TONY Hurn was training for his third crack at the Manchester Marathon when he had a late change of heart.

Instead of making his way to Heaton Park on October 10, he was in Tiananmen Square lining up for the Beijing Marathon. Tony explained: "I am familiar with the Far East as I travel extensively with my work, and after two London and two Manchester marathons, I fancied something a bit different."

The 46-year-old Darwen Dasher is a recent recruit to running. "I used to play a lot of football, but about three years ago the phone stopped ringing and I realised it was time to try something else" he said. Tony entered the marathon through a local contact and made his own travel arrangements. He went out to China with his wife Brenda and they enjoyed a week sightseeing before the race, "although I did put my feet up in the last two days" he admitted.

He lined up one of only five Britons in a field of a thousand marathon runners and another six thousand running shorter distances.

Tiananmen Square was adorned with banners and posters celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the People's Republic of China. As they ran they passed a succession of soldiers at 20-yard intervals along the entire distance, all standing to attention.

"The streets were all very wide so congestion wasn't a problem, and although some of the western runners complained about the pollution, it didn't affect me" he said. Tony reached the finish in 3:05.53 to trim a couple of minutes off his previous best time.

"Still just outside the magic three hours", he reflected.

That means he'll have to do another, I'm sure he won't mind.

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