INTERVIEW
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Photos: The Reading Half Marathon pictures. 28/03/2009 - Dave finished in 2 hours 45mins and Jamie finished in 1 hour 35mins 20secs
Marathon mid-life crisis
They both smoke, they’re both new to long-distance running, and they’re
related. But, as Island Life finds, their approach to the London Marathon
couldn’t be more different
A more unlikely pair of marathon runners
would be hard to find. Oh there is nothing
about these two that would particularly
mark them out from the rest of 37,000
to run the London Marathon on April
26th. It is the partnership that is unusual.
Meeting them is like having a pre-match
team talk with Laurel and Hardy.
Dave Ward and Jamie Berry are uncle
and nephew. Dave, approaching his 50th
birthday last year, decided he wanted to
give up smoking. “So I decided I’d run
the London Marathon,” said Dave. “I
wouldn’t be able to smoke then!”
As you spend time with David, you
realise that this is a most uncharacter-
Article by Roz Whistance
istically simple thought. Every aspect of
his training and the races he is about to
undertake are investigated and analysed –
and agonised over.
Then there is Jamie. Jamie is David’s
nephew, who is younger and more athletic,
though also a smoker. “We weren’t
prepared to let him do it on his own,”
he smiles. The “we” is the family, and
originally the running team were to have
consisted of David’s other two nephews
Alex and Robert. But John hurt his back
and was forbidden by the doctor to run,
Alex has had perpetual knee injuries, and
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Robert has just been posted with the army
to Afghanistan. So Team Fezz is now just
the two of them.
Rather than risk not getting through the
ballot for the marathon 200,000 enter each
year – they opted to buy a golden ticket,
which guarantees you a place, but also
requires you to raise £1,500 for a charity
of your choice. Dave chose Asthma UK,
because his daughter Shannen suffers
from the illness. They have devised a
competition whereby the closest ticket
holder to guess to their finishing times
wins £100.
Dave fully admits it was turning fifty
that brought on this rush for fitness. “I
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