Ron Hill, Half a Century Ahead of Strava

Ron Hill was a remarkable character who is difficult to put in a box. He is remembered for his notebooks, but also for his sporting achievements. Alongside his 1969 European Marathon title and his victory at the Boston Marathon the following year, which made him one of the most renowned British runners of his era, he put together a remarkable streak between 1964 and 2017: running at least one kilometre every day.

Ron Hill, the meticulous one

Ron Hill began his training journal in 1956. He was not yet a recognised champion, but a young runner trying to understand what he was doing and track his progress. The native of northern England recorded all kinds of information about his training and racing. Over time, his notes became increasingly precise. He logged workouts, repetitions, running conditions and various aspects of his physical state, allowing him to cross-reference the information and identify possible improvements. Equipped with nothing more than a stopwatch, Hill gradually built his own database.

This approach accompanied his rise to the highest level. During his biggest training blocks, Hill could reach 190 to 225 kilometres per week, with a race on Saturday and a 32-kilometre long run on Sunday. After a marathon, his volume dropped sharply before building again gradually. He kept writing for several decades. In 2015, an English media outlet was able to leaf through the notebooks, which remain the property of the family, according to our information. What a shame that no publisher ever “got hold” of this journal and published it…

© wikipedia

A champion’s journal

The performances of Ron Hill give this obsessive note-taking another dimension. By the early 1960s, at the age of 22, he was already among the best distance runners of his generation. In 1965, he broke two world records held until then by the legendary Emil Zatopek: the 15-mile record, in 1:12:48, and the 25-kilometre record, in 1:15:22. In 1968, he broke the 10-mile world record twice, including a time of 46:44. Then came the breakthrough, and not just any breakthrough.

Ron Hill became European Marathon champion in Athens in 1969. He won in 2:16:47, ahead of Belgium’s Gaston Roelants and fellow Briton Jim Alder. A few months later, he won the Fukuoka Marathon in 2:11:54, improving his personal best. He kept the momentum going in 1970, becoming the first Briton to win the Boston Marathon, in 2:10:30. Three months later, at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, he won the marathon in 2:09:28. At the time, he was only the second runner in the world to break the symbolic 2:10 barrier for the marathon. The man with the training log was every bit the phenomenon.

© ronhill.com

A mile a day for… 52 years!

As we mentioned earlier, Ron Hill had a third remarkable feature. No less extraordinary than his journal or his packed trophy cabinet, his passion drove him to run at least one mile (1.609 km) every day for half a century. Starting on 20 December 1964, Hill ran at least one mile each day. The streak lasted 52 years and 39 days, until 30 January 2017. That is enough to fill a few notebooks. This meticulous habit made Ron Hill a precursor of our own era, in which data, and above all its analysis, have changed the game. There is little doubt that over the years Hill made progress with his nutrition and training load.

His professionalism and dedication to the sport would not look out of place today. Across every sport, athletes say the same thing: increasingly sophisticated preparation and attention to detail are what keep driving performances forward. Ron Hill understood that back in the 1960s. Fans of the runner, who died in 2021, can still wear the colours of the brand he created as a passionate entrepreneur in 1970, just after his Boston victory.

A thoroughly modern man.