Chorley athlete runs Great Wall of China

2:05pm Tuesday 22nd April 2008

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Terry Dickenson has long harboured an ambition to run on the Great Wall of China, and last month he finally managed it, meeting up with his daughter Tammy who is a trainee lawyer in Hong Kong.

Dickenson's wife had treated him to the trip for his birthday, and on the day he turned 61, the first day of his holiday, he and Tammy stepped onto the Wall for a five mile run at Badaling, about 60 kilometres from Beijing.

Chorley Athletic Club member Dickenson, from Wheelton village near Chorley, is one of the best known names in local athletics having been organising races in the Chorley and Preston areas for 30 years.

It all started way back in 1978 with a cross country in Manchester, but soon he was using Tulketh High School in Preston, where he was deputy head, as a base for a round of the Mid Lancs Cross Country League, and for the Tulketh 10K Road Race.

With races like the Cromwellian Half Marathon coming and going, the Thirsty Three at Heapey is now his most enduring event in its 26th year, but the Through the Villages isn't far behind set for its 25th running this November.

The Roddlesworth Roller and Daffodil Doddle junior race have just been run for the 20th time, and he is also involved in the Great Hill Fell Race and the Chorley Astley Park Series which starts again this Friday.

He says proudly I've never organised a flat race.' It is surprising then that he started on the flat - for he was once an 11 second 100 yards man.

When in China, Terry and Tammy tried to run every day, once along the canal banks towards the Olympic City, and a second time on the Great Wall, this time from Jinshanling to Simatan.

In places, some of the inclines are at a 70 degree angle and it took them two and a half hours to cover seven miles.

After a 19 hour train journey to Zian, home of the Terracotta Warriors, they got to run on the city walls there, which they report are similar to the Great Wall, but thankfully a lot flatter.

They ran at Chendu, home of the Giant Panda Sanctuary, and even on a boat where Dickenson logged four miles on its carpeted upper decks.

When they reached Hong Kong, the smog made outdoor running impossible, but even then it didn't stop him as the hotel treadmill proved its worth.

"What next?", I asked. "Well, I would really like to run in the Gobi Desert."