Still Running (weakly). Issue 122

PAST – inspiration – “They took me into the ski hut and showed me where Landy had slept, and little Les Perry, and Stephens and MacMillan.  I could see some of their carvings and smell their sweat, and right then I felt I wanted nothing in this world as much as one of their bunks myself.  From that day, my dedication to running was assured,” said Herb Elliott on his first visit to Percy Cerutty’s training camp at Portsea outside Melbourne in 1956.

(John Landy broke Bannister’s 46-day-old mile record in 1954 with 3:57.9.  Perry came 6th in the 1952 Olympic 5000.  Dave Stephens set a world 6-mile record in 1956.  Don MacMillan ran the 800 at the 1952 and 1956 Olympics, winning a bronze in the 4x440 at the 1954 Empire Games.)

Herb Elliott would go on to dominate the 1500 and mile (not losing a race at those distances in his senior career.)  He set world records, won Commonwealth golds, and, most memorably of all, won the Olympic 1500 crown in Rome in 1960 in another world record.

But it is the importance of place that I want to emphasise here.  The camp, with its attendant trails, beaches and sand dunes – and Cerutty’s “Stotan” philosophy (Stoic and Spartan) – were to test and mould Elliott into championship material in short order: he started winning medals and setting world records (a 3:54.5 mile, for example) just two years later, in 1958. 

PRESENT – perspiration – In 1984, I ran the Berlin Marathon.  Aiming to set a personal best in that race, I eschewed the previous day’s breakfast run, which finished in the Olympic stadium.

It was a decision that I knew was right – I did indeed set a PB by three minutes the next day (2:55:35 down to 2:52:32, since you ask!) – but I regretted not seeing where Jesse Owens had won his four golds, where the British 4x400 team had triumphed (Godfrey Rampling, father of actress Charlotte, among them), and where Harold Whitlock had won the 50km walk.

Whitlock, born in 1903, was a remarkable man, continuing to compete internationally up to the 1952 Olympics, where he came 11th behind his brother Rex’s fourth place.  I had the privilege to walk in the some of the same races as him in the 1970s!

So, last Monday, the day after my daughter had run the marathon, we got the train out to the Berlin Olympic stadium, ending my four-decades-long lament.  There in front of me was the track on which they had run – now blue tartan instead of brown cinders; there was the banked seating, which had once hosted Hitler; there were their names on the side of the stadium pillars.

I could see them running, jumping and walking and hear the crowd cheering.  I could imagine too Usain Bolt, who set the current 100 and 200 world records there in 2009.  My great friend, Rod, was there to see him do it – something he always rightly treasured.

It reminded me of jogging round the 1952 Helsinki Olympic stadium in 1991, running in the footsteps of Zatopek of course, but also of Paavo Nurmi, who had carried the Olympic flame into the arena three decades after his own heyday, and of Eamonn Coghlan, who won the World 5000 there in 1983.

FUTURE – suggestion – I would say two things about the importance of place.

Firstly, consider the places where you train.  Like the expanse of paving slabs along Streatham High Road, where for some reason I always seemed to fly on my 5-mile race-walk route.  You probably have something similar – that magical strip of woods, that hill whose perfect gradient seems to propel you upwards, that track – places whose spirit, whose rhythm, whose vibration somehow resonates and chimes with your own.  Relish those places and use them as often as you can to do some of your best work.

And secondly, places are evocative.  Places are nostalgic.  Places are inspiring.  So I would urge you, if you care about the sport and its history, its continuum and its legacy, to consider visiting some iconic athletics locations.

Parliament Hill Fields – perhaps the home of cross country running.  The streets of London that saw Paula’s 2:15 in 2003.  Crystal Palace, where Brendan Foster and Steve Ovett set world records.  The 2012 London Olympic stadium where Mo triumphed twice.  Richmond Park, where Seb would run hills.  Withdean near Brighton, where Ovett would train.

Further afield, there are ghosts of greatness in almost every major arena – not just the Berlin of Owens and the Helsinki of Zatopek, but also the Oslo of Cram’s 3:46 mile, the Zurich of Gebrselassie’s 12:44 5000, the Brussels of Ingebrigtsen’s 4:43 2000.

If you manage to get to any of these, pause for a moment.  You may not be able to see their carvings and smell their sweat, but you may be able to breathe in a little of their magic.