Billy Mills - 1964 Oly 10k in color

I have the story on Ron Clarke's Marathon at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. It's on audio-tape, directly from Ron himself. In short, Ron knew he was not a Marathoner. He said he struck the ground much too hard, and was good for 18-20 miles, but then he was finished. He said he only ran the 1964 Marathon, because his main events were finished, and he thought it was a good way to see the race.

So, he and Jim Hogan from Ireland took it out fast (in Clarke's words, just so he could see what was happening at the front), and Bikila was hanging on their shoulder. Apparently, Hogan said, "Let's surge the bastard", so they did, and a bit later Hogan said, "That was easy".

A little bit further on, Clarke said he heard the crowd cheering on Bikila, and he looked around and Bikila was right there. "He was running so easily and so quietly - it was like he wasn't even striking the ground, just gently stroking it once in a while", Clarke told us. And then Bikila surged, and that was it. Hogan went chasing after Bikila, and Clarke saw Hogan sitting on the side of the road at about the 20 mile mark.

Clarke said the last 6 miles was "agony", walking and jogging 8-minute pace or something like that. He claims he was the only person to finish in the top 10 in the Olympic Marathon, who couldn't run the final lap in the Stadium.

He was trying to go this way, but his legs wanted to go that way, etc., etc. Ron said it was "good fun".

I do not have time to post much and most of what has been asked or related on this thread is on other threads on this message board. I was in Tokyo in 1964 and saw both races. In fact, the 10K was my first Olympic Final and my training mate, Bruce Kidd, was in it. I remember the weather that late afternoon being good for running. On the other hand the weather for the marathon was not and, yet, we saw one of the finest marathon performances I have ever seen. It was warm, hazy and humid. They started out faster than marathoners did in those days--I recorded spits that day in my programm as they ran. The splits were 15:06, 30:14 and 45:35 with Clarke, Hogan and Abebe all getting credit for the same times. My programme has Abebe in 1:04:28, Hogan in 1:04:30 and Clarke in 1:05:16 at half way. It was all Abebe from then on. He was as fresh as I have ever seen a marathoner finish and he was 4 minutes ahead of the next runner. He beat a great field easily in World Record Time and then did his exercises on the grass infield. It was an awesome performance!

Now I have a question. This is the first time that I have heard that Billy Mills may have gained from Coach Mihaly Igloi or from training with those who were or had trained under Coach Igloi. Since I did not train with Coach Igloi until the week after the 1964 Olympics I contacted Ron Larrieu. Ron was the third US runner in that Olympic 10K final in Tokyo and had beaten both Lindgren and Mills in the months leading un to the games. Ron stated that he started training with Coach Igloi in September of 1962 and stopped in the summer of 1966. Ron said "I never saw Billy Mills at any Igloi training session during that time." Of course, we know little about Mills' coach or training partners but I will only believe that they were Igloi athletes if Billy Mills says so himself.

no one wrote:

pop quiz

who was the black guy in the 64' 5000 ......?

Kip Keino.

Full results from 1964 10,000 marathon (from Wikipedia):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_1964_Summer_Olympics_-_Men%27s_10000_metres

Use the link to get the marathon results.

Great post, Orville.

I don't know about the Igloi/Mills connection, but your splits are much in synch. with what Clarke told us. He said that once Bikila surged (seemingly before the 1/2),

Hogan chased, but Clarke did not. It was indeed an amazing performance by Bikila. Clarke said that he thought Bikila was the most incredible athlete he had ever seen. He said that seeing Bikila even make it to half-way at Mexico in 1968, after what he had gone through, was remarkable.