Roger Griffin’s London Marathons

My father was a lifelong amateur runner. He began taking part in the London Marathon when he was aged 60, and ran it on eleven occasions; this was to have been the sole topic of this page, however he actually did much more running than that — so this page’s scope is expanded to cover some of his other runs too.

Last modified on 2023 October 4

Above: Roger in The Mall after completing his first London Marathon, on 21 April 1996. He looks so fresh as if he has scarcely run at all! Although he came in just on 3h30m, he had been aiming for 3h20m but (as my contemporary diary records it) seems put out by not having managed to maintain his planned pace all the way to the end; during my phonecall with him that night I had to try and cheer him up over it.

From a 2014 email: The first time I did it, in 1996, I *thought* I could run 7:30 a mile, and did so for two hours, but then I absolutely couldn’t keep it up, and the last part became *very* difficult because I had not admitted soon enough that I would have to slow down!

Roger’s marathon-running

This page was born from the data in the table below, which were originally the fruit of a data-gathering exercise shortly after Roger’s death in order that we could establish how many London Marathons he had run; such data were not kept methodically kept — except in his head — so some detective work had been required.

In addition to these London Marathons, Roger ran in just two other marathon races, so far as we know: the Potteries Marathon in Stoke-on-Trent, on Sunday 20 June 1999 (on a hilly course, he clocked what was then his PB of 3h29m, which he would better only in the following year’s London); and the Robin Hood Marathon in Nottingham on Sunday 11 September 2005 (3h42m).

Above: Roger at Westferry Circus during his 2002 London Marathon. I had discovered in 2000 that this was a good vantage-point through relative absence of crowds, meaning there was space and time for Roger to pull over briefly if he wanted to.

The Otmoor Challenge

Roger took part in at least 10 instances of The Otmoor Challenge, between 1992 and 2007 inclusive; it takes place annually in June a few miles to the north-east of Oxford, and comprises a 13-mile somewhat hilly route. From the partial results I can find, he achieved 1h31m in 1996, 1h36m in 1999, 1h31m again in 2001, 1h40m in 2003, 1h41m in 2005, and 1h44m in 2006.

Above: Roger’s collection of souvenir mugs from the Otmoor Challenge.

Roger’s other runs and races, and the Boundary Run

Roger was also the ‘first finisher’ in the 1966 (sic) Cambridge Boundary Run, an annual marathon-distance jog around the perimeter of the City of Cambridge in which he partook on (he reckoned) 16 occasions [this was up to April 2004, and we know he ran it in at least 2006 too]; but at the time this was not regarded as a race. However, the fact that Roger, an ‘unknown’, finished ahead of everyone else — including Scottish International runner Alasdair Heron who had claimed beforehand that I shall be leading! — did cause its organising club the Hare & Hounds to make sure some of its members ran in it thereafter to ensure they ‘won’ it! Roger tells the details of this story in a 2004 email of personal reminiscences which has been saved for interest here.

[Roger’s diary, Monday 7 March 1966: Boundary run in afternoon; was first back in field of 104.]

He took part in various other events and races, including (at one day’s notice) the Bury 20 in Bury St. Edmunds on Saturday 27 February 1999 (completed in 2h33m), the Grunty Fen Marathon in at least 2006, as well as several sponsored runs:

• He ran further than anyone else in at least one of the annual Fund’ay Fun Runs on Midsummer Common, Cambridge, in which he partook in (at least) April 1987 and in September 1988;
• In 1995 and in 2005, by way of celebrating his 60th and 70th birthdays respectively, he ran more than a marathon’s distance around the half-mile block in his immediate neighbourhood).

Training runs

Above: Training pays off! This is the moment that Roger set his all-time Personal Best, on 16 April 2000 at his second London Marathon.

Naturally, this page has a tendency to focus on the competitive events and public-facing accomplishments of Roger’s running. But in order to achieve those, a considerable amount of training was required. In actual fact, Roger loved running purely for its own sake, and rarely ‘forced himself’ to go out if the weather or his mood discouraged it. He also relied somewhat upon natural talent, and did not work as hard on training as the experts would imply that a Marathon entrant ought to do.

His favourite route (about 8 miles) was from St. John’s College, across Midsummer Common and beside the River Cam through Ditton Meadows to Baits Bite Lock, crossing the river there to return on the western side. An extended version of this run, to Clayhithe, he did quite often too. When seeking a more vigorous training he would sometimes run to Ely or to Huntingdon, each of the order of 20 miles away.

We know that he also sometimes ran to Royston; he sought out other destinations of interest from time to time, such as this example from October 2007 when he emailed me with an account of his long-sought achievement of reaching Rivey Hill, Linton.

Cambridge University Hare & Hounds

Roger mostly ran alone, right from his school days. But in late 1995 or soon after, he joined his University’s running club, the Hare & Hounds. He subsequently admitted in 2004 that he had been rather stupid not to join it until after I was 60!. He ran with them, typically on the Sunday ‘easy runs’, the ‘tea runs’, and sometimes in competitive events such as the Chariots of Fire races. An email from 2005 refers to (among other running activities) how he was in devastating form and got his C-team ahead of the B-team!

Roger also led runners one-quarter of his age on midnight runs to Grantchester under the light of the full moon!

Roger’s London Marathon results

Roger started and finished 11 London Marathons.

Above: Roger nearing the completion of his tenth London Marathon, in 2011. I was positioned on Waterloo Bridge (with about 500 other people vying for the same vantage-point), and although Roger is apparently waving to me from the Embankment he could of course not see me among the throng — but had remembered to wave as if seeing me anyway!

Above: I accompanied Roger to the Excel Exhibition Centre in Docklands on the Friday before his last London Marathon, in April 2014. Ever the competitor, he had deliberately avoided having a haircut so that his white hair would be more visible; and although he was aged 78, he would be 79 in August of that year. So, to everyone he met (including Bruce Tulloh and 1983 winner Mike Gratton, with both of whom he’d trained in The Algarve, Portugal, and to whom he introduced me), he claimed, I’ll be 80 next year, which was both perfectly true, and intentionally misleading!

Below: As late as Wednesday night before the race he was on the verge of not starting because of having developed a bad knee overnight. But in the end, despite his injury, and despite having to walk quite a bit of this race, he finished well within 5 hours — but grumbled about it being his Personal Worst!