He couldn’t have been much of a lumberjack, as he had little upper body strength.
Gordon Pirie tried to take over our Sunday morning pack run when he returned from New Zealand.
We found him an overbearing, doctrinaire and arrogant pain in the arse, with a very high opinion of himself and we subsequently avoided him as much as possible.
Frankly, I wouldn’t believe much of what he claimed, especially that 216,000 miles in 40 years.
I notice he and Dassler are also supposed to have ‘developed spike racing shoes.’
Well, spike racing shoes were around many years before either were born.
I bought the first model spike that Dassler ever produced, they were good, but not that much different from my previous (English) pair.
Pirie was in fact, his own worst enemy.
He was the best in the world at 5000 (and 3000) in 56 and should have won the gold medal.
But his vanity got in the way.
Somehow or other, he got it into his head, he was a great 10,000mts runner, on what evidence, I’ve no idea.
So before the 5000 at the Melbourne Olympics, he took on Kuts in the 10 and got destroyed.
Come the 5 and he was blown.
Again, just before the Rome Olympics, I saw him run a 53 last lap of a 5000, in great form.
What did he then do?
He went to Germany and went through a period of really intense training.
Come the Games - and he was burnt out.
His Wikipedia biography must have been written by a fan or a relation.