Stick to the Norm or be Different? How to Make Change
Cliff Young is a legend in the world of running and a story of a man who was focused on his own methods in order to get to where he wanted to be, and in the process shock the rest of the running pack.
An endurance race from Sydney to Melbourne takes place every year and is known as one of the toughest ultra-marathons in the world. Taking place over 5 days it typically comprises of world-class runners, until 1983 when a 61 year old, Cliff Young, turned up in his work boots and overalls and took to the start line to the amazement of the spectators and runners.
The start went as many expected, with the professional runners getting well ahead of Cliff as he ran in a weird shuffle that the crowds and television audience were stunned by. There was no way that anyone thought Cliff would get anywhere near completing the race, but he had faith in his methods, explaining beforehand that he had grown up on a farm and would spend days at a time rounding up the 2,000 sheep over an area of 2,000 acres, always on foot.
Keeping His Own Pace
For this type of race the usual competitors would run for 18 hours each day for 5 days, sleeping the remaining 6 hours to recharge. Cliff Young had never entered a race like this before so he went about with his strange shuffling running style and continued to jog throughout the night, much to the amazement of everyone else. Each night, when the other runners would stop and sleep for a few hours, Cliff just continued to jog, getting a little closer to the leaders each morning, until the final night when he took the lead and crossed the finish line in a new course record!
When awarded the prize money of $10,000 he split it between the other competitors’ as he hadn’t entered for the financial incentive, indeed stating that he didn’t realise there was a winning prize fund. A year later he entered again and finished 7th, despite running with a displaced hip!
An Inspiration in All Fields
It wasn’t the last that the world heard of Cliff Young, and in 1997 at the age of 76 he inspired Australia once more by running the Australian border to raise money for homeless children. The ‘Young-Shuffle’ has been adopted by ultra-marathon runners as the most energy-efficient way to run over such long distances, whilst the Sydney to Melbourne race that Cliff became famous for is now a race run throughout the night, the same way that he did it back in 1983.
The story of Cliff Young is an inspiring one and a lesson to us all. Whether you are convinced that your method at a task in work is the right one, or the path you’ve chosen for your hobby is correct, don’t listen to the dissenting voices, that might all be doing the same thing as each other. Follow your own path and you might just discover it is the right one.
Trainer Bubble has an array of training courses online for you to learn from. If you are thinking of forging your own path, and want to inspire others, we’ll have the inspiration to help you get there.
