Terry Knightley  

Why did you start running?I started running in order to lose weight and get my fitness back after years of playing many other sports including badminton, squash, tennis, football, cricket , cycling , swimming, Karate, table tennis and darts ! What happened was my nutrition was awful and the weight piled on as I got older.

 

What was your first race?

Brentwood 3 Mile Fun Run

 

Have you ever been sent the wrong way in a race or had any disputes about trophies?

Many times but the main one that springs to mind is The Essex Marathon Championships held at Basildon in September 1999 on a really hot day. I was leading the race with fellow Ilford AC member Nick Berill and Paul Prosser from Thurrock Harriers. The three of us reached two women marshals at a junction in the road and we were all shouting ‘which way?’ To which they replied they had no idea they had just been told to stand at the road junction !!! OMG !!  We all took one way which was the wrong way! After running eyeballs out for a while we started to realise we were going the wrong way and we’re totally unhappy as you can imagine! To cut a long story short Paul Prosser dropped out completely unhappy and me and Nick eventually back tracked and found our way back to the race and had to overtake most of the field. I finished 7th in the end and despite running an extra two miles still broke three hours! Nick finished ahead of me having gone off like a mad man in anger! We were both fuming at the end but never saw those two women marshals again (except in nightmares!) and we still won Essex Gold Team Medals!

And

I have also had a few tantrums at trophy presentations where the wrong people get awarded the prize but some are so embarrassing I cringe about them now but they appeared so very important at the time!

 

 

On scale of 1-10 How important is Ilford AC and running to you?

Running is very important 10/10 – if I miss a run any day I get really down and need my endorphin fix!

What running shoes do you recommend?

Asics GT 2000 series – got over twenty versions of them – fit like a glove and well cushioned.

 

Brilliant running career Terry , I was very interested to see that you train every day including LSD ( not a performance enhancing drug) , do you supplement your running with any other exercise particularly considering your severe back injury.

I do run every day but some runs are very slow and others are quality – you have to do what works for you plus I am addicted to running ! Being a Personal Trainer i do a lot of core and weights session regularly (sports specific)  and spend quality time stretching everyday including foam rolling and have a regular sports massage – when I was younger I never stretched and spent way too long training on roads but now I train over the country whenever I can as it’s much kinder to the joints – experience is a great teacher !

 

When did you start running at BRR and do you think you were a latecomer to running?

Joined Barking Road Runners in about 1989 and yes I suppose being in my late twenties I was a latecomer – I remember the great Dale Laughlin of Chelmsford AC (whom I become great friends with) chatting to me once at a party in about 1990 and I was in awe of this guys achievements and telling him so and was asking him how I could be as great as him and he was drunk listening to me and after my machine gun chatter to him he turned around and said  with a slurred speech ‘You’ve left it a bit late really Tel !’ And that was my cue and inspiration from that moment to train like a maniac and reach my absolute potential because I realised that age was not on my side and had to do the best I could. Funny thing is I now meet a lot of fellow runners who are already in their 40s and 50s before they even started running so I supposes I wasn’t that late a starter really!

 

What was your target for the marathon when you set your PB?

My target that day was Sub 2-40 but I felt so strong and fit on the day and ran a ‘perfect storm’ of a race. Finishing in 2-34 and I can remember being on my toes and running what felt like a sprint to the finish line !

 

Did you improve noticeably after joining Ilford AC?

I loved the years I was with Barking Road Runners but Yes – in those days by joining  Ilford AC I felt inspired by being with a prestigious club to train harder and longer and with more quality with great runners (e.g. Sir Andrew)

 

It is understood that you has a very high flying job in pensions at the height of your running career – how did you find time for training?

I was lucky in that I was ‘Sponsored’ financially and personally by my company Save and Prosper in Romford to run and I was allowed to take long lunch breaks and regularly trained with Martin Clarke over Raphael Park and Harrow Lodge Park. Martin worked in the I.T. Department at Save and Prosper and they were great days and thought they would never end. In fact I was influential in getting the company to build showers in the ground floor so we could use them for after training! In reality although I had an important job I was not really interested in it and being sponsored was the icing on the cake.

 

Do you still suffer from calf cramps? How many races did you have to abandon because of and this condition?

Yes – still suffer and have tried everything to stop it! The worst times was leading the Billericay Striders 10K in 1999 (having won it in 1998) and was clear by over a minute and then both calves seized up and tried to keep going running like Frankenstein but then collapsed in agony (physically and mentally) and also at other races.

 

When you lived more locally did you use to train at the track?

Initially yes at Cricklefields and Haverings Track at Mayesbrook Park and then moved to Leigh-On-Sea in August 2000 and somehow and for some reason started training with Thurrock Harriers with the great Dave Staines over at Blackshots in Grays – probably because by then I was working as Personal Trainer at David Lloyd in Basildon.

 

What are your objective/targets in running over the next few year

To do my best in Male Veteran Over 60 age category – Covid19 permitting!

What do you make of the obsession with running gadgets and ever-increasing technology for running shoes? Do you think that these things improve runners?

No No No – There is way too much technology and strava  and all that nonsense and yet most runners are generally slower than years ago – nothing beats really hard work and training to your ‘full potential’ and correct diet and  ‘Wanting it so much it hurts’ . I can remember regularly getting up at 5am and training in the dark in mid-winter freezing cold and sometimes doing a Twenty Miler and then be at my desk at work for 9am and then in the evening or lunchtime doing a second run. I was so tired I used to go to the toilets in work for a kip!

 

Who was your biggest rival when you banging out your best performances and how did you do against them?

Biggest rival at Ilford AC was Nick Berill and we had a lot of major battles and he was ex RAF and was just that tiny bit better than me but some days I used to beat him but it was ‘Armageddon’ between us when we raced ! (R.I.P. NICK) and Pete West from Colchester Harriers (another tough cookie) and we mustn’t forget ‘The Kiddy with a Ponytail’ as the legendary Pat Dobbs of Thurrock Harriers used to call him, yes Malcolm Muir !

 

What is your favourite parkrun, what is your view on parkruns and best time at one?

Southend Park Run – very quick if not windy on the Seafront – best time as MV55 is 18-38 and think they are great for  a fun Saturday morning eyeballs out speed session and Parkrun results technology is second to none and think UK Athletics should adopt a similar system. The social side is great but they are very addictive! Wish they had been around in my hey day!

Will we ever see a return of the long-highlighted hair?

Yes – for years and years I used to shave my head (An Essex Twenty it used to called by Martin) to be faster and as I got older thought I would let it grow as most people my age haven’t got any hair ! The colouring hides the grey bits!

 

I know you have met a few rock stars over the years, who were the best and worst

I have met many Rock Legends over the years and Met Johnny Rotten (Sex Pistols) at Heathrow Airport who was an absolute delight and really funny and chatted to him for ages and have photographs taken with him. So was Glen Matlock (Also Sex Pistols) who I met at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival another nice guy and chatted him into submission! I think the worst was Carl Palmer from ELP who wouldn’t sign anything unless you bought something. The last star I met was Francis Rossi, another really nice bloke, of Status Quo who signed my guitar.

 

We used to have a lot of discussions at The White Horse about Arnold Schwarzenegger films, do you agree Hercules goes to New York is his finest work

Oh yes The White Horse in Chadwell Heath which is no more! Anyway I believe he was credited as Arnold Strong in that movie which is his worst film but his best is Terminator 1 and 2 plus like Twins and Jingle All The Way and Last Action Hero.

 

You can have a dinner party at home with 3 athletes, 3 footballers and 3 rock stars (alive or dead). Who would you invite and what would you cook them?

3 Athletes – Haile Gabrsalles (Always smiling and happy) , Ben Johnson (To ask him WHY ?), Eliud  Kipchoge (To ask him HOW ?)

3 Footballers – Tony Cottee, Paul Gascoigne , Bobby Moore (Great football talk from Yesteryear before overpaid prima donnas started playing in the sport)

3 Rock Stars – Angus Young, Jimmy Page, Suggs and Jim Morrison of The Doors to wreck the place!

And I would cook them egg and chips!

 

When you have been so good and winning races is it hard to accept when those days are in the past and what motivates you now to get out there and race. Is it the sheer enjoyment of a race or do you still push hard for age related medals?

As you get older and obviously slower you have to adjust your mentality and mindset that youngsters will  and do start beating you and initially it hurts but it’s a gradual thing that you get used to ( although I have known a lot of fellow runners who do not like it and drop out of the sport completely) but I love running so why stop and you just reset your goals to do the best you can in the veterans category which as the years have gone by is getting tougher. As one of my Heroes Winston Churchill once said ‘Never, Never, Never Give Up !’

 

You have a heck of a lot of Essex medals – are these all on display at home?

Everything I have ever won is on display at Silverware-On-Sea !

 

Danny Holeyman tells me you were once his boss. Did you know each other ran during this period and if so did you ever train together?

Yes I met Danny on his first Day at Save and Prosper in Romford and he worked on my section in the pensions department  and we became great friends but although I was training like a demon in those days, young Danny never really did much running – he probably thought I was a bit strange going off running all the time ? I think Danny wanted a career and I just wanted another big trophy LOL

 

Did you ever have a coach?

Various people have coached me over the years from other runners to Proper coaches, but they never lasted. As I said training in groups is fantastic but over the years you start to realise what works for you and you have to train hard. I remember some Track sessions where I would get more nervous before them than a real race because I knew they would hurt more!!!

 

Did you run for your school?

Only 100 metres and 200 metres on the grass tracks and was quite good however I recalled In my School Warren Comprehensive in Chadwell Heath in the 1970s Running Cross Country for boys was considered a ‘Punishment’ for some reason.

 

What is your favourite – Road or Cross Country, and can you tell us your favourite and least favourite venues for both

Road is definitely my favourite surface and have been very successful running on roads. As for Cross Country I can never seem to keep my feet that well over the Country and end up doing the dance of the hermit crab on some courses !

Current favourite Road Courses are The Wix 5 and Little Bromley 10K and Billericay 10K which are really quick and Worst is now The Roding Valley Half Marathon as over the years the traffic has increased and now it’s dangerous !

Cross Country favourite The Abbey Fields course at Colchester and South Weald in Brentwood.

Worst are all at Hadleigh Country Park !

 

You said you preferred the Bon Scott era for AC/DC but surely you have to agree that the album ‘Back in Black’ is probably one of the best rock albums of all time?

No Doubt about it Back in Black is a great rock album but look at the lyrics on some songs – it’s obvious Bon Scott wrote those lyrics before he died NOT Brian Johnson even though he gets the credit! I saw AC/DC 5 times with Bon Scott and The reason they were a different class then is that Bon Scott and Angus Young had a fantastic rapport and stage presence on stage in live concert with each other that Brian Johnson just does not have. Bon Scott was the better singer, better lyricist and superb frontman. Brian Johnson was the luckiest guy alive to get the job as AC/DCs singer and he knows it.

 

Is there any particular gig from history you wish you had been at?

I saw Led Zeppelin at Knebworth in 1979 and that was an experience and Wish I had seen David Bowie in concert anywhere and The Doors on any planet.

 

Do you listen to Planet Rock? If not what is your preferred radio station

CD’s, Vinyl or streaming?

 

I listen to GOLD and MAGIC and BBC Essex radio and also Planet Rock!

And Definitely Vinyl – I remember in my youth spending hours flicking through albums in record shops reading the covers, who wrote what song, who produced them and everything. Some artwork on the covers was incredible in those days.

 

What distance is your favourite for a road run

 

I used to love running half marathons in the day as you had time to and distance to beat your rivals who if they hadn’t trained for it would come apart in the latter stages but nowadays prefer 10K and 10 Miles.

 

Last Question

When Owen, Martin and Yourself left Barking Road Runners to Join an Athletic Club what factors made you choose Ilford AC.

 

In 1997 after years of glory at Barking Road Runners the late great Owen Phipps, who was our unofficial spokesperson and leader at Barking, Wanted to join Ilford AC along with Martin because I think of his Ilford connections from school and we realised that we had reached our peak at Barking and we wanted to move to a Athletic Club ! I was also keen to join and not knowing much about Ilford AC at the time (except for the Ilford AC Discos in the late 70s) and Legends like Sir Andrew and Gary Webb and others! In fact initially I wanted to join Woodford Green AC for no other reason except that loved the green hooped Celtic vests and thought they looked great!

 

In the end after discussing it many times we decided to all go to Ilford AC en mass! And the rest is history!

 

And some more photos from the Jurassic Park Years!

 

Long Live ILFORD AC AND One Hundred Years anniversary in 2023

 

THANKYOU ILFORD AC AND GOODNIGHT !