As a member of the RRC, having run 21 marathons (the first 19 in London) and interviewed thousands of athletes over many years, I felt that one deserved a strong mention in the RRC magazine—Timothy Fredrick Kemball Johnston.
Educated at Bedales School and Trinity College, Cambridge, he was 1.74m tall and weighed 59kg, a fluent and majestic-looking runner. In 1963, while still at Cambridge University, he told me, “I will continue running as long as I can if I can find a suitable employer.” He certainly did, as he went on to work as a lawyer-linguist with the Common Market.
In 1985, he spoke about his friend Mike Turner, the captain of the strong Cambridge University team he ran with:
"Mike ran several times for England in the cross-country team but never did himself justice. He was as good a runner as Ron Hill. I felt he was better than Mike Freary, Jim Hogan, and Jim Alder, but he never really gave himself the chance. He never believed in himself as a track runner."
Mike Turner certainly felt that Tim had the tremendous determination to get to the top. Mike once told me that Tim’s mother had pointed out that, when Tim was young, a snowman was built in their garden. Tim waited, then went out later—determined to build a larger one. That was his type of ambition. His Olympic Gold quest!
It was in 1963 that I saw him win the Southern Cross Country from Herne Harrier Don Taylor in deep snow at Parliament Hill. That same year, he won:
- British Universities Cross Country (in snow)
- Inter-Counties Cross Country (in snow)
- An international race at Hannut (in snow)
So, it was no surprise that he was called the “Abominable Snowman.” That year, he was ranked third in the UK as a steeplechaser.
By 1967, he had finished second in the International Cross Country in Wales (the old-style World Cross) and set a World Best 30,000m time of 1:32:34.6.
In 1968, he won:
- AAAs 6 miles in 27:22.2
- AAAs Marathon in 2:15:26
Come the Olympics, Tim—knowing that he had done enough altitude training—set off in the lead during the Mexico Olympic Marathon and was still ahead at the 20km mark. Gradually, he started to fall off the pace and eventually finished in 2:18:42. He told me afterward at the training track in Mexico City:
"It is a complete bloody waste of time trying to race a marathon at altitude, like it was in Mexico. You can imagine what Ron Clarke would have done to the opposition in his races if it had been at low level."
Tim did not sit back. The very next year, on May 10th, he won the Karl-Marx-Stadt Marathon in 2:15:31.2, his first outing since the Olympics.
Tim Johnston did have problems with both Achilles tendons, which certainly stopped him from thinking deeply about another Olympics. However, he later became a World-Class Veteran (Master) runner. In 1982, he won the Brugge 25km, followed by a World Championship Veteran Half Marathon and 10km on consecutive days. Then, in 1984, he won the European Vets Marathon Championship in Brighton.
Among his many road race victories, he won:
- Cheshunt Half Marathon in 1:07:47 (1982)
- Maidenhead 10-mile race in a course record of 49:51 (1975)
(The Maidenhead course in those days was slightly over-distance, with a steep hill.)
Johnston may not have won a major games medal, but he still had an impressive career. His club, Portsmouth AC, had fine international athletes—just as Coventry Godiva had at the time. Tim enjoyed running into old age with the Hash House Harriers.