy. It is not

enough to have the speed. Not enough to give

your all. That sprint, that giving must be done

at the right time, at the precise moment that 

allows no adequate response. It must be checkmate.

- Dr George Sheehan

Sir Christopher Chataway: 'I'm 80, but I can beat 80 per cent of field in Great North Run'

The athlete, sports personality, newsreader and minister of state tells Simon Turnbull of his plans to add another chapter to his remarkable life story on Sunday

Friday, 17 September 2010

REX FEATURES

Chris Chataway wins the Mile in 4min 10.2sec to break the Inter-university record of 4min 14.8sec at White City in 1952

Just so that we can get the record straight, Sir Christopher Chataway is sitting in his London flat running through his life in television and politics. "Yes, I was the first presenter on News at 10," he says. "It was 1955, the start of commercial television. Robin Day and I were the two newscasters and I did the news on the first day. Then I went over to the BBC and worked as a reporter on Panorama for four years.

"Then I went into politics. Under Harold Macmillan and Alec Douglas-Home I was junior Education minister, and then under Edward Heath I was Minister of Post and Telecommunications and Industry Minister. Then I left and worked in the City for 16 years and became chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority. That, in a nutshell, is my curriculum vitae... Never made up my mind what I wanted to do."

That is difficult to believe of this remarkable Renaissance man, who, four months short of his 80th birthday, remains as lean, sprightly and inspirational a figure as he was when he was one of the biggest stars of British sport. For that nutshell summary did not include the fact that Chris Chataway was such a sporting sensation in these shores that he was voted the very first BBC Sports Personality of the Year. That was in 1954, the year he paced Roger Bannister to the first sub-four-minute mile and smashed the world 5,000m record at the old White City Stadium in a duel with the Russian Vladimir Kuts that is regarded as one of the all-time epics of track and field.

On Sunday morning the 79-year-old will be one of 54,000 folk treading the road from Newcastle to South Shields in the 30th Bupa Great North Run. Accompanied by Derek Hull of Claremont Road Runners, whose "encouraging, very professional" pacing Sir Chris has greatly appreciated on his four previous appearances in the world's biggest half-marathon, he will be running the 13.1 miles against the clock.

His target is to run 1hr 52min and beat 80 per cent of the field in his 80th year. "If I manage to do that then I'll feel that 80 is not such a ghastly dead-end place to be," he says, chuckling.

Sir Chris was 73 when he made his Great North Run debut in 2004. He had been persuaded to take on the challenge by Brendan Foster, the founder of the Tyneside race, while the pair sat together at the 50th Sports Personality of the Year show. Sir Chris retired from the track at the age of 25 and did not start running regularly again until he was in his 50s, finding a new lease of life in a mass-participation, long-distance race and a joy in the act of running that was beyond him in his world-record-breaking heyday.

"It was immensely exciting, and absolutely thrilling to find that you were really good at something," he says, reflecting on an international track career in which he also won the Commonwealth three-miles title. "But did I enjoy my running back then? Well, er... a bit.

"It was so painful, because the sort of training we did one realises now was totally inadequate. I never ran more than 25 miles in a week. I smoked too. So the only way in which you could do well in major races was by pushing yourself extremely hard. In my old age I don't do that. I'm there to enjoy it.

"I sometimes think that running, which was a sort of tormentor in my youth, has returned to be a friendly codger in my old age – that what was Joe Stalin has turned into Dixon of Dock Green."

It is fair to say that most of the nation was captivated by Sir Chris's titanic battle with the supposedly invincible Kuts in the London vs Moscow match in October 1954, when he snatched a dramatic victory in 13min 51.6sec, a world record time. Fifty-six years on, he will be lining up on Sunday in a field that includes another former holder of the record, Haile Gebrselassie.

"That's a connection I don't mind having, I must say," Sir Chris says. "Haile is an amazing chap, and so unspoiled. I have enormous admiration for him."

The pair have met. Gebrselassie invited Sir Chris and his son Adam for lunch when they were in Ethiopia three years ago, planning the venture that is the main motivation for both Chataways running on Sunday.

Vicky's Water Project (www. vickyswaterproject.com) was set up after Adam's fiancée, Vicky Buchanan, was killed in a road accident while cycling to work in October 2006. Out of that tragedy came the triumph of a fresh water system supplying 20,000 Ethiopians in a collection of villages south of Addis Ababa, funded by the £600,000 raised by the project.

"The principal reason I'm actually running this year is because it's for us a celebration of the completion of Vicky's Water Project," Sir Chris reflects.

"They had the opening ceremony earlier this year and my wife and Adam and I were there. It was tremendous to see, because very often when you're running for some charity you can see what the need is but you don't often get the opportunity to see what the result is."