The phenomenal Hill's innovative 1972 mesh singlet joins MOWA

Marking the anniversary of Ron Hill’s second world record at 10 miles in Leicester, England, on this day in 1968, Simon Turnbull looks back at the life of one of the most extraordinary long-distance runners.

Ron Hill was eight years into his remarkable 52-year run streak when he lined up for the Olympic marathon in Munich in 1972.

Between 20 December 1964 and 30 January 2017, the groundbreaking British marathon man completed a run each and every day. He ran at least one mile, even after fracturing his sternum in a potentially fatal car crash.

As well as being a real-life Forrest Gump phenomenon, Hill was a marathon runner of considerable distinction. He was only the second runner to breach the 2:10:00 barrier, a European and Commonwealth champion, and a course record-breaker in Boston. 

Hill was also a pioneer of running clothing as we have come to know it.

After graduating from the University of Manchester with a doctorate in textile chemistry, he started designing and manufacturing mesh vests, wrap-over shorts, tracksters, and reflective rainproof jackets in the late 1960s.

World Athletics Heritage was honoured earlier this year when the family of the late Dr Hill – who died in 2021, aged 82 – chose to donate a fine mesh singlet from the same production batch that he wore in the 1972 Olympic marathon to the Museum of World Athletics (MOWA).

Hill’s singlet, which was presented by Graham Richards, Managing Director of Ronhill Sports, to World Athletics President Sebastian Coe at a MOWA donation ceremony in Glasgow, will permanently enter the museum’s 3D platform in December as part of the MOWA’s annual induction of new artefacts.  

Enter the 3D MOWA platform.

Mistimed Munich preparations

Always an innovator, Hill experimented with a spell of altitude training prior to tackling the 26.2-mile race in Munich.

Unfortunately, he timed his three-week stint in St Moritz immediately before the Games – unaware that the benefits of training at high altitude came two weeks after returning to sea-level, as became clear to physiologists in later years.

Although he fleetingly took the lead before the 10km mark, Hill confessed to “feeling rough” throughout the race and he was unable to respond when Frank Shorter of the US pulled clear of the field, en route to victory in the city of his birth.

Still, at the age of 33, the Briton managed to cross the finish line sixth, his highest placing in three Olympic campaigns.

In Tokyo in 1964 he had been 18th in the 10,000m and 19th in the marathon. In Mexico City in 1968 he was a gallant seventh in the 10,000m.

Breaking Zatopek and Clarke’s records

In 1970, a year after winning the European title on the original Marathon to Athens course, Hill was unquestionably the world No.1 on the roads over 42,000m.

In April 1970 his clubmates held a “whip round” to fund his passage to the Boston Marathon. He won in 2:10:30, shattering the European record and the course record.

Three months later, having upped his weekly mileage to 140, he won the Commonwealth marathon in Edinburgh, clocking 2:09:08. In doing so, Hill became the second man to break 2:10, after the English-born Australian Derek Clayton, who ran 2:09:36.4 in Fukuoka in 1967, and who failed to complete the Commonwealth course in the Scottish capital.

Hill himself was a world record-breaker, in the dizzying art of long-distance track running.

In 1965 he eclipsed two global marks held by the eminent Emil Zatopek, clocking 1:12:48.2 for 15 miles and 1:15:22.6 for 25,000m. In 1968 he smashed Ron Clarke’s 10-mile track record with 47:02.2 and improved it to 46:44.0 a few months later. In that year he also ran a 20-mile best of 1:36.28.

Keep on running 

His most celebrated achievement of all, however, was the unprecedented one that took him 52 years and 39 days.

It started on 20 December 1964, the day before the death penalty was abolished in Britain. 

The Beatles were number one in what was known as “the pop charts” with I Feel Fine. 

Hill was 24 and a new Olympian, fresh from the marathon in Rome that had been won by the barefoot Ethiopian Abebe Bikila.

The end of his long-running streak was not the most immediate thought that flashed through his mind when a car slammed into the one he was driving over the Woodhead Pass in the north of England in 1993.

“I could hardly believe I was still alive,” Hill recalled. “When I saw this car hurtling towards me, I just put the brakes on, pressed as hard as I could, and shut my eyes.

“There was this big bang and everything stopped. The crash had pushed all the engine back, and the steering wheel. There was steam coming out of the thing.

“I could feel this grating in my chest and when the ambulance came and they got me to hospital they said: ‘You’ve broken your sternum and your heart’s showing damage.’

“I had to stay in overnight but luckily I’d run that morning and I recovered sufficiently to be let out the next day.

 “That evening my mother and my wife went out to do the weekly shop, so I walked to a level stretch of road, ran a mile, and walked back.

“The crash could have been fatal, to be honest. Luckily, my legs weren’t broken or anything.”

The run finally came to an end on 30 January 2017. Having suffered severe chest pains five minutes into his run the day before, and struggled on to the mile mark, Hill chose to hang up his running shoes at the age of 76.

“The Tough of the Track”

Of all his accomplishments, the one that filled him with the greatest pride was his Commonwealth Games marathon triumph in 1970.

The reason was not just his winning 2:09:08 time, nor the fact that he finished half a mile clear of a world class field, but that he had emulated his boyhood hero.

Growing up in the Lancashire mill town of Accrington, in England’s industrial north-west, Hill idolised Alf Tupper, the comic book welder turned world-beating runner who appeared in the pages of first The Rover, then The Victor, as “The Tough of the Track”.

According to one storyline, Alf won the Commonwealth Games marathon in Edinburgh, running as a one-man team for Tristan da Cunha. 

“I’m so proud that I actually did it myself, running for England,” Hill reflected. “I always dreamed of following in Alf Tupper’s footsteps.”

Simon Turnbull for World Athletics