Darasimi Oshodi
I came across the story of Cliff Young and I was wowed. I just couldn’t resist the urge to share it with others. So please enjoy his story.
In 1983 when Cliff stepped to the line ready to run the Westfield Sydney to Melbourne Ultra Marathon no one took him seriously. He didn’t look like he was ready to complete a 5K let alone the 544 mile race from Sidney to Melbourne. He was a side show clown for the media to dramatize; a satirical distraction from the real competitors who took training and racing seriously. In 1983, a man named Cliff Young showed up at the start of this race. Cliff was 61 years old and wore overalls and work boots. To everyone’s shock, Cliff wasn’t a spectator. He picked up his race number and joined the other runners. He was told that he was crazy and could not finish the race. He explained to them that he grew up on a 2,000-acre farm, with thousands of sheep. His family could afford neither horses nor tractors so, when the storms came, his job was to round up the sheep. Sometimes, he said, it would take two or three days of running. “It took a long time, but I’d always catch them. I believe I can run this race,” he said.
When the gun went off, Cliff immediately fell to the very back of the pack. Soon even the back of the pack disappeared ahead of him. But a 61 year old toothless farmer, racing in overalls and galoshes, was still compelling television so the cameras continued to cover his journey. Calls reportedly came into the station begging for race officials to make him stop. Many spectators believed he would certainly die before he made it even half way to Melbourne. After 18 hours of running, the leaders stopped for some rest. The conventional wisdom was that running 18 hours straight and then sleeping for 6 was the best recipe for success over this distance. The first night of the race Cliff did not sleep. Continue reading “Cliff Young”
