Life on the Run (32 page)

On my maternal tree things were much easier as the family name was
Marshall
and they lived and worked in agriculture in the same area of Wiltshire, many of them on the same estate, Stourhead, for many generations.

While writing this last chapter I learned of the death of Mary (May) Eldon, the widow of my half-brother WO Class 2 Leslie Gordon Eldon, who died in May 1945 in East Africa. They had a son, David Gordon, born a few months after his father's death. He had a career in banking and was chairman and chief executive of HSBC Asia. He is an honorary doctor of business administration of the City University of Hong Kong and a CBE.

Looking back to 2002, when this book was published, I have been pleased to see that the Reading Half Marathon that I was responsible for and organized for the first twelve years has now passed thirty years and going strong. This makes the battles I had to get it started worthwhile. The three running clubs in Reading which I have had some involvement with over many years have all developed and grown, providing a choice of different clubs that new runners can join. Reading Athletic Club has climbed back to being the successful club for all avenues of athletics that it has been for much of its life since 1881. They are now producing many very good athletes, including twenty-year-old Jonny Davies who has already become an international. Reading Roadrunners are providing road-running events and cross-country and have produced some very good road runners. Reading Joggers is a good club for those who are beginning and want a slightly different approach to their sport, including ultra-distance running.

My life has changed as there is no more running and I am envious of those who are running at my age or older, like Peter White (Reading Joggers), aged eighty-four, and Tom Harrison (Reading Roadrunners), who is my age. Both started running at a late age. I do walk, but that has been reduced from five miles to two miles if I am feeling good, but with impending treatment this may improve. I seem to spend a lot of time at hospitals as I have also had long-ongoing treatment for my right eye, which is having regular Lucentis injections for macular oedema.

It is pleasing to me that after more than fifty years since my successful years I am still of interest to athletics journalists around the world. In the past three years I and the book have been written up by a Canadian journalist John Cobley and also a long article appeared in a Norwegian publication on the Internet featuring, in particular, my front-running tactics. Not bad after over half a century, and hopefully I am not on my last lap yet...

Stan Eldon

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