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Crafts CouncilDirectoryMarilyn Rathbone

100 Metres Dash

How many truly remarkable things have you done in your life? If the answer is not many, or even none, then maybe it’s time to run a marathon (Andrew Hamilton) My marathon challenge was to weave a hundred metre long braid. I devised and followed a Personal Training Programme, based on an athlete’s, to help me meet targets and released regular bulletins and progress reports, as though I really were an athlete training to compete in the 100 metres dash. The braid took a year and a day to complete.

Marilyn Rathbone

Worthing, England


100 Metres Dash, in progress, Marilyn Rathbone

The braid was hand worked using six threads in the colours of the Olympic symbol. Five of the threads are working threads and the sixth weaves back and forth along the length of the braid to form the dash.


100 Metres Dash, Book Cover, Marilyn Rathbone

The legacy is the Dash itself, together with a 54 page book that tracks the event from conception to conclusion. If you would like to read more about my marathon challenge, there’s an e-copy of the book in my video section.


100 Metres Dash, Page 26, Marilyn Rathbone

I planned to get the bulk of the training done in the first four phases to leave the fifth phase for the “final” and the sixth for recovery and legacy.


100 Metres Dash, Marilyn Rathbone

Como silk, wooden reel, black card, paper


100 Metres Dash, Page 9, Marilyn Rathbone

During the trials, I had begun to think of the braiding process as “training” and to refer to an individual black dash as a “stride”. The average number of strides it takes a female athlete to complete the 100 metres dash is 50. Therefore, I’d refer to all but the last 50 “strides” of my braid as “training” and the last 50 as the “final”, itself.

100 Metres Dash

How many truly remarkable things have you done in your life? If the answer is not many, or even none, then maybe it’s time to run a marathon (Andrew Hamilton) My marathon challenge was to weave a hundred metre long braid. I devised and followed a Personal Training Programme, based on an athlete’s, to help me meet targets and released regular bulletins and progress reports, as though I really were an athlete training to compete in the 100 metres dash. The braid took a year and a day to complete.

Marilyn Rathbone

Worthing, England


100 Metres Dash, in progress, Marilyn Rathbone

The braid was hand worked using six threads in the colours of the Olympic symbol. Five of the threads are working threads and the sixth weaves back and forth along the length of the braid to form the dash.


100 Metres Dash, Marilyn Rathbone

Como silk, wooden reel, black card, paper


100 Metres Dash, Book Cover, Marilyn Rathbone

The legacy is the Dash itself, together with a 54 page book that tracks the event from conception to conclusion. If you would like to read more about my marathon challenge, there’s an e-copy of the book in my video section.


100 Metres Dash, Page 9, Marilyn Rathbone

During the trials, I had begun to think of the braiding process as “training” and to refer to an individual black dash as a “stride”. The average number of strides it takes a female athlete to complete the 100 metres dash is 50. Therefore, I’d refer to all but the last 50 “strides” of my braid as “training” and the last 50 as the “final”, itself.


100 Metres Dash, Page 26, Marilyn Rathbone

I planned to get the bulk of the training done in the first four phases to leave the fifth phase for the “final” and the sixth for recovery and legacy.

More from Marilyn Rathbone

  • Project

    Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize, South Australian Museum, Adelaide, 2009

  • Project

    Six Degrees of Separation

  • Project

    Equivalent IX

  • Project

    The British Textile Art Exhibition 62@50, Tokyo, Japan, 2014

  • Project

    Bauhaus Braids

  • Project

    Pi in the Sky

  • Project

    Vlieseline Fine Art Textiles Award for Most Innovative use of Textiles, 2019

  • Project

    Ribbonacci

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