20 YEARS OF THE FESTIVAL CITY MARATHON (A somewhat light-hearted look)

The attached information has been gathered while working on a project to identify all people who qualify as Festival City Marathon "Warriors", that is, people who have finished 10 or more FCMs. The project involved entering all results into the computer, merging the data into a single spreadsheet and matching names from different years to identify repeat performers. The task has taken about three months, more or less full time.

A by-product of such a project is a wealth of trivia just waiting to escape and be given the recognition it thinks it deserves. Whether it does or not is a matter of personal opinion. In any case, it is not up to me to judge. Read and enjoy - or read and be bored. It’s your choice.

Comments and feedback are welcome.

Ian Hill, July 1999

The year 1999 marks the 21st running of the Festival City Marathon. The SARRC is celebrating the FCM’s coming of age with a brand new course, broadly speaking the fourth course the event has had. It is fun to look back over the past twenty years and discover some of the more esoteric facts and figures which have emerged from this prestigious event. But before we do that, let’s look at an overview.

1. The FCM has been run, walked or wheeled by 6736 different people a total of 13069 times. That is an average of 1.94 times per person.

2.The year with the most finishers was 1986, with 1937, ahead of 1984 with 1458 and 1983 with 1330. The leanest year was 1996, with just 176 finishers.

3.While data is available on the number of entrants every year, the actual number of starters is only available to 1989. This shows that 84% of entrants actually start. (A perusal of the 1986 entrants list shows that some people enter twice - strange!)

4.Of those who do start, 93% make it to the finish. Of those who finish, 39% do (and finish) another FCM. Of those running their first FCM, 100% immediately say "never again" but 27% do finish the event the next year.

5.The average age of finishers in 1979 was 33.5 years. By 1989 it had risen to 39.1 years and by 1997 to 42.9 years. The 1998 average was 40.7 years, the start of a new downwards trend perhaps?

6.Hottest year was 1982, on August 29th when it reached 27 degrees C. Coldest year would have to be 1987, wettest year 1987 or 1980 and windiest year definitely 1979. (By definition windy means a head wind.)

7.Best conditions - toss up between 1998 and 1981.

8.Of the 13069 finishers, 12968 are classed as runners, 71 as walkers and 30 as wheelchairs. The actual number of walkers would be far more but for some years data is not available to identify them as such, so they are called runners.

9.The year with most wheelchair finishers was 1983, with six, followed by 1991 with five, the last year in which we saw wheelchair finishers. The wheelchair course record is 2:01.59 by Peter Trotter in 1983.

10.The FCM champion is Desiree Letherby with four victories, 1980,81,83,86. Men’s champion is John Duck, with three wins from 1987-89.

11.The fastest average finish time was the 1991 event with 3:37.36. Slowest was 1997 with 3:57.39.

1.The event record is held by Steve Poulton, 2:20.23 in 1984. He ran the entire race in a training T-shirt because his racing singlet and number was locked in someone’s boot!

2.The female event record is held by Gill Dunning, 2:46.31, also in 1984. It is understood that Gill wore more conventional running attire in setting this record.

3.The closest men’s race was in 1995 when Gary Zeuner won by 8 seconds. The closest women’s race was in 1987 when Julie Cummings won by 1 minute 13 seconds.

4.In the heat affected race of 1982 both male and female winners won by margins which still stand as FCM records. Colin Neave (2:21.10) won by 4.41 and Anne Mann (2:52.24) won by 19.19. These are arguably the greatest performances in the history of the sharp end of the event.

5.The youngest finisher was Paul Quinn, age 10, in 1982 (5:55.46). Youngest female was Vanessa Berg, 12 years, in 1983 (5:43.02). The 18 year age limit was first introduced in 1984.

6.The oldest finisher was 80 year old Alf Ryan in 1994 (5:49.38). Oldest female is 68 years, shared between Doreen Cock in 1991 (3:52.50) and Helen Agostini in 1993 (5:04.52).

7.A total of seventy people have completed 10 or more FCMs, headed by the magnificent seven who have done all twenty. (Actually Ross Martin has done 22 FCMs but don’t tell him - or he’ll want his own unique T-Shirt).

8.As noted before, John Duck finished in 1st place in three consecutive years. Fairly impressive but not so unusual. What is unusual and equally as impressive is that Douglas Kewley finished in 12th place four consecutive years, from 1992-95. The odds of doing that are about the same as being dealt a poker hand of four aces.

9.Highest overall placing by a female runner was 9th place (out of 171 runners) by Linda Christison in 1996 (2:53.03). In percentage terms, Anne Mann finished highest, 27th of 870 runners in the heat of 1982 (2:52.24).

10.Since 1981 the FCM has consistently attracted a relatively high proportion of female runners (around 11% of the field). The high point was in 1986 with 14.97% while the figure for 1979 was just 3.02%.

11.The event has always been held in August except for the first two years (October) and 1987 (19th July) and 1991 (1st September). The 1991 date was memorable because it clashed with the World Championships Marathon in Tokyo and we all had our VCRs going and were hoping that no-one would bleat out the result before we got home.

12.The 1000th different person to finish the FCM was Terence Bradford in 1981 (3:14.54).

13.The 10,000th finisher across the line was Pamela Satchell in 1988, 652nd place in 5:07.13.

14.Steve Bray holds the unique distinction of improving on his previous best FCM time 6 consecutive times, in 1983 (over 1982),84,85,86,89 and 92. Five others, including the current race director, have done it five times. The female record is held jointly by Helen Bridges, Tina Griguol and Sharon Sharpe, with four times each.

15.The quest for the holy grail (sub 3 hours) is a common one. It has been achieved by runners a total of 1402 times, which by an amazing coincidence is also the total number of female performances over the 20 years of the FCM.

16.Four people have run under 3 hours at least ten times, but John Bannon is the only one to do it 11 times. Four female runners have run sub-3 hours more than once, headed by Desiree Letherby who has done it three times. One person has run exactly three hours, Denis Stewart in 1986.

17.Only one person has recorded exactly the same time in more than one FCM. Malcolm Edmonds ran 3:39.10 in both 1991 and 1992.

18.Further consistency was recorded by Mark Zocchi who ran four successive marathons in 2 hrs 58 minutes and change in 1983,84,85 and 87.

19.The biggest gap between successive FCMs is the highest possible 19 years by Geoff Ingram, who ran 1979 in 3:19.03 and 1998 in 3:14.16 and no FCMs in between. The 1998 results show that Geoff, from NSW, ran in the Interservices division of the marathon.

20.The smallest gap between successive FCM finishes was recorded by 15 year old Jonathan Abrahams, who did this by improving his 12th October 1980 time of 4:53.07 to 3:13.10 on 2nd August 1981. The actual interval is 294 days, 20 minutes and 3 seconds, there being a 6 am start in 1980 and 8 am start in 1981.

21.In 1987, Derek Turnbull, 60, from New Zealand ran 2:38.46 to set a world best for his age.

The results have come out in many shapes and sizes and are a tribute to the technology at the time. However, sometimes the computer had an off day:

1.Positions 351 in 1979 and 119 and 219 in 1980 simply do not exist! These are suspected disqualifications of bandits. Bruce Abrahams shouting "unofficial" at the video replay of the 1981 marathon is still a vivid recollection.

2.In 1981 the positions were out of order at 14 different places.

3.In 1986 the runner at position 506 recorded a time of 3:25.1E. As position 505 recorded 3:25.19 this person was given the same time.

4.In 1984 position 759 recorded a time two seconds faster than position 758.

5.In 1980 position 196 was filled by "Fred Nirkey ????" (complete with question marks).

Other trivia:

6.Ross Martin has finished the FCM 22 times (as noted earlier) but has 23 different official times in the results. Work that one out!

7.An ancestor to the "magnificent seven" was the "dirty dozen". One of the founding members, Kenneth Graham, ran the first 12 FCMs. Whenever he used his full name he ran slower than three hours and whenever he shortened his name to "Ken" he ran faster than three hours. A little less weight helps!

8.The most bizarre occurrence in the history of the FCM came from another member of the dirty dozen who had no choice but to be in Scotland at the time of the 1992 event. He actually requested that he run a marathon in Scotland on the same weekend and continue to be regarded as a member of the group that had run all FCMs!

9.The only finisher ever to be listed in the results by their initial only was A. Heard in 1979. He was later identified as Anthony Heard by finishing in 1984.

10.Looking at the 6736 people who have run and finished the event, the most common surname is Smith, with 53 occurrences. Most common male name is John with 368 and female name, Helen with 22, although Sue/Susan occurs 23 times. Yes, there is a John Smith and Sue Smith and Susan Smith, but no Helen Smith.

11.The time of 3:37.59 has been recorded nine times in eight different years and 3:47.33 recorded nine times in four different years. The latter time caused the biggest strain on the judges in the event’s history in 1983 when five runners recorded that time.

12.An amazing coincidence occurred in 1987 when a group of three people recorded the time of 6:56.55. Not unusual in itself, but in 1986 a group of four people had finished in 6:56.55. One member of the 1986 group was Mary Hartley who a few years earlier declared her PB to be 2 hours and 181 minutes!

13.Of 7708 performances in the 3 hours group the biggest gap is 5 seconds, achieved twice, between 3:10.17 - 3:10.22 and 3:16.59 - 3:17.04. (Obviously, at times the author has had nothing better to do!)

14.Looking at the "seconds" part of the time only, each figure between 0-59 can be expected to occur 218 times. However, there are some rebels. The figure 59 has been recorded 259 times, which is not surprising as people rush to get "under" the next minute. The most reluctant figure is 47, recorded only 164 times and 24 times behind the next most reluctant (3). The only plausible explanation is that 47 is 13 seconds short of the next minute and therefore presents a hoodoo, much like the score of 87 in cricket.

15.The 1990 results are in one of those rare books with the even numbered pages on the right hand side.

16.As noted, only one runner has run exactly 3:00.00. No-one has recorded exactly 2,4,5,6,7,8,9 or 10 hours. Closest to achieving one of these other marks has been 3:59.59, 4:00.01 and 9:59.59 (I kid you not). The wheelchair guys have given 2 hours a nudge.

17.Of those who have run the FCM twice only (a group of 1286 people), two people recorded more than 5 hours for their first and sub 3 hours for their second. In the first instance a teacher ran with his students the first year and then by himself the next. The second case was a youngster who ran about half his time when double his age.

18.The gap between 2nd and 3rd male finishers in 1988 was a whopping 9 minutes and 14 seconds, probably an Australian record for major marathons. The third placegetter is still shaking his head in disbelief (that he got third).

19.The easy to remember time of 3:33.33 has been recorded 3 times (of course). The positions of 2:22.22, 4:44.44 and 5:55.55 are still vacant.

20.The first FCM in 1979 has many distinctions, but one of the most unusual is that it still holds the record for the fastest last placegetter for both males and females, 5:34.43 and 5:18.24 respectively. Next closest was 1994, when the timekeepers were able to pack up after 5 hours, 49 minutes and 38 seconds.

21.The FCM has been held on the last Sunday in August nine times but never on August 27th.

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