My introduction to track racing was through the background of cross country running, which is not a sport perhaps as popular in America as it is in England.

Your spikes, which were really quite long then, would catch the material of the track and your shoe would get heavier. I was simply filing them down and rubbing some graphite on the spikes, so that I thought I would run more effectively.

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.

The man who goes on, even when it's the hardest to be the winner.

I've always been very impatient. At age 10 I frankly found life boring, and I can remember age 9 having the awful thought, as it seems now looking back on it, A war! That should liven things up a bit!

It's amazing that more people have climbed Mount Everest than have broken the 4-minute mile.

My family actually lived in the same village for about 400 years. They had great stability until the last century. People lived and intermarried in small villages.