A few minutes with a legend

I’m in the presence of greatness

At the recent Grandma’s Marathon expo. I almost literally ran into running legend Dick Beardsley, and had the chance to spend a few minutes chatting with him. The meeting was quite by accident, as I almost bumped into him as he was walking away from a meet and greet session at a sponsors booth. 

If you haven’t met Dick before, you should know he likes to talk. He talks with such passion and joy in his voice that you can’t help but be carried away on his waves of enthusiasm.

Being English, my accent is often a gateway into conversation, and this time was no different. He latched on to this and was straight off into his memories of that first London Marathon in 1981 and the run with Inge Simonsen. 

He told me that He and Simonsen became best friends after that race, and they had been invited to drop the starters flag together at the 40th anniversary running of the event. But Covid had other plans. Perhaps they will be able to do that for the 50th.

He shared how they had duked it out from Tower Bridge onwards, each attacking the other, until they decided to cross the finish line together holding hands.

“It had never happened before, and it will never happen again”. He said. “It was exactly what that race needed”.

I remarked that in a post race interview he said that he had run three competitive marathons in three months.“Nobody would do that these days” he said, and he effortlessly segued into his training and race nutrition. His fuelling on the London Marathon had been flat Coke that had been sitting in his hotel room for a couple of days. It was the sugar in the Coke that kept him going. But the energy from the sugar burst only lasts for about three miles, then you crash and have to take more.

Every three miles he had to take a drink of flat Coke. How times have changed.

Times have changed with shoes too. “My shoes back in London weren’t much more than pieces of nylon with rubber soles”. He said before going on to explain about supershoes, how they work, and that I should be trying them. He related how he was utterly amazed the first time he tried a pair for himself. I envisioned him running out of control in these new shoes. 

If they are good enough for him, then I should give them a try.

He even charmed my wife, telling her she was the best sort of supporter for cheering me on at events. 

With that he was done, it may only have been five minutes but it had seemed like an hour or more. I had been so inspired by his passion. His recall of an event from almost 45 years ago was amazing, and he’s still clearly very excited by it. I asked him for a selfie and he willingly obliged.

I have a new sporting hero now.