This was supposed to be a sport sufficiently basic to resist significant transformation by technological factors. That proved untrue, so let the speculation begin
The track in Oslo was pretty cut up in the inside lane by the time the 10,000 was run. It's difficult to make comparisons of dirt tracks to synthetic ones because dirt tracks often degenerated as meets went on. It was bad enough that Ron ran much of the race in the second lane. I think he'd have easily been a second faster per lap on ANY kind of all weather track, even a Grasstex one as were turning up in the late 60s and I expect a bit more. But if they'd run the 10,000 at the start of the meet I suspect Ron would have run significantly faster than he did but the hypothetical improvement he'd have had from running on that hypothetical all weather track would have been smaller. Do you know who the other two guys in the race were? I'm betting you do but figure they should get a little attention here.
Ron told me that if he had it to do again he'd probably have skipped the '68 Olympics then stuck around to run in Munich. He thought he'd have had a better chance at gold there than he had in Mexico. But he was convinced that he damaged his heart in Mexico, he did have surgery for a leaking mitral valve several years later, and was never the same runner afterwards,
For a while as an adult I occasionally had vivid dreams of floating down the backstretch on a leg of the 4x4 in Macoupin County , IL (ca. 1985). There'd be almost no sound other than the crunch of footfalls on cinders. Our home track was often in such rough shape that we'd be using 3/4" metal spikes at the toe and 1/2" everywhere else for even the 1600 and 3200.
I'd not have known of Ron Clarke if not for this tribute, all before my time of interest. Nice piece and appreciated the links too, sounded like pure savagery in the midst of competition.
The track in Oslo was pretty cut up in the inside lane by the time the 10,000 was run. It's difficult to make comparisons of dirt tracks to synthetic ones because dirt tracks often degenerated as meets went on. It was bad enough that Ron ran much of the race in the second lane. I think he'd have easily been a second faster per lap on ANY kind of all weather track, even a Grasstex one as were turning up in the late 60s and I expect a bit more. But if they'd run the 10,000 at the start of the meet I suspect Ron would have run significantly faster than he did but the hypothetical improvement he'd have had from running on that hypothetical all weather track would have been smaller. Do you know who the other two guys in the race were? I'm betting you do but figure they should get a little attention here.
Ron told me that if he had it to do again he'd probably have skipped the '68 Olympics then stuck around to run in Munich. He thought he'd have had a better chance at gold there than he had in Mexico. But he was convinced that he damaged his heart in Mexico, he did have surgery for a leaking mitral valve several years later, and was never the same runner afterwards,
...just like the worms.
For a while as an adult I occasionally had vivid dreams of floating down the backstretch on a leg of the 4x4 in Macoupin County , IL (ca. 1985). There'd be almost no sound other than the crunch of footfalls on cinders. Our home track was often in such rough shape that we'd be using 3/4" metal spikes at the toe and 1/2" everywhere else for even the 1600 and 3200.
I'd not have known of Ron Clarke if not for this tribute, all before my time of interest. Nice piece and appreciated the links too, sounded like pure savagery in the midst of competition.