1. The Early Days
   

2. The Logo
   

How it all began...

Founded by Ron Hindley, who organised the UK's first 100km road race (Lincoln 100km) in 1980 from Harlaxton Manor to Lincoln and back, this classic race continued to be run each year -with the start/finish alternating each year. A 50km race was also incorporated within the 100km.

This was really the foundation of the 100km Association.

Ron's account of the foundation of the Association....

The Lincoln Run 1978

" On 16th JuIy 1978 Malcolm Campbell and I ran from Grantham to Lincoln and back. We did about 54 miles in 7 hours 50 mins, consuming a considerable quantity of beer and strawberries served by my daughter Sheila, and decided that there would just have to be a race through where we had been. I consulted Peter Goodsell, the Road Runners Club secretary, who suggested a double Marathon, but after considering what Malcolm had to say about developments on the Continent, I decided on 100 km. This set the style of a project that has always looked forwards, never backwards....

“...The prospect after the first race became hopeless when the sponsor withdrew unexpectedly.  So far as I was concerned the project was at an end, but then Peter Millar, who had been marshal in Grantham, earnestly asked me to try again. My reply was that it could only be done if we formed a club dedicated to the purpose, and in May 1981 the 100 km Association was born, at an inaugural meeting held at Leadenham under the chairmanship of the Mayor of Grantham.

Peter Millar also gave inestimable service by laying a new course for the 1982 race. and by finding a sponsor, RM. Wright (Grantham) Ltd., in the person of Tony lvens, whose support in succeeding years was vital. In one year the race was heavily sponsored by Jeffrey Gordon, of Thames Valley Harriers.

The word Association has puzzled many members. It comes from the fact that the race was a huge multiple-community project carried out essentially by an association of corporate bodies. each of which had the right to send its representative to the Executive Committee.
This is quite a different thing from an ordinary local athletic club, the structure of which was grafted on to the constitution purely to qualify for affiliation to the A.A.A. We must not forget, that our club was founded upon a new conception of road race promotion, whereby the project is the work of a community - in this case many communities joined together representing the combined effort of a large part of the county of Lincolnshire. This was a momentous step forward in the development of the sport and of its relationship with the supporting population, apart from being the only means of providing the services at a standard that has never been surpassed.

The Logo

Eratosthenes (276 — 195 BC) had an ingenious method of measuring the Earth using observations of the direction of the Sun‘s rays at different place His unit of measurement was the stadium, the length of the athletic track as it was in his day

In 1791 the French National Assembly adopted the metre, defined as a ten millionth part of a quadrant of the Earth from the Equator to the Pole, so that 100 km is a hundredth part of that distance. ln an artistic fantasy a great circle through the poles becomes a huge stadium, with a hundred athletes running round it, hence our logo.

ln 1960 the world adopted the MKS system, whereby the metre is defined as the distance travelled by light in 1/299792,458 of a second. 

Why the oval shape? 
Eratosthenes had regarded the Earth as a perfect sphere, neglecting to consider the effect of the Earth's rotation on a body at its surface, which makes things tend to fly away into space in a direction perpendicular to the Earth's axis. If the Earth were a perfect sphere then the combination, or resultant of this centrifugal force with the force of gravity, which is towards the Earth's centre, would not be perpendicular to the surface except at the Equator, and we should all be on a slippery slope.
Common sense then tells you that the Earth would not stay like that very long, as the oceans would flow towards the Equator, making a terrible mess of everything. ln the Encyclopaedia Britannica we are told of Clairaut's ldeal Earth, the shape of which is an "equipotential of its own attraction and rotational acceleration". ln effect an ellipsoid of revolution, good enough for all artistic purposes.

Newton knew all about this of course. What interested me was that Newton was a Grantham lad, having been born at Woolsthorpe by Colstervvorth, a nearby village, and been educated at the Grantham king's School, whilst lodging in a house in the High Street.

And this is where we come to the point of it all.
To me the race had from the outset been a project in health education for the benefit of the British nation. It was intended to show ordinary people what ordinary people can do if they realise their natural potential, indeed, as appeared in the objects of the club, to "proclaim and show by example that the common man or woman is a natural athlete".

I had published a method I called the swing, consisting of a series of runs of increasing length mixed with carefully measured rest. Aware of a high level of physical fitness generally regarded as reserved for the gifted, and with experience of having accomplished considerable feats of endurance (not necessarily the 100 Km). the subject acquires a serene confidence, with a conviction that there is nothing with reason that he or she cannot do. and seeks further challenges in other areas, such as courses of education previously thought too demanding. Geoffrey Oliver regards this awakening of the mind as the result of knowing oneself better, and sees "know thyself"' as the main objective. Personally I cannot but notice how rich and poor can sit down at a table after a race with feelings of total mutual respect.

Long distance runners are an aristocracy that has not only cut short the rat race, cancelling old tribal distinctions even though some of them can hardly afford the cost of a new pair of running shoes when needed, but has acquired that special kind of practical courage that makes dreams come true, revealing the power of the human spirit in action.

Ron Hindley died in 2008. He was the Association's first President for many years and was succeeded by Geoff Oliver - our current President.