At the age of 12 Laurie Cummings got up at 5.30am every morning to deliver morning papers to an area over a mile from the paper shop in Easington Colliery where he lived. He ran the distance jumping fences gates and walls which was excellent training without even thinking running another mile to school. He became a keen athlete and was school champion cross-country runner. He commenced work at Easington Colliery in 1953 as an electrician and worked at the mine athletics team taking part in Field/Track/ Cross Country events throughout the country.
His training covered distances up to 20 plus miles a day joining the Crook & District Athletics Club taking part in athletics events throughout the country including National Championships. In 1992 Laurie ran the London Marathon and achieved a 9th world ranking in his age category, at 51 years of age. He also competed in Road Running Championships in Birmingham with another two world rankings of 9th in the 25km and 24th in the 10km races. Picking up an injury and told by specialists not to run any more or I would end up in a wheel-chair put me into decline as I just lived for running. In 1999 Laurie saw another specialist who gave him the go ahead to run once again provided he ran sensibly. he trained as best he could but felt he was achieving nothing! My son Jeff suggested I take on local 5km Fun Runs. In July 2012 he took part in his first 5km Fun Run at Sedgefield followed by others with Personal Best times in the 70-74 age group category.
Laurie’s running was going well so he decided to break the age category times at various 5k Park Run venues throughout the North area and then other venues further afield. From the December, 2015 to the present date Laurie has broken 21 age category records in the 7074 age category and the 75-79 category. He trains at Newton Aycliffe gym every morning and does an hour session on the various CV and Weight machines. This is followed by a road run which can vary from 3km to 8km. Laurie is also a qualified sub-aqua diver with a total of over 12,000 dives, all of which are recorded, signed and verified. He received a certificate to verify all these dives from PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) in March, 2015.
