Harrier
Hall of Fame
1954
Jim Woodhouse's 100 mile walk
Extracts
from Jim Woodhouse’s Letter, dated 9th November 1954.
Blackpool
to
Manchester
and Back,
100 Mile Road
Walk 1954.
This
100 mile walk started at the Town Hall,
Blackpool
, at 4 am, on Friday 23rd July. So Dick and myself and our attendants
went about dinnertime to feed and have a good rest beforehand.
It
had been raining continually for a couple of days and we felt sure that by the
time we started it would have cleared up. But not a bit of it, we got changed,
with all the usual fancy preparations beforehand and it was still chucking it
down.
We
lined up at the start, the gun went and we were off, It was sheeting down and we
were paddling in water about 2 inches deep along the promenade, the waves from
the sea were crashing over the promenade and the wind blew (cold and chilling)
cutting through us like a knife.
Anyhow
you know how I always start off pretty fast, well, I did it again, but even so
after about 2 miles, Vic. Stone was just a spec in the distance with Hughie
Neilson close on his heels. Dick was lying about 4th and for the
first 20 miles, Joe Wigglesworth and myself were together lying 7th
and 8th.
At
Preston I left Joe and was crashing on steadily through Bamber Bridge when I
heard footsteps behind me, nearer and nearer they came and when they finally
past me, I nearly dropped dead, it was Tommy Richardson (World record holder and
winner of the Bath to London 1953).
Gee!
I thought I must be going to fast, then I slowed down a bit and dropped back to
about 10th through Chorley, It was still pouring down and I was
shivering by this time, but luckily mother turned up with a plastic mac, which I
put on and which kept out the cold and wind lovely.
On
we trudged through Adlington, Horwich and Bolton and about three miles from
Manchester
I met Vic. Stone coming back in the lead, “Boy” was he going great guns, he
may be a brag, Hell can he walk!
After
the race I learned that Neilson (Woodford Green) had stuck with him for 40
miles, but after that Stone left him cold.
After
Stone I met Hartley of Sheffield, then Neilson and then Dick – we had a good
laugh, shouting things to each other. I turned round at Salford Fire Station,
the 50mile mark in 9 hrs 50mins, thus beating my time for a single 50.
It was smashing when meeting
all the others who were behind, I remember one chap when I was 5miles out of
Manchester, so he must have then been 18miles behind Stone, no one else passed
me until Willie Watson (Lozells) said Hallo at Horwich, but by that time I was
having a bad spell (65miles) and had slowed up quite a bit.
About Adlington I stopped, put on some
more vaseline and decided I had better get a move on.
I
went through
Chorley
(71miles) in 15hrs 2mins. I know that because Ernest Neville was standing at
the town hall with his watch in his hand. I really started to move again, went
through
Bamber
Bridge
and
Preston
like a bomb or so it seemed to me.
At
Lea Gate (84miles) my time was 18hrs 15mins, and that was my best, for trying
too hard to catch up Willie Watson, a ligament went behind my right knee and
from then on I was limping slowly all the way to Blackpool.
It
was maddening to have chaps passing you, when you knew you had the energy to
lick them, if only your leg would let you. Anyhow it took me approximately 4 and
3/4hrs to cover 16miles from Lea Gate, where as when I had set off it took me
3hrs dead!
Well
Maurice you know the result, I managed to finish, which was much to my
satisfaction, but I would have romped home in about 21 and 3/4hrs, if only my
knee had not let me down. Anyway you cannot have luck all the way in a race like
this, my feet stood up to the punishment wonderfully, and really I am satisfied
to become a Centurion, as I have always wanted.
My
number is Centurion 227 and I am hoping some day when you get back from
Singapore
, you will join the club and have a badge too.
Dick
did wonderfully and beat all his previous times to pulp. He finished 4th
in19hrs 17mins and managed to beat Tommy Richardson into 5th place.
Vic Stone broke the World Record with17hrs 22mins, so fast did he walk, he
arrived on the outskirts of Blackpool,
on Saturday morning, before His Lordship, the Mayor was out of bed, so his
Lordship had to be hastily awakened, in order to receive him.
Out of the 54 entered on the programme,
44 started the race, and only 20 finished, so that there was 9 new Centurions
this year. Well I think that’s all about the walk.
If you
have any pictures or news you would
like to see on these pages send them to
Anne
Sweeney
or
Bob
Shepherd
