HE KEPT ON RUNNING, RIGHT UNTIL THE END
ATHLETICS: Not everyone will know him by name, but they would have seen him running through the Garden City at least once in their lives.
Alan Bradford lived and breathed running, it was his life and his passion.
A champion runner, Bradford was a father, grandfather, engineer and most importantly a wonderful human being.
Bradford sadly passed away at the age of 84 after a battle with cancer.
He did not let this get in the way of his running, however, recording runs in his diary two months before he passed. His dedication was unparalleled and his humbleness was unmatched.
Bradford was inducted into the Australian Masters Athletics Hall of Fame in 2009.
A middle-distance athlete, he set 13 world age-group records – M45 to M65 category – between 1984 and 1999. The records were across 800m, 1500m, two-mile, three-mile, and 2000m and 3000m steeplechase.
Bradford competed in nine World Masters Athletics championships, where he won 15 gold, three silver and one bronze medal.
Greg Watson, Bradford’s son-inlaw, spoke of his discipline.
“He used to run every day you know. Everyone used to comment, ‘I saw your Alan running, I saw Alan running’,” Watson said.
“Alan told me once that he runs every day no matter the weather or date as the person he was up against might have a sunny day, and being as competitive as he was, he didn’t want to lose an edge. He just loved to run.”
Bradford was a professional runner for his whole life, as well as an engineer full time. He was a bridge designer and designed the bridge on the Gatton bypass.
He has held a total of 21 world records and was not defeated in a race for a period of 10 years.
Sponsored by Nike during the 1980s and 1990s, he was also best mates with Herb Elliott, and had an opportunity to train for the 1960 Olympics but as an amateur, was unable to pay for the airfares.
Bradford was so well loved by the community that not even fences would get in his way of training.
“He lived in Mount Lofty, so he’d go to the high school and ran around that oval everyday to the point where there was a rut. He wore down the grass so much that he created his own track,” Watson said. “When they put the fence up, they gave him the key … he’d been running there for close to 50 years and they never told him to stop.”
Throughout the course of Bradford’s life he recorded each of his runs in a diary. He would include the time, date, weather, track conditions, distance (in miles) and would often write a short recap.
This became such a staple of his life that his daughter Dr Julie Bradford would give him a new diary each year as a gift.