Retro reports part 3: The life and times of Jerry Odlin - The North London AC Years

Following on from my first two very old reports I thought we might diverge a little with the 3rd report on old stuff by looking at a few of the achievements we had as North London AC in the 80’s and 90’s and not to be undone I’ve asked some equally old timers to report likewise on Muswell Hill Runners. These two clubs merged in April 2000 to form London Heathside. The dramatic move for North London AC in the early 80’s was to allow women to join the club…can you believe we did that?!

For me after I came back from the USA after 5 years, normal life resumed, job, family etc so despite having a number of decent individual performances (I ducked under 29 mins for 10k again in 1983) mostly it was about supporting the team either on the track or all over the country. We had a very good track team including two international decathletes and a small squad of sprinters who had jumped ship from Sierra Leone plus our normal strength in middle and long distance running. This made putting together a track and field league team so much easier. On top of this we started to attract runners from other clubs and a couple of students from the USA. Ossie Arif came over from Highgate (they were hopeless back then), he went on in the mid 80’s to run 2:16 at the London Marathon which barely placed him in the top 100 finishers. With these imports we had a pretty good xc season culminating in a 11th place team spot at the 1983 National Champs at Luton. Our highest ever team position in this race, winning the trophy for the most improved club ( I believe Muswell Hill Runners Women’s team managed a 5th place in the National XC Champs). The three of us from our young athletes days, as mentioned in my first report, myself, Mark and Peter still racing together after joining the club some 13/14 years earlier.

1983 National XC Champs, Luton

57th M McMaster       

104th J Odlin

140th M English

166th O Arif

208th P Holland

239th M Noden

Team place 11th

The following year we took 13th in the same race.

The last team member Merrell Noden was on his second spell with us. A graduate of Princeton, he was undertaking his masters in English at Oxford, after which he became a senior reporter on Sports Illustrated magazine based out of New York. In this case for Runner Magazine Merrell wrote, in my opinion, a beautifully crafted piece on the Brigg Mile held each year at New River Stadium in White Hart Lane. Both him and I were involved along with the then Olympic 1500m Champion Sebastian Coe, now head of World Athletics, there for a warm up race in advance of the 84 LA Olympics. A PDF of the story is attached, I hope you’ll enjoy Merrell’s attempt to describe the surrounding north London streets to the mainly American readers.

By the mid 80’s a new core of young athletes were working together at the club. Two in particular were home grown Crouch End boys, Nicky Trainer (later solicitor to one Terry Venables) recorded a 63:30 ½ marathon in dead heating for the win at Reading and also finished 2nd in the same time as the winner at the Southern Senior Cross Country Champs. Pat James became a 1:48 800m performer. Time to hang up our spikes!

I’ll let Ruth Miller tell you a little about the birth of the Women’s section of the club

North London AC women – the early days.

I think the first women joined North London AC around 1982 – Initially these were the girlfriends/wives of some of the men (Jerry, Peter, Mark, George Hannah). I came along early 1983 during my European travels.  Ivor Wiggett was the first to welcome me, when I called to inquire about training times ‘sure thing Ruth, sure thing I’ll tell the girls to expect you Sunday!’ That first Sunday run, meeting at the Freemasons Arms Hampstead, was well a bit of a shock. Coming from NZ and used to long and hard Lydiard style training in mixed groups, I was a bit perplexed to be taken on a scenic run around Golders hill and the Pergola gardens, half an hour before the men’s session. (we shared the changing rooms and had to be showered and changed before they got back!)  I almost joined Highgate instead! But they made me so welcome I stayed.

These were the early days of the road running boom in the UK and I loved the endless choice of races you could do. Mid-week evenings as well as weekend, 3 miles, 10 miles, half marathon, marathon: you name it, I did it.  But things were a bit different for women runners then – running in the streets we were a bit of a ‘novelty’. Running home from work in Camden was a gauntlet of wolf whistles. And running gear was certainly NOT fashionable!

By 1984/85 the North London women started taking off with Jackie Wastell, Jane Robertson and others taking us to a new level. We started entering team events.  Of course, back then women raced in separate league’s for track and field and cross country (don’t ask me why). And the distances were shorter.  I’m pretty sure my first London x country champs in 1983 was only 4km with a field of 50 women. One Women’s Southern cross-country champs stands out for me during this time. Zola Budd the South African runner was running for GB at the time and lined up with us that day barefoot as always, only for the anti-apartheid protestors to run across the course and disrupt the start. Whoever knew cross country could be so exciting or political!  In the late 1980’s we still couldn’t do the Met League, so the women started doing the then Sunday League as our local league. We were only allowed to participate in the Met League from 1994/95.

During the late 1980’s I had two children but certainly didn’t let that stop me as can be seen in the photo of me receiving my first prize from Pauline Quirke for the Islington Gazette 5 miler at Finsbury Park 1989 or 1990.

In the 90’s when the North London girls took off with the addition of Northern Ireland International steeplechaser Deborah McLung /Rushman ( now running for Herts Phoenix  and current Met League V 50  champion) Rachel Weston ( Our young athletes coach) , Anna Solly/ Crichlow ( a sub 3 hour marathon runner) and Michaela McCallum(a 2:38 marathoner).

But there these upstarts down the road in Crouch End and Muswell Hill J,  Muswell Hill Runners, who were beginning to make a similar impact locally. The story of that club and the eventual birth of London Heathside will be with you soon!