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[PELLMELL]

March 01, 2003

Brasher brought joy of running to the masses
By John Goodbody



CHRIS BRASHER would have appreciated the point. You had to have run with the man to have fully appreciated him. His death yesterday from cancer at the age of 74 will be followed by a private funeral. That is just as well because there is not a stadium, let alone church, in the land that could have accommodated everyone who would have wished to attend. Many have run with him. Others would have wanted to have done so, if only to say “thank you”.
Millions of those inspired by his founding of the London Marathon owe Brasher a debt that they will never be able to repay. As his friend and athletic contemporary, Sir Christopher Chataway, once remarked: “Nothing since Adolf Hitler and the Blitz has done more for London’s community spirit than Brasher and the London Marathon.”

Anyone who ran with Brasher can testify to his unusual determination, or to use an old-fashioned term, “guts”. This was nurtured on the notorious “Crick Run” at Rugby School, further developed at Cambridge University, and displayed in his pacing of Sir Roger Bannister in the first sub-four-minute mile and, above all, in the 1956 Olympic steeplechase final when, against all expectations, he won the gold medal.

Even in middle age, he remained a runner of unyielding spirit. During the first athletics World Cup in Düsseldorf in 1977, I ran with him in the forest near our hotel. Since I was 15 years younger than him and relatively fit at the time, I fancied my chances in the series of hilly intervals he set us to cover, particularly when he gave me some seconds start.

What I remember from that day was his absolute refusal to be beaten. Just as I thought I would finish ahead of Brasher, I would hear his heavy tread behind me. Then he would come charging through, head stuck out like a rhinoceros to overtake me. You could feel the steel in his will.

Brasher used that determination in other areas of life, into every one of which he poured his consuming enthusiasm. There were all his other outdoor interests: skiing, mountaineering and orienteering. He was an outstanding sports journalist, particularly on the Olympics. Usually wearing a knotted red neckerchief, he would look intently at competitors through his glasses and then cross-question them with a demanding authority that many found intimidating. However, he was usually generous in his praise and always conveyed a passion for athletics until the mid-1990s, when he became disillusioned.

Brasher was also a BBC television reporter and producer, eventually becoming Head of General Features, although such an august organisation was not suited to his abrasive style and he resigned after four years. He was an immensely successful businessman, marketing shoes and outdoor equipment.

However, his greatest feat came in 1981, when, together with John Disley, he invented the London Marathon.

Eighteen months earlier, he had run in the New York Marathon and the experience infused his vision. Brasher wrote an article in The Observer describing the experience, saying: “To believe this story you must believe that the human race can be one joyous family, working together, laughing together, achieving the impossible. I believe it because I saw it happen. Last Sunday, in one of the most violent, trouble-stricken cities in the world, 11,502 men, woman and children from 40 countries of the world, assisted by 2.5 million black, white and yellow people, Protestants and Catholics, Jews and Muslims, Buddhists and Confucians, laughed and cheered and suffered during the greatest folk festival the world has seen. And at the end of it all the story was written in their faces — faces of contentment and happiness . . . I was one of those thousands who won the New York Marathon. For the more than 10,000 of us who finished, it was a great personal victory over doubt and fear, body and mind.”

Brasher determined to duplicate the experience in London and there is no doubt that without his consuming drive, this would have been impossible. He often faced bureaucratic indifference at best or rank opposition at worst. The workload was enormous but he trampled over any obstacle — and an extraordinary event was created. As he said: “Many people came up to me afterwards and said that it was one of the happiest days of their lives. So that made it one of the happiest days of my life.”

In recent weeks, there has been much private discussion about who should lead London’s bid to stage the 2012 Olympics, should the Government finance the attempt. The ideal candidate, many agreed, would be a person such as Chris Brasher. Unfortunately, there are so few available possessing his qualities. And now the original has gone.
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A CLOSED MOUTH GATHERS NO FOOT.

[Micah Ward]

An interesting look at a guy who you could say was the Fred Lebow of London.
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[Paul]

I believe Chris Basher was one of Roger Bannister's regular workout partners, from what I read recently.