Legendary runner clocks up 150k miles

5:31pm Sunday 16th December 2007

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LEGENDARY marathon runner Ron Hill will make an emotional journey home to East Lancashire as he celebrates covering 150,000 miles in his career.

Accrington-born Ron, 69, will run the last-half mile to reach his goal at Stanley's Fraser Eagle Stadium before the football club's clash with Shrewsbury on Saturday.

Ron knows he will hit the total - the equivalent to running around the world six times - due to his meticulous notes.

Since September 3 1956, Ron has logged every run he has carried out in both training and competition.

He has noted the length of the run, time taken and documented how he was feeling and weather conditions on the day.

In 1985, he marked his 100,000th mile with a run round Old Trafford, where he took part in the Maxall marathon in 1969 and launched his international running career.

But for the 150,000 milestone Ron wants to come back to Accrington, where he completed the first run on his training log - eight miles from the old Accrington Grammar School, over the hills and into Oswaldtwistle.

Mr Hill's running career includes four world records in 10-mile, 15-mile and 25km marathons in the late 1960s, and representing the UK in the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 and the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.

He was the first British runner to break the two hour 10 minute barrier, and won the Commonwealth and European Championship titles.

Ron was awarded an MBE in 1971 for services to athletics. Since then, he has almost achieved his goal of running marathons in 100 different countries.

He has just returned from his 98th marathon in Argentina and hopes to complete the last two before his 70th birthday in September.

He said: "I'll get the marathons finished before I'm 70, but it might take me a while to get to 250,000km!

"I have to think about how my knees are holding up.

"At my peak I used to run 140 miles every week. Now it's about 30.

"It will just be three miles on the day - heading round Accrington before the final bit on the stadium.

"It will be a big day for me and my family and friends will be there, but I don't think I'll upstage the football because I've only got five minutes to do before they take over."