The shandy man!

So after what seems like an age but is actually only 11 days, life it seems must return to 'normal'.  But normal it will never be because we won't have Arthur joining us for his usual cup of tea on Monday's, or coming to the club's speed and hills session or gracing Bradford parkrun with his usual gusto each Saturday.  I don't know how we will ever return to normal but what I do know is that Arthur wouldn't have wanted us to sit around moping. His is the only funeral I have ever attended wearing running gear and where I smiled when the hearse came into view, carrying his coffin draped with the parkrun banner Linda had made for his 100th run and proudly sat on top of that, his trainers, not a single flower in sight! One of a few requests Arthur had left in his list of wishes for his family and amongst them was no flowers and a big bowl of bitter shandy at his wake for his friends and family to partake in his honour.  He was a real shandy man! Also he often talked about how nice it would be for everyone at his funeral to wear one of the many running t-shirts he had earned over the years. Quite a few of us fulfilled that wish too - you have a lot to answer for Arthur James making us stand there in over sized running t-shirts and what did I end up with 'Eccleshill Tough 10k 2009'!

So we will keep him in our hearts and hopefully the tributes we have paid to him will keep his memory alive for years to come and in the future his motto will help us through many a tough training run or race..... 'run because you can'. 


With the John Carr 5k series over for another year we can now get back to regular three nightly training - for me it's been a mixture of feelings, some that I'm all out of routine which I hate, I'm a real creature of habit but on the other hand the runs we have done as a whole club have been fantastic not only because they paid tribute to Arthur but also because it really does demonstrate the ability of the running community to pull together in times of need. It was a very proud moment when Eccleshill came together and other clubs supported us in our efforts to honour a truly inspirational member of our club.

Kim James leads Eccleshill to the finish

Team ERR at John Carr Race 3 in tribute to Arthur