Life on the Run (17 page)

I had just got my training back to a reasonable level and had run fifteen miles the day before the crash, and as a result of my bang on the head I then lost four days, but I then got back to training the following week. I trained quite hard and that is why I probably had such a lousy run on the Saturday in the Inter-Counties race, where it took me 47:07 to run the eight miles and finish in 106
th
position. I took time off on the Sunday and started training again on the Monday, and clocked up a total of 100 miles, including a six mile cross-country race on the Saturday in the Police against various Army units match. I finished fifth, but according to my notes on the day, I and others got lost and ran off the course. The week following I clocked up 101 miles in twelve training sessions, followed by seventy-seven the next week, when I won an inter-club race. The next week it was seventy-one miles, and this included two races. The first one on the Wednesday I won. It was an inter police force match, but on the Saturday it was the Southern Counties where I had always performed well. This time was not one of them, and I finished ninth in 45:32 for the nine miles. Then I was back to 100 miles of training and a win in a small inter-club match. On the evening of Wednesday 1
st
March I did one of my favourite runs; I ran to Windsor from Reading via Twyford, a distance of nineteen miles, which I did in one hour forty-six minutes.

I had some shorter steady runs on the next two days, before lining up in the Thames Valley Harriers Relay, again at Cranford. The course had been changed and was now slightly shorter than the one where I held the record, but I still came out on top with the fastest time of the day, 20:18 for the 4.5 miles.

A steady week of training followed, and at the end of that week I ran what, looking back now, was a race that signalled the coming to an end of my international running. It was the English Championships, and I came thirteenth in only 51:05 for the nine miles. This was outside the automatic place for the international where they selected the first nine, and it did not even get me a reserve spot. It was a great disappointment after my first, fifth, and tenth positions in the international race of the previous three years.

Shortly after this I did win the Police Cross-Country Championship for the last time, and a few days later ran in a new event for me, the Swindon Road Relay. I loved the road and once again I clocked the fastest time for the 4.5 mile leg.

Over the next two weeks I was to win or set the fastest times in four races. The first was in Northampton, a six mile cross-country race, and then the Watford Road Relay, 6 × 3 miles where my time of 13:41 was the fastest. Then on Easter Monday it was another of my special events, the Maidenhead ‘10', and I won again in 51:34, just one second slower than my time in winning the previous year. At the end of that week it was the Uxbridge Road Relay, and I was fastest again with 26:47.

By now I was just getting back into track training and had some good sessions, and so I thought I would have a go at the AAA Ten Mile Championship to be held at Motspur Park. One of my old Army friends and rival, Basil Heatley, was entered and I knew that he wanted a world record. We ran together and we took the lead in turns and reached the three mile mark in 14:16, which was well on schedule, but then on the sixteenth lap disaster struck as I was running down the back straight. All of a sudden my left leg seized up with cramp and I struggled for the rest of the lap before dropping out. I remember the AAA physiotherapist telling me that my problem was caused by running on too many different surfaces in a short time; cross-country, road, and then rapidly onto the track.

I wanted to get over the disappointment of dropping out of that ten miles, so a week later I lined up for the Finchley twenty mile race. I knew my basic fitness was good in spite of my trouble at the AAA 10, and I set off in the ‘20' in my usual way, leading from the start and clocking off the five mile laps in twenty-five minutes a lap, but after three laps and around fifteen miles I paid the price for my enthusiasm and I slowed rapidly, and my last lap of five miles took around thirty-eight minutes. I suffered and my final time was only 1:53. All I wanted to do after the race for about twenty-four hours was eat and drink. I packed in sandwiches, fruit juice and anything I could get my hands on. I found out what it was like to be totally dehydrated.

Just four days after that twenty miles, I was back on the track for the annual AAA v Oxford University match at Iffley Road. This time I did not win and had a terrible run, finishing sixth in only 9:23. I was still being asked to run all over the place, and only another four days later I was in Hanover in Germany, running an invitation 3,000 metres, where I was sixth again in 8:30.2.

I was really on the slide now, and things could not get much worse, or could they? All I won over the next couple of weeks were a few club races in unspectacular times, and I did manage second place in a three mile at Portsmouth where I recorded 14:12. I then ran the three miles again in the Inter Counties at the White City. Absolute disaster, seventeenth in 14:29. Form was very much up and down from then on. I won the Berkshire titles at one and three miles again, in 4:16.4 for the mile, and 14:11.9 for the 3 miles. I won a few club races and managed to make the first three in several invitation races, including one at Farnham where I managed 8:51.8 for two miles.

At the end of June I ran for my second claim club Reading AC, in their match against a Swedish Club, Idrottsklubben YMER. I won the mile in 4:20, and the two miles in 9:9.2, and even managed to get fourth place in the 1,500 metres steeplechase in 4:40. The erratic form continued, and at the end of that week all I could manage was a fifth place in a mile race at Nottingham in 4:16. The following week I had two contrasting results, with second place in the Paddington 1.5 miles, in a time that was close to my best for the race, 6:27.5, and then back to a modest run at Oxford, where I ran two miles in over nine minutes. This was followed by a win for the Berkshire AAA v Army v University Athletic Union in the mile. My time was 4:11.6, which was quite respectable for me.

I sharpened up in the rest of the week with some short fast running, and then ran the AAA's six mile at the White City on the Friday night. I had to be content with third place and 28:13.4, but this was only eight seconds outside my British record, so it was not a bad run and showed that I was not quite finished. I then won the Police Championships at one and three miles for the last time, with modest times of 4:20 and 14.02. An invitation 1,500 metres in 3:58.3 followed, and in the Welsh Games I had another poor performance, fifth place in the three miles in 13:46.4.

I did start to think about my future, both in terms of running and career. I was approached by the Chairman of Lex Motors, Rosser Chinn, and offered a job, but it was a bit vague what my job would be.

During August of 1961, training and races fell off. This was the year that my time in the police was going to come to an end, but before I quit I saw an advert for a selling job with Caxtons, who published encyclopedias and sports books. I got the job and had the training; then it was out to sell sporting encyclopedias.

During the summer and autumn of that year I was doing two jobs. I was still in the police force, but I was earning more part-time with the selling than the police work. I was still pounding the beat, but I had also started this new job as a door-to-door salesman for Caxton Press, so I was working up to fifteen hours a day, which left very limited time for training. I resigned from the police but, that was not easy for three reasons. First of all I had enjoyed police work and the people I had worked with; I also had a young family, two children at that stage; and thirdly the police did not want to lose me. Within minutes of me typing my resignation, the news had reached the chief constable who summoned me to his presence the next morning. I reluctantly went to see him and we had a very frank discussion, which ended up with me being offered any job I wanted within the force, and promotion as I had already passed my promotion to sergeant examination. We parted on good terms, and he said that I could go back any time and he would take me on again, even if I had passed my thirtieth birthday, which was the age limit in those days.

I left the police in November, and there was an adjustment to my life to be made. The cost of the removal firm to convey us and our goods from the police house to our new home in Plough Lane, Wokingham, just £6.10s.

By now my serious running career was over; not by choice, but by circumstance. I suppose I was typical of athletes of the era. We could not afford to concentrate on running for too long, as there was not any real money to support life and family. I had enjoyed both my hobby/sporting career of running and my career in the police. I had held British records, won several AAA titles, and I had won the big one, the International Cross-Country (now the World Championship). I had won quite a few very good international and other races at various distances, and although I never quite held a senior world record, I did have those two ‘Junior World Bests' to my credit, and I had ranked top or near the top in the World or Europe Rankings at several distances, at different times, from 1958 onwards. I had beaten most of the best distance runners in the world at that time. Running in those days was challenging and fun, but life moved on.

Life was pretty tough once I had quit the police, and Marion was often waiting for the eight shillings (40p) family allowance on a Tuesday, so that she could buy some meat. I had my money from selling sports equipment, and the
Reading Standard
had asked me to write a column for them, and after getting permission from the AAAs, they gave me a portable typewriter which I still have, although it is not used these days. The
Standard
also agreed to pay me £3 a week, and this paid the mortgage on our little house in Wokingham.

While out selling the book one night, I met a very good amateur footballer with Woking FC, and he introduced me to a man in Wokingham, Ken Berry, who was just setting up a sports shop. Ken was the least sporting man you could imagine, but we got on well and he agreed to pay me £10 per week, plus a commission.

After working for Ken Berry and KC Sports for a while at Wokingham, I decided to go it alone and start my own retail business. I had a good stock of Puma shoes from my freebies supplied to me by Puma, and as I had good contacts with the Dasslers. I wrote to them to see if they could help. They certainly did and told me that they had just appointed Mitre Sports (the football manufacturers) as their UK agent, but they had put in a word and they would supply me with whatever I required. Mitre were very helpful and I was in business, even though I had no money and an overdraft of several hundred pounds.

Chapter Eleven: Business Life Begins

Before I could go into business I had to get further permission, and I wrote to the AAAs again; this time Harold Abrahams (of Chariots of Fire fame) dealt with my request to trade under my own name. No athlete had done this before me, and there was a fear I could be infringing my amateur status. Harold however gave me permission, and I was up and running.

During this time we had to survive on little or no income, but this did not stop Gordon Pirie and his wife Shirley coming to visit on a regular basis, so that they could get something to eat during their hard-up times. Years later I found out that we were on their circuit; Bruce Tulloh and Mary Rand were both invaded as well. But I liked Gordon and he did give me some ideas about going into business, and it was he who suggested that I might like to be the UK agent for Puma shoes, as he assured me they were looking for a distributor. He also introduced me to Norwegian Ski Pants that he imported, and from these I was later able to develop the slimline trackster, which we sold so well in the 1960s and 70s.

During the time in Wokingham our income was helped by my egg round. I had around sixty laying chickens, and these produced about thirty dozen eggs a week, and I had regular orders for supplying eggs to family, friends and others; and this produced around an extra £5 a week. In our last Christmas there these chickens turned in their last profit, when I had to kill, pluck and draw them before they appeared on many Christmas tables.

My first shop was at the back of a grocery store, the Roundshill Bakery in Bracknell. I did a deal with the man who was then Chairman of the Wokingham Town Football Club, to rent a small space in his premises. It did not last long as he had forgotten to tell his landlord, but it had got me started and there was then no turning back.

I was only running around twenty miles a week, and mainly only club races. It was back on the road in September and another fastest time in the Highgate Harriers Road Relay; the lap was over 4.6 miles and I had a time of 22:55. In the middle of the month I had a couple of third places in invitation two mile events; one just under nine minutes, and the other just over. I was still doing very modest training for me, but at the end of the month I went to Wales to run in another Bernard Baldwin special; the Wattstown Road Race. Not an easy course in the valleys, but I won in 21:45 for the four miles. Another fastest time in the Ealing CC Relays, with 13:04, and some Chiltern League cross-country wins followed, but my lack of training over the past few months was taking its toll, and proof of that, if I needed it, was my usual trip to Mountain Ash for the Nos Galan race. No win this time and not even a high place; just a miserable thirteenth. The race was won by Eddie Strong, and John Merriman was the Mystery Man.

What would 1962 bring in terms of success or otherwise in my running career? The first six days in January I did a total of forty-eight miles, double what I had been doing in a week for the previous few months, and the final day of that week, the Saturday, I won the Berkshire Cross-Country title again in 43:43 for 7.5 miles. My training was edging up again, and the following week I won a five club race against some good opposition, but in the Inter Counties a week later I only finished sixty-sixth; probably the result of upping the training after doing very little.

I immediately took my training back to something like my usual winter level, and ran between ninety and 100 miles over the next three weeks. This included good wins in three cross-country races, and in the fourth week it was the Southern Counties again. I eased off the training and finished thirteenth, which according to my running notes, I had run well. It was a ten mile course on this occasion, and I recorded 50:59, so I suppose it wasn't bad.

A week later I won the Berks, Bucks and Oxon Championship, and followed this up with my annual run in the Thames Valley Road Relay. For once I did not set the fastest time, but I did a respectable 20:35 for second fastest time. It was then back on the track for sharpening up, although I did have a couple more cross-country races to end the winter season. Then I had the usual round of road relays, including Watford, Leyton to Southend and Uxbridge.

On Wednesday 30
th
May, I was involved with something that I did not realise at the time was going to set me on a path for the future. Along with others, I helped to set up the first of a series of Gala Nights of Sport in Reading. They were sponsored and promoted by the
Reading Chronicle
who I wrote for at the time. The idea behind the Gala Night was to bring top sport to Reading, and it was to be a combination of cycling, athletics and football. The star of that first ‘Night of Sport' was former world mile record holder, Derek Ibbotson, who ran the mile. He had a go at running the first four minute mile in Reading, but the opposition was too far away to help him, but he stormed home in 4:4.6. The two mile race was won by Derek Haith (Thames Valley Harriers) in 8:52.6, from Mel Batty (Thurrock) and Martin Hyman (Portsmouth). I took part and just avoided last place. The programme for the evening was quite simple, with a selection of athletic races and cycling events, and a five-a-side football match. This match between Reading and Aldershot was won by the away team, who scored four to Reading's three goals. One of Reading's goals came from Maurice Evans, later manager of the club.

I remember arriving at Palmer Park in Reading, the venue for the event, about two hours before the start and there were already queues at the gate to the stadium. The total number who attended that night was around 5,000. They packed into the small stadium, and all but a few hundred were standing around the outside of the cycling track. It was an instant success and was to be repeated for a number of years.

If 1961 had not been a good year for me, 1962 was a disastrous one. I won a few club races, and had one or two wins in invitation events, but nothing earth shattering.

In October I went to Wales and ran the Gilwern Harriers Road Race. I could only manage fourth place, one minute behind the winner T. Edmunds from the home team. I had to wait until November for a reasonable time in a race, and that was close to home at Bracknell, where I finished second to Martin Hyman with 50:40 for the ten mile road race. In December I ran the famous Hogs Back race in Surrey, and recorded 46:50 for fifteenth place in the fifth running of the nine plus mile race. Looking back at the results of that race is like looking at a directory of British distance runners; they were all there.

I revisited the Nos Galan races, and finished fourth in the one mile, and eleventh in the four miles; an improvement on the previous year. This was one of those winters when it was a difficult journey to the event. There was very heavy snow, and as well as digging ourselves out from snowdrifts on the way, when we approached Mountain Ash we took a wrong turning, went down a terraced road, got stuck at the bottom and could not get out onto the main road again. We managed to get help from the police and they took us onto the races, leaving my car to be collected, hopefully, the next day.

In January 1963 the Inter County Cross-Country Championship was held at Emmer Green, Reading. The strange thing about this race was that there did not appear to be a county championship to select the team; presumably the county race could not take place because of the very heavy snow. The winner of the Inter County race, that was run in very heavy snow and very cold conditions, was Tim Johnston (Cambridge), with Gerry North second and Basil Heatley third. The first Berkshire runner was Don Stevens (Reading AC), who ran one of the best races of his career and finished in the high position of twelfth. The press reports at the time kindly said that Stan Eldon failed to make the first twenty places - in fact I was ninety-fourth.

I believe the reason there had been no country race, was due to the very heavy snow that was on the ground from Christmas to late March. Training during the rest of the year was only at the level of twenty to fifty miles.

I ran in the Inter County twenty mile race at Victoria Park, London, for Berkshire, but after reaching twelve miles in sixty-five minutes, I eventually dropped out at seventeen miles.

My first marathon was on 15
th
June 1963, when I ran the Poly Windsor to Chiswick Marathon. It was in the middle of the track season, and I was really training for track races with average mileage of only about forty miles a week. I had always wanted to run the marathon, and I remember lining up in Windsor Castle with great anticipation. I was in nineteenth place at ten miles with 55:55, and twenty-sixth at fifteen miles in 84:51, and I reached the twenty mile mark in just 1:59. I was quite pleased with the result considering my lack of mileage training, and ran into the finish at the Kinnaird Stadium in Chiswick in 2:47:32 in fifty-fifth place. Oh how I would settle for running that time today. The race was won by American Buddy Edelen in 2:14:48, a world best at that time. A whole four minutes behind him, in second place, was “Mr Marathon” Ron Hill (Bolton United Harriers), and a further four minutes back, in sixth place, was another running legend from the same club, Jackie Haslam.

Although my greatest achievements were winning that cross-country championship against Alain Mimoun, and also the record runs on the track, I think that my real enjoyment came from road racing. The road race season used to come as a natural break between cross-country and track in April, and the reverse at the end of the season between track and cross-country. As my track running diminished, running on the road became more important to me.

By 1963 I was more and more involved in business, but still did a little running. I ran in the Reading Borough Police ten mile in August, and managed to get eighth place in 51:47. The race was won by the Cooke brothers from Portsmouth, and the winning time was 50:30.

In the same month I ran in the AAA Marathon at Coventry. I was in fourth place at five miles in 26:19, same position at ten miles in 53:47, but I was in a bad way by fifteen miles, reached in 83:52, having dropped to thirteenth place. I then did something that I did not do very often, I dropped out as I had in the Inter County twenty mile earlier. I was suffering from the lack of mileage. The winner was Brian Kilby (Coventry Godiva) in 2:16:45, and Basil Heatley from the same club was second in 2:19:56.

Later I ran in the second Bracknell ten mile, but it was no repeat of the previous year, as this time I was only twenty-fifth in 52:28.

In November I took a team of five from Windsor Slough and Eton AC to compete in the Le Soir cross-country races in Belgium. This trip was memorable, not for the running, but for what happened that weekend on the wider stage. We arrived in our hotel on the Friday afternoon and I met an American runner, Buddy Edelen, who had been living in the UK and had won the Polytechnic Marathon in 1963. He was in great distress, and when I enquired what was the matter, he told me about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The Windsor and Eton team won the team race for non-Belgium teams. I had run in the main international event and finished twenty-seventh, but this was added to our other team runners in the mass event, where Peter Yates was fourth, Robert Graham nineteenth, Dave Bignal fifty-fourth and Ron Smith 272
nd
. On Monday we caught our ferry back to England. It was a very rough crossing and there were not many people on board. Many of the team were sick, but there was a television room on the ship and we watched the funeral of Kennedy for the whole journey home.

The next step was to find a more permanent home for Stan Eldon Sports, but to be able to afford this it meant selling our little house in Plough Lane, Wokingham. This gave me my first insight into estate agents and the property world. The house was put up for sale at £2,150 and several people came to view. An offer was received at the asking price and then a slightly better offer came in, the only trouble was they were from a husband and wife who were retiring, and both liked the property but had not told the other what they were doing, and had come through two different agents and the estate agents certainly did not tell them. In the end a compromise was reached with the purchasers agreeing to pay more to us, and the agents agreeing to split a commission.

The search for property took us to Caversham on the north side of the Thames at Reading, where we found a small terraced shop, with a reasonable flat over and a small back yard. The rent was £500 per year, so we took it on and moved in March 1962. It had been a cold winter and the snow was still on the ground from Christmas but the shop had to be fitted and we had hungry young mouths to feed.

In those days sports shops sold everything, and so we were into fishing tackle as well as football kits, boots, tennis rackets, running shoes, hockey sticks and anything else that was needed by the local sporting populous. The shop was not really big enough to carry the wide range, and it rapidly extended into the downstairs kitchen and hallway, with the family totally contained upstairs and on the first and second floors.

The business grew, and I went out selling to schools and football clubs, as well as visiting local running tracks, including Windsor and Bracknell, selling running spikes and clothing; frequently on the ‘never, never'; in other words I gave my customers credit and took a few shillings a week off them.

Life was not easy, and living above the premises you never knew when someone was going to call on our services, either in person or on the telephone. I remember late one Friday night, having a call from a well-known athlete who wanted a pair of shoes to run in on the Saturday, and on a Sunday morning, a visit from a major at Arborfield Garrison who was desperate for medals for a sporting event at the garrison that day. We really were ‘Open All Hours'.

About a year after opening, it was decided we should become a limited company, and so Limited was added to the Stan Eldon Sports name.

I wanted to expand into my home town of Windsor, and all I could afford there was a shop that was due for demolition in Oxford Road in the town. It was only about 200 yards off the main street and did have parking close by, so it was a good place to start, and the local council only charged me a small rent of £28 3s. 4d. per month (£338 per annum). The shop was pretty dilapidated and mice, if not worse, were in evidence, but we made the best of it, and after a couple of weeks customers started to appear.