Are we there, yet?
The IAAF website announced that 1960s Australian running legend Ron Clarke died at 78. His autobiography, The Unforgiving Minute, now unfortunately out of print, was one of the books that inspired me and helped mold my running philosophy.
http://www.iaaf.org/news/iaaf-news/ron-clarke-death
2024 Races:
03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles
05/11 - D3 50K 05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour
06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.
I heard about it on international news, this morning. I had never heard of him before that, but I will make sure to read whatever I can find on him online. If he was an inspiration to you, George, then he must have been a very special man and runner.
PRs: Boston Marathon, 3:27, April 15th 2013
Cornwall Half-Marathon, 1:35, April 27th 2013
18 marathons, 18 BQs since 2010
Despite all his world records, he never won an Olympic or Commonwealth Games gold medal, and I think was unfairly criticized for this. There was always someone who ran the race of his life to beat him, like Billy Mills in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics 10000m final. Yet he never made excuses and never ducked his competition to avoid a loss even when not in top fitness. From what I remember, he was the ideal sportsman and gentleman of the sport.
That is something we rarely see these days. That side of our athletes doesn't seem to be as valued as it used to be some years ago, sadly.
Barking Mad To Run
Sad loss for the running world.
"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." Theodore Roosevelt
That is a pretty nice writeup, dude was fast! Did your paths ever cross in all these years?
Thinking about inspiration, the person who technically "inspired" me to run was a chick I worked with years ago who ran a half marathon. My jaw dropped to the floor and shattered into a million pieces when she told me!
I did not go out right away and run (I had designs on becoming a triathlete at the time) but months later when I tried my first 5k, knowing that she ran 13.1 miles gave me the confidence that I could run a quarter of that.