Discover the legends of athletics in our monthly feature On the Shoulders of Giants.
Ron Hill
There are few athletes to have left such an extraordinary impression on the sport as that of legendary British marathoner Ron Hill. From his racing days stacked with world records to his post-race career with Ron Hill Sports and his substantial writing on training and racing, Hill has influenced a generation of runners across all levels.
Born in Lancashire in 1938, Ron Hill ran for the Bolton United & Harriers Athletics Club. After winning a scholarship to Manchester University, he studied Textile Chemistry and eventually completed a PhD in the field in 1964. Hill’s athletic career began on the track where he found much success over the 10km distance. His passion for racing brought him across the UK, as he searched out races of all distances to satisfy his appetite for competition. Hill was a firm believer that a race setting was the best environment to build fitness and learn tactics.
A shortage of races on a Saturday in August 1961 led the young Ron Hill to Liverpool for the Liverpool City Marathon. He had never run the distance before but thought it would be a worthwhile challenge. Standing on the start line of this his first marathon, taking place around the streets of Liverpool, he was joined by only 37 other runners. After 10 miles, Hill and the Ghost Runner John Tarrant pulled away from the field. The pair fought it out for the next number of miles before Hill put in a surge and raced away to victory in a time of 2:24:22. Immediately after he swore, like every other runner, that he’d never race the distance again but a big write up on his success in the Guardian newspaper the following Monday changed his mind and thus his marathon career was launched.
Marathon racing in the 50s and 60s wasn’t like we know it now. Drinks were not allowed until the 10-mile marker and only again at every 5-mile marker after. In the main, the leading competitors did not fuel or take fluids at all. Later in life, Hill explained his hydration approach to the European Championships marathon in Athens ’69 in the blistering heat. “The tar was melting on the road, a really hot day. I didn’t want to take the drinks they were handing out along the route as I might swallow air, I decided I wouldn’t drink during the race at all. So, I got a pint bottle of pop and put salt in it, drank it down and said, ‘right that’s it now, get on with the race’.”
Most athletes didn’t run wearing a watch either, as the designs in those days were quite heavy and cumbersome. Instead as Hill described athletes went hard from the gun and whoever survived won the race. This ‘eyeballs out’ approach, as Hill referred to it, was evident in one of his most successful days, when he won Marathon Gold at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh. On that day, Hill passed through the 10-mile mark in just over 47 minutes! He slowed but still finished in a World Record time of 2:09:28.
An innovator in terms of sports clothing, he also experimented with his training and nutrition. A radical approach to his pre-race fuelling at the ’72 Munich Olympics may have deprived him of a medal. However, Hill had many other days of huge success. Notably in 1970, he became the first British runner to win the famous Boston Marathon while breaking the course record. Over his career Hill ran 115 marathons, including 19 in one calendar year alone. He set world records over distances from 10 miles to the marathon. And one of his numerous records remains intact today.
19,032. That’s the number of consecutive days that Ron Hill ran. The longest running streak in history spread over 52 years from 1964 to 2017. This streak included 26.2 years of doubles i.e., Ron Hill ran twice a day for over 26 years! When he realised, he could no longer keep up the twice a day runs he decided to conclude them at a number most relevant to his career. Hill’s streak began after he was disappointed with a race performance, and he made the decision to increase his mileage and not take days off. In an era where athletics was a steadfast amateur sport, Hill had to hold down a job while training to win major championships. He did this by running to and from work, incorporating speed sessions and longer runs into his evening commute home. Hill’s streak withstood many the close call, including a car crash in 1993 where he broke his sternum, and foot surgery the same year. In 2017, the streak came to an end. After running over a mile where he was experiencing excruciating chest pains, Ron Hill decided to take a day off.
Tadhg Crowley
4 September 2022