Inspirational Athlete – Paul Evans

As a pre-note to this week’s blog, I normally write my weekly blog from something that inpired me in the previous week, however I do have a list of ideas set aside for week’s when the inspiration just isn’t flowing. This week’s blog is one such subject, I’ve wanted to write about Paul for some time as I’ll never forget the inspirational run at Tooting Bec on 17 June 1992, in fact I mentioned it previously in my blog about the Surrey 10000m Championship. The funny thing is that since I started writing this week’s blog I came across Paul on Facebook and we’re now friends on Facebook, so I do feel a little embarrassed, writing about him, but I hope, if he reads it, he likes what I have to say.

I was once taken aback at the start of a race, when a competitor asked me who my sporting hero was. I hadn’t actually given it any thought, I didn’t tend to think of sports people as heroes, the word hero, to my mind, was reserved for those who risked everything to save a life, soldiers, members of the emergency services or members of the public who had done something extraordinary to try to save others. So I just shrugged my shoulders and then made sure I beat him in the race, for asking such a daft question. However it did make me think a bit about whom I might think of as a sporting inspiration.

Like so many people of my age group I was engrossed in athletics during the Coe and Ovett era. I loved watching Coe run but, of the two, my support was always with Ovett, he seemed the more down to earth of the two and the one I’d rather share a pint with. Sadly my support of Ovett seemed to dwindle when he grew his hair in a backwards attempt at a Bobby Charlton combover, and I found the experience of watching him cry at the AAA championships, over some misunderstanding about money, a little hard to watch.

An ex-girlfriend, out of frustration for me putting running ahead of her, used to say I wanted to be Steve Cram, but she never really understood my running. If she had she’d have known I didn’t want to be Steve Cram, I wanted to beat Steve Cram.

Inspirational characters, to me, tended to be people that I saw running really well and I always looked up to people who were better than me. I suppose the first person I looked up to, in that respect, was Adrian Thiemicke. Adrian went to the same school as I did, Crewe Grammar (later to become the Ruskin School and now a sports college!). I never really knew him that well, at school, as we were in totally different forms but on school sports day he always ran away from the 1500m field. Adrian is now involved in athletics administration with Cheshire Athletics, sadly he rarely races following knee problems, but I often bump into him at local events. As I took up athletics it was my team mates at Belgrave who inspired me, Don Anderson, John Mather, Martin Lake, Oli Foote and Marcello Bizio being some of the first, and then as I improved so did my inspirational focus.

However the person whom I would list as number 1, with respect to how they have inspired me, would be Paul Evans. For those who don’t know of him, Paul came to athletics lateish, at the age of 25. He was a talented local footballer but, having run well in a local 10k, he realised he had a talent to run, so took up athletics. I don’t know the full story of why he made this decision, I didn’t know him at the time and it’s not that well documented. From nowhere he became one of Britain’s best distance runners, at first succeeding on the track, then at the half marathon before making his name at the marathon, winning Chicago in 1996 in 2:08:52, a time that still lists him as 4^th on the UK all time rankings. He also represented Britain at the 10000m in the Barcelona Olympics, in 1992, and Atlanta Olympics, in 1996, plus the World Championships in Stuttgart, 1993, where he tackled the marathon.

I first met Paul at the National Cross Country Champs in 1990, at Roundhay Park, Leeds. This was my first National Cross Country Champs and I’ve gone into more detail about it in a previous blog. I was part of a weak Belgrave team that travelled up on the train. As I stood around, with some of the other Belgrave team members, Paul suddenly appeared. Bill Laws, the Belgrave team manager on the day, introduced me to Paul, and Paul chatted to me as though we were best mates, something you don’t encounter often from an athlete on the verge of international stardom.

The next time I saw Paul was at the Southern 12 Stage, where he played an important part in Belgrave’s victory. I kept up with his results after that and the next thing I heard he was taking part in a race from Glasgow to London. This was a running version of the Tour de France, even featuring a King of the Mountains prize, organised by British Satellite Broadcasting. During the event Paul emerged as the leading British contender, showing the sort of strength that would soon transform him into Britain’s leading marathon runner. Then the story emerged that Paul had to resign from his work in order to complete the race, as they would not sanction the time off. Whilst this must’ve been a stressful time for Paul, it was clearly the right decision as he earned more money during that race than a year’s salary in his job. It also transpired the company went bust a few weeks later so he would have lost his job anyway.

Paul started making a big name for himself, winning many races and clearly making a reasonable living out of the sport. In 1992 he attempted to qualify for the 10000m in the Barcelona Olympics. He’d already run the London Marathon in a time faster than those selected for the Olympic marathon, but the race came after selection had been made and Paul was only down as reserve. At the 10000m Olympic trials Paul came third, behind Eamonn Martin and Richard Nerurkar but his time of 28:13.71 was outside of the qualifying mark. With very little time to go Paul was left with no other option but to take part in a hastily put together 10000m at the end of a Rosenheim League meeting at Tooting Bec. I’d taken part in a 400m earlier in the evening but stayed on to watch what was to become one of the best track races I’ve seen. As the race set off there were just 4 competitors, Paul, Andrew Bristow (also looking for a good time) and two pacemakers; Colin Reitz and Steve Harris. As I saw it Steve struggled with the pace and only lasted to 3k, Colin took over and kept the pace (around 14 minutes) going to half way. By now Andrew was a long way back and Paul had to run the second 5000m on his own. But this was Paul’s strength and with his coach, John Bicourt, shouting out his lap times Paul managed to keep the pace going lap after lap. The atmosphere at Tooting Bec was electric and the whole crowd was willing Paul on. In the end Paul finishing in 27:59.8, inside the Olympic qualifying mark. What a fantastic solo race and how chuffed the crowd was to have witnessed the event.

I think the whole of the UK’s athletes must have been happy for Paul, such was his popularity with other runners, probably due to his willingness to chat to anyone. Alan Mead, of Belgrave, told me that he and his family were at the Barcelona Olympics and had tickets for the night the 10000m final was on. As the athletes were being led out they cheered for Paul, who heard them, turned around and when he saw them he put his thumbs up and shouted over a hello. In the race itself Paul finished 11^th in 28:29.83, looking tired after having qualified 3^rd in his heat, a few days before, in 28:15.70.

Paul pulled out many more fine performances over the years, he made the final of the 10000m in the Atlanta Olympics of 1996, at the age of 35, but he dropped out of the race, having, again, qualified a few days earlier, finishing 11^th in his heat in a time of 28:24.39. In 1993 he had run the marathon at the Stuttgart World Championships but had dropped out when highly placed. Perhaps his finest race was his victory in the 1996 Chicago Marathon. The last time I saw Paul was at a talk he was involved with, in London. That would have been around 2003/2004. He’s now involved in athletics promotion in Norfolk and, because he’s had some injury issues, he’s rarely competed, though he did set some pretty good times as an M40, before the injuries kicked in. He’s now an M50, could there be a Paul Evans comeback on the cards?

So, I’m back in serious training again and it appears to be working, I feel like I’m running faster and stronger, it’s taken a while to build the fitness up, following the two months I had off in the winter, but I now feel like I’m getting closer to good form. Of course the build up in my training means I’m tired, my muscles ache and I’m constantly hungry, but to combat these I’m being sensible, easing back when necessary, wearing the compression socks Ronhill supplied and eating, appropriately, when I need to. I’m not down to my previous racing weight of 10 stone 2lb but I put this down to the additional muscle I’ve developed from the weights and kettlebells. I’m now looking for some good races to show my form.

And, to finish off, speaking of old Belgrave team mates, and another of my facebook friends, I came across Dalton Powell in my Sunday paper, he’s fronting an advert for NatWest Bank, not sure if he’s on for a bankers bonus.