Fifty-five not out by Nick

Still no running.  I had thought my calf strain was starting to feel better but then yesterday, while giving a snowbound car driver a push, I realised it wasn't.  For the time being my exercise programme has reverted to walking home in the evening.  It's about two miles and takes me about forty minutes.  I don't mind - I can listen to my MP3 player as I stroll along.  Lately I have discovered the Desert Island Disc archive on Radio 4, which is ideal to listen to as the people they talk to are usually quite interesting and also the programmes last just under forty minutes.  I am usually just turning into my road as Sue Lawley is asking them what their luxury would be!

I also listen sometimes to Marathon Talk.  There was a good edition this week featuring Chris Chataway.  (Link here)   The second part of the interview will be posted tomorrow.

It was fascinating to listen to Chris Chataway in that his running took place in an entirely different era.  Winston Churchill was Prime Minister (picture above), war time rationing was still in place and television was only just starting to appear in people's homes.

His training was very different to what you might expect today.  He estimated that he ran no more than twenty to twenty five miles a week, rather less than a casual jogger today.   His training consisted mainly of hard track sessions, such as ten times a quarter mile or three times a mile with very little in the way of distance work.  Partly this was down to a belief amongst a certain class of people that it was wrong to be seen as trying too hard, that it was better to achieve an effortless superiority through your natural ability.  Also he lived a busy life as a student at Oxford with lots of other interests and activities and so running was just another thing that had to be squeezed in.

Despite the limited training he achieved great success in his brief career.  He would surely have won a medal at the 1952 Olympics if he hadn't tripped and fallen on the last bend.  He was well known for pacing Roger Bannister to the first sub four minute mile in 1954, but he achieved the feat himself a year later with 3:59:8.

He was slightly unfortunate in that, when he started his international career, the sport was dominated by the Czech Emil Zatopek.  Once Zatopek started to fade, another outstanding runner - Vladimir Kuts of Russia - came along to dominate the sport in the mid fifties.  Chataway's most famous race came late in 1954 when he raced Kuts over 5,000 metres at White City.  The stadium did not have any spotlights, so the race was illuminated by old World war 2 searchlights.  Kuts tried his familiar front running tactics, which had carried him to many victories and record before, but Chataway hung on to pass him on the line and set a new record of 13:51.  The acclaim he received for this performance helped him become the first BBC Sports Personality of the Year shortly afterwards.

Despite having set a world record, despite having the Olympics coming up in 1956, Chataway retired from athletics soon after. That was how it worked in those days. Athletics was something you did at school and college and then dropped, once you started working. He had an illustrious career in the media (he was the first newscaster on ITV) and in politics. He never stopped running entirely though and as recently as 2010 was able to complete the Great North Run in 1:51 - not bad for a man approaching his eightieth birthday. (Good article here)