Reposted April 18, 2018
David Bedford is a lion of British athletics. Bedford, and the British athletes of his generation, such as Brendan Foster, Ian Stewart, Seb Coe, Wendy Sly, Steve Ovett, captured the attention of a generation of British athletic fans. Follow that with Steve Cram, and his exciting running, and the sport was nurtured in the 1970s 1980s and 1990s in the UK.
David Bedford, with Coach Bob Parker, 1973 photo by Mark Shearman/Athletics Weekly
Bedford put his energy, his affection for the sport into the Virgin Money London Marathon. His jovial style hides an attention to detail and true understanding of the sport as activity and sports entertainment. Bedford’s ability to orchestrate an elite marathon field has been fascinating to behold. We ask him about the marathon and his ties with the sport. The Shoe Addicts and RunBlogRun are very thankful for Mr. Bedford’s patience and sense of humor.
Updated July 12, 2017
This interview was first posted on June 19. Lots of reasons why you should love distance running your whole life from this interview. Watch for upcoming sections on David Bedford and his life long love of distance running.
In this second part of our exclusive RunBlogRun interview with David Bedford, we speak on the development of his running career, some observations on the global marathon movement and Mr. Bedford’s opinions on the growth of the sport.
Caricature of David Bedford, courtesy of David Bedford
David Bedford is now the Elite Athlete Coordinator of the Virgin Money London Marathon. We sat down with David on May 21, to do a long interview on many aspects of his career and to guage his opinions on the sport of athletics.
David Bedford holding a piece of White City, photo by RunBlogRun
We thank David Bedford for his time and generosity.
