My athleticism was really the core to social acceptance, because in those days the overwhelming number of students came from more of a public school background than I did.
Mothers, unless they were very poor, didn`t work. Both of my parents had to leave education. My mother had to work in a cotton mill until 18 or 19, when she took some training in domestic science.
May is a very early time in the year and the weather is usually bad. You cannot run a fast mile race if there is a strong wind, because it makes your running uneven.
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.
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.
My athleticism was really the core to social acceptance, because in those days the overwhelming number of students came from more of a public school background than I did.
