The Fires of the City were really stoked in the blazing sunshine when, the Raven 'RON WHEELER' 5k race (5.0086km) took place at 1.15 on the 25th of June. It was run beside the Spirit Canal near St Thomas Moore Street.  The runners set out through docklands, round Shadwell Park, a couple of times and then, finishing near the bridge where the race started.
It is a great relief and social event for the City workers, who cast aside their suits, to compete either with shorts and tea shirts/ singlet's or shorts and bare chested, as the temperature was rising into the 80's.
    The race has been contested as a straight race, quarterly, over 5k for a couple of years and for a couple of  years before that it was a handicap each month over 2.6 miles writes Alastair Aitken and, never reported on before anywhere so, this is exclusive to Running in London.
    The winner on the 25th of June was 43 year old, Stuart Frazer in 17:23 (43) who took up club running with Hercules and Wimbledon AC eighteen months ago. He works for Lockton Insurance Brokers in Lloyd's of London. His best times are 34.52/77.50/2.54 for the 10k/HM/Marathon. In second and third places were Kent AC club runners who both run for Raven Racers in the City. They were James Allchurch (17:34) and Luke Armitage (of Hiscox), a 45 year old runner who did 17:40. In 4th place out of the 24 finishers was Pat Young, M40 (17:55) of Raven Racers, who has run all the quarterly 5k's.  The first woman was Helen Heap, also 43, and an Investment Analyst in Japanese Shares. She trains around Docklands in the lunch hours and is hoping to join Serpentine RC, first claim, as she works in London, although her first claim club at the moment is Overton, and her PB is 41.50 for 10k but she insists "I need more pace and speed sessions to get my time for 10k down."
    These days the 'Centre Point' for running in the City is the new City of London Running club that call themselves the Ravens Racers. The four club runners, all work in Insurance in the City who started that. They were Andy Hayward, Phil Hernon, Ricky Goad and Bernie Tuck. They are responsible for getting the new format since January 2004 'Off the ground' and welcome anyone to the quarterly race or to train with them in the lunch hours.
    There is a rich history to this race and the 'Ron Wheeler' connection, goes back to early 1974. Andy Hayward, now Alea Managing Claims Director, used to attend the gym in the late 1980's early 90's at the School of Navigation, City of London Poly, now the London Guildhall University. That was where many city runners and keep fit people met in the lunch hour in the 70's.80's and 90's to go out for runs together (Dave Bedford was a member for a year and ran out with the groups from there in the 70's). Andy Hayward was also inspired by the 'Great' talk about  the City of London Poly 2 3/4 mile road races, when he was with his friends at  Ranelagh Harriers., particularly by John Hanscombe and Alan Hedger, who used to do  that City race so, he decided, with all that enthusiasm, to start the event again years later but this time in Docklands. (A gap from 88' to 2004!!)
   Prior history dictates that In 1974 Martin Burgess (Basildon AC), a PE instructor at the City of London Poly, from 1 till 2 '0'clock, who worked for the Manufacturers Hannover Trust, decided to start the first ever City of London Poly AC Handicap in the City. Alastair Aitken did the 'National' publicity on the race and on every occasion for the event, that eventually dwindled away in the late 80's, Ron Wheeler did the timing. Even when the gym team for COLP  came 'Unofficially second in the Imperial Colleges Hyde Park Road Relay,
Ron was there. He first came to time  from the Baltic Exchange where he was  made redundant then, from his job as a Senior lecturer at Capel Manor. He passed away in early 2000 but Phil Hernon, one of the 'Movers and Shakers' of the current event said let us call our new event The Ron Wheeler Road race..
            Looking back now one realises the old City of London Poly event was a hair raising affair, as it was run from opposite the Trade Centre, where one crossed the East Smithfield road, and all the  juggernauts used to come down there (But then the start was changed after half a dozen handicap races to the opposite side of the road to save lives!) and then round Shadwell Park once and back to the start. It was over 2 3/ 4  miles or very fractionally under that and, some fantastic times were set up by a collection of County runners and Internationals. Here are some of them.
      Jon Wigley of Invicta AC smashed the record with a time of 12.02, running the last part bravely in the middle of the road! Other fast times included Ossie Arif (12.22), Mike Harmer (12.23), Tom  Woods and Andy Catton (12.27), Mike Beevor (12.28), Craig Ross (12.31), Ron Symington (12.35), Paul Bryan and Colin Moxsom (12.46), Peter Brenchley (12.53) and Adrian Stewart (13.00). Len Parrott was the Veteran record holder with 13.08 and his popular Havering & Maysbrook clubmate Mike Robinson ran 13.13. It was not an easy task to break 14 minutes. I only did it twice and my best was 13.47 and I was running at the top of my form ever!.
    My observation tells me that the current quarterly races appear as popular as the City Poly race at its height which is good news
for the future.