Barry Watson

Barry is a marathon runner extra-ordinaire!, at his probable peak in 1976 he won the Rotherham marathon and was selected to represent Britain in the Montréal Olympics. Unfortunately all the British team came down with a bug just before the race and he came a disappointing 45th , even more frustrating as he went on to beat the majority of runners who had beaten him in the Kosice marathon another race a few weeks later!
He has won several international marathons and has run under 2 hours 16 minutes, 3 times. When you consider the relatively crude conditions of that era you can get a good idea of the value of his best times. Road closures, blue lines flat courses plus special footwear, training and scientific diets were little explored in the 1970's.
Amongst his victories were Glasgow and Essonne near Paris and he came second in an international field in Stockholm. In the London Marathon he has run 2 hours 18 to win the over 40's category and twice won the over 45's class. Although he considers 10 miles too short he has run this event in 47 minutes!
Today he has more or less stopped running competitive races but runs 5 miles almost daily for pleasure!
Barry is helping us to promote The Somme Poppy Marathon ‘Marathon du Pays du Coquelicot' in England where he has many contacts and we hope to see Barry here in the Somme, September 14th 2008, maybe we will be able to persuade him to don his trainers and run with us (all for a good cause of course!)