Tracey Morris

Tracey Morris (born 9 September 1967) is a British long-distance runner.

For the American poet, see Tracie Morris.

Early career

Morris grew up in Anglesey, Wales and ran as a Welsh schoolgirl,[1] but stopped running soon after. She moved to Leeds and in 1998, aged 30, she resumed running to keep fit ,[2] and took part in the London Marathon running for charity.

In December 2003 she took part in a local event the 'Leeds Abbey Dash' and finished as the first woman just ahead of Bev Jenkins .[3] The race was watched by UK Athletics' Bud Baldero[2] [4] who invited her to join the Great Britain Marathon squad. Baldero also ensured she had a place in the 2004 London Marathon for which her application had not been successful.[5] She was the only non-professional runner to be invited to take part.[1] In January 2004 she won two domestic half marathon races, the Brass Monkey Half Marathon and Four Villages Half Marathon.

On 18 April 2004, she stood on the Blackheath, London starting line not knowing what was to come.[6] But as a relatively unknown runner she burst into the public conscience by becoming the first British woman in the London Marathon. She was so unknown that one of the then British fastest runners, Birhan Dagne, did not try to finish in front of her as "I did not know who she was".[5]

International Competition
YearCompetitionVenuePositionEventNotes
Representing  Great Britain and  Wales
2004 Olympic Games Athens, Greece 29th Marathon 2:41:00
2006 Commonwealth Games Melbourne, Australia 4th Marathon 2:33:13
2006 European Championships Gothenburg, Sweden 16th Marathon 2:37:34
2007 World Championships Osaka, Japan 19th Marathon 2:36:40

Road races
YearCompetitionVenuePositionEventNotes
2003 Wilmslow Half Marathon Wilmslow 9th Half Marathon 1:18:42
2004 Four Villages Half Marathon Helsby 1st Half Marathon 1:14:22
2004 Brass Monkey Half Marathon York 1st Half Marathon 1:13:44
2005 Brass Monkey Half Marathon York 2nd Half Marathon 1:14:47
2005 Liverpool Half Marathon Liverpool 2nd Half Marathon 1:13:18
2006 Brass Monkey Half Marathon York 1st Half Marathon 1:16:55
2006 Great North Run Newcastle upon tyne 12th Half Marathon 1:13:10
2007 Silverstone Half Marathon Silverstone 3rd Half Marathon 1:17:26
2007 Great North Run Newcastle upon tyne 7th Half Marathon 1:13:22
2008 Reading Half Marathon Reading, Berkshire 7th Half Marathon 1:15:45

References
  1. Anthony France and Ben Fenton (19 April 2004). "From fun run to Olympics in a giant stride by Tracey". The Telegraph. The Telegraph. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  2. Sarah Freeman (9 September 2014). "The fun runner who took on the Olympics". Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  3. "Leeds Abbey Dash - Sunday 30th November 2003". race-results.co.uk. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  4. Tom Fordyce (19 April 2004). "From the opticians to the Olympics". BBC Sport. BBC. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  5. Duncan Mackay (19 April 2004). "Athens calls as Morris gets serious". The Guardian. The Guardian. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  6. Gareth A Davies (20 April 2004). "My Sport: Tracey Morris". The Telegraph. The Telegraph. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
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