The 61-Year-Old Farmer Who Won an Ultramarathon Because He Didn’t Know About Sleep Breaks

In 1983, Cliff Young, a potato farmer from Australia, shocked the running world by winning the inaugural Sydney-to-Melbourne Ultramarathon. Covering a distance of 875 kilometers (544 miles), he broke the record by nearly two days, simply because he was unaware that competitors usually slept during the race.

Overalls and Work Boots Instead of Professional Gear

When the 61-year-old Cliff Young stood at the starting line of the first-ever Westfield Sydney to Melbourne Ultramarathon, he looked nothing like an elite athlete. Young showed up in work overalls and gumboots (rubber boots), without his dentures—later explaining that his false teeth rattled too much while he ran.

Organizers and other athletes initially thought it was a joke. People at the registration table laughed, thinking someone was pulling a prank. During the race itself, Young ran in a cotton T-shirt and long trousers, explaining he wanted to reduce the risk of skin cancer. Elite runners in sponsored Nike and Adidas gear did not take him seriously.

“I grew up on a farm where we couldn’t afford horses or tractors,” Young said in an interview. “And when the storms came, I had to go out and round up the sheep.” On a 2,000-acre property, there were 2,000 sheep to gather by hand—sometimes for two or three days straight.

The Secret Was Ignorance

At the time, the accepted strategy was for runners to race for about 18 hours and sleep for the remaining 6 hours to let the body recover. Everyone knew this strategy—except Cliff. He had no idea.

Young ran at a slow, loping pace and trailed far behind on the first day. While other runners stopped for their six-hour rest, Young mistakenly woke up at 2:00 AM, hours earlier than he had planned, and kept going, passing his sleeping rivals. Young then decided that avoiding sleep would be his strategy and completed the rest of the race without sleeping at all. He eventually took first place with a 10-hour lead over the runner-up. He required only a few hours of sleep each night, unlike the experienced ultramarathoners.

The “Young Shuffle” – A Technique That Changed Ultramarathons

Young’s running style initially drew ridicule. The press dubbed it the “Young Shuffle,” as he seemed to shuffle his feet rather than actually run. It looked awkward and unprofessional.

However, the shuffling gait gave Young a significant advantage during the ultramarathon. By conserving energy, Young was able to run longer without resting. The “Young Shuffle” is a low-energy, ultra-efficient gait that keeps the feet close to the ground to save effort. This technique has since been adopted by many ultramarathoners—at least three winners of the Sydney-to-Melbourne race used it to win. Today, it is still taught in ultramarathon training camps.

Victory and Generosity

The Westfield race took him five days, fifteen hours, and four minutes—nearly two days faster than the previous record for the Sydney-to-Melbourne route, averaging a speed of 6.5 km/h. He finished with a stunning 10-hour lead over the second-place finisher, George Perdon—a veteran known as the first man to run across Australia in 1973.

When he was handed the AUD 10,000 prize at the finish line, Cliff was surprised. Young said he didn’t know there was a prize and felt uncomfortable accepting it because the other five finishers had worked just as hard. Consequently, he gave away most of the money to the other runners, keeping only $3,000 for himself.

A Legend Who Ran Until the End

Young became a sensation after this “tortoise and the hare” feat. He was so popular that the Cliff Young Australian Six-Day Race was established in Colac, Victoria, that same year. In 1984, he was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for long-distance running.

In 1997, at age 75, he attempted to break the record for running around Australia. He completed 6,520 kilometers of the 16,000-kilometer route but had to withdraw when his only crew member fell ill. In 2000, he set a world age record in a six-day race in Victoria.

Known for his clumsy-looking style, Young ran over 20,000 kilometers during his competitive career. After five years of illness and several strokes, he passed away from cancer at age 81 on November 2, 2003, at his home in Queensland. A monument shaped like a gumboot in Beech Forest is dedicated to him, and Cliff Young Drive and Cliff Young Park bear his name.

A Story That Redefines Perseverance

Cliff Young proved that limits exist primarily in our minds. Before him, no one believed it was humanly possible to run nearly 900 km without sleep. Young didn’t just win a race; he changed the very essence of ultra-running. He redefined endurance, proving that patience and determination can overcome speed and youth.

Today, the “Young Shuffle” is more than just a running technique—it is a symbol of the “underdog” approach, showing that sometimes the best strategies are born from not knowing the rules. And the farmer in gumboots? He changed ultramarathons forever.