Life on the Run Read Online Free PDF

I did get my money back.

Chapter Two: The Start of Running
    My athletic career started in 1948 when I was twelve years old. I saw part of the Olympic cycle race held in the area of Windsor Great Park, and then I remember going to the Playhouse Cinema in Windsor with my school to see the film of the 1948 Wembley Olympics.
    I saw the marathon on the film, and at that ripe old age of twelve years I made up my mind that was what I wanted to do. Little did I know that someone in that film was to play a part in my future athletic career; Stan Jones, who finished seventeenth in that Olympic Marathon, helped me considerably in later years. It was the end of 1948 and I started running.
    My first race was a Windsor Scouts Cross-Country in the early part of 1949, which I won. At school I was playing for the Colts Under 15 rugby team, but at every opportunity I was running. My games master ‘Chick’ Evans, was fairly quick to recognise that I was a better athlete than rugby player, and gradually I got more and more into athletics.
    For a while I did follow my father and did some boxing at school. I only ever had one official fight, and that was very early on at school in an inter-house competition, which I did win quite easily. Official boxing contests were banned at school not long after this, but we had many unofficial fights in the school gym at lunch time with the supervision of a games master. I always matched up with the two biggest boys in my years because those of my size and weight were not much competition.
    One of the big events at school was the annual cross-country race; an inter-house competition that scored points towards the overall competition between the houses, that were named after four boys who lost their lives in the First World War. My housemaster wanted me to run for the house, but no boy under fifteen had ever been allowed to run.
    Appeals were made to the games master and eventually to the headmaster, and finally they decided that it would not hurt this thirteen-year-old boy to run three miles. I ran on Windsor racecourse alongside the river. I was running against boys from fifteen to eighteen years of age. I did not win but came third, only being beaten by two boys around four years older than myself, and it was well received by my housemaster and my house ‘Burnett’.
    The following year, although still ‘under age’, I ran away with the annual race and did so for the rest of my time at school.
    My early track successes came in 1950, when I won eight athletic events in the District Scout Sports. In 1950, I progressed through to the District School Sports and won the 880 yards in a new record time of 2:26.2.
    The following year 1951, I started to train with a purpose, and kept records of my training and races. I was only fourteen years old, but I ran against seniors in most club races and generally finished in the first three places. I was running 3.5 miles in about 19 minutes and up 4.75 miles in about 29 minutes. In March I won a schools cross-country race at Maidenhead, and recorded 13 minutes for the 2.5 miles, which was 51 seconds in front of the second boy.
    Shortly after this it was the annual school race again, and this time there were no arguments about me running, even though I was ‘still under age’. I won the 3.5 mile race in 19:18, which was 90 seconds faster than my nearest rival. I won the club road championship on 7 th April with 12 minutes 40 seconds for the 2.3 miles. A win in the school sports 880 yards came next on 28 th April; the winning time was 2:17, and then in May I won the District race in the same time, before moving on to the South East Berkshire 880 yards, which was won in the slower time of 2:22.8. It was slow, but was still a record for the under 15 age group.
    The Berkshire race was next, and I reduced my record of the previous year to 2:13.1, and went to Southampton for the All England Schools, representing Berkshire. I won my heat quite easily