Runner Profile: Richard Allport
Early years
My dad was in the Royal Navy, and I was born in Portsmouth. We moved around the south coast a lot and when he eventually left the Navy and joined the Coastguard, we settled in Gorleston.
I went to Gorleston Grammar school in the mid 70’s to early 80’s and my school report from the sports master always read ‘tries hard but finds it difficult’ it used to annoy me and make me think ‘what does he know’ as I felt I was better than that!
My albeit cloudy memories of the time show that I didn’t make the football team, couldn’t sprint or hurdle but was ok at swimming, and represented the school at the Yarmouth championships and was ok at the longer distances. Successes were by being picked as a reserve in the Yarmouth Schools cross country team although I didn’t travel to kings Lynn as it was a Saturday and I had to work at the local Fine Fare. I did represent to school in the 1500 at Yarmouth school championship and after that was strangely selected to run the 800m. This was at Hewett School in Norwich on a cinder Track. It turned out that there were only 5 people entered and the other 4 had all the gear and did this strange thing called warming up! I started the race at my sprint finish pace, and I was so far behind no one noticed me pull up with a bad leg – good actor! Sporting wise after that I played rugby and Sunday football in the bottom division of Sunday league in Great Yarmouth. This kept me fit.
At some point my mates and I thought it would be a good idea to enter the first Great Yarmouth half marathon. We did organise a couple of training runs but, in those days, we could only estimate distances or drive the route and we think we ran about 10 miles in training. The day before the race wasn’t the most ideal preparation as we went to our local, the feathers in Gorleston and basically had a few too many pints. The race itself was uneventful and I still maintain I finished in a very respectable 1hr 30 mins the same time as the first female finisher the cheer from the seafront at Great Yarmouth was massive but was not aimed at me!
Running then stopped for me as I carried on Rugby at Lowestoft. After moving to Martlesham Heath as my job relocated to Felixstowe, I played 1 more year of Rugby at Lowestoft but the distance to go training was too much as by then I had a young family. I then played Cricket at Martlesham and during this time was persuaded to take part the 10k run organised by the Lions club I think we finished somewhere around the back of the field.
Joining FRR
I join FRR for the first time in 2008 and ran a few of the Friday 5’s and Cross countries. I then drifted away again.
When I returned in 2018, I found it a much-changed club with many more people at the training nights.
I have run many events in the last few years wearing the club vest, most of these races I don’t know I have signed up only to find out via an email confirmation………thanks Jacqueline! Jacqueline, Mark Fosker (Jac’s son) and I decided to do our first Marathon signing up to Barcelona March 2020. The training went well for Jac and Mark they put the miles in for sure. I however was struggling with a few issues and I was then diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. The week before Barcelona was due to go ahead it was cancelled due to the pandemic, but we managed to find a local trail marathon with the Hare and Tortoise crew in Brightlingsea. We completed this in deep mud it was horrendous, but we got it done.
My next marathon was Brighton in 2022 and I was very proud to run London this year thanks to a place from the club. It felt good to represent FRR on such a big stage.
No one knows what will happen in the future, but I will continue to run as much as I can while I can, as it is the best way to keep me fit and help slow down the progression of the Parkinson’s.
Looking back at my running career to date the teacher was probably right Richard Allport tries hard but finds it difficult. Like everyone in the club we all continue to try.
Jacqueline has been a real driving force behind my running participation, she is a real inspiration and great training partner.
In the lead up to both Brighton and London I have been very lucky to be part of the Thursday morning gang getting the miles done in all weathers. I am the token Man in this group of amazing women who are more than happy to do whatever miles are needed in almost any weather. Thank you, Jo, Jane, Kirsty and Daniela, for your support and friendship long may it continue.
This year I was also honoured to receive the Chairman’s award at the annual awards evening. It made me feel humbled to receive this and I hope I have done it justice. While FRR seems to move from strength to strength it remains a local and very welcoming club. Thank you to everyone for that.
Next month’s nominee
Next month I would like to nominate David Brewster
