Cliff Young, at 61 years of age, participated in 1983’s Sydney to Melbourne race. Considered to be the world’s toughest race, with the distance of 875 kilometers and took at least 6 to 7 days to finish, Cliff Young entered the race against world-class athletes. Read how he achieved the unthinkable and inspires the whole nation.

The Beginning

Every year, Australia hosts an 875-kilometer endurance racing from Sydney to Melbourne – considered to be the world’s longest and toughest ultra-marathon. It’s a long, tough race that takes a week and normally participated by world-class athletes who train specially for the event. Backed by big names in sports like Nike, these athletes are mostly less than 30 years old men and women equipped with the most expensive sponsored training outfits and shoes.

In 1983, these top class runners were in for a surprise. On the day of the race, a guy named Cliff Young showed up. At first, no one cared about him since everybody thought he was there to watch the event. After all, he was 61 years old, showed up in overalls and galoshes over his work boots.

As Cliff walked up to the table to take his number, it became obvious to everybody he was going to run. He was going to join a group of 150 world-class athletes and run! During that time, these runners don’t even know another surprising fact – his only trainer was his 81-year-old mother, Neville Wran.

Everybody thought that it was a crazy publicity stunt. But the press was curious, so as he took his number 64 and moved into the pack of runners in their special, expensive racing outfit, the camera focused on him and reporters started to ask:

“Who are you and what are you doing?”

“I’m Cliff Young. I’m from a large ranch where we run sheep outside of Melbourne.”

They said, “You’re really going to run in this race?”

“Yeah,” Cliff nodded.

“Got any backers?”

“No.”

“Then you can’t run.”

“Yeah I can.” Cliff said. “See, I grew up on a farm where we couldn’t afford horses or four wheel drives, and the whole time I was growing up– until about four years ago when we finally made some money and got a four wheeler– whenever the storms would roll in, I’d have to go out and round up the sheep. We had 2,000 head, and we have 2,000 acres. Sometimes I would have to run those sheep for two or three days. It took a long time, but I’d catch them. I believe I can run this race; it’s only two more days. Five days. I’ve run sheep for three.”

When the marathon started, the pros left Cliff behind in his galoshes. The crowds smiled because he didn’t even run correctly. Instead of running, he appeared to run leisurely, shuffling like an amateur.

Now, the 61-year-old potato farmer from Beech Forest with no teeth had started the ultra-tough race with world-class athletes. All over Australia, people who watched the live telecast kept on praying that someone would stop this crazy old man from running because everyone believed he’ll die even before even getting halfway across Sydney.

Turtle vs rabbits

Every professional athletes knew for certain that it took about 7 days to finish this race, and that in order to compete, you would need to run 18 hours and sleep 6 hours. The thing is, old Cliff Young did not know that!

When the morning news of the race was aired, people were in for another big surprise. Cliff was still in the race and had jogged all night down to a city called Mittagong.

Apparently, Cliff did not stop after the first day. Although he was still far behind the world-class athletes, he kept on running. He even had the time to wave to spectators who watched the event by the highways.

When he got to a town called Albury he was asked about his tactics for the rest of the race. He said he would run through to the finish, and he did.

He kept running. Every night he got just a little bit closer to the leading pack. By the last night, he passed all of the world-class athletes. By the last day, he was way in front of them. Not only did he run the Melbourne to Sydney race at age 61, without dying; he won first place, breaking the race record by 9 hours and became a national hero! The nation fell in love with the 61-year-old potato farmer who came out of nowhere to defeat the world’s best long distance runners.

He finished the 875-kilometre race in 5 days, 15 hours and 4 minutes. Not knowing that he was supposed to sleep during the race, he said when running throughout the race, he imagined that he was chasing sheep and trying to outrun a storm.

When Cliff was awarded the first prize of $10,000, he said he did not know there was a prize and insisted that he had not entered for the money. He said, “There’re five other runners still out there doing it tougher than me,” and he gave them $2,000 each. He did not keep a single cent for himself. That act endeared him to all of Australia. Cliff was a humble, average man, who undertook an extraordinary feat and became a national sensation.

The Inspirational Run Continues

In the following year, Cliff Young entered the same race and won the 7 th place. During the race, his hip popped out of the joint socket, his knee played up and he endured shin splints. But those didn’t deter him from finishing the race. When he was announced as the winner for most courageous runner and presented with a Mitsubishi Colt, he said, “I didn’t do it near as tough as old Bob McIlwaine. Here, Bob, you have the car,” and gave the keys to him.

It was said that Cliff Young never kept a single prize. People gave him watches, because he never had one. He would thank them because he did not want to hurt their feelings, but will then give it away to the first child he saw. He did not understand why he would need a watch because, he said, he knew when it was daylight, when it was dark, and when he was hungry.

Cliff came to prominence again in 1997, aged 76, when he attempted to become the oldest man to run around Australia and raise money for homeless children. He managed to completed 6,520km of the 16,000km run before he had to pull out after his only permanent crew member became ill.

His love for running never diminished but in year 2000, after collapsing in his Gellibrand home a week after completing 921 kilometers of a 1600-kilometre race, his lose his strength for running. The mild stroke ended his heroic running days.

After the long illness, Cliff Young, the running legend passed away on 2 nd November 2003. He was 81.

Current Race

The “Young-shuffle” has been adopted by ultra-marathon runners because it is considered more aerodynamic and expends less energy. At least 3 winners of the Sydney to Melbourne race have been known to use the ‘Young-shuffle’ to win the race.

Now, for Sydney to Melbourne race, almost nobody sleeps. To win that race, you have to run like Cliff Young did, you have to run all night as well as all day.

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The year Erik Weihenmayer became the first blind person to conquer the tallest mountain in the world.

Led by his close friends, and roped, Erik jumps crevasses to reach the summit.

When asked about this feat, he said, “I was confident I could do as well as anyone who goes to that mountain. And I knew I could turn back gracefully if necessary.”
Just 5 years before this achievement, 15 climbers died in a storm that trapped 3 groups near the summit. It was Everest worst death toll for a single year.

Despite the tragedy and being criticized as a potential liability for his team, Erik said:

“… I refused to be the weak link of the team. I wanted them to put their lives in my hands as I would put mine in theirs. I would carry my share. I would contribute as any other team member. I would not be carried up to the mountain and spiked on top like a football. If I were to reach the summit, I would reach it with dignity.”

Nicknamed Super Blind or Blindenheimer by close friends, this ex school teacher is not only the first blind person to summit Mount Everest but also one of only about 100 people to successfully summit the highest peaks of the world’s seven continents.

In 2004, Erik and Everest team members went to Tibet to train blind students on a climb to the Rombuk Glacier on the north side of Mt. Everest.

In a country that believes that blindness is a sign that evil spirits are present – Erik challenge the local superstitions.

Erik said, “These were blind kids who were told they had evil spirits inside them, kids who were tied to beds in dark rooms, kids who were sold in and out of slavery.”

Once treated like lepers, the pupils of Sabriye Tenberken (also blind) ultimately stood together at 21,500-feet – higher than any other team of blind people in history.

When he’s not climbing or at home with his wife, Ellie and daughter, Emma, Erik is usually at a speaking engagement. He still climbs approximately 50 days a year.

Traveling across 5 continents, Lewis was robbed and beaten several times on his journey and had to dodge bandits, pirates and was once questioned as a spy in Egypt.

He said,

“Peddling across the Atlantic we encountered some pirates along the north coast of Cuba, by that point in the voyage we were both stark naked, because we had no need for clothes on the Atlantic, so when this boat came along up side and these guys with semi automatics were checking us out and seeing whether we had any nice gear on board, any electronics, they looked at us and we must have looked absolutely mad cause this was day 100 out of 111 voyage and they just like turned on their heels and went back to Cuba, because they probably thought they were going to catch some hideous disease from us or something if they came on board.”

Continuously lacked funding, Lewis had also worked as a cattle drover in the US and in a funeral parlor in Australia.

Jason originally expected his journey to take only 3 and a half years but was delayed by accident that left him with 2 broken legs in Colorado (he was knocked down by an elderly driver as he was rollerblading), a crocodile attack in Australia and a bout of depression.

He started the journey on 12 July 1994 when he was just 26.

A feat only accomplished by 600 swimmers in over 130 years, John Maclean became a national hero and an inspirational swimmer when he became the first wheelchair athlete ever to swim across the trecerous channel.

Disabled after a cycling accident, John refused to sit back and let the world go by. Instead, set himself an unthinkable goal. To accomplish what even most able bodies won’t go.

In 2001, he finished the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, one of the most grueling and dangerous yacht race in the world. A cold, bumpy, and very challenging race, it is typical for a considerable number of yachts and crewmen to retire.

An incredible athlete, John Maclean was also the First Wheelchair Athlete to complete the Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon. In his third attempt, he finished the 3.8km ocean swim, 180km cycle leg and 42.2km marathon in the 946th place, beating 425 able-bodied athletes.

A few months after the crossing the English Channel, John established the John Maclean Foundation. A way of providing assistance to others, the foundation provides support and assistance to Australian wheelchair users under the age of 18.

To learn more about the foundation please visit: John Maclean Foundation

Flying over the mountains on Friday the 13th, the young men and their families who boarded the charter plane joked about the unlucky day when the plane’s wing hit the slope of the mountain and crashed.

On impact, 13 passengers were instantly dead while 32 others were badly wounded.

Hoping to be rescued, the survivors waited in the freezing -37C temperature, melting snow for drinks and sleeping side by side to keep themselves warm. Food was so scarce, everyone had to pool whatever food they can find for a rationed pool.

Desperation and Hunger
As their supply ran out, the survivor tried to eat strips of leather torned from their baggages. The brutal weather and high attitude of Andes had increased their bodies need for energy and food astronomically.

9 days after the crash, due to dire desperation and hunger, the survivors called for an important meeting. One member proposed that they eat the dead.

“If we don’t eat, we’ll die. If you want to see your family again, this is what you must do”, he said.

The 2 hours meeting ended with a conclusion. If any of them died in Andes, the rest had the permission to use the corpse as food.

No Hope
After 2 weeks, their hope of being found dashed when they found out via their radio transistor that the rescue effort was called off. Authority believed that the rescue was very dangerous and the chances of finding survivors too slim.

On the 60th day after the crash, Nando Parrado and 2 other friends decided to walk through the icy wilderness for help. By the time they left, Nando Parrado said, the crash site was “.. an awful place, soaked in urine, smelling of death, littered with ragged bits of human bone and qristle”.

Wearing 3 pairs of jeans and 3 sweaters over a polo shirt, he and his friends trekked the mountains with human flesh as their ration.

Knowing that they must search for rescue, the team endured frozen snow, exhaustion and starvation, walking and climbing for 10 days before finding their way to the bottom of the mountain.

The rescue
The team was finally helped by Chilean farmer who called the police for help. Parrado then guided the rescue team via a helicopter to the crash site.

On the 22nd December 1972, after enduring 72 brutal days, the world founds out that there were 16 survivors who cheated death, in the mountain of Andes. 8 of the initial survivors died when an avalanche cascaded down on them as they slept in the fuselage.

During the ordeal, Nando Parrado lost 40 kg of his weight. He lost half his family in the crash.

He is now a motivational speaker.

Reference: http://www.parrado.com/eng/main.html

Even when he finally did, he uttered his words twice. When he started school, he still had speech difficulty until the age of nine.

Born in a German city called Ulm, his mother believed Einstein was a freak because his head seemed to be too big for his body.

Her worry had some basis because Einstein actually suffered from a medical condition called “Benign Macrocephaly”, a disorder that could lead to mental retardation.

One of the most recognized and well-known scientists of the century, he was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on photoelectric effect titled: “On a Heuristic Viewpoint Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light”.

Upon his death, his brain was preserved and studied.

A 1999 study done by Mcmaster University found that his brain did not have it’s parietal operculum region, a part of the brain needed for speech, reading or writing.

To compensate for that, his brain adapted by enlarging his parietal lobe by 15% wider. This part of the brain is responsible in giving him superior mathematical thought, visuospatial cognition, and imagery of movement.

The study also found that Einstein’s brain had 73% more glial cells ( special cells that provide support and nutrition to the brain) than normal brains.

The Kinko’s founder was dyslexic, failed second grade and was tutored extensively without any success. In 1950’s the affliction was so rare, his family couldn’t understand why he didn’t know the alphabet.

He was even sent to a school with retarded children.

Started Kinko’s in a converted burger stand, Paul has grown his company to 23,000 employees and successfully make “Kinko’s” is to copy centers what “Xerox” is to copy machines.

As a small, unknown inventor during that time, Honda pawned his wife’s jewelry as the capital for his piston ring business only to seen it being destroyed.

Because cement and steel were scarce, he collected discarded gasoline cans from American jet fighters for a new factory. Not long after that, an earthquake destroyed the building.

Despite endless challenges, he pursued his seemingly impossible dreams.

Now, Honda is one of the largest automotive company in the world.

With the help of his 81 year old coach, the potato farmer went through the race in over 5 days without sleep, breaking the race record by 9 hours and win the heart of a nation.

On one trip to Nepal with her mother, Sabriye spent a brief time in Tibet and learned the sad fact about the Tibetan blinds. In this place, the blinds are viewed as having been cursed at birth and are treated like lepers. There were no training facilities for blind children; and if their families were poor, they were left on the street or kept alone in their rooms without any teaching, diversions, or stimulation. Her brief experience in Tibet developed a burning desire in Sabriye to teach Tibet’s blind children that they can have full lives, that they do not need to be ashamed or handicapped and that they can live to the fullest like her.

In university, she majored in Asian languages with the goal of going to Tibet. She was the only blind student in the program, and Tibetan had not been translated into Braille. Since Braille materials and computer software for language study in these languages are limited, Tenberken ended up creating her own Braille system for writing Tibetan script.

Hands for the blinds in Tibet
Her first trip to Tibet, in 1994, ended quickly. She came down with altitude sickness and had to fly home.

Undeterred, she returned for good in 1998.Travelling alone, she promised to herself that she would help blind children learn to read and write using her Tibetan Braille alphabet. She wanted these children to be integrated into regular schools once they became literate.

When she presented her plans to local officials in Tibet, everyone thought she was crazy. She had then tried to get a job with different international aid groups, but was told that blind people like her were barred from doing “field work.”

Tired of being reminded of what she cannot do, she traveled by road to Lhasa, where she was determined to found a school. An accomplished horsewoman, she risked her life by riding on horseback over some of the most mountainous terrain in the world to find her blind pupils.

She went on to raise funds, get official Chinese permission for her school, and find suitable premises and staff. None of it was easy, but the school ultimately was opened and became an instant success. Then the funding dried up due to bureaucratic problem back in Germany.

With one teacher and six students, they were quickly evicted from their first building for lack of money while the government insisted she leave the country immediately. Though discouraged, Tenberken rallied her forces and, after a torturous overland journey to Nepal and a visit to Germany, had found ways to continue her school.

Her school
Her school put a lot of emphasize on being able to be independent and living a normal life. When she was a student in a leading German high school for the blind, Sabriye had learned to ride horses, ski downhill and cross-country and kayak in white water.

She has therefore adopted a similar philosophy for teaching her Tibetan students, ages 4 to 21. They had gone white-water rafting, and are planning to climb a nearby Himalayan peak next year. Her school also emphasizes living skills like cooking, hygiene and self-reliance. It also teaches computer skills and Tibetan, Chinese and English language. Training is also offered in careers like massage therapy and music.

Current Plan
She and her sighted partner, Mr. Kronenberg currently plan to open a second Braille Without Borders program in northern India. Mr. Kronenberg, an engineer by training, is also trying to develop a lighter, less expensive Braille machine.

Financing, however, still remains a juggling act. The monthly budget for the entire program is $1,900. Proceeds from her memoir, “My Path Leads to Tibet,” helped buy the current building, while the rest of her funding comes from various donors from people in Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Related Links
Braille Without Borders Homepage