Misplaced Pages

#888111

32-770: After Cliff Young (a potato farmer) won the ultramarathon in 1983, the City of Colac was inspired to stage a 1000-mile race in Cliff's honour - the 1983 Cliff Young Colac 1000 which started in Melbourne and ended in the Colac Memorial Square. In the following year, the City of Colac announced its decision to stage a six-day race. A 400-metre track was created in the Memorial square and named in his honour. Initially named

64-535: A farm in Beech Forest in southwestern Victoria. The family farm was approximately 2,000 acres (810 ha) with approximately 2,000 sheep . As a child, Young was forced to round up the stock on foot, as the family were very poor during the depression and could not afford horses . In 1979, at the age of 56, he competed in the Adidas Sun Superun 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) race which crossed

96-468: A moral. While the Tortoise's victory bolsters its joyless self-righteousness, the hare-brained loser is taken up by the media and "pampered rotten/ And the tortoise was forgotten". In Classical times, the story was annexed to a philosophical problem by Zeno of Elea in one of many demonstrations that movement is impossible to define satisfactorily. The second of Zeno's paradoxes is that of Achilles and

128-403: A relation of the story. There, the infant figure of Eros is shown passing through a landscape and pointing to the tortoise as it overtakes the sleeping hare under the motto "perseverance winneth." Later interpreters too have asserted that the fable's moral is the proverbial "the more haste, the worse speed" ( Samuel Croxall ) or have applied to it the biblical observation that "the race is not to

160-450: A slow and loping pace and trailed the pack by a large margin at the end of the first day. While the other competitors stopped to sleep for six hours, Young kept running. He ran continuously for five days, taking the lead during the first night and eventually winning by 10 hours. Before running the race, he had told the press that he had previously run for two to three days straight rounding up sheep in gumboots . He said afterwards that during

192-638: A world age record in a six-day race in Victoria. Young was a vegetarian from 1973 until his death. He lived at the family home with his mother and brother Sid. Cliff had never married, but after the 1983 race, at 62 years of age, he married 23-year-old Mary Howell. The race sponsor, Westfield , hosted the wedding for the entertainment of shoppers. Young and Howell divorced five years later. Renowned for his ungainly running style, Young ran more than 20,000 kilometres during his competitive career. After five years of illness and several strokes, he died of cancer at

224-453: Is a variant of a common folktale theme in which ingenuity and trickery (rather than doggedness) are employed to overcome a stronger opponent. The story concerns a Hare who ridicules a slow-moving Tortoise . Tired of the Hare's arrogant behaviour, the Tortoise challenges him to a race. The hare soon leaves the tortoise behind and, confident of winning, takes a nap midway through the race. When

256-722: Is an alternative name for Floyd's cycle-finding algorithm . There is a Greek version of the fable but no early Latin version. For this reason it did not begin to appear in printed editions of Aesop's fables until the 16th century, one of the earliest being Bernard Salomon's Les Fables d'Esope Phrygien, mises en Ryme Francoise (1547). Versions followed from the Netherlands (in Dutch, 1567) and Flanders (in French, 1578) but none in English before Francis Barlow 's edition of 1667. Among

288-595: The Cliff Young Australian Six-Day Race was established that same year. In 1984, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia "for long distance running". In 1997, at age 75, he made an attempt to beat Ron Grant 's around-Australia record. He completed 6,520 kilometres of the 16,000-kilometre run, but had to pull out because his only crew member became ill. In 2000, Young achieved

320-885: The West Gate Bridge in Melbourne . He ran the race at a very respectable 64 minutes and was interviewed by the media. Cliff then ran the Melbourne Marathon with a time of 3:21:41 in 1979. He would go on to compete in 1980, 1981, and 1982, setting a personal best of 3:02:53 in 1980, aged 58. In late 1982, after training for months around the Otway Ranges , Young attempted to break New Zealander Siegfried "Ziggy" Bauer's then world record for 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of 11 days and 23 hours. The attempt took place in Colac 's Memorial Square. Young had to abandon

352-500: The 1984 Colac Ultra Marathon, it later became known as the Australian Six Day Race - Colac. Fourteen runners entered the inaugural race including the great Yiannis Kouros and British multiday runner Eleanor Adams-Robinson . Kouros easily won, covering over 1022 km, setting a new world record and Adams-Robinson also broke 11 world records. The race was renamed in early 2004 in honour of Cliff Young, who died on

SECTION 10

#1732801828889

384-462: The 2nd of November 2003. In 2005, at the age of 49, Yiannis Kouros returned to the recently renamed race and again demonstrated his unparalleled capacity by setting a new Six Day World Record by covering just over 1036 km, breaking the course record and set new world record times for covering 500 km and 1000 km in his age group. The event has not been held since 2005, despite an effort from Australian marathon runner Lee Troop to revive

416-466: The Hare awakes, however, he finds that his competitor, crawling slowly but steadily, has arrived before him. The later version of the story in La Fontaine's Fables (VI.10), while more long-winded, differs hardly at all from Aesop's. As in several other fables by Aesop, the lesson it is teaching appears ambiguous. In Classical times, it was not the Tortoise's plucky conduct in taking on a bully that

448-463: The Tortoise started, the Tortoise has again moved forward. Hence Achilles can never catch the Tortoise, no matter how fast he runs, since the Tortoise will always be moving ahead. The only satisfactory refutation has been mathematical and since then the name of the fable has been applied to the function described in Zeno's paradox. In mathematics and computer science, the tortoise and the hare algorithm

480-412: The Tortoise, in which the hero gives the Tortoise a head start in a race. The argument attempts to show that even though Achilles runs faster than the Tortoise, he will never catch up with her because, when Achilles reaches the point at which the Tortoise started, the Tortoise has advanced some distance beyond; when Achilles arrives at the point where the Tortoise was when Achilles arrived at the point where

512-612: The age of 81 on 2 November 2003 at his home in Queensland. A memorial in the shape of a gumboot in Beech Forest is dedicated to Young and the Cliff Young Drive and Cliff Young Park there are named after him. The "Young Shuffle" has been adopted by some ultramarathon runners because it expends less energy. At least three winners of the Sydney-to-Melbourne race were known to use the "Young Shuffle" to win

544-454: The finishing line. Auguste Delierre makes the judge a monkey in the 1883 edition of La Fontaine's fables that he illustrated. La Fontaine says in his rhyme that it does not matter who the judge is; his interpreters have taken him at his word. Outside of book production, there is an early 17th-century oil painting of the fable by the Flemish landscape artist Jan Wildens . The hare enters on

576-490: The hare realises the stupidity of the challenge and refuses to proceed any further. The obstinate tortoise continues to the finishing line and is proclaimed the swiftest by his backers. But, continues Dunsany, A century later, Vikram Seth broadened the satire in his verse retelling of the fable in Beastly Tales (1991) and had it both ways. There is nothing to recommend in the behaviour of either protagonist by way of

608-509: The left, racing over an upland road as dawn breaks; the tortoise is nowhere in sight. In the mid-19th century, the French animal painter Philibert Léon Couturier also devoted an oil painting to the fable in which, as in Grandville's illustration, the tortoise is shown racing upright. In Edward Bawden 's composite design of 1970 the hare is depicted racing and lying down at various stages of the race while, in contrast to his sprightly rival,

640-465: The many illustrations of the fable, that by the French caricaturist Jean Grandville is novel in portraying the tortoise as running upright. This is also how he is shown in the Walt Disney cartoon version of "The Tortoise and the Hare" (1935). Another departure from the ordinary in Grandville's etching is the choice of a mole (complete with dark glasses) rather than, as usual, a fox as the judge at

672-479: The race he imagined he was running after sheep trying to outrun a storm. The Westfield run took him five days, fifteen hours and four minutes, almost two days faster than the previous record for any run between Sydney and Melbourne, at an average speed of 6.5 kilometres per hour (4.0 mph). All six competitors who finished the race broke the old record. Upon being awarded the prize of A$ 10,000 (equivalent to $ 36,011 in 2022), Young said that he did not know there

SECTION 20

#1732801828889

704-459: The race in 2008. Cliff Young (athlete) Albert Ernest Clifford Young OAM (8 February 1922  – 2 November 2003 ) was an Australian athlete from Beech Forest, Victoria . A farmer, he became notable for his unexpected win of the inaugural Sydney to Melbourne Ultramarathon in 1983 at 61 years of age. Young was born the eldest son and the third of seven of Mary and Albert Ernest Young on 8 February 1922, he grew up on

736-518: The race is won by means of trickery. Broadly this is of two types: either the slower animal jumps on the other's back or tail and hops off at the end when the creature turns round to see where his challenger has got to, or else he is deceived by lookalikes substituting themselves along the course. Tales with a similar theme emphasizing doggedness have been recorded in Native American culture. Hummingbird and Crane agree to race from one ocean to

768-494: The race. In 2010, comedian Hannah Gadsby named their Sydney Comedy Festival show "The Cliff Young Shuffle" in tribute. In May 2013, ABC1 broadcast Cliffy , a telemovie about Young's victorious 1983 run. The telemovie starred Kevin Harrington as Young, with his race support team played by Roy Billing as his coach Wally, and Joshua Hine as Paul. Krew Boylan featured as Mary Howell. Young's mother and sister Eunice

800-422: The swift" (Ecclesiastes 9.11). In the 19th century, the fable was given satirical interpretations. In the social commentary of Charles H. Bennett 's The Fables of Aesop translated into Human Nature (1857), the hare is changed to a thoughtful craftsman prostrate under the foot of a capitalist entrepreneur. Lord Dunsany brings out another view in his "The True History of the Tortoise and the Hare" (1915). There,

832-568: The tortoise keeps going. There have also been two pieces of popular sculpture aimed at children. Nancy Schön 's was made to commemorate the centenary of the Boston Marathon in 1996 and is sited in Copley Square , the finishing line for the race. The tortoise is shown determinedly stumping forward while the hare has paused to scratch behind its ear. In the following year a painted steel sculpture by Michael Browne and Stuart Smith

864-688: The world record attempt just after halfway at 805 kilometres (500 mi). Reflecting on the failed attempt, Young wrote that he and his support team were inexperienced and ill-prepared. In 1983, now aged 61 years old, Young won the inaugural Westfield Sydney to Melbourne Ultramarathon , a distance of 875 kilometres (544 mi). The race was run between what were then Australia's two largest Westfield shopping centres: Westfield Parramatta in Sydney and Westfield Doncaster in Melbourne. Young arrived to compete in overalls and work boots, without his dentures (later saying that they rattled when he ran). He ran at

896-406: Was a prize and that he felt bad accepting it, as each of the other five runners who finished had worked as hard as he did—so he split the money equally between them, keeping none. Despite attempting the event again in later years, Young was unable to repeat this performance or claim victory again. Young became very popular after this " tortoise and hare " feat, so much so that in Colac, Victoria ,

928-490: Was emphasised but the Hare's foolish over-confidence. An old Greek source comments that "many people have good natural abilities which are ruined by idleness; on the other hand, sobriety, zeal and perseverance can prevail over indolence". When the fable entered the European emblem tradition, the precept to 'hasten slowly' ( festina lente ) was recommended to lovers by Otto van Veen in his Emblemata Amorum (1608), using

960-494: Was played by former A Country Practice stars Joan Sydney and Anne Tenney . Young appeared briefly as himself in an episode (No. 479) of the television drama Prisoner: Cell Block H . The Tortoise and the Hare " The Tortoise and the Hare " is one of Aesop's Fables and is numbered 226 in the Perry Index . The account of a race between unequal partners has attracted conflicting interpretations. The fable itself

992-425: Was recorded on their Politics album in 1988. The Anglo-Irish band Flook 's title is on their Haven album (2005). There have also been several verbal settings of Aesop's fable: The many other variants of the story in oral folk tradition appear worldwide and are classed as Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 275. In most of these there is a race between unequal partners but most often brain is matched against brawn and

Cliff Young Australian 6-day race - Misplaced Pages Continue

1024-479: Was set up near the cross-country finish line at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. The hare is mounted on the tortoise's shell and appears to be trying to leap over him. The fable has also appeared on stamps from several countries. These include: Many allusions to the fable in musical titles are of limited or no relevance, but two interpretive instrumental versions may be noted. The one by Yellowjackets jazz quartet

#888111