My hero - Percy Cerutty - A Great Man with big bollocks!

"Before you can call yourself a man you should be able to walk 100 miles in 48 hours, swim a mile and lift your own weight overhead".

"Thus I urge you to go on to your greatness if you believe it is in you. Think deeply and separate what you wish from what you are prepared to do."


"Ignore, then, whether you are tall and thin or short and stocky— whether they laughed at you at home (where they are often unkind) or at school (where they are mostly blind, anyway). Indeed—to hell with the lot of them if you 'feel' you can do it."
Percy Cerutty

"The introduction of resistance in form of sand and hill is too important to be ignored."
Percy Cerutty

"I'm not interested in athletics, I'm only interested in achievement. Fix your goal and work for it."
Percy Cerutty's training advice to Herb Elliott.

"If you die, I will bury you in the sandhills with all the other runners."
Percy Cerutty


"Run hard, be strong, think big!"
Percy Cerutty

If it hurts, make it hurt more.

- Percy Cerutty

You only ever grow as a human being if you're outside your comfort zone.
-Percy Cerutty

• "Hard things take time to do. Impossible things take a little longer."
  -- Percy Cerutty

• "The mastery of the true self, and the refusal to permit others to dominate us is the ultimate in living, and self-expression in athletics."
  -- Percy Cerutty

"Running: running: hear the beat!
Busting lungs and pounding feet.
Straining: gaining: 'til your done:
Or you have the race well-won.
Racing: Pacing: rather die:
Than give up or let them by.

First stanza of "The Distance Runner" by Percy Cerutty

Cerutty, Percy Wells - coach and running guru of Portsea, Australia who revolutionized training for the mile and middle distances during the 1950's and 1960's, And today!


Herb Elliot - one of Percy's greatest athletes....

"The more I talk to athletes, the more convinced I become that the method of training is relatively unimportant. There are many ways to the top, and the training method you choose is just the one that suits you best. No, the important thing is the attitude of the athlete, the desire to get to the top."
Herb Elliott

Elliott, Herb - one of the greatest of all middle distance runners. Won the 1500 in record time of 3:35.6 at the Rome Olympics in 1960. Elliott owned the mile; raced 44 times from 1954 to 1960 and was never beaten.