If I faltered, there would be no arms to hold me and the world would be a cold and forbidding place.

I raced supremely well. I felt I was as well fitted to do it as I had ever been, and as perhaps I might ever be. I went climbing three weeks before, because I was feeling fed up with running.

We run, not because we think it is doing us good, but because we enjoy it and cannot help ourselves

When I was about to break a world record and become well known, my mother used to say that for her the important thing was for me to become a doctor - a career which had not been possible in her generation and in her society. Sport was something to be set aside.

I lived on the top of one hill and the school was at the top of another hill. Nobody ever went to school by car - we didn't have any cars during the war. So that to and from school was itself a training.

I found longer races boring. I found the mile just perfect.

My athleticism was really the core to social acceptance, because in those days the overwhelming number of students came from more of a public school background than I did.