Sometimes a story just SAYS it ALL. My friend Rev. Forward shared this story with me.
“Cliff Young: Embracing the Edge”” A true tale of improbable endurance and quiet revolution”
“In 1983, a crowd gathered in Sydney to witness the beginning of the grueling Westfield Ultramarathon—a 544-mile race stretching all the way to Melbourne. The best ultra-athletes from around the world were there: lean, young, backed by sponsors, outfitted in sleek gear. And then, from the edge of the crowd, stepped a man who didn’t belong.
He was 61 years old. His name was Cliff Young. He wore overalls, not running shorts. His shoes were work boots, not trainers. He had no coach, no nutritionist, no plan beyond the rhythm of his own body and the memory of chasing sheep across fields for days on end without sleep. The onlookers laughed. The other runners blinked in confusion.But Cliff wasn’t there to prove anyone wrong. He was just there to run.
And run he did. Not with speed or style, but with what would come to be known as the Cliff Young Shuffle—a strange, loping gait, low to the ground, effortless, and efficient. While the younger athletes followed tradition—running fast by day and resting at night—Cliff did something no one expected: he didn’t stop. He shuffled through the dark, through the pain, through the silence of night, embracing every edge that rose up to stop him.
On the third night, people began to notice. Cliff was closing the gap. By the fifth day, he had taken the lead. By the time he shuffled across the finish line in Melbourne, he had broken the race record by nearly two days, finishing ten hours ahead of the next competitor.And then, when handed the $10,000 prize, he shocked the world again. Cliff said, “I didn’t know there was a prize. I thought it was just a run.” And he gave it all away—dividing it among the other runners.
Cliff Young didn’t win because he was faster. He won because he lived his life at the edge—of expectation, of logic, of belief—and when the world said “this is impossible,” Cliff said “I’ll just keep going.”
- He didn’t fight the edge. He didn’t fear it.
- He shuffled into it. Night after night. Step after step.
- And in doing so, he redefined what endurance could mean.
Let his story remind us:
- Sometimes the edge is not a cliff to fall from, but a place to begin.
- A new gait.
- A quiet revolution.
- A shuffle that changes the world.”
Cliff just DID what he loved, and what he knew how to do without worrying or even considering what other people thought. What a lesson in DOING WHAT YOU LOVE TO DO, through trials and tribulations!
Be courageous in the long run….
Watch ABC Newsclip on Cliff Young https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-24/cliff-young-potato-farmer-who-ran-from-sydney-to-melbourne/105023078