I always thought that running a marathon would be a good idea! No idea why! At the start of last year I wanted a personal challenge so applied for a marathon place when the ballot opened. I was overjoyed, and somewhat terrified when my place was confimed, but ever the optimist thought that I could combine that with raising funds to help Bletchley Park, a world class heritage site, from further deterioration. The site needs to be preserved for generations to come in order to honour the remarkable men & women that worked here.  I can’t personally thank them so the next best thing I can do is to preserve their memories... by helping Bletchley Park honour the work and achievements that took place there.

I decided to name my supporters "Team Turing", after code breaker Alan Turing who worked with many other great men & women such as Dilly Knox and Gordon Welshman to break the enigma codes.

Few people know that Alan Turing achieved world-class Marathon standards. His best time of 2 hours, 46 minutes, 3 seconds, was only 11 minutes slower than the winner in the 1948 Olympic Games. In a 1948 cross-country race he finished ahead of Tom Richards who was to win the silver medal in the Olympics. A leg injury put an end to further serious running by Turing. However, even after he moved to Manchester he still occasionally represented Walton in events. The last event he ran for the club was in April 1950 when he was on the Walton relay team in the London to Brighton race. Also a member of the same Walton team was Chris Chataway, who a few years later went on to help Roger Bannister break the four minute mile.

Please dig deep, and help us preserve this iconic and historic place for generations to come.