Running Brushstrokes to New York: Marathon Man

George Kenerdine shows the colours as he runs in New York

Many indwellers of Prestonpans will be well familiar with the loping presence of George Kenderdine. He has been delivery man for Brushstrokes throughout 2005, but one with a dedicated mission. So it was indeed an honour for The Prestoungrange Gothenburg and Fowler's Ales to be invited to sponsor him for his trip to New York, to participate in yet one more marathon race.

The sponsorship was straightforward enough - a contribution towards George's travelling expnses to the Big Apple. But there was a corollary! If he indeed finished the 26 miles, as was clearly expected, he was promised a Hero's Welcome at The Goth with 2 pints of 80/- Prestonpans Ale on the house for 26 GothPoints Tuesday nights therefter. As the picture below shows, he made the grade and seems to have 'enjoyed' it all. Well done indeed George.

Click on image to enlarge


The Hero's Welcome at the Goth is now scheduled for February 9th 2006 along with much other celebration; and that looks certain also to be the date of a BIG announcement about future marathon running.

Autobiographical Note

When interviewed before setting out for New York George said: "To date I've run in more than 50 half-marathons, 21 full-marathons and 2 ultra-marathons [that's anything over and above the marathon distance of twenty six miles]. In fact both ultras I did were 100kms, that's 62.5 miles! My fastest time for the marathon is 3 hours and 10 minutes here in Edinburgh.

"I have run in New York, Chicago, Rome, London, Paris, Edinburgh, Verdun, Lochaber (Fort William) and Hull. For the last five years I have run for one specific charity - 'Dreams come true for terminally ill children'. Over that time I have raised just over £10,000 mainly through family and friends. I would like to raise more but I don't have the attitude to ask really, and feel embarrassed about cold calling.

"Because of my fund raising over the last five years the charity have given me one of their Golden Bond places in next April's 2006 London Marathon. This will be my sixth London and I'm just as excited as I was the first time. I'm looking forward to seeing if we can organise a run in Prestonpans next year. It would be tremendous if we could get a good run into the Scottish running calendar.

"My running aim in life is to run a marathon in under three hours, which means running each mile in about six minutes and forty five seconds. That however takes some serious training and my legs are not getting any younger - they are 51 now!"