An Interview With David Bedford

David Bedford was the bearded rebel who dominated the long distance world of athletics in the early 1970’s. In 2008 he is the Race Organiser of the London Marathon, but he still remains the same affable, talkative, character he was at his athletic peak.

The huge organizational job that is the London Marathon outwardly weighs lightly on his shoulders The London Marathon was started by Chris Brasher in 1981. Brasher died five years ago, which is when David took over.

"The way I view it is that there have been two stages of the marathon," Bedford explains.  "Only Chris would have got it started in those days. I became Race Director in 1998 and I think this has allowed stage two to take effect, allowing the race to become a large street party."

"There were very few marathons in 1981. The people taking part were your club runners who took it very seriously. If you asked them what they wanted to do they would say, ‘I want to break three hours’. These days the first thing you would ask is, ‘who are you running for?’  50% are raising funds for a charity, and most of them are not club runners. Last year they raised £46.5 million -which went down in the Guinness Book of Records as a world record.”

He laughs as he recalls that ten years ago, he thought this was one of the hardest jobs he has ever had on the organizational side.

"I had to visit every single pub on the marathon course - not the worst job I’ve done - but that is why you now see bands and things outside most of the pubs, because we helped them find bands, gave them giveaways, programmes and tshirts.  For some of them it is their biggest revenue day of the year.  There are 80 pubs on the route and they are now all co-ordinated. We put 60 bands on the course, and we only pay them expenses, not a fee."

"We also put ads in local papers, so we get all the local communities involved. The first people we seek out are the community leaders along the way, because they know everyone and everything.  Then we have to put water stations in at every mile, from three miles onwards. There are five showers on the course, that they can run under and refresh themselves. Of course, these were very popular last year because it was a very hot day."

"I don’t have to worry about things like that now, because they are automatic parts of the marathon plan. Yes, we do have contingency plans if the shit hit the proverbial fan, but I hope we never have to test them," Bedford explains.

"On the day, my shift starts at 4am and I oversee the final preparations at the start. Then I dive to the finish so I am  there when the elite athletes finish. This year we lost Paula Radcliffe due to injury before the race, but we had a stronger field than will appear at the Olympics. The key for us is the mix.  Two years ago we had six sprinting together down the Mall at the end of the race. It was great in the 1990’s when Eamonn Martin won it for Great Britain.”

As for Bedford himself he did run the marathon. 

"I ran the first one in 1981. I only decided the night before and I had been drinking. It took me 45 minutes to run the last three miles. I’ve only run one since and that was ten years later. I’d love to run it again but I’m afraid my knees have gone these days.  I don’t even run for fitness anymore as I have done all my life.”

He says that it takes at least four weeks to go through everything that happened on the great day itself, and review the good and, sometimes, the bad, to see if anything that needs changing.

“After the race I always walk the last three miles of the course back to the Tower Hotel where we are based. Yes, I do stop for a pint on the way. I always have a pint of London Pride, because that is a London beer that I like."

"I’ll tell you something I have never told anyone before.  I was looking at some old photos of Londoners celebrating on the streets when the Second World War was finished and won.  When I walk  that last three miles of the course I look at the faces and I now realize that they are the same happy faces of Lononders which I had seen in the old photographs. The crowds maybe younger, but they are still the same British faces enjoying themselves on the streets of London.”

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