AS an 'ultra' distance runner of some repute, Simon Marland knows a thing or two about labours of love.

Most mortals would quiver just at the thought of a 24-hour run: the loneliness, the pain, the exhaustion, the boredom ..!

But the Wanderers' secretary takes long journeys in his stride, whether it be a 125-mile slog on a running track or a painstaking trek through the 125-year history of his beloved football club to produce the definitive book: Bolton Wanderers FC - The Official History (1874-2002).

"It's a close call," Marland says when asked to nominate his favourite hobby. "I love running and I've loved doing the book.

"They don't really cross one another, although it was easier in the Eighties when I first took up running. Matches were on a Saturday, races on a Sunday ... now it's not as straightforward as that. Of course, when there is a clash, I always do the game rather than the race!"

Marland is no newcomer to the book business, having researched and written 'Bolton Wanderers - a Complete Record' in 1989, which is now out of print and in big demand. The new version - updated and even more comprehensive - was written to mark the club's 125th anniversary.

"We were still in the old Third Division when I did the last one," he explains. "We'd just won the Sherpa Van Trophy. If you had said in 1989 that over the next 13 years we would have been in the Premiership three times, had various vists to Wembley, been in a League Cup Final, people would have said 'pull the other one'!"

But Marland is not only interested in recoring the 'glory' years. Updates in his latest publication include details of Lancashire Cup ties which, in the Victorian era, drew bigger crowds than the FA Cup.

Since writing the 1989 version, Marland has become a key figure at Wanderers, first as accountant and now as secretary - a move which, while limiting the time he spends researching and writing, gives him greater access to club records.

"I'm hands on now, rather than looking from the outside," he explains. "So from my point of view it's probably more interesting ... I wonder where I find the time now but it is a little bit easier this time because people are now a bit more relaxed with me looking at records."

One statistic Marland does not include in his 'Official History', is the number of games he has seen since becoming a fanatical Wanderers' follower in his school days. "I would never count them," he explains. "It's like asking a football supporter 'How much do you spend in a season?' You'd frighten yourself to death. If you enjoy doing it, you'll do it."

*'Bolton Wanderers - The Official History' is published by Yore Publications and will be on sale before Christmas, priced £23.95.

"In terms of recent history, the Lancashire Cup doesn't mean a lot, but if you go back 100 years it was more interesting than the FA Cup. Local derbies were food and drink.

"Obviously football goes in cycles. Now the FA Cup and League Cup take a back seat when you're in the Premiership."

But he can come up with figures to give an insight into the stamina and talent that once put him into the UK's top 40 in the 12-hour ultra distance league. One of his best runs came at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham when he covered just short of 125 miles in a 24-hour stint - 1,000 laps of a 200 metre track!

Small wonder then that the Wanderers' players looked on in amazement as he took off on breathtaking runs high into the Alps when he accompanied them on ther pre-season tour of Italy.

"They think I'm stupid," he laughs, "but I love doing it."