The reason sport is attractive to many of the general public is that it's filled with reversals. What you think may happen doesn't happen. A champion is beaten, an unknown becomes a champion.

Just because they say it's impossible doesn't mean you can't do it.

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.

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

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.

Whether we athletes liked it or not, the 4-minute mile had become rather like an Everest: a challenge to the human spirit, it was a barrier that seemed to defy all attempts to break it, an irksome reminder that men's striving might be in vain.

I trained for less than three-quarters of an hour, maybe five days a week - I didn't have time to do more. But it was all about quality, not quantity - so I didn't waste time jogging, ever.