Q&A - Paul Clarke

How long have you been running? 

More than 50 years.

 

What made you start running? 

I played rugby until I was 30 and we did a fair bit of running as part of our training. When I gave up playing, I just kept running for fitness. We had just moved to South Cave and it proved to be an ideal base for running: hills, trails, it’s all on the doorstep.

 

Biggest running achievement?

I suppose keeping going is the obvious answer. But as a one off it must be that I have done a marathon. It took me 4 hours and 20 minutes to run from Costello to Grimsby (in 1983?), never having run further than a half marathon previously. There were no training plans on the internet in those days: come to think of it, there was no internet!

Three things about me:

1. For a while in the 1990s I was a visiting professor at Anglia Ruskin University. Yes really.
2. I once got a hat-trick of tries playing for Hullensians against our big rivals Old Hymerians.
3. The Bridge Board gave me an entry into the first Humber Bridge half marathon as a thank you for the work I did on the royal opening. I did it in an hour 52: that’s the race; the opening took two years to plan.

Favourite Race:  probably the Haltemprice 10K. I’ve got nearly 30 mugs and I have done it in 45:04 (but not this century). 

 

 

Running goal for 2023:  it was to do 10K in under an hour and I made it at Cleethorpes. Now I want to do it again.

Running Tip:  I think somebody stole this idea but …Just Do It! I started running when we didn’t have watches to tell us the pace and distance and our training was basic to say the least. And that has got me through dozens of half marathons and probably more than 200 10Ks so I still have the idea in my head that you just turn up and run.

Trainers: Niké ZoomX Vaporfly for races; Brooks Hyperion Tempo for training. And to think I used to play squash wearing Dunlop Green Flash, then go for a run in them 😊

Headphones? Definitely, when I’m running on my own or in races where they will allow it. I love a nice steady beat – Tusk by Fleetwood Mac will take 30 seconds off your 10K time.

Favourite Food: sorry, I’m not a food person. I could happily live on scrambled eggs on toast and for a treat I like bananas and custard. Cheap date!

 

Three celebrities I’d invite to a dinner: Bonnie Raitt, one of the best ever blues guitarists; Ted Lewis, sadly no longer with us, but a superb writer who lived in Barton, went to college in Hull, and wrote the book that was filmed as Get Carter (the book was set in Scunthorpe but for some reason the flm, starring Michael Caine as a gangster, moved the location to Newcastle!): and Gareth Edwards, almost exactly the same age as me and also played scrum half. But that’s where the comparison ends – he scored probably the greatest try ever!

Best thing about being a kuhac Runner:

1) Seeing the lovely welcome people have given Fynn and his progress to being a good runner. One day I must apologise for protesting digitally as he ran past me on a Winter League run (see photo).

2) The great people you meet and the chance to try new things. I nearly gave up running when my long-term running partner died suddenly but then someone suggested Kingston, I went to Welton to try hill training and joined a week later. That opened up the possibility of things like running on the track, which I had never done, Champagne League and Summer League (which I had never heard of) and hill races. Whatever comes along, I have tried it and never been disappointed.

And I soon discovered there is always someone ready to help. I’ve been paced to times that I didn’t think I could get anymore by the likes of David and Steve and have made friends not only across our club but, through parkruns and the leagues, with people across the running community.

And finally a question which Lisa didn’t ask me but Parkrun did, in a recent email….”Paul, want to find out how to pick the best sports bra for you?” excuse me?!