The real Alan Turing ( The Imitation Game)

Ed Whitlock ran with him too.

There doesn't seem to be much online about Turing as a runner. It would be nice to find more. Here is one short article: http://therunnereclectic.com/2014/12/01/alan-turing-the-runner/

They really failed to mention the fact that he was good at running in the movie. Those cutscenes of him sprinting across a field were out of place. Biggest running cliche is that people who are angry when they're training all out sprint when they're running.

Turning was fit, brilliant and creative, inventing round-the-house chess: after making your move, you ran around the house and back to the board. If your opponent had not yet made their move, you got to move again!

He ran marathons and ultras, which the otherwise great movie ignored.

hey wrote:

They really failed to mention the fact that he was good at running in the movie. Those cutscenes of him sprinting across a field were out of place. Biggest running cliche is that people who are angry when they're training all out sprint when they're running.

Yeah, the two scenes with him just pummeling flat out on a country road were off.

Quite a talented guy. Too bad homophobic laws and forced medication drove him to an early death. Shame.

gilt wrote:

There doesn't seem to be much online about Turing as a runner. It would be nice to find more. Here is one short article:

http://therunnereclectic.com/2014/12/01/alan-turing-the-runner/

Well here is a piece written in Walton's gazette by a club supporter on a motor cycle about the 7th leg of the London to Brighton relay race of April 2nd 1949.

Alan Turing took over on this long six-odd miles run with all our remaining hopes in his hands, and how those hopes nearly faded when after about one mile Alan appeared to stumble and double up. I pulled up and he gasped "I'm not doing very well I am afraid" I urged him to stick with it but another half mile he doubled up again. However he straightened up up immediately to continue, and after breasting the long steep hill which he had been climbing he seemed to recover and became the Alan we all know. ( He informed me after the race that the doubling up act was an effort to rid himself of a nasty stitch.) His recovery, however, soon led to a decrease in the lead of the Wycombe man and his strong finish saw our deficit changed to a twenty yard credit balance.

I don't know why I did not run with Walton that day, Chris Chataway did.

Later that month the club ran the Southhamton to Bournmouth relay and came 3rd.

leg 1 J addington 4 miles 1150 yds 28:57

leg 2 E Whitlock 4 miles 700 yds 23:12

leg 3 D Laycock 5 miles 700 yds 27:29

leg 4 G Arrow 4 miles 800 yds 25:38

leg 5 J Moores 5 miles 500 yds 31:09

leg 6 A Turing 4 miles 1650 yds 27:39

I have some doubts about the accuracy of some of the leg distances.

Ed

gilt wrote:

There doesn't seem to be much online about Turing as a runner. It would be nice to find more. Here is one short article:

http://therunnereclectic.com/2014/12/01/alan-turing-the-runner/

The Alan Turing scrapbook has a page on it:

One of my life goals is to outrun Alan Turing in the marathon.

hey wrote:

They really failed to mention the fact that he was good at running in the movie. Those cutscenes of him sprinting across a field were out of place. Biggest running cliche is that people who are angry when they're training all out sprint when they're running.

You guys have never done hard intervals when you're pissed about something? I thought that was right on.

This quote from the scrapbook site seems to bear that out: "'I asked him one day why he punished himself so much in training. He told me, 'I have such a stressful job that the only way I can get it out of my mind is by running hard.' '"

Ed,

Thank you so much for sharing anything about Turing's running you recall; you might be one of the few people still around who has first hand knowledge.

Absolutely wonderful stuff!

hey wrote:

They really failed to mention the fact that he was good at running in the movie. Those cutscenes of him sprinting across a field were out of place. Biggest running cliche is that people who are angry when they're training all out sprint when they're running.

Two things, I think, justify this:

(1) The stuff he's known for is far more important than his running.

(2) He was a good runner and but a great mind. Even if he was a great runner, his intellectual achievements would dwarf any possible running achievements.

Still, he clearly valued running, and he was good, so any movie about his should *of course* at least mention it.

In the above post, I said it was justifiable that the movie neglect to mention his running then go on to say *of course* it should at least mention it.

Something is wrong with my brain.

Fantastic movie. Just saw it last night and of course there is a thread on it! Thank you

Amazing how primitive laws were not too long ago

Agreed. society has come a long way.

Saw the movie when it came out--hazy now, but I remember thinking at the time that Benedict Cumberbatch is no runner.

Dunno whether anyone remembers the TV series "The Prisoner," but its star, Patrick McGoohan, was a truly atrocious runner. (The opening sequence for the show included a few seconds of his running.)

Excellent film and book. The book is VERY long but a good read. The author's website on AT was given in another post here.

The irony of these laws is that today (in the US) corporations, military, and governmentng government) want a "diverse" workplace. But back in the day, some of the investigative reports on Congressmen and others in sensitive positions made good bedside reading for leaders who had privy to the information and were waiting to use it for blackmail.

He was a middle-aged University professor having casual sex with a minor (the age of majority was 21 in the UK then) who was an uneducated labourer.

He knew he could get the lad into trouble. Not only that, he made up a story about the boy burgling his house when he knew he was about to get rumbled.

Amazing he is held up as a martyr and a victim of sexual intolerance today, when he'd be absolutely cancelled and given the Kevin Spacey treatment if he did the same things today.