September 2024 - When I was growing up, an awful long time ago now, I set myself three ambitions. To speak French fluently (why French, I have no idea), to play the piano (but the drums were always more appealing) and to run a marathon - and everything became more appealing than running a marathon ! !
Now, I’m at an age where I could still do the first two if I put my mind to it, but the last one, I now dismiss because I’m ‘too old’ - which is a poor excuse at best, and one that shows itself all the more on days like this, because today is the day of the Potters ‘Arf Marathon. Today, people of every shape, size, colour, creed - and age - will pound 13.1 miles (21km) of tarmac around The Potteries. Some will run it, some will be pushed, some will walk, some will do it in relay at the behest of the company they work for, and some will dress in whatever bizarre costume they can lay their hands on, purely for entertainment and in time honoured marathon style.
The Potters ‘Arf is now in its nineteenth year, having replaced the Potteries Marathon in 2005, which itself had run for 23 years, since its inception in 1982 and was the brainchild of one Don Shelley, together with Graham Bagnall and Kevin Donovan, the owners / managers of The Place nightclub in Hanley with the intention of capitalising on the success of the first ever London marathon twelve months earlier. The full 26 mile affair did have a resurgence for a couple of years in 2015 and 2016 but a combination of the cost of closing too many roads in the city and it being too tough a course for many, it rumours are to be believed, meant that it was short lived - not withstanding that the ‘Arf was extremely popular and ‘sold out’ most years.
This year, 2,000 runners will take up the challenge which isn’t one of the easiest marathons to run even at half the distance. It goes up hill and down dale and it contains a length of road that’s become part of marathon folklore. Just when you think you’re on the home straight, with eleven of the thirteen miles behind you, ‘Heartbreak Hill’, otherwise known as Milton Road, in Sneyd Green, provides you with one last challenge, but if you succeed, it provides you with a rite of passage that sets you out from all other marathon runners - or so they say.
The main race itself starts at ten o’clock, but those that intend walking the course had already set off an hour and a half earlier at 08.30 ! There’s a staggered start for the main runners and relays due to the large number expected, but at the allotted hour the first tranche heads off down Tontine Street, into Lichfield Street and then takes the long, but gentle incline that is Victoria Road into Fenton, before heading up King Street and into Longton.
With the first four miles under their belts, and having settled into their preferred pace, they face their first real challenge. From the centre of Longton, they head up Anchor Road, with an elevated difference of 174ft. It’s a good, gradual climb and will certainly get the heart pumping a bit quicker. It’s a little under two and a half miles until they get to Forester Street and the Gasometer, but it’s there that they go from one extreme to the other as Beverley Drive and Werrington Road are downhill to the same elevation they were at in Longton.
The good news is that once they arrive in Abbey Hulton it’s all on the level, through to Carmountside and in to Baddeley Green. You could easily give yourself a false sense of security by now thinking that the worst is over with if you’re not familiar with the course or haven’t done your homework - but it’s not. Definitely not.
The next two miles go through Sneyd Green and take in Holden Lane and Mornington Road, but as I mentioned at the beginning, Sneyd Green has a big sting in its tail, in the form of Milton Road, known to all Potters ‘Arf and Potteries Marathon runners before them as ‘Heartbreak Hill’. Eleven miles done and the incline of all inclines awaits and the most punishing part of the whole run.
Welcome to Stoke on Trent ! !
This year’s marathon has new Organisers, and they saw fit to review the course and make the odd amendment, but they decided to leave ‘the hill’ in as it’s part of Potteries marathon folklore and traditions matter around these parts. The irony is that most regular runners approved of the decision as it’s what makes ‘The ‘Arf’ what it is and sets it apart from other half marathons. Marathon runners are a strange bunch, me thinks !
On the other side of the hill though is a quick trip through Central Forest Park and a sprint finish - for those that had the legs for it - back into Hanley Town Centre where the good and kind people of Stoke on Trent had lined both sides of the road to cheer and applaud the efforts of everyone, from the top of Town Road, all the way down to the finish line by the Sir Stanley Matthews statue, where a goodie bag, a medal and the satisfaction that you’ve achieved something I can only make excuses about not doing – oh, and made a healthy contribution to whichever charity you ran for.
Well done. You deserve it.
So, if you fancy your chances and think that Heartbreak Hill is well within your capability, next year’s Potters 'Arf is on Sunday 28th September 2025. You have twelve months to prepare. Start the clock.
You can register for the Potters 'Arf Marathon 2025 by clicking here...
I wish you the very best of luck !
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