LITMIR.BIZ

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join the Club or existing members wishing to update their performances must provide a list of all the races they claim to have run, complete with dates and times. Roger will then check the validity of such races, making sure they have been run in accordance with Club rules and verifying the results.

      There are a few things that haven’t changed, though, such as the engraving of new centurions’ names on a cup, although The Cup soon became full and a special plinth has now taken its place; a medal (bronze in colour and inscribed with the Club logo on one side and a personal inscription including name, place and date of the individual’s 100th marathon on the other) is still awarded to each new member; pins are also awarded for the first 100 and every subsequent century.

      There is also the Club kit. Only full members are entitled to wear the Club colours – royal blue with a luminous yellow side panel and the Club logo, ‘100 Marathon Club’, the ‘100’ set within a laurel wreath and displayed quite modestly just below the shoulder strap. The back of the shirt is a different matter, though – get behind one of these guys in a race and you’ll know it, for here the Club logo is proudly – almost arrogantly – displayed in large, bold, luminous yellow letters that could only be missed by a short-sighted, illiterate mountain goat. Becoming the owner of the kit is understandably a matter of great pride.

      ‘It cannot be bought like a university T-shirt – there is only one way to attain it and that is to have completed 100 marathons,’ says Roger.

      TODAY

      Five years on from its inception and the website reflects not only the progress of a successful club, but the steady growth in membership of a club that people might be forgiven for thinking would attract only the clinically insane! However, with full membership currently standing at over 200, as well as the Club’s 50+ ‘wannabes’, either the world is producing more than its fair share of madmen or more and more perfectly sane, intelligent people have found something that not only keeps them physically fit, but perhaps more importantly and maybe somewhat conversely, keeps them mentally well balanced, as well as giving them a real sense of wellbeing.

      It also offers them a lifestyle they might not otherwise have enjoyed. With many running every weekend, there is a need to look further afield than the UK for races and it’s not unusual for Club members to finish work on a Friday, jump on a plane on Saturday and run a marathon on Sunday before returning to work on the Monday.

      ‘When you tell people what you do they react with shock and go away shaking their heads, clearly thinking you are mad,’ explains one member. ‘But it’s a great life, a great way to stay fit and see places you wouldn’t see, if not for the marathon.’

      Put like that, it certainly sounds rather more fulfilling, not to mention exciting, than many people’s weekend ritual of car washing, shopping and drinking at the local pub! Not that those who run multiple marathons don’t drink or know how to have fun either. You won’t find many of them tucked up in bed at six o’clock on pre-race night, they are more likely to be found in some hospitable hostelry, making friends with the locals and sampling the ales.

      ‘It’s a great way to see the world, meet new friends and try the beers,’ says another member.

      It would also seem that while running is often cited as an individual sport, conversely, it is actually a great way to make new friends and keep in touch with old ones. Often members of the 100 Club collectively arrange trips away, both at home and abroad, flying out from various UK airports before meeting up in some foreign city, from whence they will eat, drink and explore together as a group.

      To keep life interesting, the Club constantly issues fresh challenges to its members, such as running a marathon in the most different countries, or counties (a potential total of 103, including Ireland), or running the most marathons in a year. As well as meeting such challenges and setting records within the Club, several members hold world and nationally recognised records, such as the first Brit to have run a marathon in all 50 American States, the person to have run the most marathons in a career (780 and counting) and the youngest person in the world to have run 100 marathons (23).

      Indeed, perhaps one of the most surprising things about the Club is that its members are not all in their dotage, with ages ranging from 23 to 76. Naturally, there are women as well as men and several couples listed as members. One married couple have completed over 600 marathons between them.

      Add to that honorary life members in the form of two wheelchair racers and a blind runner, who is guided round races by sighted members and you begin to appreciate that this is a club with no prejudices and only one prerequisite to membership – the completion of 100 marathons. It makes no distinction between race, colour, creed or ability. That in itself must be considered a worthy achievement.

      As such, it is a club that is full of colourful, contrasting characters, distinct individuals with idiosyncratic personalities and diverse lifestyles, creating a gargantuan melting pot of humanity. Yet, despite such diversity, one common desire links them all together: to run, and run and run.

      TOMORROW

      Who knows? 1,000 is possible, even probable. But maybe the best thing that could happen would be the formalisation of a worldwide constitution so that proper comparisons might be made on an international level.

       MILE 2

       VIRGINS AND SLUTS

      Virgin – someone who has never run a marathon before. Slut – someone who, while running one marathon, is thinking about another. Commonly a 100 Marathon Club member.

      You never forget your first time. Whether you only ever do it once or you end up doing it 100 times, the first time remains with you always. You’ll be able to recall with clarity the weather, the people you met, how many drink stations you stopped at along the way, at what mile you felt your best (and your worst), how your nipples fared and what underwear you wore – and despite those last two references you’ll have guessed by now that I’m not talking about sex.

      You will also be able to recall that magical moment when you stepped across the finishing line after covering 26.2 miles on foot, unaided, with only your mind and body for company. That’s not to discount the thousands of other runners who ran it with you or the crowds cheering you on along the way or the countless officials, who handed you water and gels or placed a medal around your neck. There was only one person who got you from the start to the finish, and that person was you.

      It was you who kept going despite the burning pain of a blister on your little toe that rubbed against the side of your trainer with every step you took, it was you who kept going when your legs screamed at your brain to tell you to ‘STOP, STOP NOW!’, and it was you who kept going when your heart banged painfully inside your chest and your lungs tightened and had you gasping for air like a fish out of water.

      And it is because of those things that when you finally cross the line and feel the soft brush of a warm hand placing a ribbon around your neck and the contrasting cold, harsh metal that almost knocks your teeth out as you bend over in an effort to locate a pocket of air in your chest, making you take the medal in your hand as you straighten up, you cast your eyes downwards and stare almost in surprise at the gong in your hand confirming what you have just achieved. You study the inscription, move your fingers around the rough edges, caress the solid piece of metal and slowly a smile spreads its way across your face, despite the fact that you have never felt worse in your entire life. And you know a moment of pure, unadulterated joy, the joy that comes with the knowledge of all you have suffered yet never given in to, of the months spent training alone on cold dark nights, of revelling in the aches and pains in your body that are part of your achievement and make it real.

      And as you look around, you see others – total strangers, their faces mirroring your own emotions and that same slow smile spreading its way across their faces –

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