Happy run down Memory Lane for former Harrier Graeme
The Echo has been pivotal in bringing three former Sunderland Harriers together again after a period of nearly 60 years.
All three former Monkwearmouth Grammar School pupils, Ian Halliwell, Allan Dodds and Graeme Kent, were featured on the Harriers’ photo call of 1963.
Kent is the latest one to reminisce about his time at the Harriers after both Halliwell and Dodds, who both live in the States, looked back over their time they spent at the club.
The get togethers on zoom was sparked after Halliwell donated a 1920s Sunderland Harriers lapel badge to the club. Now Mick Newton is the last remaining one that featured on the photograph that his former clubmates would like to get in touch with.
Kent said: “I well remember my first road race as a Sunderland Harrier proudly wearing the royal blue vest for the first time in the boys’ race at Heaton in 1962.
“Several of us were running for the first time and not sure what to expect. We were in awe of seeing senior athletes such as internationals John Anderson, Jim Alder and Ernie Pomfret.
“Unfortunately my feeling of exhilaration only lasted a few seconds after the start, as someone clipped my heels from behind and I watched the whole field go by from ground level!”
But that did not dampen his enthusiasm as he went on
to have a fair amount of success in boys’ races, finishing sixth in the Gateshead Congers Boxing Day Road Race in 1963 and runner-up in the Harrier League at Gosforth Park.
Being in the same age group asBrendanFosterhehadmany a tussle, beating him in the Harrier League at Houghton and in a cross country match at his school.
While studying at Newcas
tle University and then working in the hotel and catering business for Thistle Hotels at Leicester and Horley in Surrey, he stopped running. Only to start training seriously again whilst doing a post-grad Library Diploma at Aberystwyth in 1976.
“IendedupinWolverhampton where I have been for the last 40 years. Returning to running at the start of the run
ning boom was quite a shock. I'm sure many of today's club runners don' t appreciate the strength in depth that we saw in races in the 80s.
"My best 10 miler was in the Tipton 10 in the early 80s when I clocked 54.20 and wasn't even in the first hundred! “I ran for Wolverhampton and Bilston in the 80s and 90s, never reaching great heights. I clocked 75 mins for the half
marathon and did a 2hr 49min marathon. I'm lucky enough to be still able to run at the age of 72, but gave up competing a few years ago.
“The writing was on the wall and finally sank when both Mickey Mouse and Santa Claus left me for dead in the final mile of my last Great North Run. Still, I am proud to have 21 GNR t-shirts filling up my wardrobe.”
He was thankful of the encouragement he received at the club and school.
“We certainly needed it as runningwas not fashionableor popular in those days. We had to suffer a fair amount of verbal abuse when out training.
“Thegreatthingaboutsport is the friendships you gain by sharing the pain, joys and disappointment it brings when it’s an important part of your life."