Born to Run - Cliff Young

Australian Story reflects back on marathon runner and 'gumboot shuffler' Cliff Young.

Over five days in 1983, Cliff Young shuffled into Australian folklore when he won the inaugural Sydney to Melbourne ultramarathon. Few people rated the 61-year-old potato farmer's chances and race organisers feared he could die on the way, delivering them a public relations disaster. Instead, he smashed the record for a run of that distance and became an instant – if unlikely – national hero.

"He was a little fella who became larger than life," says fellow competitor John Connellan. "Everyone who was alive at that time remembers Cliff as much as they remember the man landing on the moon. Probably both as unlikely as each other."

Although he seemed to come from nowhere, Young's achievement was a lifetime in the making. Growing up in the Otway Ranges, he ran for hours at a time, often in gumboots. To the locals he was a curiosity but when he started to mix with other long-distance runners, he found his people.

"Cliff was a simple man and led a simple life but he was not a simpleton," journalist and friend Neil Kearney tells Australian Story.

With his distinctive shuffle and humble bearing, Cliff Young captured the public's imagination and was a fixture in the media as he continued to run competitively well into his 70s. Although his short-lived marriage in 1983 to Mary Howell, more than 40 years his junior, raised eyebrows, he remained a much-loved figure until his death in 2003.

In an engaging and nostalgic Australian Story, friends and fellow runners look back at an extraordinary feat of athleticism and a man whose name still inspires wonder and delight.

"This is just a real ordinary bloke," says his former trainer and manager Mike Tonkin. "But real ordinary blokes are capable of extraordinary things."