A FOUNDING member of Okehampton Running Club has achieved a long-held ambition by running a century of marathons, becoming a member of the exclusive ‘100 Marathon Club’.

Roger Voaden completed the epic feat at the relatively small and low-key Plym Trail Marathon at Clearbrook. Several of his fellow ORCs surprised him on the day by running with him to finish together in 3.23.11, where a group of friends and fellow ORCs greeted him with champagne and an impressive cake featuring Roger in ORC colours, made by Geoff Hill.

He was presented with his 100 Marathon medal by friend Alan Littlejohns and fellow 100 Club member and race director Davey Green presented him with the coveted club t-shirt.

Roger said: ‘It feels absolutely amazing — in a way it’s a relief, like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. In the racing community you mix with others and then think to yourself “Yeah, I can do that!”

‘I decided to try and bang out one after the other last year to get to 100. I started doing the Plym Trail Marathon two or three years ago and it’s such a low key, friendly place. People run it both fast and slow, and it doesn’t matter, people just keep each other going and then you go and make a cup of tea at the end! So that’s where I decided to run my 100th race. Thanks to everyone who supported me at my 100th race.’

Roger came to running later in life than many of his fellow members of the 100 Club, having only started running at the age of 40 after being a keen footballer for both Northlew and Okehampton Argyle.

Initially running as a way of maintaining his fitness after stepping away from the beautiful game, Roger’s appetite for competition needing sating and he decided to enter himself in his first marathon, the Cornish Marathon, in November 2005.

Roger said: ‘I’ve always been competitive. When I started running I had some friends who said we should enter the Ruby Run when that was just starting out. I did that and then went and did the Torbay Half Marathon. I finished sixth or seventh for my age group and then I thought to myself “… I can go faster!” And that was that.’

Tying up his shoe laces at the start, wearing a singlet and shorts, Roger received a few words of advice from Alan Littlejohns, who looked at his choice of kit and said in his rich Cornish brogue: ‘You’ll be wanting more than that on boy, it can be bloomin’ cold out there!’

Despite Roger’s questionable attire, he finished the race in 3.43.00 and ran it again the following year, having also completed the Dartmoor Vale Marathon. In 2007 he pushed himself even harder by taking on the longest road race in the country, the 32 mile Dartmoor Discovery Ultra Marathon.

Roger’s training at this time consisted of running with some friends; these runs often took place in Tavistock and inspired the group to set up a running club for Okehampton.

In February 2009 this became a reality, and Roger, along with Andrew Vallance, Bryan Friend and Gavin Punchard, became the main founding members of Okehampton Running Club.

Roger said: ‘In those training sessions we were always pushing ourselves, edging each other on, it was great. They were always very friendly — it didn’t matter who finished where, we just were pushing each other. That’s what it’s all about.

‘We’ve seen so many guys coming through the club. We had to do a running and leadership course to see it up with British Athletics and it’s gone from there.

‘It’s fantastic to see people at the club who are non-runners who then go and run marathons. It’s very rewarding seeing that.’

With the club now formed, his training became much more structured with interval sessions, hill reps and fast tempo runs, where running in groups made them push themselves harder.

A pleasant side effect of this more intense and formal training programme was that Roger’s times improved. He completed his first London Marathon in 2008 in 3.18.00 and ran his first sub-three hour marathon in London the following year, crossing the line in 2.54.24. He improved on this time again at the 2010 London Marathon, setting his personal best in a superb time of 2.52.24.

He continued to run five or six marathons a year while also successfully competing at shorter distance, earning himself the affectionate nickname of the Okey Whippet.

In 2016 he achieved his first goal of running 50 marathons by the age of 50, completing his half-century in London in 2.55.53. A year later Roger had stopped competing at other distances to concentrate on his ambition to run 100 marathons, completing 12 that year.

In 2018 he ran 31 in a calendar year, starting his campaign in January with the Gloucester Marathon and finishing with the Plym Trail Merry Xmas Race in December.

Among his most impressive achievements in 2018 was a four day ultra marathon, the Devon Coast to Coast, where he was the outright winner, running just over the marathon distance for four days, following the Two Moors Way from south to north.

A week’s holiday in July gave him the opportunity to amass seven more by running the Salwick Scorcher 7 in 7 near Preston, an aptly named series considering the heat at that time.

By the end of 2018 Roger had finished 98 marathons. Choosing the Plym Trail Marathon Weekend, he ran his 99th on Saturday in a time of 3.21.05 adorned with the number 99. On Sunday, he finished in 3.23.11 — both exceptional times considering Roger has been battling a recent bout of flu.

Having completed his huge challenge, Roger doesn’t intend to rest on his laurels — if he can, he now intends to run marathons for his country at masters competition.