Life on the Run (9 page)

My father in the First World War had also been an escort for prisoners, but this was much more serious. He told the story about one particular prisoner he had to take, I think it was from London to Edinburgh, but it may have been in the opposite direction. This man had been arrested as a German spy and was being taken to his execution. He was apparently a German baron and very wealthy, and my father was offered many inducements to let him escape, but he did not succumb and the sentence was carried out. I was never put in that very difficult position while carrying out my duties.

The year of 1958 started quite well; my training had gone well and I was clocking up the miles. In 1956 my total miles run were 2,437; in 1957 that had increased to 2,655 and in 1958, I passed the 3,000 mark with 3,061 miles. The first week in January, I started to up my training levels after a quiet time before Christmas. I always eased off the training between the end of the track season, in about October, until early January. The first full week of the new year, I clocked up eighty-five miles, running twice a day on four of the seven days, and finishing the week with a good win in a six mile cross-country race. The following week I dropped back to seventy-one miles, although this did include some hard days in the early part of the week, running up to sixteen miles a day. This was the week of the Inter Counties where I finished tenth, the only race I did not win that winter. After that ‘failure' it was back to hard training, and the next week I was back up to eighty-six miles and all my training was in the morning, so I must have been working the 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. shift. This was followed by weeks of 102 miles and 100 miles.

The 102 mile week was made up as follows:-

Sunday
-
5 miles on road in afternoon.

Monday -
12 miles on road in evening, fairly fast pace with some sprints.

Tuesday
-
total 20 miles,
7 miles on road in morning, 7 miles fast running in 34 minutes in evening, followed by 6 miles fast and slow.

Wednesday
-total 20 miles, 7 miles in morning in 38 minutes, 7 miles in evening in 37 minutes, followed by 6 miles interval running. Weight Training.

Thursday
-
total 20 miles, 7 miles in morning in 39 minutes, 7 miles in evening in 40 minutes, followed by 6 miles interval running. Weight Training.

Friday
-
total 12 miles, 8 miles in morning, 5 laps around Palmer Park, with 4 miles on road in evening.

Saturday
-
total 13 miles, 6 mile race which I won in 29:50, but I ran three laps in 46.05 and did other training.

The training the following week was identical, with another race win at the end of the week.

I then dropped back to seventy miles in the week of the Southern Counties Championships at Parliament Hill, although the mileage was down, I still trained very hard, and had a good session of eleven miles as close as on the Thursday. I ran away from the field early in the race, and went on to record a great win; there were some great runners in that field, including Gordon Pirie and Frank Sando. My time was 49:50 for the 9 miles 100 yards, heavy and as usual very muddy, course. On the Parliament Hill course with the mud and hills, once you broke away from the field, it was comparatively easy to keep the other runners behind you. While you were running fast downhill, they would be running much slower up the other side.

I was then confident that I could win the National, and training went back up to 100 miles a week, before easing back the week before the big race. As always the National Championships were in March, and these were held at Birkenhead. So as to be there in plenty of time, and so that I could be prepared properly for the nine mile race, Marion and I went up to Manchester a couple of days earlier and stayed with her aunt. What should have been another triumph for me turned into a disaster.

Chapter Seven: From Disaster to Triumph

We had to make our way from Manchester to the venue at Stoke Park, Birkenhead, and after staying in bed longer than we should, we left Manchester for the race and thought we had plenty of time, but problem followed problem; partly because I had misunderstood the start time, and not least of all because when we took a taxi for the last part of the journey the driver did not know his area, and we arrived at the start when the runners had run their first few hundred yards. Bitterly disappointed I did not know what to do, so I watched the race and saw Alan Perkins (Ilford AC) win the 1958 National Cross-Country title. I had beaten him very easily in the Southern a few weeks earlier. I explained my predicament to the officials after the race, before they did the traditional thing of selecting the first nine athletes for the International Championships to be held that year in Cardiff. When the team was announced at the prize giving I waited, not really expecting to be selected, as the rules had always been very strict about selection. The team was announced and they put me in the list. There were mixed reactions from other runners; congratulations from some and not very happy comments from those who had been pushed further down the list by my inclusion. I knew there was only one thing I could do to make up for their disappointment, and that was to make sure that I went to Cardiff and run my legs off for a top place.

There were only a couple of weeks, but I trained hard for another ten days, including another week of the magic 100 miles. During this time I won two more races, including the Police National on the Thursday before the big day. The Police Championship on this occasion was close to home. As a result of my winning in 1957, the Berkshire Constabulary had the task of organising the event, and it was staged at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. My winning time was a new Championship best of 30:37.4, although to this day I do not know how they could talk about records when every course was different and certainly not measured with any accuracy. I treated the race as a serious training run and I had a very comfortable win, which was just as well, as just twenty-four hours later, on the Friday, I was at Cardiff for the biggest race of my life.

After we had all met up, we went for a light run around the course with the rest of the team. It was a flat, fast course but to my horror there were around thirty hurdle-type fences to be jumped in the three laps. I was not alone, and some of my team mates were talking about running a little further and going around the obstacles rather than trying to jump them.

The Saturday came and it was very cold, but the cold never worried me, it was the heat that caused me problems, although I did wear gloves on this occasion. The favourite for the race was Alain Mimoun from France, a great athlete, even if a little eccentric, who had beaten me in that first international race at the White City. He was so fussy about his food that he had insisted on going into the kitchens at the hotel and helping to prepare his own food. He was now thirty-five years of age, but had won silver medals in the 1952 Olympics, and was the Gold Medal winner in the Olympic Marathon of 1956. He also had a great incentive to win the race, as no one had ever won four titles in a row, and this was his fourth title chance. I did what I always did, I went out at the front, not worrying about the opposition, but at every obstacle Mimoun got ahead of me; he was so fast over the fences, but as soon as he knew I was over a fence he would slow and wave me to the front again. This was repeated many times and I thought ‘He thinks he can outsprint me at the finish.' As we neared the end, I kept up the pressure and we turned towards the finish, running stride by stride. I seem to remember he passed me and made his strike for home, but I was ready and I started my finishing dash for the line. I always could muster a strong finish however tired I was, and I was not going to lose now. My final kick took me ahead and I crossed the line around thirty yards ahead of the great runner. My winning time was 46:29 for the nine miles, and with all the obstacles this was a pretty good time.

I had done it and rewarded those who had kept faith with me by putting me in the team. The England team ran away with the team prize, packing all six in the first ten places. Our captain Frank Sando was third and he was the opposite to me, he did suffer from the cold and was the first athlete I knew to wear tights or track trousers in races to keep his legs warm.

The excited commentator that day, was the well-known Welshman Bernard Baldwin. As soon as he could after the race, he rushed up to me and invited me to run in his special New Year's Eve run; the Nos Galan in Mountain Ash. I agreed and over the next forty years I was to return about thirty times to be part of that very special event on New Year's Eve, where I always received great hospitality from the families that put me up and looked after me each year.

Fresh from my first major win, I ran at Cranford in the Thames Valley Harriers Road Relay the following Saturday, and recorded 22:19 for the fastest lap of the 4 miles 1,500 yards circuit, which took twelve seconds off my record time the previous year.

In those days it was traditional to run on the road between cross-country and track seasons, and I had a number of road races over the next few weeks. The first week in April, I started my speed training to get ready for the track season, and these included sessions with groups of 220 yards in 28 to 32 seconds and 440 yards in 63 seconds upwards.

The one race I should have won, but didn't, was the Maidenhead ten miles on Easter Monday, 7
th
April. It was a race over two laps and the actual distance was 10 miles 700 yards. A very good road runner, Tony Redrup of Wycombe Phoenix Harriers, was the surprise winner and I was second in 50:52, after a race where we had never been separated by more than a few yards. It brought me down to earth with a bump and it was back to the drawing board. Club track races followed in April, where I won an assortment of distances from 880 yards to three miles.

On 6
th
May, I ran for the AAA v Oxford University; the annual meeting where just four years earlier Roger Bannister had clocked the first sub four minute mile. I won the two miles in 8:53.8, a good start to the season. A week later I was at Hornchurch in Essex for two races; a 2,000 metres where I finished second in 5:19, and a 3,000 metres which I won in 8:16.4.

On a Tuesday evening, about one week later, I was in Dublin at the opening of the Santry Stadium to run a one mile race against some of the best milers of the day. The money for the stadium had been raised mainly by the work of one man; the bubbling outgoing Dublin jeweller Billy Morton, who had been promoting athletics in Ireland for a number of years. It was a very windy night, but I decided to run my usual way and run from the front, even though I knew I was over ten seconds slower than most of the field. The opposition included Ronnie Delaney (Olympic 1,500 metre champion), Derek Ibbotson (World record miler), Brian Hewson (European 1,500 metre champion), Gordon Pirie, Mike Berisford and several other sub or near four minute milers. I was leading until the last 100 metres or so, and at the finish Delaney won in 4:7.3 - I was fourth in 4:9, my best mile time to date.

Back in London four days later, I won the Inter County Three Miles at the White City in 13:40. This was followed two days later on the Monday, with fourth place in an Invitation two mile race where I ran 8:47.6 behind Pirie, 8:46.4, Szabo (Hungary) in the same time, and Derek Ibbotson, 8:47.4. Five days later I was back at the familiar Palmer Park in Reading, where I ran two invitation races at 3/4 and 1.5 miles,winning them both in 3:8.3 and 6:39. These were good training runs and were much the same as the training distances I used a lot.

At this time of the year, May to June, I would put in a lot of track and speed work. Mileage could be anything from fifty to seventy miles, and a typical week would follow this pattern. My training between 11
th
and 17
th
May was:-

Sunday
-6 miles in the evening, with steeplechasing and sprints, plus weight training.

Monday
-12 miles in evening , 9 miles on the track and rest on road to and from training. 12 × 220 yds in about 30 seconds each, followed by 3/4 mile in 3:19 and 4 × 440 yds in 62 to 64 seconds, plus my unconventional weight training.

Tuesday
-10 miles in evening, 7 miles on grass and 3 on road. Fast and slow running, followed by weights.

Wednesday
-10 miles in afternoon, 7 miles track and 3 miles on road. 8 × 440 yds in 64 to 67 seconds with sprints and weights to finish.

Thursday
-9 miles in evening including the two races at Hornchurch.

Friday
-
8 miles in evening, 5 laps around the perimeter of Palmer Park with some road and sprints. Weight training.

Saturday
-
10 miles which included two races and some sprint training. I won a mile in 4:36 and a 2 mile in 9:16.4.

Total miles for the week 65.

The following week was a busy one, with my runs in Dublin and the White City, so mileage dropped back a bit to only fifty-five but I was still running every day.

The last week in May started with the two miles at the White City, and finished with the two invitation races at Palmer Park, and I clocked up a total of seventy miles. My training this week was all in the morning, as I must have been on a late shift. This included a session where I did 16 × 440 yards in 62 to 67 seconds (all as usual with just a 220 yard jog in between). Another faster session of 8 × 440 yards in 59 to 60 seconds and another of 6 × 880 yards in 2:11 to 2:15 (as always the fastest run was the last). Away from the track I ran around the perimeter of Palmer Park, a distance of 1 mile 150 yards. I ran the alternate laps fast and slow, and my fast laps were 5:12, 5:15 and 5:15. The fastest time I ever recorded for running around the park through the trees was 4:34.

The following week, the first week in June, it was similar, clocking seventy-one miles, and I ended the week by running in the Berkshire County Championships. I did my usual double and won the three miles in 13:37.8, and the mile in 4:19.3. The Southern Counties followed shortly afterwards and I won the three miles again in 13:37.6. Near enough the same time as the county race but with much tougher opposition. It was after this race that Gordon Pirie was quoted as saying “Stan Eldon cheats, he runs too fast at the start.” He was of course referring to my front running, which I used so effectively again in that race when I led all the way from the first lap. Pirie was second in 13:43.6, with John Merriman third in 13:43.8, Dave Chapman (Woodford Green) fourth in 13:50.8, George Knight (Essex Beagles) fifth 13:50.8 and Hugh Ford (Brighton) sixth in 13:54.4. My training in the following week was as follows:-

Sunday
-7 miles in the evening, 3 miles on road and 4 miles on track, sprints up to 220 yards and some weight training.

Monday
-12 miles in the evening, 8 miles on track. 660 yards in 86.8 followed by 8 × 440 yards in 62, 63, 63, 61, 64, 56, 61, 60 seconds with 220 yards rest. Weight training.

Tuesday
-10 miles in evening, 8 miles on track and two miles on road. A 220 yard race (in about 24 seconds) and 7 × 220 yards in 29/30 seconds, finishing with an 880 yard race and some fast and slow running.

Wednesday
-11 miles in the afternoon, 3 miles on road, 2 miles on grass (sprints) and 5 laps around the outside of Palmer Park with three fast laps in 5:20, 5:15 and 5:14. The distance of the lap was 1 mile 150 yards. Then weight training.

Thursday
-10 miles in the evening, 3 miles on road and 7 miles on track. 330 yards in 42.4 and 8 × 220 yards in 25/28 seconds. Weight training.

Friday
-5 miles in morning, 3 miles on road, 2 miles on track, jogging with sprints. Weight training.

Perhaps a word of explanation about weight training; it was nothing sophisticated. I did not have money for weights, but using an old metal pudding basin as a mould, which I filled with concrete and using a cut-off a broom handle, I made myself some dumbbells, and my training was mainly resting them on each leg in turn and lifting the leg to help strengthen my leg muscles. I also used them for my arms. With these modest implements, my cycling on the beat and my twice-a-day training, I continued to develop my fitness, stamina and speed.