RIP Ron Hill

I am so sad to hear this news.

Ron Hill was one of the all-time runnning legends and remains a huge inspiration to so many amateur runners.

What makes his achievements so amazing are the conditions he trained under (like a lot of his contemporaries of the time). Holding down a full-time job in a chemistry laboratory he was clicking out 120 mile weeks; running to work in the morning while carrying his lunch in his hands and then washing himself in the sink at the toilets at his company and then running back home in the evenings with some heavy fartlek sessions thrown in. Sometimes during his lunch hour while preparing for the 1972 Olympics he would head out to the cinder track near his company and blast a few 400 m reps in sub 60 seconds. On top of this were the shoes he wore which were essentially kangaroo leather or canvas pumps with a bit of rubber at the bottom. No EVA, no carbon plates, gel, air bags, TPU, basically no technology at all by today's standards. My legs would surely completely fall apart if I trained half as hard in that sort of footwear.

Perhaps his greatest run was in the 1970 Commonwealth games marathon where he blasted through 10 miles in 47 mins by himself and then kept knocking out sub 5 min miles to finish in 2hrs 09 mins 28 secs without taking on any energy drinks or gels - just the occasional wet sponge on the back of his head! His runner-up position to Mohammed Gammoudi (a mutiple Olympic medalist) at the World Cross Country Championships also deserves more mention than it does in running folklore.

My sincere condolences go out to Ron's family and friends and his local running community.

Legend

Also the inventor of split shorts - or so says the guardian obit

He was an absolute legend. The incredible streak alone would have made him one, but his accomplishments in those amateur days of marathoning qualify as well., putting in those high miles while working a real full-time job, not to mention how he was always tinkering with equipment to try to improve, would also qualify him as one RIP.

I'd love to see some quotes from Derek Clayton or Frank Shorter, who raced him back in the day.

estr wrote:

Does anyone know of any good quotes by Ron Hill? Something inspirational or motivational or something along those lines.

The one I recall came from a later time in his career when he was definitely past his prime and it was in answer to a question about why he was still running and racing. "When you love doing something why give it up just because you don't do it as well as you once did."

The course was pretty easy except for Satyr Hill but there's an "Other than that, Mrs Lincoln, the play was good" thing at work. Ron won it in his first year there in 2:17 and said afterward he thought the time would have been five minutes faster without the hill. I'd never contradict Ron but I'm not sure I agreed. The Hill was definitely going to slow you but once you were over it you had a lovely gradual downhill to the finish, about eight miles as I recall. Of course, that meant you had a less lovely gradual uphill for the first eight miles. Whatever, I really liked the course. It was unique.

Ron Hill was a total legend. I devoured his auto-biography as a teen in the 80s, and found it completely inspiring.

He wasn't a youth phenom, nor was he from the kind of background that would normally lead to a PhD in chemistry. He worked his way up. And he was an innovator at a time when we still knew so little about physiology, nutrition, and equipment.

His streak was cool. As somebody else said, it made being obsessive ok. But his upbeat attitude as he gradually slowed over the years, clearly showing that he was simply doing what he loved, made him shine even brighter.

Of course, there was always a bit of a cloud over Derek Clayton's WR marathon in Antwerp, with uncertainty over the course, etc. So Hill's marathon in Edinburgh might well have been the fastest legit marathon in history at the time.

Death is inevitable and yet it is still sad when those we love or influential people we knew of die.

Total legend and deserving of that label.

RIP, Ron Hill.

Another great quote came when he started using "The Diet," a depletion run, three days of almost no carbohydrates, a second depletion run and loads of carbohydrates until the marathon. He was asked about it and said "I don't want to reveal everything but it involves high protein."

Ron was one of the few top runners to compete barefoot on the track.

https://xeroshoes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/ron-hill.jpg

Ron Hill always inspired.

He was always running miles.

Always.

Barefoot Bill wrote:

Letrun mods, we need a black front page in memory of the Lancashire legend, RIP Ron. Truly a very sad day, Ron was the rock-solid northerner that I looked up to so much and a top lad by all accounts.

I will be having a pint of bovril with my dinner tonight, cheers boyos.

Apparently, with the new homepage, we don't have the ability to do a black page.

Someone talked about him winning the Baltimore Marathon. It was actually the Maryland Marathon but was in Baltimore. That was well before my time here but here is a cool article that talks a lot about Hill's involvement in the race - Bill Rodgers also did it - and what the Road Racing scene was like back in the day.

Race organizers credited Hill with making the marathon big here:

"The thing that really made the marathon," Kinion said last week, "was Ron Hill coming over and winning the race. He was supposed to win the 1972 [Olympic] marathon in Munich, which Frank Shorter won."

Faceplant wrote:

Ron was one of the few top runners to compete barefoot on the track.

https://xeroshoes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/ron-hill.jpg

He also won a XC in just his socks.

Proper old school runner

ARRS credits Ron's 2:09:28 from the 1970 Commonwealth Games as a then World Record. (The presumption is that Clayton's 2:08:33 was run on a short course.)

Finished in 2:47 (I think) and ran into Ron finishing his fourth Natty Bo beer in the high school. Offered me one, but I was 17 at the time.

A sad loss indeed for the running community. However, I think you are forgetting about Martinez (Mex) 4th, Sviridov (URS) 5th, and Clarke (AUS) 6th in the 10000 in 1968 Olympics.

Everyone passes on.

Ccrunner1962 wrote:

A sad loss indeed for the running community. However, I think you are forgetting about Martinez (Mex) 4th, Sviridov (URS) 5th, and Clarke (AUS) 6th in the 10000 in 1968 Olympics.

I had read that he was first among runners that had not "trained" at altitude.