I’ve been a runner for almost as long as I can remember – certainly since primary school. I was a half-decent Senior sprinter, during the 1970’s and early 1980’s, winning Club and County titles, and taking part regularly in Southern League. A bad back injury put paid to that, but still allowed me the time to develop a deep love of many of the mountainous areas of Europe, especially the Dolomites of Northern Italy. I was lucky to have the opportunity to work there regularly for many years, leading groups for a well-known holiday company.
My promise to run a full marathon when I was 40 didn’t happen. Mind you, I put in some good half marathon times during the “fun running” boom of the late 1980’s! It wasn’t until May 2001 that I finally plucked up the courage to go back on to the track, and see if I could still run fast.
By 2004 I’d realised that I was competitive in my Masters age group at a national level. March 2006 found me, wide eyed and innocent, at the World Masters Indoor Championships. I was delighted to be part of the silver medal-winning GB 4x200 metres relay squad. I was a finalist in the M50 100 metres in the European Masters in Poland later in the year. I won gold with the relay team in the European Masters Indoors in Helsinki in March 2007, outdoors at the World Masters in 2007 and 2009, and also at the World Masters Indoors in France in March 2008. I look forward to many more years competing as a Master.
Where cameras came into it all is a bit less clear. Somewhere along the line, I started to get the occasional mountain photograph published, and applied myself diligently to trying to capture on film what the mountains meant to me. The digital camera revolution changed many things. I found that bringing “the athletes eye” to track and field photography worked quite well, and for the last few years, I have become ever more keen to use my photographs to try to see Masters athletics get the recognition it deserves.
I am an accredited photographer for the British Masters Athletics Federation and for the European Veterans Athletics Association. I’ve recently been described as “The fastest cameraman in the world”. Who knows? I don’t know who else might, as it were, be in the running.
