Latest / The Folkestone & Hythe Sports Podcast / EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH FORMER LONDON MARATHON WINNER MIKE GRATTON AND AMY AFTER THE FOLKESTONE 10

Transcript

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH FORMER LONDON MARATHON WINNER MIKE GRATTON AND AMY AFTER THE FOLKESTONE 10 · The Folkestone & Hythe Sports Podcast

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  However, Mike Grant's course record still stands at forty eight minutes forty five seconds,
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  which he is held since nineteen eighty five. And after the race,
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  I managed to catch up with him and his partner Amy, who actually ran
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  the race. So let's have a little listen. So I've just had a
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  lovely day here down at the green a Hive and the folks in ten is
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  now over and I'm joined by the gentleman who won the very very first race
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  forty years ago. Hello, Mike, how are you? I'm very good,
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  Thank you, it's so good to see you. How'd you feel about
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  coming back here. I'm happy to come back And completely didn't run because it's
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  a bit windy. You're right it was. We've been hearing about that later
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  from your partner Amy, who did actually run it. But take us back
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  to your early days of your school and how you sort of broke into running.
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  Yeah, my dad was in the Army and we were stationed in Germany
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  and the school I went to there had into Service Schools championships and I did
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  the eight hundred meters. School needed someone to do it, so I put
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  my hand up and I finished second. So next thing is Dad was stationed
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  back at Shawncliffe and it was his last stationing, so he bought a house
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  in Cheriton. I went to more Horse School for my O levels and while
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  I was there, the pe teacher sus sug, YESID, we're going on
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  to the local running club, which was obviously Folks and in those days we
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  trained on a little glass circuit down back of State Street before we moved there
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  up to Shorncliffe on the cinder track, the cinder track. I remember that
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  because we were used to race around the cinder track. But the cinder track's
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  not there unfortunately, but we had got a lovely brand new running track behind
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  the Three Hill Sports Park anyway, Sorry I digressed, that's right. No,
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  So I'm pleased they have because we can campaigned right back in the early
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  days of the Folks in sports center at Bagnon Park and we helped raise money
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  for that to mere help hope at the time we would get a running track
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  maybe at the cricket stadium. It never happened, but now it HAPs great.
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  Yeah yeah good. So I mean, how did you break in?
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  You so you're with Folks at running club in your school days. The next
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  step it was through school really I got entered into the district school cross country
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  which was at brock Hill, and then from there I got into the district
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  team for the county cross country as an intermediate, got in the Kent team
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  and then the English Schools Championships were at Luton, so I finished about one
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  hundred and fortieth I think in that and that really sort of made me think
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  I'm a county level runner. So that summer I made the English Schools track
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  and field team, finished seventh in the fifteen hundred and went on to win.
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  The English school was five thousand meters. Three years later and by then
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  I was doing a pree course at college, starting to think about the mouton
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  and then the marathon boom started and there was ideal timing for me. Yeah.
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  Good. So it's forty years ago, but it's funny that those early
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  clubs, for example, last weekend I was in Hastings to watch that their
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  half marathon, and there was also their fortieth anniversary, So those clubs are
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  boomed in the in the eighties and are still around. It's forty years ago,
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  it is, and it's it's the first London Mountain started all that up
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  because there were lots of little club races tom Bridge ten, Thant ten.
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  They all existed, but they were quite sma yeah, and then all of
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  a sudden there's this new boom of runners who wanted to run the Lounder math
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  and needed to start somewhere. So lots of running clubs can to be harry
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  as South Kent in this area of folks and obviously just absorbed all these new
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  runners and suddenly there was a need for ten more races on the seafront and
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  folks and half mountains and Hastings. It didn't exist before. That's right now.
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  We're also joined by Amy, Mike's partner, Amy. You had the
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  pleasure of running today, didn't you? I did? Hell was it?
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  Because it was a very breezy when I got out of the car this morning
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  on the course I got straight back in, So hell's it for running?
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  It was breezy, but it was breezy for all of us. So this
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  was my first time doing the Folkeston ten and great on the way out and
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  you had to dig deep and work hard on the way back, but really
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  well supported, really enjoyed it. And there's no hills, no hills,
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  totally flat, there's not lots of definitely not it's not like that's not like
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  Scottish shows. But yeah, no, it was good. It was good
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  out and back, straightforward and you just had to dig the Yeah, yeah
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  good. How does it compare to some of your other races? I mean
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  you've probably done you've done loads and loads of races, but yeah, is
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  it sort of an easy one? You think? I know, the conditions
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  are tough, but conditions are tough for everybody. Easy one probably if you're
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  on your game, yeah, and if you piece it right. But yeah,
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  it's good open back, it's straightforward. You can get into kind of
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  your your rhythm. Let's just see so you can keep that rhythm, but
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  you can't. You could do negative splits, but unfortunately for me to do
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  it was positive. You were there taking part lovely. So yeah, okay,
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  finding back to you, Mike. Now we're going to just have a
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  little shout out for two O nine events because I bump into you over in
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  Cyprus, and so how's two O nine events going. They're doing well.
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  I've taken semi retirement because I'm seventy you in in November, but I'm still
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  enjoying going to Cyprus and just come back from Portugal. Hence I've got a
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  bit of a suntan. And that's the coaching side. But we still do
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  in the New York mouse, in Chicago, mouse and all those things.
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  And it's a pleasurable side of industry really. The office stuff I don't go
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  and do anymore, the good stuff I still do. Yeah, Mike has
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  been a pleasure to talk to andswer you Amy today. Thank you so much
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  for coming back. And it's so nice you've got a little place in your
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  heart for folks and and the folks and too all started. Yeah, thank
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  you so much. Okay, it's a pleasure, so great catch up there
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  with Mike and Amy, and it sounds like they're going to be back.