Life on the Run

by Stan Eldon

  On 6th 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 11th and 17th 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.

  The first lap of record-breaking six miles - Chiswick June 1958

  Leading the field, British Games, White City, May 1958, Ibbotson, Pirie, Szabo and Shirley in pursuit

  The British All-Comers’ record run at five and six miles

  Young Eldon leads Chataway at Kodak Sports

  Some you win and some you lose, outsprinting Bruce Tulloh at London Fire Brigade Meeting, White City, August 1959 - both recording 8:50 for two miles

  A narrow defeat by Steve James in Inter County three mile 1959 - both recording 13:36

  Return home from Rome with Mary Rand (Bignal). One of several photographs that got me into trouble at home!

  Winning the Southern Cross-Country at Parliament Hill a month before winning the International Title

  Finishing in third place at National Cross-Country at West Bromwich 1960

  The week after the County Championships ended, with what was for me a poor performance, when I finished only sixth with a time of 14:18, running in a South v Midlands v North athletics match. My training race diary only says ‘Poor’ so I do not know why I ran so badly, except looking at the time of day I trained that week, I could have been on night duty right up until the race. I kept up my training every day that I had started the previous October, and it was in the main producing the results I hoped for.

  On June 28th 1958, I ran in the AAA six miles championship at the Kinnaird Meeting at Chiswick. I knew I was going well, and in that race I proved it, as I broke Ken Norris’s British record for the distance and on the way broke the five mile record as well. My new record for the six miles was 28:05, and the five mile record was 23:20. After the race Harold Abrahams, the former Olympic champion sprinter, later famed by the film Chariots of Fire, wrote to me and explained that if only I could run more even lap times, the world record could be mine. Harold continued taking an interest in me for the rest
of my running career. I had a good win and a British record but it was a wasted opportunity, as I know I could have got much closer to Kuts’ world figures, which were only twenty seconds faster. Perhaps the most flattering comments of my running career came after this race. The man who coached Roger Bannister to that first four minute mile, Franz Stampfl, could not believe I had to get back to Reading to work a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. night shift. He was quoted as saying “A policeman? I can’t think of a worse job for a world-class athlete. This Eldon must be fantastic to combine the two. He really ought to get another job. Slow striding on the policeman’s beat is bad for him.” He then suggested that six months’ training like Zatopek or Kuts and the world record could be mine.

  This success brought me instant fame, and I was awarded the Ronson Sports Achievement Award of the Week. It was not a cheque for £5,000 which runners would probably get today, but a specially inscribed cigarette lighter. I still have this lighter, although it has never been used, and I can image what a modern athlete would say to such a presentation.

  This race gave me a very unusual television experience. Peter Waterman, the British Featherweight Boxing Champion (brother of Dennis), was hosting a children’s TV programme at the time, and he invited me on to talk about my record run. He picked me up from my home and we went to the studios for the live programme. After the usual make-up treatment and test for sound levels, I was sat on a sofa for the interview with Peter. The programme started OK and it then came to the point where he had to introduce and interview me. He completely dried up and left me sitting there. The producer then started frantically waving his arms, and from his gestures I could tell he wanted me to carry on by myself. They rolled the film of the race and I talked through it and it went all right apparently. It was an interesting programme, with the singer Lita Rosa and Nigel Lythgow the dancer.

  Articles and cartoons appeared in newspapers, comics and magazines about the ‘galloping policeman’ and some were written by myself, including a section in a book that was produced by the then News Chronicle. Six sportsmen of the day contributed. They were Billy Wright, Matt Busby, Jimmy Armfield, Colin Cowdrey, Eamonn Andrews and myself. The local newsagent was very good and would deliver to me any newspaper that had a mention of me. Sometimes this was quite a lot of newspapers, and just as well they were not as bulky as some of today’s editions.

  My new celebrity status brought with it some extra activities, including opening a casino in Windsor, crowning beauty queens at local carnivals and opening church and village fetes. I also had to make my first after-dinner speech at a dinner for the newsagents from the Windsor, Slough area. Proposing the toast to the association was Air Vice Marshal ‘Pathfinder’ Bennett, and I had to reply on behalf of the guests.

  I did not play football after about the age of twelve years, but in the 1960s I turned out for a Celebrity team in a charity match at Windsor, replacing Peter Osgood the Chelsea player who had a broken leg at the time. I think the team would have done better with him.

  Television was still the coming media in the 1950s, but athletics was always on BBC radio with commentators like Max Robertson and Harold Abrahams. I had my share of interviews on the radio, and I also got to appear on television quite a few times. There was a little money beginning to creep in and I received about £10 an interview.

  Between the Commonwealth and European Championships, I went to Portsmouth with Martin Hyman and Percy Cerutty (Herb Elliott’s coach), to do a television programme comparing us with greyhounds.

  On the 1st July, I was running in an invitation 1.5 mile (6 lap) race at Paddington. This had been well publicised as a race between this new star, me, and the established favorite Gordon Pirie, who held the unofficial world’s and British best time for the distance. In the changing room before the race he told me how he would beat me at this event and I did not stand a chance. The race started and I ran in my usual way at the front; first lap in 63.6, 880 yards in 2:8, 3/4 mile in 3:13.6, mile in 4:20.6 and 5:28 at the bell. Pirie followed until the last lap, and on the back straight he made his move and went past me. He gained a few yards but I responded and held him round the bend, and as we came off the bend into the final straight I pounced, remembering that he said I could not outsprint him, and I went for the line winning by a few yards in 6:27.6. A second outside his best for the distance but that was of no consequence. I had won in grand style and won a suitcase as a reward. The third placed runner was Eric Shirley with Tony Redrup (Wycombe Phoenix Harriers), my frequent rival over ten miles, fourth.

  The next day I was in Devon running at the cricket ground in Torquay. This was the annual Devon Police Sports which always attracted large crowds; something around 5,000/6,000 was the normal attendance. It was a handicap meeting and I ran two races. The first was the mile, where I ran off 25 yards, but I was the back marker and finished fourth in 4:11.2. Then it was the three mile, and here I was off scratch, and ahead of me at the start with a lap handicap advantage was the local hero and a very good runner, Dennis Crook. I chased him hard around the grass track, but I was running twelve laps to his eleven, and it just proved too much, so I took second place in 13.55.

  During the busy years of 1958 to 1960, I was always on the move with races every few days in all sorts of places, and much of the travelling was done between my police shifts, working nights, travelling next morning, running in the evening and then travelling back and starting work again on the next evening or even earlier. I could be running up to six races a week in far-flung places and over many different distances. Wherever I was, I could nearly always get some assistance from the local police by way of a lift in a police car to catch a train or flight; even abroad; and I remember having a great deal of help when I was in Helsinki. The local police chief took me to their police museum and put a car at my disposal for my stay.

  Although life was very hectic and I spent a great deal of time on night duty, this did have its compensations. Any sportsman will tell you that they dream of success and often see their moment of glory in their dreams. Well, I was not in bed very much, but on night duty, cycling or walking around the country lanes, I would go over races time and time again, lap by lap, in my mind and hopefully reach the finish line in number one position. Sometimes the dreams did become reality.

  Trains were my main mode of transport in this country, and it often meant arriving at Paddington at about 1 a.m., after all normal trains had stopped running, but there were what they called in those days milk trains and newspaper trains, and I was always able to get a lift back to Reading on one of these. Life was very hectic, but I did have that facility of being able to sleep anywhere and I found luggage racks could be quite comfortable.

  At the end of that busy week, I was back at the White City running National Police Championships. These were comparatively easy runs, but I did set two best performance times when I won the mile in 4:9.8 and the three miles in 13:43.6. I received my plaques on that occasion from HRH Princess Alexandra.

  A week later I was at the White City running in the AAA three mile championship, which I won in 13:22.4; just outside Derek Ibbotson’s British record. The winning of a second AAA’s title won me the Harvey Memorial Gold Cup for the best champion of the year, and I was only just passed my twenty-second birthday.

  I was selected for the six miles in the Commonwealth Games to be held at Cardiff in July. My final warm up race for this was a club match at Windsor, where I ran a comfortable 4:11.5 mile on grass. The press were pressing for me to be either switched to the three miles or to run both events in Cardiff. The selectors would not be moved on this occasion, and I lined up for the six miles at Cardiff Arms Park knowing that I was something like thirty seconds faster, or nearly half a lap, better than my nearest rivals. It was a very hot day, ninety plus degrees in the stadium, and after a few laps the heat started to take its toll. I could not break the field as usual and I soon started falling away, and getting slower and slower. It was left t
o an Australian, Dave Power, and my old rival Welshman John Merriman, to race it out for the gold medal, which Power won with 28:47.8, just one second ahead of Merriman, who won the silver. I finished, I think it was ninth, with a time over two minutes slower than my best of a month a earlier. I could see these two fighting it out on the last lap as I was nearly two laps behind them. I was not the only athlete to suffer in that race. The man who followed me home in the AAA six miles, Hugh Ford from Brighton, faded, as did Alistair Wood from Scotland, another very good distance runner. We all suffered from the extreme heat.

  I have mentioned elsewhere about my strange relationship with Gordon Pirie, and it was on this occasion that he showed the very best side of his nature, and he did something that I have never forgotten. I had only been married about nine months, and my young bride Marion had travelled down to Cardiff to see me run. She was bitterly disappointed at my performance and when we met up after the race, Gordon took us to a pub and after a drink he climbed onto the bar and addressed all those there. He introduced Marion and myself, and made a request that someone should offer this newly-married couple a bed for the night, so that they could be together. It worked and the volunteers came forward and we had our night together. Prior to that arrangement, Marion had been offered a space in a tent with four of the New Zealand male athletes, which she declined.