Councillors pound their business on the streets

Two Borehamwood councillors are putting their best feet forward this weekend to support their local athletic club.

Andrew Zucker and Darren Solomons will both be taking part in the annual Borehamwood Athletic Club's half marathon on 22 June, and have been busy fitting in their training around their duties as councillors.

The half-marathon, again supported by Hertsmere Borough Council and sponsored by Cardif Pinnacle Insurance plc, regularly attracts several hundred runners from all over the country.

Andrew, 38, started running in 2002 in a bid to get fit for his first London marathon which he did in 2003.

He ran it again in 2007 and in his time has helped to raise more than £5,000 for Kisharon, a special-needs school that cares for children and adults with learning disabilities.

Darren, age 36, has been running on and off for the last 20 years, however does admits to bursts of enthusiasm followed by periods of inactivity.

He has completed the Great North Run in 2006 and 2007 and the London marathon in 1992 as well as earlier this year, raising over £2000 for Children with Leukaemia in that event alone.

So what are your running highlights?

"Finishing the London Marathon for the first time," says Andrew. "Running down The Mall was an amazing feeling."

"Running past Buster - a 100-year-old man who took part in the London Marathon - and realising that my time wouldn't be that bad!" adds Darren.

And the lows?

"Being overtaken in my first London Marathon by a large beer bottle, several fruit, and a man with one leg!" says Andrew.

For Darren, it was breaking ankle ligaments a few days before the 1993 London Marathon, which meant he could not compete that year.

The training schedules means the councillors are pounding the streets of Borehamwood two or three times a week but they get lots of support from family and friends, with Andrew's eldest children also taking part in the weekend's fun run.

So what does the future hold for the would-be athletes?

"I've become more determined since I had a liver transplant in 2004 and I am also diabetic which spurs me on," explains Darren. "I like to think that me doing it might encourage others to give it a go."

Andrew, who is a long-haul pilot for Virgin Atlantic, adds: "I would really like to run marathons in most of the cities I fly to - especially in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. But not in the same year!"