Life on the Run

by Stan Eldon

  It would be easy to make excuses for my poor performance. I had probably run the wrong event, the three miles would have been better, and I had been selected for that event in the first place but was switched to the longer distance after breaking the British record. I was a new sensation and I was plagued by the press and not just the UK people, but from all over, including East Germany. They followed my every move and every bit of training I did at St Athan where we stayed. But the real problem had been the heat, and this was to be an ongoing problem, even though I did enter a research programme to try and find the cause and solution.

  After the Games, I was taken to hospital in Cardiff for a couple of days, and Dr Roger Bannister carried out research on me and some other athletes, including one of the first successful Kenyan athletes. I still have the note Bannister sent to me asking me to take part. We ran on treadmills in cold conditions and in rooms heated up with electric fires. The thermometer was placed in an unusual position within my body! He found that I did have a problem in temperatures above about seventy degrees. When running in warm conditions my temperature would keep rising, where another runner would steady off at just over 100 degrees, mine would not cut out but keep rising. That information was never put to good use, as many years later Dave Bedford had the same problem, and they researched it all over again. Medical research for similar problems and injuries has been a backwater in this country for a very long time.

  After that it was back to hard training, and fighting for a place in the British team for the European Championships in Stockholm. I did not race again for ten days, and then it’s a 1,500 metre at Paddington, again on a Tuesday evening, but I was not so successful there this time and only finished ninth in 3:53. I was still racing or training every day of the week, and on the Saturday I ran for Great Britain against the Commonwealth in the three miles. I was narrowly beaten by Albert Thomas the top Australian runner, who ran 13:20.6 to beat Derek Ibbotson’s British All-Comers’ record of 13:20.8; although the time ratification was awaited on the winning time in the three miles at Cardiff, when Murray Halberg (New Zealand) ran 13:15. My time behind Thomas was 13:23. Again I had Gordon Pirie behind me in third place with 13:34, fourth was Peter Clark (Thames Valley) in 13:38, Mike Bullivant (Derby and County) was fifth in 13:57.

  This was an occasion when I had another interesting experience. I had agreed to run in the Annual Carnival meeting at Agars Plough, near my home in Windsor, and as soon as I had run the three miles at the White City, I had to find Marion and make our way to a taxi that had been sent for to take us to my next race. We left the White City and were swamped by crowds, more adults than children, and we literally had to fight our way through with police help to the taxi. I know what it feels like to have this sort of adulation and understand what it must be like for the pop and sports stars today. I am afraid I was not very complimentary to some of those surrounding us on that occasion, and would probably have been arrested today for my language! There was the usual large crowd at Slough for the carnival running, and I won the mile in 4:14.3, less than two hours after running at the White City.

  On the Monday, I was back at the White City for an Invitation two miles, where I finished fourth in 8:49.

  It was also about this time that I discovered another problem of being ‘famous’. I used taxis quite a bit, getting about from Heathrow and in London. The London taxi drivers are always very generous and inquisitive; they always talk and find out who you are. I have been given free rides on a number of occasions as a result of these conversations. But their generosity can be misplaced. On one such occasion when I was taking a taxi from Heathrow, the driver realising it was me, suddenly realised his mistake a few weeks earlier when he had apparently picked up someone claiming to be me and given him a free ride.

  I made the team and went off to Stockholm with much of my confidence restored. My training had gone well and the atmosphere in the Swedish city was ideal for running; fresh clean air and not too warm. The race started and I set out to run as I always did from the front. It went almost too well and quickly built up a lead of over forty metres by the end of 3,200 metres (8 laps). The only runners chasing me at that stage were Zhukov, Krsyszkowiak, Ozog, Pudov and my old rival Mimoun. I went through 5,000 metres in just under fourteen minutes, which was well inside the world record schedule. The trouble was I had never run in such ideal conditions as Stockholm, and I did not realise how fast I was running or how far I was ahead of the opposition. There were no big screens in those days, and no track-side coaches to tell you how fast you were going. At 6,000 metres I still had a huge lead, and the only change in the chasing group was that my team colleague John Merriman had taken over from Mimoun. I kept my lead until the last couple of laps, when half a dozen runners caught me and there was a real dash for the line on the last lap. The winner was a Pole, Z. Krsyzkowiak in 28:56, with Y. Zhukov (USSR) second in 28:58.6 and N. Pudov (USSR) third in 29:2.2. I was the first Britain to finish in fourth place in 29:2.8, a new British record. I didn’t win but I certainly felt I had done a lot better than in the Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, and had gained my revenge over John Merriman, who had trounced me in those championships. I had mixed it with some of the best distance runners in the world, in fact the best, as most of the top distance runners were in Europe in those days. The runners behind me were Ozog (Poland) 29:3.2, Merriman 29:3.8, Mimoun 29:30.6. Further back in nineteenth place was another great cross-country runner, Marcel Van de Wattyne (Belgium) with 30:45.4. I got more sports coverage for that defeat than many athletes got for winning gold medals. I appeared on sports placards for newspapers all over Sweden and even featured in a cartoon alongside Dana the wife of my great running hero Emil Zatopek.

  Only nine days before I ran in Stockholm, I was in Weisbaden in Germany for the European Police Championships. Although this was a closed meet for the police forces of Europe, there were a lot of good athletes; even world class athletes, taking part. As the British Police Champion at both the mile and three miles, I was selected for both the 1,500 metres and 5,000 metres. In the 1,500 I had to face Roger Moens from Belgium, who held the world 800 metre record at the time of 1:45.7. We had a very close race, and with his extra speed he just got up to win in 3:49, with a very good Finnish athlete second and me in third spot with 3:50.6, my best time for the distance. In the 5,000 metres, I had to face another very good Finnish runner and it was a very hot day. Before the start while I was warming up, I ran through the water coming from the hose that was filling up the water jump for the steeplechase, and I soaked a handkerchief and put it on my head. It worked and I had a good win in a respectable time of 14:13.2 for the conditions. A best champion was always selected at this meeting and Roger Moens had won the 800 and 1,500 metres, but when they announced the winner it was Stan Eldon. I was as surprised as anyone and poor Moens was very disappointed.

  Chapter Eight: ‘Fastest PC Seldom Puts His Feet Up’

  It was about now that I had my first contact with an American athlete, Fred Wilt, himself an FBI agent; so we had something in common as well as our running. Fred was now thirty-seven years old but had run in the UK a few times and was very interested in the training patterns that were emerging, hence his corresponding with me, not just to know about my training, but also about anything I might know about other European athletes and their training methods.

  After my European exploits, it was back to England for domestic races in September, and I ran 8:45.4 in a two mile invitation at the White City. Only three days after this race, I won the Southern Counties six mile championship again, this time in 29:6.8. Then it was off to France and a match between GB and France. I was selected for the 5,000 metres with Peter Clark who had come on the international scene at the distance. I did not run that well in this race, that was run on the Saturday in very hot conditions (not good for me!), and took second place behind him. He won in 13:53.8, a good time in the conditions, and I finished in fourteen minutes exactly which was good
enough to give us the maximum points. The French pair of Michel Bernard 14:8.6, and R. Bogey 14:21.8, were well beaten, even though Bernard’s time was the fastest by a native in France.

  That was not the end of my running that weekend. The British squad were staying at a school/college on the outskirts of Paris, which had its own running track, and on the Sunday morning I thought I would do some training. I ran about seven miles in very hot weather, and for a bit of fun I put out the steeplechase hurdles and ran over them on quite a few laps. When I was nearly through, I heard Gordon Pirie call out from a dormitory window that the team management wanted to see me. I finished my training, showered and went to see the team management of Les Truelove and Jack Crump. They had a request, would I run the steeplechase that afternoon? In fact it was only about two hours away. They explained that Pirie, who was due to run his first international steeplechase, had withdrawn because of ‘injury’ and they needed someone to run and pick up a point. I agreed and rushed off to get something to eat in the canteen, as I could never run on an empty stomach. Then it was on the team bus and off to the Colombe Stadium.

  I lined up for the 3,000 metres steeplechase, and was an instant sensation as I knocked over the first hurdle that I encountered. I don’t think anyone has done this in an international, either before or since that day. I still grabbed some headlines, even if one of them did say “The French Laugh at Eldon”. I steadily improved, and although I was closing rapidly at the end on the two Frenchmen, I took fourth spot in 9:37.8 for the one point I was asked to get. I was in fact only two seconds away from moving up a place. The spectators in France and the British Press enjoyed my one appearance as a steeplechaser in international competition. Two British athletes did have a good weekend by winning two events; Brian Hewson took the 800 and 1,500 metres, and Peter Radford the 100 and 200 metres. In the 1,500 metres, Michel Jazy set a new French record of 3:42.5 in third place behind the other Englishman Mike Blagrove. Jazy later became the world record holder at one mile, when he set figures of 3:53.6, and was the first runner not from the British Commonwealth to hold the record following Bannister’s four minute mile.

  The reason why Pirie withdrew was always surrounded in mystery. He was the first really professional runner in those days of shamateurism, and travelled to where he could get his money. He had been running that summer in Scandinavia, where he could pick up £150 a race, and had asked to be included in the team to compete in France. There had been a dispute between him and the management over the expenses he had asked for to cover his travel from Sweden with his wife. They were prepared to pay for him but not his wife Shirley, so he used what many athletes have used since then, the excuse not to run if the payment was not right. He had a friendly doctor on the team who was able to say he was unfit to run.

  Back home it was off to a floodlit meeting at Brighton, where I won the three mile in 13:40, on the Saturday evening. I note that in that week my training diary had something very unusual. On Tuesday 15th August, I had a rest from running and no distance was recorded. This was the first day off in 1958, except for the 8th March when I missed the National at Birkenhead.

  I learned to live with the media and so did my bosses in the police. On several occasions, either Pathe News or BBC TV, spent days with me ‘on my beat’. I remember Paul Fox as a young producer spending a day at Woodley with his crew filming me at ‘work’ and training at Palmer Park. It was a long day and they even had to send a motorcycle back to London for more film. The film was meant to be a documentary about me, and was to have a prime spot on SportsNight in the middle of the week, but a big sports story broke on the Wednesday it was due to be shown, and the day of filming turned out to be about two minutes. Paul Fox (now Sir Paul) kept in touch with me for quite some years with Christmas cards, as did many of the journalists I knew from the National newspapers.

  On another occasion I had a day with Pathe News, who also filmed me on the beat in Sonning and at Palmer Park track in Reading. Here I was filmed chasing small boys along the river bank, and stopping a lady motorist on the bridge over the Thames, and this was a speaking part as I had to tell her “You can’t park here.” Marion and I went to the cinema to see this when it was being shown, and the audience found the scene funny and were all laughing. I kept a low profile and no one knew I was sitting in the middle of them.

  During my international years the newspapers always had a story about me; win or lose. I think it was fairly novel for them to have a running policeman to write about, because it was not many years before when most of our international squad were from the universities, and in particular OxBridge. The headlines were always big; the sort that would dominate the back sports pages today. Here are just a few of the headlines from 1958 to 1960.

  “THE FLOP BY THE GALLOPING COP”

  “ELDON COPS TITLE”

  “ELDON LEADS ENGLAND TO VICTORY”

  “SPEED COP GETS A SHOCK - EXCEEDING THE LIMIT”

  “ELDON PLEADS ‘LET ME OFF NIGHT WORK’”

  “ELDON - FAIR COP”

  “SCORCER BY ELDON”

  “RECORD BREAKING ELDON CAN BE NEW ZATOPEK”

  “ELDON SMASHES 3 RECORDS in AAA 6 MILES”

  “FASTEST PC SELDOM PUTS HIS FEET UP”

  “DAZZLING ELDON’S RECORD 6 MILE”.

  These were main sports page headlines, above all other sports news, and ELDON was often in letters over an inch in height. The sports writers like Peter Wilson, Desmond Hackett, Alan Hobey, Terry O’Connor and Ken Hawkes, loved to write something about the “Flying Cop”.

  It was round about this time that I met Henry Cooper for the first time. As a local celebrity I had been invited to a Sportsman’s Ball at Slough as the special guest. I was taken around the room to meet the other up-and-coming sportsmen and sportswomen who were there. One of these was Henry, along with his twin brother and his manager Jim Wicks. He was not a big name at this time and was not well known, as he was only just emerging.

  At the end of the 1958 track season I had a few races, including a 5,000 metres at the White City for GB v Finland, where I came third in 14:10, and in the same week I ran the same distance in Wuppertal, Germany, and finished second in 14:13. My final race was at the Birchfield Harriers floodlight meeting on 4th October, where I finished second in the three miles in 13:49.8. This meeting was always good fun and ended with a great party at the home of one of the members of the club. I went to this event for several years, and on one occasion when the party was in full swing, the police called to tell us to cut the noise. The other runners made sure I went to the door to deal with them.

  The week after that last race my training dropped off, and I took my usual semi-rest, only running on three days and only for a total of fifteen miles. Over the next couple of weeks I won two cross-country races, and my total weekly mileage stayed below thirty-five miles. The first week in November, I got back to the routine of running every day, and back to training up to seventy miles a week. In the middle of the month I won the Rochester five mile race in Kent, in a new record time of 24:57.4. It was a pretty tough five miles, and most of the current good distance runners were there. On Sunday 23rd November I was in Brussels for the ‘Le Soir’ cross-country race, and in the senior event finished second in 29:16 for the 5.5 miles.

  The following Saturday I won a 7.5 mile cross-country race, running for Windsor against Thames Valley Harriers, Aylesford Paper Mills, Herne Hill Harriers and the Parachute Regiment. My time for the race was 41:26. I was then back into serious training, running every day.

  I have an interesting note in my training diary about a club race on 6th December. It was against Wycombe and Southall clubs. In the place where I would normally have my position and time I had “Race Abandoned”, but I did clock up ten miles of running, so I guess it must have been very foggy and we all got lost.

  Towards the end of 1958, I was invited to the Guildhall at Win
dsor by the Mayor and Councillors of the Royal Borough, and presented with an Illuminated Address in appreciation of my athletic achievements. The presentation was made by the Mayor, Councillor Joe Proctor, who had formally been my Physics master at Windsor Grammar School, although I do not think there was any favouritism, as Physics was one of my worst subjects, where in exams I think I averaged about eight per cent. My wife Marion, parents and family, as well as my old headmaster, the police superintendent who ‘fiddled’ my entry into the police in 1956, Fred Salter, and my own ‘Super’ Alf East from Wokingham, were there. There were speeches of course, and Alf East said his few words which pleased me - “He is a good champion, he is a good sportsman, and incidentally, he is a good copper too.” I said a few words to the gathered group, and I have never been allowed to forget what I said, or rather what I didn’t say. I thanked my parents, my school, the police, the athletic club, but I forgot my wife, and with the scroll still hanging on our wall, she gently reminds me from time to time.

  I kept up with training every day in December, including five miles on Christmas Day.

  At the very end of 1958 I kept my promise to Bernard Baldwin, and went to Mountain Ash in South Wales to run in the unique Nos Galan race, that was being run for the first time. The atmosphere for that race was terrific. It was a bitterly cold night but the whole town had turned out onto the streets to watch the race. The runners changed in the pithead baths where the miners came up and showered. As we prepared for the race, some of them were coming up to end their shift. The race was to start from very close to these facilities, and before the start the ‘Mystery Runner’ came down from the grave of Guto Nythbran to light the torch and set the runners on their way. There was great speculation as to who would carry the torch, and the crowd were not disappointed as it was a local hero, forty-eight years old Tom Richards, who had won the silver medal in the marathon at the 1948 Olympics. He had set out from the graveside from the misty heights outside Mountain Ash, and ran the nearly four miles in twenty minutes. At ten minutes to midnight, we lined up and the race took us over three laps, up through the terraced houses on the hillside overlooking the valley. There were no streetlights, but the children of the miners were out in their dozens holding flaming torches to show us the way. At midnight all the sirens at the pits were sounding to welcome in the new year. It was a tough course, and as hard running down the steep inclines, as having to run up them. It was very cold and there was a lot of frost on the roads which made running a little treacherous, and I did not lead all the way as usual, but was always in the front two or three places. I took the lead with a mile to go, and when we came back down into the main street it was packed with people; local estimates put the crowd at over 10,000; and the race finished over the bridge and in front of the Town Hall. I had won in 18:46, beating Frank Salvat (Finchley) 18:52 and Mike Price (Bristol) 18:55. Just under 100 runners had taken part, and other leading runners were Eddie Strong (Bristol) fourth, John Merriman fifth, and Ken Norris (TVH), who had won the big Sao Paulo Round the Houses race in 1955, was tenth. This event has always remained in my memory. I do not think any other event I have ever taken part in had the same terrific public support and excitement.