Last Thursday evening, as is our habit, following training a group of us went to The Black Bull in Blaydon for a liquid ‘cool down’ and a chat. As we arrived a group of regulars were discussing a pub quiz they had been to where one of the questions concerned a Blaydon Harrier who had held the world record for 40 mile, however they couldn’t remember his name.
The forgotten man (on the right in the photo above) was Blaydon Harrier, Joseph Keating. Although he was no longer a member of Blaydon having left the year previously to join Ealing and Southall. He did for some reason wear his Blaydon vest for the record breaking race.
It was on Saturday 28th April 1973 on the cinder track at Epsom in Surrey. With the 40 mile race (161 laps of the track) getting underway at 9.30am.
In the lead up to the race Keating had finished in 2nd place on the 16th March in the South Shields 20 in 1.43.19, 16 seconds behind Dave Cannon.
On 24th March he ran the Orion 15 at Epping Forest. Then on the 14th April at the Finchley 20 , finished 6th in a time of 1.44.20
Capping his race schedule off the weekend prior to the ‘40’ by running the Easter Weekend Athletics Festival in the Isle of Man which consisted of a road race on the Friday, relays on the Saturday and a Fell Race on the Sunday.
If this was not enough his training the week following this and leading up to the race was a staggering:
Monday 4 mile
Tuesday 24 mile
Wednesday 27 mile
Thursday 35 mile
Friday 5 mile
Joseph Keating’s 40 mile world record set on the Saturday was to stand for 8 year at 3.44.22
Sources: Northern Athletics website and Parkrun interview with CatherineMcCargo
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