In 1984 I finished second in a race won by Ireland’s John Treacy. I was so far back that the Times’ headline was “Treacy Wins By A Mile.”In 1984, Charlie Spedding finished a race one place behind Treacy. He was quite a bit closer. Two seconds. The race was the Olympic Marathon in 1984, a race won by Carlos Lopes of Portugal. Both Lopes and Treacy had the pedigree, each having won the World Cross-Country Championships twice. Spedding’s finish was a surprise.
He has written an autobiography, and however unknown he was to me before, his Los Angeles finish remains stunning. But the book, “From Last To First,” goes well beyond I Trained/I Raced. It has a core lesson from which all serious runners can learn.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Because, you see, Spedding is perhaps the greatest Jekyll/Hyde runner of recent years. He was a self-described mediocrity in most of his races (well, among the elite), particularly on the track where he always lacked closing speed. His history of racing on the track, on the roads, and in cross-country is good but not great. And he’d be the first to admit it. (In his first race, in school in Durham, outside of Newcastle, he was given a head-start because he was short and still ended up last. Hence the title.)
Bedeviled by injury, especially in his left Achilles tendon (early on he came within seconds of dying when he had an allergic reaction to an anesthetic while being prepped for surgery on that tendon), how did he win a bronze medal in Los Angeles? How did he get, and still hold, the English best in the Marathon. How, after barely making the British team after injury and dismal result after dismal result did he end up sixth, and the first Brit, in the Seoul Marathon?
The core of the book, and what makes it more than I Trained/I Raced, is Spedding’s ability to peak. The flip-side to this was his relative inability to be competitive in other races. He spent a chunk of time in the U.S., chiefly in the Boston area, and appeared at some of the top races of the time, Peachtree, Gasparrilla, Falmouth, always running well but not great.
Yet his career included the following:
•Third in the TAC 10,000 in 1981, behind Salazar and Duncan McDonald
•England’s Amateur Athletics Association (AAA) 10,000 Champion in 1983
•1st, Houston Marathon, 1984, debut in 2:11:54 (his first, won by a hair)
•1st, London Marathon, 1984 in 2:09:57 (to make the Olympic team he had to be the first Brit, which he obviously was)
•3rd, LA Olympic Marathon, 1984, 2:09:58
•2nd, London Marathon, 1985, 2:08:33 (setting the still-standing English best, to Steve Jones)
•6th, Seoul Olympic Marathon, 1988, 2:12:19
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