Don Ritchie
Aberdeen Scotland
July 6, 1944
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Hi Amby,
I hope that you are well and enjoying life. I enjoyed meeting you at
Palo Alto in 1978 and thanks for taking me for a beach run during my
visit. I stopped trying to run in about April 2011 as I was no longer enjoying it and I was not responding to training stimuli.
My long-time running pal, Colin Yoiungson informed me about the 100K
club and suggested that I find out my training and racing total
mileage. On completing
scrutiny of my training diaries my training and racing mileage from
1962 to 2011 amounted to 208,100 miles, with 968 races participated in.
I will attach an article by Mike Aris, which is quite a comprehensive mini biography.
best wishes,
Don.
By Mike Aris, 20th October 1995
A profile of Donald A. (Don) Ritchie M.B.E.
Don
Ritchie has so many World Bests, Veteran World Bests, Championship Titles
and other astonishing performances to his credit that we simply do not
have the space in this article to give a definitive listing. This must
wait for the book that Don will surely have to write some day - if ever
he can find the time. However, something of the stature of the man can
be deduced from the following:
Absolute World Best Performances (World
Records)
Event
|
Time
|
Date
|
Location
|
50 km
|
2hr 51 m 38 s
|
29.04.77
|
Epsom
|
150 km *
|
10 hr 3m 47 s
|
25.09.77
|
Crystal Palace
|
100 miles*
|
11 hr 30 m 51 s
|
25.09.77
|
Crystal Palace
|
100 km
|
6hr 18 m 00 s
|
30.06.78
|
Hartola Finland
|
50 miles
|
4 hr 53 m 28 s
|
28.10.78
|
Crystal Palace
|
100 km*
|
6 hr 10 m 20 s
|
28.10.78
|
Crystal Palace
|
50 km
|
2 hr 50 m 30 s
|
10.03.79
|
Altrincham
|
100 miles (road)
|
11hr51m11s
|
16.06.79
|
New York
|
40 miles
|
3 hr 48 m 35 s
|
16.10.82
|
Copthall
|
50 miles
|
4 hr 51 m 49 s
|
12.03.83
|
Copthall
|
200 km
|
16 hr 32 m 30 s
|
30.10.83
|
Coatbridge
|
200 km (indoors)
|
16 hr 31 m 08 s
|
04.02.90
|
Milton Keynes
|
24 hrs (indoors)
|
166 miles 429 yds 03.02.90
|
Milton Keynes
| |
200 km*
|
16 hr 19 m 16 s
|
26.10.91
|
Copthall
|
* These records are currently held.
|
|||
World Veteran Best Performances:
|
|||
Event
Time
Date
Location
Over 40 100 km
6 hr 36 m 02 s
04.05.86
Turin to St.Vincent
Over 45 40 miles* 50 miles*
100 km
100 km
100 miles* 200 km *
24 hrs*
4 hr 15 m 15 s 24.06.90
5 hr 23 m 02 s 24.06.90
6 hr 46 m 10 s 24.06.90
6 hr 40 m 23 s 06.10.90
12 hr44 m 28 s 26.10.91
16hr19m16s
26.10.91
166miles 1203 yds 26.10.91
Livingston Livingston Livingston
Satander (Spain)
Copthall Copthall Copthall
Barry
Tooting Tooting
40 miles* 50 miles* 100 km*
4 hr 21 m 34 s 5 hr 37 m 17 s 7 hr 07 m 29 s
* These
records currently held
Other Personal Best Performances:
Event
Time
5 km 14 m 48 s
10 miles (track) 49m 56 s
10 miles (road) 49 m 52 s
20 miles (track) 1 hr 46 m 32 s
Marathon 2 hr 19 m 34 s
20 miles (road) 1 hr 45 m 17 s
Half marathon 67 m 42 s
(both
of above during marathon)
40 Miles (track) 3 hr 48 m 35 s
1-hour 19,241.8 metres
10 km 30 m 54 s
(During
1-hour track race)
05.03.95 14.10.95 14.10.95
Date
|
Location
|
31.05.69
|
Grangemouth
|
01.05.71
|
Meadowbank
|
01.05.71
|
Tom Scott Race
|
01.12.73
|
Bristol
|
19.04.83
|
London
|
19.04.83
|
London
|
19.04.83
|
London
|
16.10.1982
|
Copthall
|
21.08.71
|
Meadowbank
|
21.08.71
|
Meadowbank
|
In addition to the above, Don was awarded British Vests every year
from 1990 to 1995, was the British 24 hr Champion in 1990, 1991, 1992
and 1994, 100km Champion in 1990 and 1992, European 100 km Veterans
Champion in 1992. He
was awarded Scottish Vests in 1983, 1985, 1987,1990 and 1994, and set the Lands
End to John O'Groat's solo record in 1989 (10 days 15 hours 25 minutes).
He was the V50 Champion at the World 100 km Challenge in 1995.
And so it goes on and on and on !
RRC interview with Don
How did it all begin?
I
was born on 6th July 1944 at Haddow House in Aberdeenshire and I was
brought up in this region. At school I ran in the annual sports, and
also for our Boys Brigade Company against others companies and Scout
Groups. I ran in the 100 yards and the 220 yards. I usually finished
in the top 3, but I did not train.
When
I was 16 I joined Aberdeen A.A.C. I ran cross country and road relays
but during the track season I raced at quarter mile and half mile. The
club coach advised me to concentrate on the quarter mile. I used to
travel the twenty miles to Aberdeen on my motorbike for the two weekly
training sessions. Training was intense interval type training and very
competitive. I even used to practise my
2
In
1963 I was invited by Pete Duffy to join the Sunday morning run of fifteen
miles with Alistair Wood and as the weeks passed I found that I could
hang on for that bit longer before having to let them go.