Obituary: George Lovegrove

GEORGE LOVEGROVE 1942 – 2013

The passing was announced last month of George Lovegrove. While in later years he had no longer competed, George was one of that rare breed, a pre-boom runner; that is he had been foot racing in the years before the London Marathons of the early 80s caught the public imagination. George’s running CV included events such as the Poly Marathon, which had begun in 1909. This meant that by the time the Exmouth Harriers club was re-launched at the end of 1981, George was already a mentor for a small group of local men who wanted to run a marathon themselves. This group included Martin Shepherd, John Alexander and Brian Costello, and a group of Exmouth Harriers did indeed complete the 1982 London Marathon. George and the others did not stop there though and went on to take part in many further events, which, in George’s case, included ultra-Marathons. He ran his marathons in a more than respectable 3 and-a-bit hours. Former training partner, Martin Shepherd, described him as “never a speed merchant” but that he was able to “[keep] going when others had long stopped". In the last 10 years running has become dominated by veterans in terms of numbers participating but George and his contemporaries missed out on the “veterans boom”, stopping running because of injury or illness. George often raised money for charity when he raced and he was very generous with his time when the track at Imperial Road  was repaired, more impressive when you realise that this was an old fashioned “cinder” type  track which needed digging at times and George’s day job was as a gardener at Rolle College. A picture of George would be recognised by many Exmouth residents because of his distinctive Old Dutch style beard which made him one of the more distinctive faces in the collage of people that make up the population of Exmouth. George played his part in making the very simple activity of running - along with its health and social benefits - accessible to more people than perhaps any other sporting pastimes.

George Lovegrove: 1942 - 2013

The attached group picture was taken after the 1986 Fulfords Five with George on the far left.