Tall Man, Bearded, Running

Here I am at the finish of the Stroud Half-Marathon in 1983, and recently back from Jeddah, as the T-shirt indicates. The finish line was at the Marling School, where I had spent my last two years after it had amalgamated with the Stroud Boys Technical School (a much better institution). So, I did indeed return, some 16 years later (I wonder why they were looking the other way?). I was officially still on pre-discharge leave from the army at the time, and my beard got some unfriendly looks when I finally turned up at Arborfield to be demobbed!