Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
The Kent teacher
For many of the tens of thousands of runners who will pound the capital’s streets in the London Marathon on Sunday, their main aim will just be to complete the course.
But back in 1983, a Canterbury PE teacher lined up for the race with a chance of winning it which is just what he did.
Mike Gratton had finished third the previous year and then took bronze in the event in the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane.
“I felt I was in top form and could do well,” he said. “I paced myself and after about 22 miles there was really just two of us left fighting it out.
“But coming across Westminster Bridge with a comfortable lead, I was still going strong and then could allow myself to think that short of a disaster, I’d got it,” he said.
He crossed the line with a feeling of euphoria, and returned home to a hero’s welcome.
What’s more, Mike recorded a time of 2.09:42 which, 38 years later, still stands as the 14th best ever for the event, with the current record of 2.02:37 set by Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge.
“Now the top runners use pacemakers and are wearing the special shoes which we never had and gives them an edge,” he said.
Mike recalls the incredible atmosphere as he approached the finish line and says winning it really set the course for the rest of his life.
“I was propelled from pretty much being a club runner to celebrity status in athletics,” he said.
“It’s not something you ever forget but looking back now, I still don’t know how I did that time which was my best ever. It just seems inconceivable.”
Mike says he never got rich on the back of his athletics career. But his $10,000 prize money for winning the London marathon allowed him to put down a deposit on a house in New Dover Road, Canterbury.
His victory coincided with the sport becoming professional and Mike was competing all over the world, running for GB.
But he estimates that throughout his subsequent 12-year professional running career, he
earned £100,000 - no more than a modest living wage.
“There are very few long distance runners who make any serious money - you do it for the love of it,” he said.
Now 66 and a grandad, Mike stills runs regularly, albeit shorter distances, and enjoys off-road events.
In recent years he has competed in the Thunder Dragon Marathon high in the Himalayas in Bhutan, where he won the half marathon stage.
He was first in the over-60 category in the Petra desert run half marathon in Jordan, and also ran the Shotover Moonlight Run in Queenstown, New Zealand.
But he admits his once lean
frame is now far stouter than he cares for, tipping the scales at four stone more than his London marathon weight.
“It’s just a bit of middle age spread which just happens as you get older, but lockdown didn’t help,” he said.
Mike first showed athletic promise at an army-run boarding school in Germany where his parents were based with the armed forces.
And success soon followed with a silver medal in the British Forces Schools’ 800m.
Back in Kent, his PE teacher encouraged him to join Folkestone Athletics Club where he trained three times a week and notched up victory in the sen
‘It’s not something you ever forget but looking back now, I still don’t know how I did that time which was my best ever. It just seems inconceivable’
ior English schoolboys 5000m in 1974.
By then he knew he wanted to be a long distance runner and would pound out more than 100 miles every week along country lanes around Canterbury, where he had joined the Invicta East Kent running club.
He became a PE teacher at the Archbishop’s School while focusing on running marathons, competing in his first - the Essonne Marathon near Paris in 1979 in which he finished a credible 11th.
But he followed it up with victory in the now defunct Polytechnic Marathon on a hot day in a time of 2:19.
He then embarked on a prolific race schedule leading up to his London Marathon victory, after which he turned professional.
The sport took him all around the world, competing in more than 35 marathons until a back injury finally put paid to his competitive edge.
He even met the Queen at a special reception for GB London Marathon winners in 2008.
He also organised the Canterbury half marathon.
A dad of two daughters, he now runs a sports holiday company called 2.09 Events and has a forum on the Runners World website called ‘Hard Training with Mike Gratton’.
“My advice to anyone training for a marathon is to put in the miles and build up a solid aerobic base rather than high intensity work,” he said.
“Don’t fret about times - I never used to time training runs and there was nothing like Strava to rely on.
“I enjoyed simply getting out in the countryside and exploring but was building endurance all the time.
“Easy miles is the way.” Mike now lives in Surrey with his partner Amy, who is also a keen runner. He still takes part in and attends many running events and occasionally gets recognised.
“I was at the Hampton Court Marathon before lockdown and got chatting to a woman at a coffee van whose daughter was taking part and she asked me if I did any running.
“I said, ‘yes, a bit in the past I won the London Marathon in 1983’.
“And she remembered me when I told her my name.”
He will be in London on Sunday for the race, supporting some runners who he has coached.
“I still get a buzz from watching and, of course, it brings back great memories,” he said.