When I started working for England Athletics 18 months ago there were a 
couple of reward internationals in place but little else to wet the appetite 
and give a development line for aspiring road/marathon runners.
 
After a lot of chat with athletes, events, other coaches and staff at 
EA, I decided that we ought to have a logical set of races where athletes 
could see easily a route for progression from club to area to International 
level and then hopefully from there with a litle more improvement a chance 
to run for GB in either a major games or the World Half Marathon 
Championships.
 
England were already taking a team to the Toronto Marathon (had 
previously ben a GB International untill they decided that they did'nt want to kit 
out the guys) and I was and still am working with the event as Elite athlete director, 
so we increased the number of runners from 2 to 3 men and 3 ladies and make 
sure we also use it as a training event for new team managers.
 
I then set to work with Andy Day and Nigel Rowe to make sure that they had 
relevant and credible England Chmpionship races at 5k, 10k, half and 10 miles 
(London will always be the Marathon Champs FTB). In addition we wanted to make
sure that these events were spread around the UK and I think have done fairly well 
with this. 2010 see's the 5K at Blackburn 10k at Bristol, Half Marathon at Wilmslow 
and 10m at Great South Run , also well spread thoughout the calender.
 
We decided that medalists at these champs should have the chance to run for 
England and so using European contacts we set up the matches with Denmark 
(Half in May) and Berlin (10K in July) and we were hoping to do a 10mile team for a 
race in Ireland but are still working on this now from 2011 although we probably will 
send a few to the Dublin 10 in August.
 
So now we were starting to see a fair amount of interest and its fair to say that due to 
the 2012 and other factors there is a steady improvement in standards. Rome was not 
built in a day and to those cynics who want to knock modest performance inporvements
fire away!
 
Inter Area matches are great but they tend to be at same events and really sould be the 
first rep. level above county or club so another level was needed so after testing it with 
an England Vs Scotland match at the Warrington Half last year I spoke to the oher home
countries who were all interested. Wales and Scotland with youngsters like Mark Pollard 
and James Thie working there have an advantage as they can clearly see the benefit 
and talk to those who make the final decisions. NI are trying to get in on it but do not 
have the same number of athletes so won't always field full teams but are exccited by it.
 
So the idea was hatched, the half at Dunfermline (May) the 5k at Blackburn (July) in 
with the EA Champs, 10k will be now at Cardiff as Swansea has an inter Area match 
(the 2 will probably rotate the hosting) and we will continue to look for another race
in either NI or Ireland for 2011. We will also have England Vs Scotland at Warrington 
again as it worked so well.
 
The hope is that this progression will continue with a few more tweaks and maybe if 
budgets and ambition is there the other home countries might get involved in some 
of the European matches.
 
Any thoughts or feedback on this development is more than welcome. Good presence 
for these programes and communication with athletes and coaches remains a high 
priority. Athletes like to know what they can go for, how they can qualify and we always 
put the selection criteria very clearly on the EA website. Of course not everyone is always 
available so we will then move down the 'Power of 10' and take into consideration 
current form. It's an exciting programe and we really want to develop it more so any 
feedback form the most important guys out there.....THE RUNNERS is more than 
welcome, after all it is a RUNERS LIFE.
 
Cheers
 
McLADDERS