Our concept of a family holiday was going to a guest house in the Lake district or Wales, where walking was part of the holiday.

Life was very simple. My parents had come from the North of England, which is a fairly rugged, bleak, hard-working part of England, and so there was not the expectation of luxury.

I enjoy singing, and the instruments which truly move me are the horn, the trumpet and the cello.

It is a paradox to say the human body has no 'limit.' There must be a limit to the speed at which men can run. I feel this may be around 3:30 for the mile. However, another paradox remains - if an athlete manages to run 3:30, another runner could be found to marginally improve on that time.

I couldn't touch my toes with straight legs, but I could break 4 minutes for the mile.

If a man coaches himself, then he has only himself to blame when he is beaten.

It's a question of spreading the available energy, aerobic and anaerobic, evenly over four minutes. If you run one part too fast, you pay a price. If you run another part more slowly your overall time is slower.