Hugh Culverhouse . . . .

. . . . Cycliste extraordinaire.

Quite by chance, I came across this photograph in today's "Times" of Hugh running in yesterday's marathon. I know about him from a long time ago when he was a racing cyclist, his career starting a short while after I retired from serious competition. He had been a runner and, while competing in the national championship cross country race in 1971, suffered a stress fracture to his left hip; after several operations over the next four years, it become obvious that he would never regain the use of his left leg; a break in the blood supply to his hip joint had caused necrosis. He now lives and works in Germany and his normal mode of walking is, as seen here, with a crutch and a stick.
While his left leg does articulate, it will not weight bear; on a bike he has a non- rotating crank to provide parking space for his left foot.

I knew that he would be competing this year and that he had previously posted a time of three hours, twenty three minutes, yesterday he finished in 3:23:47 in the 60-64 age group. There is no mention of him in the text of the article but, from the expression on his face, he is clearly going for a good time.
Since there isn't a category to fit his disability, he ran with the main bunch.

As a cyclist competing around 1984, he set the Lands End to John O'Groats record (847 miles in 3 days and 4 hours, compared with just under 2 days for the able-bodied record), competed in a 24 hour time trial (covering 394 miles compared with my best of 400) and rode in the Race Across America (west coast to east coast) covering 3,000 miles in 13 days and eleven hours.

To his kind, respect is due.

The information is from the latest issue of the "Twenty Four Hour Fellowship Journal" and I am grateful to John Taylor for the information.