The Road Runners Club is an association of road runners formed in 1952 to encourage the athletic discipline of road running

Road running

Road running is the sport of running on a measured course over an established road . These events would be classified as long distance according to athletics terminology, with distances typically ranging from 5 kilometers to 42.2 kilometers in the marathon. They may involve large numbers of runners...

 in the United Kingdom.

History

The RRC was founded under the leadership of Ernest Neville (1883 - 1972) as a result of the success of the London to Brighton road running race he had organised, and which took place on August 11th 1951 as part of the Festival of Britain

Festival of Britain

The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition in Britain in the summer of 1951. It was organised by the government to give Britons a feeling of recovery in the aftermath of war and to promote good quality design in the rebuilding of British towns and cities. The Festival's centrepiece was in...

 celebrations . Ernest had a lot of previous experience of organising Road 'Walking' races from London to Brighton and was just as passionate about 'Road Running'.

The second London to Brighton Race was staged in 1952 and became an annual event until 2005 when organisational difficulties prevented its continuation on public roads. The exact distance varied over the years from 52 miles 694 yards to 55 miles due to road and course changes. Its "sister" race, the Comrades

Comrades Marathon

The Comrades Marathon is an ultramarathon of approximately 90 km run in the Kwazulu-Natal Province of South Africa between the cities of Durban and Pietermaritzburg. It is the world's largest and oldest ultramarathon race...

 of South Africa, held over a similar distance, pre-dates RRC London to Brighton race,(first race 1921) and continues to this day (2011).

The main trophies at the London to Brighton race were the Arthur Newton trophy (named after another RRC founding member) for the winner and, for the first winning team, the "Len Hurst" belt (which had previously been won by the well-known pedestrian runner

Pedestrianism

Pedestrianism was a 19th-century form of competitive walking, often professional and funded by wagering, from which the modern sport of racewalking developed.-18th- and early 19th-century Britain:...

 of the late 19th and early 20th Century), donated by his wife to the RRC.

In addition to the London to Brighton race the RRC has organised and sponsored various long distance track races when numerous records were set. These included 24 hour and 50 mile track races. Amongst the 100 mile track races were the following:

• 100 mile track World Best (11:38:54) - Cavin Woodward, October 1975, Tipton near Birmingham
• 100 mile track World Best (11:30:51) - Don Ritchie, October 1977, Crystal Palace, London
• 100 mile track World Best (11:28:03) - Oleg Kharitanov, October 2002, Crystal Palace, London

The club's success resulted in similar organisations being established elsewhere in the world, in particular the Road Runners Club of America

Road Runners Club of America

Founded in 1958, the Road Runners Club of America is the oldest and largest distance running organization in the United States with over 1500 running club and event members representing 200,000 individual runners active in their running communities...

, and RRCs in India, Korea, New Zealand and South Africa.

The club's badge was designed by a Harold Murrells and is based on the symbol for the Greek element air.

The RRC was important in developing accurate course measurement and procedures for the correct organisation of long distance Road and Track races. Both were pioneered by the late John Jewell. He is still acknowledged as a leading pioneer in this field by certified course measurers around the world. The race procedures he formulated are still also the basics with which races are organised world wide.

John Jewell also initiated a "Standards Scheme" whereby members are awarded certificates for achieving set times over a range of distances. Over the years the scheme has been extended to include times for women and for Masters.

Structure

The club's constitution states that the management of the club be vested in a council whose members are:

• President
• Past Presidents
• Up to 30 Vice-Presidents
• Honorary General Secretary
• Honorary Treasurer
• and up to 30 other members

Past Presidents

President	First Claim Club	Term in Office
Rex Cross	Blackheath Harriers	1952 - 1953
Sam Ferris	Polytechnic Harriers Polytechnic Harriers The Polytechnic Harriers was founded by philanthropist Quintin Hogg in 1883. He was a firm believer in the health-giving and character-building qualities of sport. He also enjoyed taking part in them; especially playing football. He provided the facilities for a range of different sports and...	1954
Jim Peters	Essex Beagles	1955 - 1956
John Jewell	South London Harriers	1957 - 1958
Lew Piper	Blackheath Harriers	1959
Vic Fowle	Herne Hill Harriers Herne Hill Harriers The Herne Hill Harriers is an amateur athletics sports club based at Tooting Bec Athletics Track in Tooting Bec, London. The club was originally founded in the Herne Hill district of London in 1889.. The club caters to all levels and ages of track, field, road running and cross country...	1960 - 1961
Tom Richards	South London Harriers	1962 - 1963
Ernest Neville	Blackheath Harriers	1964
Arthur Bourne	Liverpool Pembroke AC	1965 - 1966
Gordon Doubleday	Belgrave Harriers Belgrave Harriers Belgrave Harriers, founded in 1887, are one of the leading athletics clubs in Britain, with headquarters located in Wimbledon, close to Wimbledon Common....	1967 - 1969
Bernard Baldwin	Mountain Ash	1970
Mervyn Dunaway	Stock Exchange AC	1971 - 1972
Harold Lee	Orion Harriers	1973 - 1975
Brian Doughty	Manchester AC	1976 - 1977
Don Turner	Epsom and Ewell Harriers	1978 - 1979
Bob Pape	Royal Navy	1980 - 1981
Peter Goodsell	Walton AC	1982 - 1984
John Dixon	Epsom and Ewell Harriers	1985 - 1986
Ron Hill Ron Hill Ronald "Ron" Hill, MBE, BSc, PhD , is a noted runner and founder of Ron Hill and Hilly Clothing Company. Hill was born in Accrington, Lancashire, England. He was the second man to break 2:10 in the marathon; he set world records at four other distances, but never laid claim to the marathon world...	Clayton-le-Moors Harriers	1987 - 1988
Alan Storey	Ranelagh Harriers Ranelagh Harriers Ranelagh Harriers is a road running and cross-country club based in Richmond, south-west London, UK. The headquarters are its clubhouse behind the Dysart Arms pub and right next to Richmond Park, allowing plenty of opportunity for off-road running...	1989 - 1990
Ian Macintosh	City of Bath AC	1991 - 1992
John Gebbels	Herne Hill Harriers Herne Hill Harriers The Herne Hill Harriers is an amateur athletics sports club based at Tooting Bec Athletics Track in Tooting Bec, London. The club was originally founded in the Herne Hill district of London in 1889.. The club caters to all levels and ages of track, field, road running and cross country...	1993 - 1994
Hilary Walker	Serpentine RC	1995 - 1997
Stephen Moore	Hertford and Ware AC	1998 – 2000
Don Ritchie MBE	Forres AC	2001 – 2003
David Bedford David Bedford (athlete) David Colin Bedford is an English former long distance runner, a colourful character whose career spanned the early 1970s. He is now race director of the London Marathon, and a representative for UK Athletics on the IAAF Road Running Committee.Bedford held the world record at 10,000m, improving it...	Shaftesbury Harriers	2003 - 2006
Hugh Jones Hugh Jones (athlete) Robin Evan Hugh Jones is a retired British long distance runner. He attended Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith, where he began competing in long distance running both for the school and for Ranelagh Harriers, and the University of Liverpool.In 1982 Jones became the first British man to win the...	Ranelagh Harriers Ranelagh Harriers Ranelagh Harriers is a road running and cross-country club based in Richmond, south-west London, UK. The headquarters are its clubhouse behind the Dysart Arms pub and right next to Richmond Park, allowing plenty of opportunity for off-road running...	2007 – 2011
Ian Champion	RRC	2011 -

Membership

Originally, only those (men) who were already members of running clubs affiliated to the National Governing Body of their own country were eligible to join the RRC (overseas members being allowed). Since the 1980s membership has been open to all men and women. There are currently (2011) nearly 1,000 members.

Publications

• Roadrunner Magazine. Published three times per year.
• Training For Ultras (1987, Various international level contributors, Edited by Andy Milroy) Out of Print as at Feb 2011.