Les Croupiers Running Club Forum

Many years ago, in September 1990, I had the great privilege of taking part in a revolutionary new event, the Sun Life Great Race. You may have heard about the Tour de France bike race, with it being 20 races in 22 days (just two rest days). The Sun Life Race was an attempt to transmit that formula into running. The start was in Glasgow, the finish 3 weeks later in London.
A one hour programme was shown each evening on BSB television (remember those squarials?) Relatively few people had access to BSB, so the race only ever was watched by about 100000 viewers.
There were 107 runners from all over the world. I was part of the UK Elite Team.
One of the runners, Dave Mansbridge from Telford, is in the process of uploading all this coverage onto You Tube. Take a look!
It was an unforgettable 3 weeks - I made it to the finish (82 of the 107 made it), averaging 5 minutes 28 seconds for the 222 mile course, which was very hilly in parts. That placed me 45th. The winner, Paulo Catarino of Portugal, averaged 5 minute miling all the way. Daily stages ranged from 6 to 17 miles.
One of the race commentators was Tom McNab - the author of Flanagan's Run, which also was a major influence.
Sadly Sun Life pulled the plug on sponsorship, so a great concept only happened once. I regard myself as very lucky.