Wilmslow Marathon - the early 90s
Well returning to my brief tour of the History of the Wilmslow Marathon. We have now reached 1990.
The Allsports Wilmslow Marathon was held on April Fool’s Day 1990. We now recorded runners affiliations to Athletic and Running clubs on the re
Roger Brewster from Clayton-le-Moor won the mens race - in our closest finish to date– 2 seconds, ahead of Salford runner Williams. Salford were third too. The winning time matched the 1988 winners time but wasn’t a course record. The ladies winner, Linda Rushmere, did however set a new course record with time of 1:15:26 . The number of runners was 1,587 an increase over the previous year.
Veteran categories were now celebrated from MV40 to MV70 and FV35 to FV65. The local running club Wilmslow RC had 4 runners in those categories. The best effort being by Ron Read who was second MV70
In 1991 the race was held two weeks later in April. The Football Association had just announced plans for a new "super league" of 18 clubs to replace the Football League First Division as the highest division of English football! And we wondered if that would ever take off or be the demise of the other Football League clubs.
In the half marathon L Dunn was Mens Champion and Liz Hardley Ladies Champions. Their times of 1:06:37 and 1:25:14 were slower than in 1990. There was a much lower turnout of runners this year 1,003. And less Category Prizes - no MV65, MV70, FV55 and FV60 categories this year. Only one local Wilmslow Club runner finished in those categories. But interestingly, if you read the earlier Post on number collection, Wilmslow’s first finisher that day in 37th place was Bill Heaton. You might see William at the Festival Village on the Saturday. He is now a self-taught [abstract] artist and will be available on the Festival Saturday to write some of this year’s runners names on your bibs after you’ve collected them. The Mens Team winners were Stockport and the Ladies winning team was Mid-Cheshire.
Moving on to 1992 and Aldershot Town Football Club had just gone out of business. That weekend the race was held for the first time on a Mothers Day. The 29th March. There was a big increase in runners this year – 1,643. Stockport harriers took both the Mens and Ladies team prizes. Wilmslow Men had pushed their way up 7th. Karl Harrison and Suzzane Rigg were individual champions. Karl from the Stretford running club - in a time of 1:06:23 - was a few seconds faster than the time in 1991. But Suzzane who finished in 30th place time of 1:13:42 -smashed the course record time for a lady by just over 100 seconds. She was an American-born long-distance runner who had dual American/British citizenship and represented Great Britain in the women's marathon at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. She also won a team silver medal at the 1992 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships and finished fourth in the 10,000m at the 1994 Commonwealth Games.
In 1993 the race had reverted back to March [28th] a week early Warrington had suffered from an IRA bomb attack.
Bashir Hussain from Stockport returned. He’d finished 3rd back in 1991. This year he was first with a time of 1:05:28. The first sub 66 minute time for 6 years. The Ladies Champion was Anne Cartwright. Her time was 1:25:14. Local Wilmslow Club runner was first MV65 in a time of 1:34:05.runner. On race day 1,696 runners finished it. Stockport Harriers retained the Team titles for both Men and Women.
