Why did Herb Elliot Retire at 22?

50-60yrs ago, making ends meet was much more challenging. In the 50s in the US, food was +25% of the household budget, now it is 6%.

there was WWII rationing in the UK until 1960

People were not inclined to screw around trying to run a little faster. Read, "The Perfect Mile". All 3 had other sh!t going on. Running was a very serious hobby, but they were not about to derail their lives and future livelihoods for, "one more season".

The idea then was, "Take your shot", and then move on to the next challenge. And even then, you still had to work 40hrs/week (Snell, Clarke being great examples) and apply for extended holiday to travel to compete.

Extended holiday is right.

1958 was his year, when he was 20 years old.

He came over to Britain to compete in the Commonwealth Games at Cardiff, where he won the 880 and mile, popped across to Dublin to set a new world record for the mile and then went on a continental holiday with a couple of his Aussie team mates in an old Volkswagen Camper Van.

I’m not sure of his itinerary, but he did also break the world 1500 record in Gothenburg during his travels.

But what I remember most was the report that went around that during his travels somewhere on the continent, he got out of the van and ran for 28 miles in front for the pure enjoyment of running.

Elliott ran the English national cross country in Blackpool in 1962, a race won by Gerry North

Elliott was probably running for Cambridge University, where he was studying

I recall him loping through the field on the last lap, and he finished, I think 35th

Tim Johnston, eighth in Mexico Olympic marathon, talked to me about Elliott recently, said Herb couldn't see the point of cross country running, nevertheless... 35th in what was then the greatest cross country race in the world...!

Incidentally, North outsprinted a barefoot and bronzed (just back from winter in NZ) Bruce Tulloh, who won the European 5000m later that year

best Tim Johnston ever did in 'national' was second to Mel Batty in 1965, altho' Tim did win the inter-counties one year, around that period

Bannister retired at 25. No money in it back in those days.

'Read, "The Perfect Mile"'

I have that at home, a great book

Have you read The Perfect Distance? The most insightful book I have read about the Coe & Ovett rivalry

Pat Butcher just identified the race I was thinking about, as Ron Hill would have been in that race. I didn't realise Herb did so many races after retiring though

I wonder if there is a book on Herb Elliot? You would imagine there is one out there somewhere but it would be difficult to get hold of.

The Golden Mile by Alan Trengrove.

He had a bad showing at The Cup and just couldn't recover.

scared of nick symonds

Herb was quoted as saying that one of the reasons he retired was that he couldn't stand the nervousness he underwent prior to the event.

Always worth another viewing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr0dWz_6oEI

Here is another mile race won by Elliot from 1959 in Australia

http://australianscreen.com.au/titles/what-makes-champion/clip3/

My coach, John Gilmore lived in Perth and would run 6 mile tempos on the road with other local distance runners. When Herb was in town he would join in - plowing through the sand next to the road as the group went along at 5-5.10/mile pace.

Another major competitor of Herb, England's Brian Hewson (fifth man under 4:00, IIRC--in a race where he finished third!):

http://sporting-heroes.net/athletics-heroes/displayhero.asp?HeroID=5180

The site has a nice pic of Hewson's (and Rawson's) defeat of Elliott in the 1958 AAA half. Herb came back to win the Commonwealth half (and mile) later that summer. I read Hewson's book years ago, and believe that he ran 49.9 for his second lap (after a *crawling* first 440) in the Commonwealth race, but Herb ran 50.5 and held Brian off by .2. There was a great photo of Elliott's agonized 1:49.3 win, and Hewson's desperate second.

Speaking of applying to your employer for "extended holiday," to show how bad things were back then David Maraniss in his recent book "Rome 1960" wrote that then IOC head Avery Brundage discouraged athletes' employers from giving them paid leave to participate in the Olympics, as that compromised their amateur status in his view. It should be unpaid in his view, make them suffer more for their sport.

In a word: Percy.

Agreed!! Perc just burned him out-IMHO. After reading his biography I lost all respect for Percy.

If Herbert had run under Lydiard he definately would have been the first under 3:50 and the uncontested GOAT.

You can't blame Herb, he won all there was to win and really at the time had no more worlds to conquer. At retirement he was still real young and had a life in front of him.

z runner wrote:

Speaking of applying to your employer for "extended holiday," to show how bad things were back then David Maraniss in his recent book "Rome 1960" wrote that then IOC head Avery Brundage discouraged athletes' employers from giving them paid leave to participate in the Olympics, as that compromised their amateur status in his view. It should be unpaid in his view, make them suffer more for their sport.

a 24 carat wanker....

I got the impression from reading Elliot's biography that Percy Cerutty was a big part of his continuing to run beyond his school years at all. He makes it clear that Percy was an ass, but he also makes it clear that he was quite the motivator. I doubt that he burned him out. I don't think they ran much more than 60 miles a week, although I remember reading in some interview with Elliot a few years back that he once did a 100 mile week. I alway found it interesting that Elliot was a smoker.

Are you still in touch with John Gilmour? How's he doing?

John Gilmore is well and living South of Perth.

His eyesight has gotten worse lately and he is currently only running around the house and heading out for long walks.

John will turn 90 next year. He had his book published about 5 years ago - have you seen it?

Some quotes from "A Clean Pair of Heels - The Murray Halberg Story" as told to Garth Gilmore:

- Re: the world record mile in Dublin - Halberg was approached by the Irish RD while in London, following the Commonwealth Games, and asked to run the invitational mile in Dublin. "Santry (the race venue) amazed me. It was a track and little else. There were concrete terraces and a makeshift grandstand... The outside of the track was covered with moss. It was not what I expected of a famous running track... As I stepped from underneath the terrace on to the track, there was a tremendous outburst of applause. I thought someone had long-jumped 26 feet or pole-vaulted to a new height. I looked around... the applause was for me. It was nothing, however, to the roar that poured out for Alby, Merv (Lincoln), and Herb as they followed me out. And there was absolute pandemonium... when the idol of Ireland, Ronnny Delaney, appeared."

"I watched Herb warming up. You could see the concentration building up in him and he was so turned inwards on the task ahead of him that when I jogged past and asked him how he was going, he didn't even hear me."

"We were going fast but I was never uncomfortably aware of it. In fact, we averaged sixty-second laps for the first threequarters of a mile after ... the first in 58 seconds. ... we had about a lap and a half to go. Then I felt the real power of Elliott, a power I was to feel many times in the next few weeks. A brilliant burst of speed swept him past the leaders.It seemed to be simply a lengthening of stride... No matter what we tried to do he kept on flying away."

"The excited Billy Morton (RD) could hardly get the time over the loudspeaker system. He got as far as 'Three minutes fifty-four...' and the noise of the crowd blotted out the other half-second."

Five men finished under 4:00, with Halberg, who had never broken 4:00, fourth in 3:57.5, same time as Delaney who came third.

The book talks about the eight men and women who crammed themselves in Gordon Pirie's Kombi, and drove it from England to Stockholm. The women, who included Betty Cuthbert, slept in the Kombi, the men in open fields in sleeping bags... most comfortable night was when they found a freshly-mowed field and slept on stacked hay. As noted in this thread, they were not in it for the money. Haggled for baguettes, fruit and cheese, their diet during the drive. The run referenced was a 15 miler that turned into a "torrid battle", with Elliott running several more miles by himself after the others retired."His natural strength for running was just fantastic."