Kenny Stuart
Kenny Stuart is a former fell and road runner. He was born in 1957 to a family living at Threlkeld in the Lake District.
Early in his career, when there was still a split between professional and amateur fell racing, Stuart competed in professional races, converting to amateur status in 1982. His first full amateur season in 1983 was marked by close competition with John Wild who had won the previous year's championship. Stuart won the last 1983 championship race at Thieveley Pike, thereby becoming British champion.
Stuart was also British champion in 1984 and 1985 and among the records he set in those years were 1:02:18 at Skiddaw, 1:25:34 at Ben Nevis, and 1:02:29 at Snowdon, which still stand as of 2011. In 1985 he won the short race at the inaugural World Mountain Running Cup in Italy.
In 1986, Stuart turned his attention to road running and won his debut marathon that year at Glasgow in 2:14:03. He went on to set his best marathon time of 2:11:36 at Houston in 1989 but his career was curtailed by increasing allergy and virus problems.
References
- Richard Askwith, Feet in the Clouds (London, 2004), 114-31.