Friday photos (13): Happy Birthday Ron Hill.

Happy 76th birthday (yesterday) Ron Hill, long distance running legend. According to Wikipedia 'He was the second man to break 2:10 in the marathon... In 1970, Hill won the 74th Boston Marathon in a course record 2:10:30. He also won gold medals for the marathon at the European Championships in 1969 and the Commonwealth Games in 1970... Hill held world records for 10 miles (16 km) (47:02, Leicester, April 1968; 46:44, Leicester, November 1968); 15 miles (24 km) (72:48.2, Bolton, July 1965); and 25 kilometres (16 mi) (75:22.6, Bolton, July 1965)'. 

Famously he has run every day for nearly 50 years - I believe the anniversary is actually on 20 December 2014. Runners everywhere though can thank him for his off track achievements - Dr Hill the textile chemist was one of the pioneers of using nylon and other synthetic fabrics in running wear, liberating us from the chafing nightmare of soggy cotton. The sportswear company he founded makes the running vests for my club, Kent Athletic Club and many others. Cheers Ron!

Ron Hill in 1962 in the Inter-Counties
Six Miles

(from excellent Ron Hill profile at Racing Past)

Ron Hill after winning  the Commonwealth Games Marathon in Edinburgh, 1970 

- and below, running during the race.

Winning the 1970 Boston Marathon

Ron Hill running in 1972 Olympic Marathon in Munich

Ron Hill, 27 Oct 1973, AAAs Marathon Championships Harlow

Ron Hill at the Enschede Marathon in Holland, 1975

Hill (right) with Bernie Plain (1976)
- from Run and Become

At the street in Accrington named after him in 2014  (from Athletics World)

Ron Hill at Heaton parkrun, Saturday 27 September with Danny Norman, right, and Steve Way, left
(photo by parkrun Danny Norman)

Previously in the Friday Photos series:

New York High School Runners 1970s

Lilian Board, 1948-1970
Running in Tel Aviv 1942
Alan Turing the Runner

Marilyn Monroe the Runner
Tom Longboat, Canadian First Nations Marathon Runner
Runners in Space: an image from Munich 1972 on NASA's Voyager spacecraft

Jim Peters collapses in Vancouver 1954

Anita Neil - Britain's first female Black Olympian?

Running in the Streets of New Cross 1953

Running tracks from space

Running with Madonna

On Google Image Search...

Google Image Search has a long way to go  - using 'search Google for this image' for one of the Ron Hill pictures, Google came back with eight models and a horse as 'visually similar'!