MAY 1977 AUSTRALASIAN
ATHLETICS PAGE 11
TOM GILLIS
NSW State 50-mile champion & 'Australasian Athletics'
photographer
interviewed by Mike Agostini on January 24, 1977
Tom, our readers
don't know enough about you. How old are you?
36.
How long have you been
running?
I started serious running when I was about 31 or 32.
What were you doing
before that?
Nothing—no active sport, 'cos I had asthma, see.
Is that why you took up running?
Yes. I was on tranquillisers then to relax me a bit.
What made you choose
running?
Well, this friend of mine who used to play football said,
'You're too small for football' (I did try to play football) 'Why don't you
take up running?' Just jog 5 miles a day, he said—but it took me two years to
get up to 5 miles! I thought I'd never run 10 miles!
And how many are you
doing a day now?
Over Christmas I was running 20 miles a day, 7 days a week.
When did it first
become serious with you?
The first club I ever joined, I met a fellow down at
Rushcutters Bay; I was doing my 5 miles a day—we didn't know each other, we
just used to sort of race secretly against each other, you know! And one day we
got talking and he said, 'Why don't you join Eastern Suburbs?' andsaid 'Jeez,
I'd love to!' 'cos I was getting interested by then. And he said, 'Oh, by the
way, there's a race on Saturday'—this was Thursday! So I said, 'Oh. I'm fit
enough for that, I'm running 5 miles a day.'
Anyway, the race was the annual Sydney to Lithgow relay and
of course my first run was from Katoomba—and oh boy, that's when I first
started training! Nearly killed me! I was wearing Bob Talay's shoes—I never had
any proper shoes —and they were much too small. I lost both toenails!
Bob and Terry Magee, I used to idolise them boys.
So let's see, you
really started at 29 years of age just working up over two years to 5 miles a
day. Yeah, that was just to get off the medical drugs
and the smoking and drinking.
You were smoking and
drinking as well? In other words, you were a typical Percy Cerutty case—a man
sending himself downhill by his lifestyle.
I was a typical Australian, you could say. But even as a kid
I was always keen on sport; Emil Zatopek was a great idol of mine.
Whereabouts in
England were you born?
Blackburn in Lancashire.
How long did you live
there?
Well, my mother was sick so I was put in a Dr. Barnardo's
home when I was only two weeks old; then we came out here when I was 13 or 14,
with the home that was, and we went to a home at Picton.
But the homes in them days never encouraged sport. I started running 'cos a prefect said,
'You'd be a good runner' or something, and came 2nd in our school for the mile.
Then in the '56 Olympics they wanted people from different
towns to run the sections with the torch and I was doing the best time at that
stage—but I missed out for being a bad boy! But I didn't know what athletics
was all about then. I never trained, and you've got to really work at it to be
a good runner.
Tom, what have you
done—besides winning the State 50-mile championship?
I came 7th in the State marathon last year; I was in the St.
George winning team.
Do you think you've
hit your peak yet?
Oh no, not by a long way.
Are you aiming to be
like Jack Foster and compete at top level in your 40's?
I won't be as good as that but I want to keep getting better
as I get older. I train different to Jack Foster. I don't believe in speed work
all the time. I'm an LSD (long slow distance) man myself; haven't got much
natural speed ability but I try to be sensible. I've learnt a lot in the last
five years; you never finish learning.
Let's have your
height and weight.
I'm about 5ft 9in and usually average about 10% stone—but I
think I could get under 10 stone if didn't eat so much! See, I never take
running too seriously; I train hard but I'm past the stage where I'm trying to
be a world champion. I enjoy the good things in life; I mean I don't go out
drinking and smoking but I have a drink now and then, sociable. When we go out
to tea I have a red wine, and we went to Tony Vassallo's place the other night
and had a beautiful time; great social night.
What is your resting
heart rate?
I've never had it tested, never got around to it, though I'd
love to go to Perce Russo and have it
done. In England doctors come along to marathon runs and do
tests but they seem to be more interested in joggers here.
Before we start
talking about your training, what's your present occupation?
Hairdresser, men's and ladies', mixed.
And that's something
you've just learnt as you went along as well?
Oh yes. I've been everything; coalminer,builder's labourer,
sheep and wheat station-hand, dairy farmer—Jack of all trades I am! I was in
the film industry too; used to take the newsreels on a bike from Wynyard
Picturette to the State Theatre swopping the movies over—that got me fit! I
went into hairdressing 'cos I thought it'd be easy so that I could keep up the
training—but I made a blue! You're on your feet all the time and it's very
tiring.
But I don't sleep more than 6 hours a night; go to bed at 12
(I work in the darkroom evenings) and get up at half past 5, 6 o'clock. Even
when I was training for the 50-miler I might go to bed early one night in the
week if I'm tired, then I'm right.
Where do you do your
training?
On a Sunday I always go up with Ernst Krenkels and we do one
long run-24 or 25 miles at about 8-minute pace. Then the rest of the week I
usually average about 12 to 14 miles a day, in the morning, depending on how I
feel. But about six weeks before a big event I step it up, doing about 14 in
the morning and maybe a hard 3 or 4 at night.
Do you have a few
days off before competing?
I never have a day off but I always ease down, say 10 on the
Sunday, 5 on the Monday, 3 on the Tuesday .. .
What were your times
for the 50-mile?
6h 21m 8s in '75; 6h 6m in '76.
Any reason for the
difference?
Oh, I wasn't fit for it in '75. The idea was Angelo Jones'
and he said, 'I can't run 'cos I'm away,' so I said, 'Well one of us has got to
finish.' There was 9 starters and after 27 miles I was the only one left, but
it was the first 50-miler and to kick it off we'd got to finish, so I finished!
thought I'd never run again, but in fact I found that I got
very strong after that run, mentally and physically.
/ remember reading
that you were hallucinating at one stage.
Well you do, I think. You get to a stage where you know
you're going to finish but you've got to get away from it all. This year
Lindsay ran a half mile with me sometimes—he was my second —and he said, 'What
do you want to talk about?' I said, 'Look, don't talk to me, just be there.'
Actually I'd rather no one to be there, but in a 50-miler
you've got to have a second because the runners are so strung out. When I
finished in '76 the last bloke came in something like 2 hours after me!
Is that the longest
race you've ever run?
So far, yes.
Do you plan to do a
100-miler eventually?
I'm building up to it, yeah. A fellow asked me to do a
24-hour run but I said no. When it comes it comes. Takes years to build up. The
VMC are talking about a 100km next year and I'm going in that. I'm still
developing; I'm not fully extended yet.
Tom, obviously you've
had your injuries but you ignore them generally, don't you.
Oh, who doesn't! I'm still like most runners, don't do
enough stretching exercises and abuse the experts by not taking their advice.
What about diet? What
do you normally eat?
Well, when I'm
training for the 50-mile I think your stomach sort of calls out for food. If
I'm back early enough I'll have porridge for breakfast. You never eat before a
run?
No never; even before the 50-mile I won't eat; just might
have some honey, something like that. Milk and sugar with the porridge?
Honey usually, but I never drink milk. I like it but it
makes me sick.
Any fruit?
Not a great deal; not enough in fact. For lunch I'll have
sandwiches or potato rolls. I'm a funny eater; might live on potato rolls for a
week! Tea'smy biggest meal—plenty of vegetables; and a couple of times a week I
buy one of them big apple pies and I'll eat all that too!
Hobbies—besides
photography?
Running of course; and I like music.
Do you play any
instruments?
No, I'd love to play the piano. I've still got that to come
yet!
So as you go along,
you're developing the older you get.
Yeah. As a kid I never had much, so I think I'm still
growing. Like the photography; I always wanted to when I was a kid but I didn't
start till I was about 30.
Of course I was an alcoholic; used to drink bottles of rum
at 14 or 15, play up quite a bit. You don't have any family in Australia then?
No; I've never seen my mother or my father. think that's maybe why I'm sort of
a funny fellow. I've got no ties; just a loner. I think you could say quite a
lot of runners are anti-social, doing their own thing.
So you're not running
for the fame, you're not running to win medals, you're doing it for yourself.
That's right, Mike. When I first started I used to like to
be there to win that trophy; even if it was a team event I wanted to be in the
winning team. But now I don't. I never got a trophy for the 50-miler. The thing
for me was I won it, I organised it, I put the thing together, and that pleased
me and I was pleased to see so many people finish, but I wanted to give them
something.
We spent a lot of money on that race and a lot of it come
out of my own pocket. Four hundred dollars it cost us all told, and I put about
$150 or $200 into it. We gave them all singlets—this is where we made a
mistake. When we started we said, no one's to run it unless they've run a
marathon and when they read there was a singlet involved they were happy. It
only cost them $2.50 and singlets are near $4! Next time everyone that finishes
gets a singlet; 3rd of October it is, the holiday weekend. And they all got a
medallion; same as the City-to-Surf type, not those cheap ones you get at State
Championships.
What's the course?
Start from the Town Hall and goes to Stanwell Tops near
Helensburgh—last year, that is. It's 30 miles 500 metres to there, then you
turn round and finish at Sylvania Waters track.
What's your best
marathon time?
2.37.46, last year.
A marathon must be
easy for you now!
Not easy, no! I went in the Canberra one and boy, that was
hard; 2.56 I did. No, nothing's easy, Mike—you know that yourself. Some days
it's easy and some days it's hard. They're different races, you know. In the 50
I ran better halfway than I did in the Canberra marathon; a bit under 2.56 I
was, and it was a lot hillier.
You must be looking
forward to turning 40 when you can run in the veterans.
That's what I'm really looking forward to. A lot of runners
give it up; they say, 'What's the use?', but not me. I've built my way up from
being nothing when I started and now I'm at the stage where I'm in between and
I just want to keep it going.
What do you think
distance running of the kind that you do needs in Australia most of all?
It needs promotion;
and I think there's too much red tape. That 50-miler we put on there was no
officialism; it was a friendly, basic thing—and that's what athletics should
be.
