BBC Sport Online 2001
Give Peace a chance by Tom Fordyce (Thanks to Rachel for sending me this article!)
No London Marathon is complete without its celebrity runners, and the 21st race in the event's history is no exception. This year sees Heather Peace, who plays Sally Fields on London's Burning - "the token bird", in her words - picking up the baton and attempting to carry it round the 26mile, 385-yard course without collapsing in an embarrassing heap en route.
Not that she had spent all her days treading the boards. She has a genuine sporting background which, albeit to a lesser extent than that other celebrity runner Sir Steve Redgrave, has held her in good stead during the arduous months of preparation.
"I've always gone to the gym and swum, and as a kid I used to play football for a team back home in Bradford," she says, "although I've never done any endurance stuff like long distance running apart from cross-country at school."
She did slog her way round the Great North Run a few years back, in the very reasonable time of 1hr 57mins, but is realistic about how much can be read into that performance.
"If I could keep going at that pace I could be round in four hours, but that's just not going to happen, is it?" she says. "The second half of the race is going to take me a whole lot longer than the first. There's no way I'll be able to jog all the way either. There's going to have to be a point where I stop and walk. If I can average out at 10 minutes a mile pace, which would get me round in about four and a half hours, I'd be really happy."
She owes her participation to Eddie Peel, the actor who plays Station Officer John Coleman on London's Burning and a self-confessed running nut. Wherever Peel goes, so the story goes, be it Emmerdale or Coronation Street or Blue Watch, he gets his fellow th esps out running for the Leukaemia Research charity.
"The training has been hard work," admits Heather, without a trace of irony, during a warm-weather training session with Redgrave and co. in La Manga , Spain. "Luckily I've been able to fit my running r ound work really well. You'll often have an hour and a half during filming when you're not required for any scenes, and that's when we'll go off and get the miles in. I live in Brighton and running round there is great. I'm doing all my training on the sea - front, which means the scenery is good even if it's not the best for hill-work. And it certainly beats running round glamorous south-east London, which is where we film."
There are other benefits too that a young actress can derive from the hours spend piling up the miles.
"It's meant that I can eat more! I feel better eating healthily anyway - but I've been putting more away without putting on any weight. And my body shape's changed completely in the last four months. My bum's so much smaller it's incredible."
Does she have any tips for her fellow runners?
"Don't drink too much the night before, and enjoy yourself. Don't put too much pressure on yourself. I have been, and I've had periods when I've started to panic. But I don't care any more. As lo ng as I finish it I'll be happy. It's a long old way. Anyone who gets round has done brilliantly."