Four marathons, a secret world championship gold and still racing at 87 – Blandford’s Joan Royal proves running isn’t just for the young
‘I think I’m just going to keep on running. All you can do, isn’t it?’
Most Saturday mornings, you’ll find 87-year-old Joan Royal at the Blandford Parkrun. She’d never call herself inspirational – but ask any of the dozens of Dorset runners keeping pace with her each week, and they’ll tell you she’s a bit of a legend.
Born in Colchester in 1937, Joan came to Dorset after the war. ‘My mother worked in what I think was a British Legion army café in Blandford,’ she says. ‘I stayed in Kent with my grandmother until I was nine, and then joined my mother here. I’ve been in Dorset ever since.’
Joan left school with shorthand and typing qualifications and worked locally, including at a Sturminster Newton estate agency, a solicitor’s office and at Blandford Camp. She married Alan when she was 19, and the couple had five children. Joan returned to work when their youngest was four, eventually spending many years at St Leonard’s School.
But it was running that changed her life.
‘Someone I worked with was in the Dorset Doddlers running club. She invited me to try it – she said I could ‘just do a little’. What she didn’t say was that if I didn’t know where I was, I’d have to keep up with everyone else … I didn’t know, so I ended up doing the whole run! That’s how it all started: I really enjoyed it.’
Joan was in her early 40s when she started running – and she hasn’t stopped. ‘I entered the XIII World Veterans Athletics Championships in Gateshead when I was 61, and when I did OK, my husband said we should do the next ones – which it turned out were in Australia!’
When she says “she did OK”, she means that she won gold with her team in the 8km Cross Country. Two years later she didn’t tell anyone the reason for the trip to Brisbane – not even her children.
‘We went for six weeks, because we combined it with a holiday. I wanted to do the running when I first arrived, because I wanted a holiday and not spend my time there doing proper training … Well, I don’t actually do proper training … and so we did the running first, and then we did the holiday afterwards. And I kept it a secret, the only person that knew was Alan. None of the kids knew what I was doing. They were not happy when I came back! I never told the running club, either. Alan was sworn to secrecy, in case I made a fool of myself and didn’t want anybody to know. But I ran the 8km cross-country team event and got a gold medal, and I finished fourth in the 1,500m. It was lovely.’
Taking on the headmaster
Joan has since competed across most distances, including completing the Honolulu Marathon at the age of 70 – a double celebration for her birthday and her 50th wedding anniversary: ‘I’ve done dozens of Great South Runs, and I’ve done the Great North and the Great West Runs. Countless half marathons and 10-mile races. I’ve done the famously brutal “Beast” in Dorset and the “Grizzly” in Devon. And I’ve done four marathons. The first one was the South Coast Marathon, and then the next two were both London – the last was Honolulu in 2007.’
She now focuses on Parkrun. ‘I try and go every Saturday – I’ve had a few tumbles recently on the steep part, but last week I got my time back under 50 minutes: 47-something. I was determined to get back to under 50, but falling over knocked my confidence. I started walking down those steep parts, so I’ve been practising them.’
What keeps her going? ‘I just enjoy it! It gives you a good social life because you mix with other people of similar interests. And the secret, I think, is you’re not confined to one age group, which I think can be very ageing. You know, if you belong to just old people’s clubs, for instance.’
That broad range of social life has always been part of Joan’s outlook. She was awarded for 12 years voluntary youth club work in Blandford. When her children were small she helped establish one of the town’s first crèches, and for years ran voluntary summer activity days for children at what was then Blandford Upper School.
Alan proudly chipped in with how they started: ‘Joan wanted to use the school, but the headmaster always said no. In the end, Joan wrote to the County Council, and explained why she wanted the school – she said it was government policy that schoolchildren could use school premises through the summer holidays free of charge. And they agreed. So we went back and spoke to the headmaster and said “well, we got permission from County”… what we left off was the fact that County had said he headmaster could have the final say. We just told him “County says we can use it” – which they did!’
‘We ran it two days a week through the holidays,’ says Joan. ‘From ten til four, and it cost the children 50p. We borrowed equipment from the school to use – rounders, cricket and the like. We had the use of the swimming pool. The only thing they paid extra for was if they wanted to go horse riding. And then, when we finished, there was money in the pot, so we gave it to the school to buy new equipment.’
‘After that, we ran a five-a-side football tournament on Saturday afternoon for 200 little kids!’ added Alan.
Chatting in their living room, we are surrounded by the many photographs of their large family jostling for shelf space alongside the awards of her long running career. She and Alan have five children, 12 grandchildren and – currently – 17 great-grandchildren (‘number 18’s on the way’).
‘We have a lot of time with them all – it keeps you young,’ she says. ‘We’re never short of company, they’re always popping in. We hired Durweston hall this summer for a family get-together – there were 42 of us, from babies through to us Golden Oldies, and only four didn’t belong to us!’
Joan’s running ambitions remain simple. ‘My aim is to keep going until I’m 90. As long as I can still run, I will. The aim is to finish – preferably on my feet. If I get a good time, that’s a bonus.’
by Courtenay Hitchcock The BV
