A tribute to John Perratt an amazing runner and a founding member of the club
John Perratt, organiser and brains behind the Exe to Axe and founder member of Sidmouth Running club. Remembered by another founder member, John Keast.
Yes he was an amazing runner, but he also had a remarkable way of encouraging and inspiring and giving his time so generously resulting in a huge contribution to the local community and beyond.
Most of us knew John as having an amazing capacity for managing a huge amount of detail, in addition to both organising and supporting many local races he put in considerable time behind the scenes measuring courses, treasurer, secretary, looking after websites, time keeping, recording results to name a few things he took on very quietly and very efficiently.
However, my first memories of John are a little different! I first met John in 2002, a short while after he had moved back from Zimbabwe to England. At this time Sidmouth Running Club had not been formed. I was approached by John, and his then new training partner, Bill Valentine – another running legend. Bill had this idea of a 10k Festival Run, to be organised at the same time as the Folk Festival, I was approached because I was an enthusiastic runner with knowledge of the local area..
They wanted to show me the proposed Festival run route, a beautiful scenic route starting at the bottom of peak hill, a long and quite steep uphill start and on to Mutters Moor, which is mostly woods. Whilst checking the course we got lost on the Moor, many who know Bill Valentine will know about his reputation for getting lost, but few seem to know about John’s ability for getting lost!
There are also several stories of John getting lost on his way to races, such as ending up close to Weymouth when on his way to Frome, which was probably a 50 mile detour! Despite this he never missed a race.
The investment of a sat nav didn’t really improve matters, mostly due to operator errors, and on one occasion when trying to get home from Bath, the Sat Navs instructions were taking John to Newcastle 700 miles away.
I now understand why John would never follow up my invitations to have a go at orienteering!
In addition to supporting the very successful Sidmouth Festival Run, John also organised the hugely popular 20 mile coastal Exe to Axe run, a considerable logistical challenge. John was associated with several other local runs, such as the Otterton Reindeer Run, Ottery, Tipton, Sidford and Sidbury and others giving a huge amount of his time and organising skills – doing the real detail. The races that he was associated with have also raised considerable amount of money for charity.
So with wife’s Brenda’s support this very busy man also found time for his own running!
John had always been active in sport, he didn’t start running until he celebrated his 50th birthday by completing a triathlon. By John’s own admission his swimming was his weakest element in the triathlon, but he discovered that he would overtake many during the run.
John was an amazing runner, I’m not sure how many realise just how good he was. John typically played down his achievements, he was very modest and understated, and was more interested and comfortable hearing about what others had been up to. I am grateful for Les Turner who has pulled together some of John’s running achievements and what I am about to describe is a summary!
Running in Southern Africa meant ultra marathons, including the famous 56 mile “Comrades” , he did this gruelling race twice. John also contested the 35 mile “Two Oceans” event in Cape Town, along with standard marathons and half marathons. However, when competing in 5 and 10 kilometre races on the track, he found the shorter distances more to his liking. After returning to England he revelled in distances from 1500 metres to 10 miles.
Chris Woodcock kindly connected me with the ‘power of 10’ website, where the true extent of John’s racing achievements can be seen. During 2002 to 2012 he is cited over 50 times for being ranked in top 10 in the UK for his age group, and had top 10 rankings as recently as 2014. John was ranked at number 1 for his age group in the UK on 10 occasions.
2007 was an outstanding year, even by John’s high standards, and he scooped up a fistful of gold, silver and bronze awards at a wide variety of international events as a vet 70. These included the British Masters Home International in Belfast (an England team gold and an individual bronze medal for John), the World Masters Championships in Italy and the British Masters Indoor, World Masters and European Veterans Indoor Championships.
At the World Masters Championships in Italy, he contested no fewer than seven different events, some of which also involved heats, – getting a bronze medal in the10000metres. He was 2nd in the 8k Cross Country, winning the individual silver medal and the team bronze . He also came 4th with the 4 x 400m relay team.
Running for South West Vets in the British Masters Track and Field Championships at Birmingham, John won more gold medals for the V70 5,000m and the 10000m.
He became the new British Masters 5k road champion , beating Folkestone Running Club’s Ed Simpson by 54 seconds.
Locally, 2007 included wins at the South West Veterans Athletic Club 5k and at their Track & Field Championships he won 3 gold medals. He broke the Championship age group records for the 5,000m and the 1,500m. In the 800m his time was half a second outside the record.
He was a great team player as well as an outstanding individual athlete, John anchored the Exmouth Harriers’ Veteran 70 team that won the club’s 1st national relay title at Sutton Park in 2009 – taking the individual gold in the process. They were also the 1st winners of the vet 75 category introduced in 2014.
John would often modestly play down his achievements by stating that there is not much opposition in the over 70’s age group!
All this still didn’t keep John fully occupied!
When he moved to Sidmouth there wasn’t a local running club and through his enquiry via the SW veterans athletic club was put in contact with Bill and joined the SW veterans AC and Exmouth Harriers taking on several roles, including secretary and treasurer and became quietly influential.
He was a stalwart member of Sidmouth running club. I was the founding Chair of a club that quickly established itself as a popular and successful club built on friendliness. The success of Sidmouth running club is largely due to the massive contribution of John who from the start offered to take on the treasurer’s role, and remained in that role until his death. It was John who was the driving force in getting the Club organised and getting all the structures in place for a new Club. Personally, he was massively supportive to me, helping with many of the things a Chair should be doing, crucially he was active in helping establish the culture of the Club.
And, the real success comes from what many have described as John’s inspiration and encouragement. He managed to encourage all newcomers, no matter of their ability. He knew every member of the Club and was always warm and friendly, and would always introduce himself to new people and made everyone feel welcome. The running club also provided John with the opportunity of doing what he loved – running with people. While there are set Club evenings for the Club to meet, John ran with many people some club members, many not. For John being with like minded people gave him huge enjoyment
We know that John has left a massive void, but he has left us Sidmouth Running Club, the friendly Club that loves running. His love of people and his love of running were truly infectious. I know that many of the people out running in the Sidmouth area are out enjoying their running because of John.
Finally, John’s legendary commentating at running events – which was always entertaining, but sometimes not quite PC.
