Presentation of Life Membership to Mark Rowlson
Made by John O’Donnell
This is about Mark Rowlson. He has been in the Club for about 30 years, give or take a year. He joined and then in a couple of years became Road Race Secretary and kept the post for 23 years and then left it to take up the Chairman’s job. It goes without saying that during his time as Road Race Secretary he did a professional job and brought everything up to standard as he always does. Mark has also been a race organiser for many years, overseeing many of the arrangements for the club’s races including all the handicap races, the Trent 5, and in recent years the Notts 10 and Summer League race at Wollaton Park, which has recently involved the use of his diplomatic and negotiation skills to reach a deal with Nottingham City Council and Notts AAA to keep the race at Wollaton Park for the next 3 years which will be of great benefit in saving lots of work in the future.
Mark has also had a successful career as a runner; he has PBs of 18 minutes for 5K, 81 minutes for a half marathon and 3:11 for a marathon! A time many of us would like to achieve. If you look at the club trophies you will see Mark’s name appear many times. One great achievement was his completion of the gruelling Transylvania ultra a few years back with aplomb – check out the photo of him soaking wet in appealing conditions.
Mark has undertaken a huge amount of work for the club, often in the background. All that remains to say is that Mark is very deserving of this honour we are giving him today. We look forward to your continued membership of the club in the years to come.