Colin Bunting, a founder member of the Tamar Trotters, joined the prestigious 100 Marathon Club after completing his 100th marathon at the monstrous Cornish Marathon, the first Trotter to achieve this accolade.

Colin has been a member of the Tamar Trotters since 1996 and he ran his first marathon 25 years ago in New York with his wife Maggie.

Little did we know that he would continue running marathons throughout the next 25 years. His marathons have taken him to 17 different countries with most being in Europe and four in the USA.

Colin’s favourite race was Paris but his quickest was the London Marathon in 2001, in a time of 3 hours and 10 minutes.

He chose the Cornish Marathon as his 100th because he has run it many more times than any other marathon and it takes place in his home county.

Sharon Daw of East Cornwall Harriers, who has achieved 430 marathons, presented Colin with his 100 Marathon Club T-shirt and medal at the event prizegiving ceremony.

The conditions for this Cornish Marathon were far from perfect, with wet roads, high winds and so many hills.

However, the support from the Trotter spectators, his many friends and his own family was phenomenal, there has never been as many people cheering as there were on Colin’s special day.

All marathon runners benefit from the sterling efforts made by their immediate family in providing encouragement, being a travel companion and being there at the finish line. Maggie has always been there for Colin wherever possible, so that they can enjoy the experience of other countries, towns, and cities as a family.

Maggie has completed over 30 marathons over these 25 years.

During his time with our running club, Colin has organised group trips to London and Paris, to enable club members to reach the marathon start lines on time and have a fantastic weekend away enjoying typical ‘Trotter’ camaraderie.

He continues to serve on the committee in key roles, and he is always up to date on his knowledge of athletics.

He coached the junior section for many years and passed on his experience to both seasoned runners and newcomers to the sport. As a club, I am sure that we would like to thank him for all his work, and we will continue to enjoy running with him.

Colin would like to thank everyone that has supported or ran with him on his 100 Marathon journey.

At the other end of the scale with respect to marathon experience, three of the Trotter team embarked on their first ever marathon at this same event, namely Luke Attwood, Robert Warner, and Matt Bell.

Robert has made astounding progress in running, he started as a newcomer on the Couch to 5 km course in January this year, and just 10 months later he ran this particularly challenging marathon.

Other club runners in the event were Peter Clarke, Crispin Brabner and Jane Bremner, Crispin and Jane were winners of their respective age groups.