Monkey Shines

 

In 1983, a 61-year-old farmer competed in a Sydney-to-Melbourne ultramarathon, wearing his first pair of running shoes. Cliff Young was quickly left in the dust at the start of the race. Instead of a smooth stride, Cliff had an awkward shuffle. His competition ran 18 hours a day, sleeping six. But Cliff never stopped to sleep. He completed the 544-mile route in 5 days, 15 hours and 4 minutes – 10 hours ahead of his nearest competitor. Cliff kept only $3,000 of the $10,000 prize money, splitting the rest with other runners. “The doctors told me I had arthritis and to take it easy,” Cliff said. “I kept running and it disappeared. It's like rust that gets into a vehicle. I reckon you have to keep your joints moving. Absolutely. No matter what you do, you have to keep moving. If you don’t wear out, you rust out, and you’ll rust out quicker than you’ll wear out.”