Diary of an Also-Ran 2013
Diary of an Also-Ran 2013 is available from today on kindle through this link. Below are extracts from this book, whose author is none other than our MD of runbritain, Geoff Wightman. Here we have pulled out some of the diary entries that contain, amongst other things, some of the unexpected answers to the questions that Geoff has asked of runners and athletes during the many interviews that he has conducted.
Friday 15th February 2013
This afternoon I hosted Mo Farah before an audience of 30 kids from Lordswood School in Birmingham. Best question of the day to Mo (which I had been told about in advance so we saved it until last):
“Would you rather have Boris Johnson’s hair or Bradley Wiggins’s hair?”
His answer was Boris – because the Mayor did the Mobot during the Olympics.
Monday 18th February 2013
The Oscar Pistorius family and defence team has called out Stuart Higgins to manage his PR because it doesn’t look good, whatever the precise circumstances of the shooting tragedy. I think Stuart’s company is now part of the Chime Communications Group, which includes Fast Track, Oscar’s former managers. Stuart is a very genial man and he was a long term editor of The Sun. When he stepped down he became a media consultant at Park Associates (Jon Holmes’s company) where I worked at the time, based in Nottingham. He quickly built a portfolio of clients and is very well regarded for his PR skills. I think Manchester United and Manchester City are, or have been, among his clients. The memory that makes me laugh most, every time, was that one of his very early clients was Walkers Crisps. During a visit to our offices, a man in the garden of a pub in Mansfield was nearly the world record for being buried underground in a coffin. His mother had previously held the record and he was bidding to regain the family honour by staying underground for six months. Stuart got to hear that he had been munching Walkers crisps as part of his daily diet, passed down to him through a tube at ground level (while he passed back bags of waste products – bleurgh!). Stuart’s plan was for the bloke to come out a few hours earlier than expected, as a Walkers and Sun branded exclusive, and that is actually what happened at 03.00 one morning. I was there when he set this up. Having found out that the bloke had a phone line under ground in his coffin, it was only one call to a former Sun colleague to get the number and Stuart then rang him and, having introduced himself, used the immortal line to a man who had been entombed for almost 200 days “Have you got a minute?”
Wednesday 17th April 2013
Day one of the Expo. It coincided with Margaret Thatcher’s funeral so we had a very busy first hour for registrations but then not much for the rest of the day. The runbritain/Run England stand was quiet and it turned out that only 5,800 runners, as opposed to the normal 7,000 had passed through. David Weir opened the show at 11.00 and was our first on-stage interviewee. I think have now interviewed him four or five times and he is becoming more relaxed and confident in the way that he handles these things.
Also on stage were BBC presenter Mike Bushell and former world superbike champion, James Toseland. They had both raced London before, in about four hours and 3.13 respectively. They are the only two runners I have ever met who BOTH admitted to taking petroleum jelly from the open palm of a Marathon volunteer and then EATING it, believing it to be an energy gel. They both struggled after that, although perhaps ran more smoothly in a certain fashion, I would think.
I had my opening question to Toseland repeated back to me later in the day by colleagues who got to hear about it but, at the time, only Brian and I were entertained by it:
“So, James, you were World Superbike Champion twice, you’ve just released your first rock album, you are about to go on tour with your own band and you are married to Katie Melua. Where did it all go wrong?”
To his credit, he had a smile and said ‘Well, I got married last September if you want to trace my decline back.”
He is going to attempt the world land speed record on a motorbike at Bonneville salt flats next year. It can do 500mph. He said La Melua is cool about it.
Sunday 21st April 2013
At 06.00 the breakfast room is absolutely rammed and I was pleased to see that Scott Overall, Derek Hawkins and I all had a chuckle at the same visual entertainment, even though they are both just five hours away from their race. Lining up at the buffet among the row of elite and spindly Kenyan men, including world record holder, defending champion and World Marathon Majors winner, was Cheryl Baker of Bucks Fizz clad in fuschia pink lycra running kit.
Sunday 30th June 2013
At the Birmingham Diamond League, I interviewed Mo Farah, Greg Rutherford and Christine Ohuruogu on stage at the VIP marquee afterwards. They were all in jovial mood. Christine is very softly spoken so only the first few rows caught one of her asides, when she had the microphone away from her. She has something of the school teacher about her. Mo Farah is sometimes like the naughty kid at the back of the class, flicking ink pellets. “Shut up, Mo” she murmured with a smile after he said something a bit cheeky on stage. He will still be the hyper-active boy with his baseball cap on sideways to her. They have been on teams together since about 2007 I think.
Thursday 4th July 2013
I hadn’t realised until reading Athletics Weekly this week that the current Boy Wonder of 800m running – Mohammed Aman of Ethiopia made his international debut racing at our Falkirk Cup event in 2009, when he was supposedly only 15. I can only vaguely remember him but he did win. The weekend was notable for the fact that five Ethiopians did a runner from their hotel at Heathrow before they even got to Scotland. Four of them duly claimed asylum but one of them made the return journey to Addis Ababa on the following Monday using the ticket we provided, having apparently changed his mind about asylum but never making it as Falkirk. I hope he had a lovely three days in London while I was reporting him and his pals to my nearest police station in Drylaw, Edinburgh and advising the Home Office. The Ethiopian team took part in the match with just seven competitors. “I remember everything about that trip” says Aman to Athletics Weekly. So do I, mate, so do I.
Saturday 27th July 2013
The Anniversary Games. Bolt arrived first and I kept the questioning to him light. I think the tone was OK because he was laughing, especially at the audience questions which included
“What really happened between you and the Swedish women’s handball team at the Olympics?”
And, from a lady in the audience: “What attributes do you most admire in a woman?”
Mo’s conference was even funnier, including his oldest daughter taking the mike from the floor with this. “You know you had your Olympic medals engraved with the twins names and gave them one each (Pause) – well can I have a pony?”
We also raised the prospect of him racing Bolt over 600 metres, which is a story that might run and run. Final question went to a familiar looking lady
“Now that you have finished running for the day, what would you like for your tea?” It was Mo’s mother-in-law.
Sunday 4th August 2013
The first ever Pudential RideLondon. Announcing at start and finish lines.
The funniest moment for me was when I got to interview Laura Trott in the booth. I used to race against her manager Mark Sinclair and he kindly brought her along after a Radio 5 Live interview . She had won the Classic women’s race the previous night. It was also a year to the day since she had won Olympic pursuit cycling gold and she was requesting a Bruce Springsteen track to be played. We knew from the Expo that she was very much Chatty Spice and good fun but here’s how the mid-part of the interview went:
Me: I noticed you were there beyond the finish line with The Mayor. Were you trying to get a deal on a Boris bike?
Her: He stinks.
Me: What? You can’t say that. He’s The Mayor.
Her: He does really stink though.
Friday 11th October 2013
During the summer, several members of the current and former Fettes staff gang got together to watch The Open Golf at Muirfield, just a few miles from Edinburgh in East Lothian. This included the former school Chaplain, Dave Campbell, a larger-than-life rosy cheeked Ulsterman, returning from Marlborough for the weekend. He and Al enjoyed a fine day’s play, seated just in front of the BBC broadcast compound. Directly behind them was an opaque black box that was the studio from which Hazel Irvine was presenting the coverage. At a certain point, Al suggested they go for something to eat. Dave said they would be limited by protocol in where they could get admission because he was only wearing shorts. “No problem” Al advised. He had a spare pair of trousers in the car and the Reverend Campbell could squeeze into them for these purposes. When he returned from the car park, Dave duly moved away from the crowds and went over to the back of the compound to spare his modesty while he changed from his shorts to the long trousers. Unfortunately for him, the BBC studio was broadcasting at that point and the glass was opaque when viewed from the outside but from the inside gave a very clear view of everything that was going on over the manicured course. Al got a text message from a friend when he switched on his phone after the close of play “What the hell was the Reverend Campbell doing taking off his trousers right in front of the BBC cameras at The Open?”
Friday 22nd November 2013
I hosted the British Athletics Writers Awards at the Tower Hotel today. It seemed to go well, with about 100 in attendance. Christine O was the women’s winner, presented by Kris Temple on behalf of his late father, Cliff. She was very game. She agreed, seemingly at short notice, to pay tribute to Jean Pickering before the Ron Pickering Memorial Award was presented. She also had a go at talking everyone through her World 400m win in Moscow as it ran on the giant screen. Asha Philip was also a good fun award winner. She has come back to top sprinting form after two years out with a ruptured knee ACL, sustained in trampolining. This is how the last part of our interview went:
Me: “So, you must be pretty excited about all these major events coming to the UK over the next five years. World Mountain Running Trophy. World Half Marathon Championships……?”
Her: “Yes, my mother and I talk about those two all the time.”
Touche.