I Ran The World, 35 years ago

Sport Aid, supported by Band Aid and UNICEF, organised Run The World on Sunday 25th May 1986, timed to coincide with a UNICEF development conference.  It was a worldwide event where, at 3pm GMT, a total of 19.8m runners ran, jogged or walked 10km to support African famine relief charities.

Coming up the hill out of Rushton, heading for Rothwell.  Mark Guyett & I are in the centre of the picture (he's on the left).

Official events were held in 274 cities over 76 countries - 200,000 Londoners completed the course in our fair capital, 50,000 ran in Barcelona, 30,000 in Athens, 20,000 in Dublin and 10,000 in Melbourne.  The leg of it that I ran, with my friends Nick Duncan and Mark Guyett, started and ended in Desborough, going through Rushton and Rothwell on the way.  I remember that it was a warm day, I remember the happy atmosphere and camaraderie amongst us all and I especially remember the seasoned runners coming back from the finish line as we passed Montsaye School and calling out “only another mile to go” as they went.

Nick and me, in training.  As hard as it might be to believe now, those shorts were in fashion at the time.

Over $37m was raised and it apparently still holds the record as the sporting event with the most participants in history.  I’m proud to have been part of it.

As I recall, entry was contingent on you buying a t-shirt and they were iconic at the time - most of us wore them for some time afterwards.  I kept mine and tried it on for the 30th anniversary and was chuffed to find that it fitted me!  There's no picture evidence but it still fits today!

Me, in 2016

The t-shirt front and back