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Views on life as seen
through the eyes of David Kupler (Y74) at…
KUPKAKE’S KORNER A TRUE STORY OF HACKNEY… It was a narrow street in Hackney He passed two vacant spaces Still closer they continued Behind the errant driver There were several vehicles back
there Now the doors were opened But the bling-encrusted young man There were no points worth gaining And so I continued driving Kopyright Kupkake 2009 |
DaCs Multi-Marathon Man! |
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By the time you
read this, Martin Leat (P35) will have completed two full
26-mile marathons in the same month! When we caught up with this man
on the move, he was preparing to reprise his Paris
 run
- having previously taken on the French capital’s streets last year.
Martin told Call Sign that he has been running for
around five years and during that time had completed six marathons
in several countries. The 49-year-old told Call Sign:"I started in Dublin with a time of 3 hours 55 minutes, then did the London, Kent Coastal, Berlin, Chicago and then my first Paris - so this is my second time there," he confirmed. "If I can do Paris in under 3:15 this year, it will give me good for age automatic entry into the 2010 London Marathon," he said hopefully. "I began running to raise funds for Macmillan, the cancer charity, after my mother died from the disease. I could accept being bald, which isn’t to bad, but bald and fat? No way," Martin said with a broad grin! More recently he has run to raise funds for the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution), a cause close to his heart as his son is a full-time crew member of the marine charity based at Waterloo Bridge. "I just do the running, others do the hard work of fund-raising. I’m also a member of the Serpentine Running Club, so fellow drivers might see me pounding the course from time to time as they drive through the Park," he added. Asked about his training program, Martin saw our reporter noticeably wilt thinking of the discipline involved in 18 - 22 miles steady running 4 times a week, regardless of the weather! "Sunday morning is the |
hardest," Martin confessed,
"getting up early takes much motivation! On run days, breakfast
consists of porridge, banana and honey, but I
eat healthily all the time, as you might expect," he said. Asked about further running ambitions, Martin admitted to having three - the first of which he has achieved with the completion of a 10K run in under 40 minutes. "I achieved that this past January in Hyde Park, with a time of 39:56 seconds," he told us with obvious satisfaction. "So that leaves two remaining ambitions, which I hope to realise during the year - a half-marathon in under 1hour: 30 mins, with his current best being 1:30:17 seconds, and a full marathon in under 3 hours: 15 mins. I’m working towards it," he said with great confidence. Call Sign asked Martin what it was like to run the London Marathon on home ground and along a route lined with landmarks so familiar during a normal taxi driver’s working day? "At the 18/20 mile marker, energy begins to wane, but you have to push on. Things begin to look up as you round the corner into Admiralty Arch and head down The Mall. You start to perk up knowing it’s not too long to the finishing line!" Taking a breath, he added: "I’m doing the Amsterdam full marathon on 18 October, so there’s plenty of training still to come!" As Call Sign went to press, we learned that Martin had completed the Paris marathon, a race upon which he had placed such high hopes for automatic entry into the 2010 London, in 3:26:30 seconds, sadly some 11.5 minutes longer than the qualifying time of 3:15. "Well there’s always Amsterdam in October," he pointed out optimistically. We at Call Sign wish him good luck and good race times. © Call Sign Magazine MM9 |
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