Still Running (weakly). Issue 148

PAST – inspiration – “Tired, Father, I’m tired,” was Ronnie Delany reply’s when a priest asked him how he felt after the mile race at Santry in Dublin on 6th August 1958.

Delany, who died on 11th March 2026, was the reigning Olympic 1500 champion, but, in his native land, he had been up against one of the greatest middle-distance fields ever assembled.  There was Herb Elliott, who would go on to succeed Delany as 1500 gold medallist in the Rome Olympics of 1960.  There was Merv Lincoln, who had run his Australian compatriot, Elliott, so close so often.  There was Murray Halberg, the Kiwi who would win Olympic 5000 gold in Rome.  And there was Albert Thomas, another Aussie, who held the world 3-mile record and would take the 2-mile equivalent on the evening after the mile race.

After Thomas had led at the quarter in 56 and the half in 1:58, Elliott pounced, but he was surprised to be overtaken by Lincoln on the third lap.  Three laps in 2:59 and Elliott crashed into top gear, never to be caught.

It had only been 4 years since Roger Bannister had run the first sub four-minute mile, yet here all five men broke the barrier.  Elliott (3:54.5) and Lincoln (3:55.9) shattered the existing world record, while Delany and Halberg (both 3:57.5) were also under the official record of John Landy’s (3:57.9) though outside Derek Ibbotson’s as yet unratified 3:57.2.  Thomas ran 3:58.6.

On the following evening, Elliott had promised to pace Thomas to that 2-mile record and was as good as his word, ‘flattening himself,’ as Thomas clocked 8:32.0 to break the record of 8:33.4.  “Gee, thanks, Herb,” the little man was heard to say.

In a sad, perhaps even bittersweet 2026 coda to these feats, Ronnie Delany’s wife, Joan, died two days after her husband’s funeral.

RIP Ronnie and Joan Delany

PRESENT – perspiration – The current crop of middle-distance talent looks just as exciting as it did back in 1958 with American 17-year-old Cooper Lutkenhaus’s 800 victory in the World Indoors being called by far the most prodigious performance by anyone in any sport.

After a relaxed 1:46 in his heat, he produced semi-final and final times of 1:44.29 and 1:44.24 to win by a yard.  And yet……. Maybe Sam Ruthe is even better!  The 16-year-old Kiwi ran a 3:48.88 mile recently.

But of course, there are more parochial reasons for us to be cheerful.  Josh Kerr looked unbeatable in winning the 3000 at those World Indoors; Jake Wightman won world silver last year at 1500; and Georgia Hunter Bell and particularly Keely Hodgkinson were in domineering form in Torun too.

Mary Rand was the first British woman to win an Olympic athletics gold.  It would be nice to think that our Olympic long jump champion from 1964 (she also won pentathlon silver and 4x100 bronze at those games) saw, four days before her death on 26th March, Georgia (1500), Keely (800) and Molly Caudery (Pole Vault) winning three global golds in half an hour and concluded that the future of British women’s athletics looked very rosy indeed.

There has been much speculation about Keely’s best distance after her 50.10 400 relay split (the fastest of anyone in the race) an hour after winning the 800 in 1:55.30 (second fastest indoor 800 of all-time behind her own world record.)  One thing one can say is that the 800 did seem to be the perfect warm-up for her relay blast.

To my way of thinking, the 800 is obviously her best distance at the moment, and there are plenty of medals to be won – both Commonwealth and European championships are on British soil this year – with the 4x400 a nice bonus.

I don’t know what sort of comedown from these championships and subsequent build-up would be necessary, but I would love to see her get on the outdoor track ASAP and consign Kratochvilova’s world record of 1:53.28 to the murky dustbin of history! 

FUTURE – suggestion – Keely has talked about some of the training that has got her where she is today.  She refers to one session of 3 times 500 metres with 7 minutes recovery, which, on first sight, she thought was nothing.  But now she admits, “I could not get off the track for half an hour.  I could not move.  If I looked up, my eyes were seeing black spots.  My head was banging.  I was going to be sick.”

Another typical session would be 3 sets of 3x300 with 90 seconds between reps and 5 minutes between sets.

On one of her earlier YouTube posts, she recommends speed training, hill training and strength training – plus the importance of a rest day each week – for all runners.

Interestingly, the speed session she recommends is 3 sets of 2x200 with a minute between the 200s and five minutes between sets.  On hills, she likes 4 to 6 efforts up a 200-metre incline with 2-3 minutes between.

All of the above sessions work on the principle of limiting the time between the repetitions so that the runner is not fully recovered when they start the next effort!  Of such things are spots before the eyes, headaches, nausea, the inability to move, and speed-endurance improvement, made!