As a farmer won the marathon (2 photos) Bashny.Net

Australian super marathon distance from Sydney to Melbourne is 875 km, which takes more than 5 days from start to finish. In the race usually involves world-class athletes who are trained specifically for this event. The majority of athletes are not older than 30 years and sponsored major sports brands that provide athletes form and sneakers.

In 1983, many people were at a loss when the day of the race at the start there was 61-year-old Cliff Young. At first, everyone thought that he came to see the start of the race, as he was not dressed like all athletes: in overalls and galoshes over shoes. But when Cliff came to the table to get the number of runners, all knew he was going to run with everyone.





When Cliff was number 64 and got on line with other athletes, the film crew and make reports to the launch pad, he decided to take a short interview. Cliff put things on camera and asked:

- Hello! Who are you and what can I do?
- I Cliff Young. We breed sheep on a large pasture near Melbourne.
- Are you really going to participate in this race?
- Yes I Am.
- Do you have a sponsor?
- No.
- Then you will not be able to run.
- No, I can. I grew up on a farm where we could not afford a horse or a car until very recently: only 4 years ago, I bought a car. When a storm coming, I went out to drive the sheep. We had 2,000 sheep that grazed on 2000 acres. Sometimes I catch sheep for 2-3 days - it was not easy, but I always caught them. I think I can participate in the race, because it only 2 days long and is only 5 days, while I run for the sheep to 3 days.



When the marathon started, the pros left Cliff in his galoshes behind. Some viewers sympathized with him, and some made fun of him because he could not even properly start. On television, people watched Cliff, many worried and prayed for him so that he died on the way.

Every professional knew that to complete the race will take about 5 days, and for that daily run neobhodmo 18 hours and 6 hours of sleep. Cliff Young did not know that.

The next morning, after the start of people know that Cliff had not slept, and kept running all night, reaching the town of Mittagong. But even without stopping to sleep Cliff was far behind the athletes, though, and continued to run, while managing to greet people standing along the route of the race.

Each night he approached the leaders of the race, and on the last night Cliff walked all the world-class athletes. By the morning of the last day he was far ahead of everyone. Cliff not only ran a marathon at the age of 61 without dying at a distance, but also won it, breaking the record of the race at 9:00 and became a national hero.

Cliff Young overcame the race for 875 kilometers in 5 days, 15 hours and 4 minutes.

Cliff Young did not took a single prize. When Cliff was awarded the first prize of A $ 10, 000, he said that he did not know of the existence of the prize that participated in the race is not for the money, and without hesitation decided to give the money to the first five athletes who ran after him, to A $ 2, 000 each . Cliff did not leave himself a penny, and Australia all fell in love with him.

Many trained athletes know the whole technique of how to run and how long to rest at a distance. Especially since they were convinced that in '61 marathon run impossible. Cliff Young also just did not know. He did not even know that athletes can sleep. His mind was free from limiting beliefs. He just wanted to win: in front of him was a runaway sheep and tried to catch up with her.