Gordon Bromley

Ask any modern day athlete about "Brom" Bromley and the response will almost inevitably be a blank stare.

That's perhaps understandable given that Gordon Bromley was at his peak as a marathon and cross country runner more than 50 years ago.

Back then, from the mid-1930s though to the early 1950s, "Brom" Bromley was regularly running himself in to the record books in national cross county and marathon championships. During that period he won five New Zealand marathon titles and in 1950 represented New Zealand in the Empire Games - the forerunner to today's Commonwealth Games.

Sadly, Gordon Bennett Bromley has run his last race. He died recently, at the Taupo rest home where had lived for the past 18 months. He was 90.

"Brom" Bromley was born at Scotts Ferry but grew up at Bonny Glen, near Marton.

Even as a youngster he showed considerable athletic ability running each day to and from Bonny Glen to attend St Matthews School in Marton a round trip of about 16km.

Apart from relatively brief periods when his work with New Zealand Railways took him to Kai Iwi, Inglewood and Turakina, Mr Bromley and his wife, Patricia (a Marton girl whom he married in 1937) lived in Marton and his running career was mainly in Marton Harrier Club colours.

Running was his passion (some would say obsession) and through the late 1930s he was a formidable competitor in New Zealand Cross Country championships.

In the post-war years, while still running cross country events he turned his attention to marathons.

Back then there was general acceptance among long distance runners of the theory that running too many miles in training would result in early burn-out.

But Mr Bromley opted to follow the lead set by South African distance runners of that era (the mid-1940s), George Austin and Arthur Newton, and embarked on a regime that saw him clock up huge training mileages. On average he ran 120km a week and often more than 160km a week.

One of his diaries from that period records an incredible total annual training mileage of nearly 20,000km.

It was that kind of stamina-building regime that, some two decades later, the great Arthur Lydiard applied, notably in his coaching of Olympic gold medallist John Walker.

And that training format produced six wins for "Brom" Bromley out of the eight national marathons he ran at the height of his career.

Later, Lydiard was to pay his own tribute to Mr Bromley: "I could never beat Brom in a marathon. He had too many miles in his legs."

Among his other achievements were back to back wins in the prestigious Wellington 20-mile cross country race in 1949 and 1950 when he slashed nearly five minutes of the previous course record.

According to Marton Harrier Club stalwart and historian, Francis Wilson, Mr Bromley's fastest marathon time was 2 hours 40:01.

"That was a great time for that era when you realise the archaic rules that applied and the canvas topped sandshoes that they ran it. In those days all marathons were held in the heat of summer, they started at noon and no drinks were allowed to be taken before the 10 mile mark.

"Marathoners back then were truly men of iron," Mr Wilson said.