An Australian potato grower is still a legend today for his very particular victory at the Westfield Sydney-Melbourne Ultra Marathon, going 5 days without sleep
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Cliff Young is a legend among ultramarathoners, and for good reason: at age 61, the potato farmer Australian became the unlikely winner of the backbreaking Westfield Sydney-Melbourne Ultra Marathon.
What is it about? Every year, thousands of experienced runners from around the world gather in Australia to participate in one of the toughest ultramarathons on the planet. The Westfield Sydney-Melbourne Ultra Marathon sees competitors run for days from Sydney to Melbourne, covering a distance of 875 kilometers.
And Cliff was the first man to win this endurance race, and still its most famous participant. And, you can tell, he did it in great style as he rode the entire race wearing overalls and work boots and beat the runner-up by 10 hours.
No one seemed to believe Young could win the ultramarathon
When Cliff Young took to the starting line for the inaugural Westfield Sydney-Melbourne Ultra Marathon in 1983, he didn’t seem to be the favorite. The reason is the one mentioned above: While all the other participants wore professional racing gear, Young was dressed as if he were ready to plow a field. And hence the competitors underestimated it, giving it up after a few kilometers.
Wearing his everyday farmer clothes and the race tag displayed on the back of his shirt, Young immediately attracted the attention of reporters present on site.
And he, although amazed by so much notoriety, did not hold back and indeed answered all their questions about who he was and why he was there. He told him, implying that he believes he has a very good chance of success:
I grew up on a farm where we couldn’t afford horses or tractors, and throughout my growing up, whenever the storms came, I had to go out and herd the sheep. We had 2,000 sheep on 2,000 acres. Sometimes I had to manage those sheep for two or three days. It took a long time, but I always took them. I think I can run this race.
Cliff walked rather than ran and was immediately delayed
Everyone started looking at him with amused eyes because deep down nobody believed him and who could blame them. All other competitors they were between 20 and 30 years old, years of training and experience in marathons. Here instead was a 61-year-old man, certainly not dressed as an athlete complete with rubber boots, who claimed that he would complete an ultramarathon of 875 kilometers.
Then came the first day of competition and it seemed that the doubts about Cliff Young were well founded. A few kilometers from the start of the resistance trail, it was already late compared to the group and didn’t seem able to keep up. While most of the other guys had developed good pace, Young moved slower, more walking than running.
At all a question arose spontaneously? Where did the good Cliff Young want to go in an ultramarathon of 875 kilometers if he was already in trouble at the beginning? Yet, following the classic saying “who goes slowly, goes well and goes far”, the farmer had an ace up his sleeve: an advantage that no one had foreseen.
All of the other runners had been training to run for about 18 hours a day and then stop to sleep for the other 6, but the 61-year-old certainly had no intention of stopping and wasting time. After all, he was used to being at the rhythms of animals and a little sleep deprivation certainly didn’t scare him. The idea of him was of go straight to the finish line.
Not only did Cliff Young win, but he split his winnings with the other runners
What happened you can imagine. While everyone else slept, Cliff walked at his pace for a full 6 hours and little by little he surpassed them all, finding himself the leader after the first night. When he broke dawn, the other runners were shocked to learn that the old farmer was now in the lead and they should have caught up with him.
Although he continued to walk at a slow pace, the fact that he never stopped walking helped Cliff Young maintain the lead for the five and a half days it took him to cross the finish line. And so Young’s time – 5 days, 15 hours and 4 minutes – was a full 10 hours faster than the runner-up and almost two days faster than the previous course record between Sydney and Melbourne.
And if all this memorability wasn’t enough for you, his heroic deed has also remained in the annals for what he did after. After receiving – unexpectedly, according to him – a check for $ 10,000 as a prize for the victory, Cliff Young decided not to keep the winnings all to himself. On the other hand, he chose to split it equally among the other five riders who finally managed to finish the grueling race.
Another trump card: being a vegetarian
But there is another feature that made him known in the racing world and a symbol in Australia among those who do not eat meat: Cliff Young was in fact vegetarian and abstainer. Since 1973 he had been on a strict diet of grains and fruit. A diet, according to him, has greatly influenced his victory. He himself told the reason for this change of power:
I think I fared better on this diet. Do you know why? When I was a kid we had an old draft horse that didn’t work well at all. My dad used to say, ‘Get them off the grass and put them on the oats‘. After a day or two they would freak out and I said, ‘Wow, there must be something in that oatmeal’. They were all in their 20s. First you hit them continuously with the reins, then, after a couple of feeds of oats, you held them back by force. They didn’t stop.
Hence the idea of eating plenty of oats, believing that this gave him that something extra:
That’s why I eat rolled oats and I think it helps. When I ate meat religiously every day, I don’t think I would have been able to get the same performance which I get now on a vegetarian diet. Now I’m better. On the track, I still get the better of those pie eaters who are only 30 years old. So there must be something vegetarian in the diet.
The myth of this peasant ultramarathon runner lives on today
The following year, of course, Cliff Young returned to defend his title, but he only made it through seventh. It wasn’t the win, of course, but it was still a remarkable result considering that he was racing with a dislocated hip. However, this small setback did not sanction the farewell to racing.
Indeed, in 1997, at the age of 75, he set out to travel the entire 16,000 km of the Australian coast to raise money for homeless children. He was forced to stop after 6,250 kilometers and it was not his will. He had to abandon his mission only because his only crew member fell ill. Three years later, in 2000, Young was awarded the world record for his age in a six-day run in Victoria.
Yong finally passed away at the age of 81, but his legend lives on thanks to his epic successes. Furthermore, his legacy is substantial. He has in fact given way to a method of competing – which takes its name from him, the “Young Shuffle” – which has also been adopted by other long-distance runners.
This is still used today because it allows you to consume less energy and is more aerodynamic. Plus marathon runners continue to use Cliff’s tactics. Most of them now does not sleep just as he did, testing his endurance by running all day and all night.
In short, this elderly farmer who seemed to have happened on the Westfield Sydney-Melbourne Ultra Marathon almost by accidenthas become a running legend and his fascinating story makes us think how one should never judge a person by their “cover” alone.
Cliff Young has also shown that larger companies they come from testing the limits of one’s physical and mental endurance. And that trophies and titles are not enough to make a true hero, as he has become in Australia.
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