Cliff Young

Albert Ernest Clifford "Cliff" Young (born February 8, 1922 , † November 2, 2003 ) was an Australian farmer and athlete from Beech Forest, Victoria , who was known for his unexpected victory in the ultra marathon from Sydney to Melbourne at the age of 61 .

Life

Young grew up on a sheep farm outside of Melbourne and took it over with his brother Sid after his father's death.

In 1982, after months of training in the Otway Ranges , Young attempted to run 1000 miles around Colac Memorial Square . In 1983, at the age of 61, Cliff Young won the first ultra marathon from Westfield Sydney to Melbourne. This race made him so famous that the "Cliff Young Australian Six-Day Race" was established that same year.

The "Young Shuffle"

Young ran at a slow pace, so that after a day he was already many miles behind his opponents. But after he had run through a full day and slept very little in the remaining days, while his colleagues rested for several hours a day, he caught up and won the ultramarathon with a lead of about 1.5 days over the other professional runners. Young's technique has been adopted by several ultramarathon runners because it requires significantly less energy. Several of the Cliff Young Australian Six-Day Race winners used this approach.

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• Shane: The Legend of Cliff Young: The 61 Year Old Farmer Who Won the World's Toughest Race. In: Elitefeet. December 30, 2012, accessed February 7, 2014 . 
• Phil Essam: The History of the Colac Six Day Race. In: 6DayRace. Archived from the original on October 14, 2009 ; Retrieved February 7, 2014 . 
• (AAP): End of the road for Cliff. In: The Sydney Morning Herald . November 3, 2003, accessed February 7, 2014 . 
• Planet UltraMarathon ( Memento from June 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive )