Enjoying Alf’s weekly
adventures were certainly a factor in why I became a runner ( albeit not
very good ) after I left school, having been indoctrinated into this
marvellous world of spikes, cinders, Athletic clubs & baggy 1960’s
tracksuits, by my uncle's games teacher, Mr Godfrey & by the stories in
the Victor Comic. Mr Godfrey used to take us, on weekends when I was
visiting my grandparents in Alperton, to the Thames Valley Harriers club
in Perivale, London on Sunday mornings, to change in the old wooden
clubhouse with all the experienced runners. We’d warm up on the cinder
track, run on the streets in our plimsolls & then up to Horsenden Hill
for a good training session. Then it was back to the club for a cold
shower. My friends & I used to run relay races around the block on our
Hemel Hempstead council estate, set-up Steeplechase courses in friends
back gardens made up from chairs, buckets, ladders etc & time ourselves
round them with the second hand on our Timex watches.
I didn't realize at first how many people remember Alf & his stories
with so much affection, but it became clear after some internet
searching, that this character really did make a mark on the
impressionable youth of the 1950’s, 60’s & then on into the 90’s. One of
the most unlikely references to Alf that I have found, are in the lyrics
of the "Iron
Maiden" track, "Lonliness of the long Distance Runner". I know what
I expected Iron Maiden band members to have been influenced by & its not
British Comic hero's like Alf !
"The tough of the track
With the wind
And the rain that’s beating down on your back
Your heart’s beating loud
And goes on getting louder
And goes on even more ’til the
Sound is ringing in your head
With every step you tread
And every breath you take
Determination
Makes you run never stop
Got to win got to run ’til you drop..."
Even University
students today, are inspired by the fictional hero with a bad diet. On
the website links menu item, you can find two stories of Alf's influence
over student life, one in Buckinghamshire & the other in Leeds. I guess
the only thing missing from the stories about Alf was him drinking pints
after training, which was certainly the one thing that ALL running club
members I have ever known – many clubs were first formed in Pubs – have
loved. Still, I am sure that the student runners of Leeds University
make up for Alf's abstinence, in their Student Union bar.
