From Last to First: A long-distance runner's journey from failure to success

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Jones lost 10 metres to Spedding due to his much-needed break, leaving a confused race leader wondering what had occurred: "I couldn't understand it. I just hoped he'd taken my advice. But 160 yards further on I looked behind and there he was again." Spedding probably knew this already, but Jones was not the kind of athlete that could be shaken off easily.

People should be motivated to help others (as well as themselves) rather than battling for money, power, influence and dominance.

He has definitely been (and may still be) in the pay of archenemy Gates and is a rather too keen proponent of unnecessary vaccines. Just have a look at what Vallance says. His statements are full of mights and possiblys. The figures he bandies about bear no relation to applicable facts. As a coach, Dunn enjoyed sharing ideas. None of his sessions or theories were private and it gained him the respect of fellow coaches.

I really began hurting and was awfully tired. But this was the Olympics. I ran with caution in Houston and London, testing myself over strange territory, but in the Olympics you have one shot and give it everything. Jones, on the other hand, had won large amounts of money due to his Chicago win and world record, although his earnings were in a trust fund and he was yet to see a penny of it. Spedding's bronze medal in the Olympics and victories at the London and Houston marathons in 1984 were impressive entries on his CV, but he still saw Jones as the man to beat in London: "Steve is the favourite and that takes the pressure off me." Jones saw it as a battle between his fitness and Spedding's experience. It wasn't quite on the same scale as Ovett-Coe, but the rivalry ensured an eagerly awaited race on that sunny day in 1985. People know Lindsay for Brendan and Charlie and all the amazing names he’s coached,” says Shrubb. “But he’d take on ordinary athletes like me too. Jones's pit stop had commentators, viewers and Spedding flummoxed, as the Welshman first dropped off the pace, appearing to be holding his hamstring – in reality Jones was tugging at his shorts to clean himself up a little – and then allowing Spedding to open up a lead. However, a relieved Jones was now ready to make a move on the race leader, his lighter load and pain-free stomach allowing him to pull level as the pair approached a tunnel near the Embankment. Then one day we had a race over two miles of pathways around the school. A few set off at a brisk pace but, once out of sight, dropped down to a walk.

Brendan Foster and Charlie Spedding on the impact Dunn had on their lives and the wider sport following the coaching legend’s death aged 77

Foster told AW: “The sport of athletics has lost part of its conscience. The numerous athletes he coached and advised over 50 years have lost their guiding light. I’ve personally lost the most influential person of my athletics life but most significantly I’ve lost a truly great mate.

The London men's winner of 1984 is confident that Paula Radcliffe will emerge as a British winner in the women's race of 2005, though he is not so sure about the impact of a third marathon in eight months upon the long-term future of the world record-holder. "You can only go to the well so many times, and running the marathon really is going to the well," Spedding pondered. "Even if you are the best in the world, it takes an awful lot out of you. And I just worry that running another one now is maybe just diminishing Paula's chances of making sure she wins gold in a major championship."

I only wish I'd had longer as a marathon runner," admitted Charlie. "It took me 16 years of toil and sweat to get to an Olympic medal. I'd begun running seriously when I was 16 and I was 32 when I had my glorious year in 1984. But the wait only made it that much sweeter.

I’ve often thought since that, in a whole variety of sports, being able to make the right decision when you’re under physical and mental pressure is the key to being really successful. Doubtless the health establishment and journalists in the pay of Big Carb will queue up to denounce this book – if they can’t get away with studiously ignoring it. Loftily, and very annoyingly, ‘experts’ will quote reams of ‘research’ because these days anything can easily be refuted with ‘science’. And that in a sense is the issue. We now have a bloated university sector full of academics who will produce whatever false orthodoxy you want for a fee. The Enlightenment values of reason and empiricism are being eclipsed by Counter Enlightenment superstition and the witch hunting of heretics who dare to dissent. Before endorsing the book I asked a nutritionist friend to vet it. She said that it was what she and many of her colleagues had been saying privately for years but none of them dared say publicly for fear of losing their licences to practise. Enough said. He’s Britain’s only Olympic marathon medallist in 45 years. It was the third time he’d tried to qualify, and he was an outsider.
He qualified again at 36, and was sixth in Seoul. I eventually got where I wanted to be. I ran in two Olympics - I was sixth in Seoul - and I competed in four London Marathons. I'm proud of my record." You can have your fitness and your talent but, quite often, it comes down to being in a pressure situation and you have to decide what to do at that moment. Those were the two moments that made that race as successful as it was for me.By 1985 however, there was a new British cab on the rank, a Welshman so driven that it hurts just reading about some of his exploits. Stephen Henry Jones didn't let much get in his way, not even stomach cramps as it would transpire on 21 April 1985. His win in London was part of a golden year in which the man from Ebbw Vale could do no wrong. Indeed, even in his final few weeks he was heard to be following news from the English National Cross Country Championships on social media from his hospital bed. Dunn’s coaching CV reads like a who’s who of British distance running. From 1980s icons like Barry Smith and Geoff Turnbull through to Dominic Bannister, Tom Mayo, Andy Caine and Mike Openshaw, plus current runners like Chris Parr and Carl Avery. He even helped Benita Willis, the 2004 world cross-country champion from Australia, for a spell. The podium was set upon a specially-constructed stage surrounded by fountains and fronted by a 60-strong symphony orchestra." However, I didn't want to come last yet again so I gave it a real go. I didn't win - but I finished second or third and thought: `Hey, this is for me.' I was good at something."