The 50th and Final Tanners Marathon - 4th July 2010
Members of EFOG met up at the Leatherhead Football Ground in Surrey before 9 a.m. on Sunday, 4th July, 2010, for the 50th and final Tanners Marathon. I can only write from the checkpoint perspective, but it was a really successful day. EFOG had quite a few members participating this year and I am pleased to say that the 4 who entered the 30 miles finished in under the allowed time (10 hours). Congratulations to Duncan, Sue C., Jim and Parviz for completing the 30 on such a hot day. Congratulations, too, to Ken, Chris and Fergus who finished the 20 mile course in under the 8 hours allowed, and to Ann who did the 10 miles on her own! Well, there were plenty of others in it, but she was the only one from our Group!
Peter, Fred and I were helping on checkpoints. Peter and I have helped on checkpoints for many years now, but we have never known it as crazy as this one. As it was the last Tanners, everyone came out of the woodwork to enter! We were first taken to help on checkpoint 1, which is always really busy as the groups of competitors have not had much time to spread out. We were helping with the drinks there and it was continuous making up squashes, filling up bottles with water for the competitors to fill their water bottles, and washing-up the plastic cups - Fred’s really good at that!
Once the main crowd had gone through checkpoint 1, Peter, Fred and I were taken to checkpoint 3 where we were to spend the next few happy hours! I was signing the cards with the times they came through, and had queues waiting for a great deal of the time. Peter and Fred were on the drinks, and could hardly cope. We were inundated! So much was drunk that we had to ‘phone for more water supplies - long before we actually ran out. Unfortunately it took some while for the water to be brought to us, and we did run out! Luckily the main stream of competitors had gone through by that time, and we got replenishments eventually. A lady was helping us for a short while, but other than that, we were on our own. Peter didn’t even have time to take photos! I grabbed the camera and kept it round my neck as I was determined to get some photos of our members going through. I stood up and just clicked in between signing cards, but I nearly missed Duncan! I was so busy when he came through that I didn’t even have time to look at people, and had signed his card not knowing it was him! Luckily I realized before he left the checkpoint, and managed to snap him. Amazingly, some of the photos have come out quite well - more by luck than judgement!
We were supposed to stay at the checkpoint until 3 p.m., but as there were still quite a few blank spaces on my sheet where I ticked off the competitors, we decided to stay a bit longer. We had another couple come through who had got lost. Then, just as we were packing up towards 4 p.m., 3 more turned up. They decided to retire as one had bad cramp, but with 3 of us and 2 dogs in our car (Katie and Eddie were with us, too), plus the equipment, we couldn’t take them back. We were miles from the Leatherhead Football Ground, where the marathon started and finished. We ’phoned for someone to pick them up, and hoped it wasn’t going to take as long as they took bringing us the water! We left them there but saw them later, so we knew they were still not sitting there!
It’s such a beautiful part of the country in the area of the marathon, but I am not sure the competitors had time to admire it - neither did we! There were beautiful views from near our checkpoint, which we only had time to see when we were packing up! The 30 miles course goes to Tanners Hatch Youth Hostel towards the end.
When we got back to the football ground, Ken, Chris and Fergus had already arrived after doing the 20. We patiently waited for the ones doing the 30. Duncan was the first in - in about 8 and-a-half hours, I think. Peter and I then decided to walk the dogs down a lane to meet the others. We stopped at a junction to wait, and Parviz came through first - from the wrong direction! He had got lost! Immediately after, Sue and Jim arrived - from the right direction! After 30 miles I wouldn’t have thought they could walk that fast! We had trouble keeping up with them for the final bit back to the finish! They all came in together in about 9 and-half hours. There’s a bar at the football ground, so a great deal of drink was consumed when everyone finished!
Everyone collected their certificates, and we said our goodbyes to the Tanners’ organizers. Sad it’s the last one, but it was a really good day. WELL DONE TO THE EFOG TEAM! Tanners will be missed.
Maz. 5th July 2010