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."