Len Hurst

Len Hurst made his professional debut in his home-town of Sittingbourne when he was 15 and won a four mile race and with it a £10 prize. As a 16-year-old, he won 31 races from four to ten miles. Len’s brother Joe was 13 years older and was also a semi-professional athlete. The two brothers moved to London where there was more opportunity to race, and to subsidise their income as part-time athletes they worked in a brickworks with Len being a brick maker. Len became a full-time professional in 1889 while Joe preferred the security of regular income and stayed semi-professional but shortly afterwards Len was hit by illness which resulted in being out of the professional ranks for nearly three years. Upon his return he specialised in longer events but the lack of top class distance events in Britain meant Len raced on the continent and following the success of the Marathon at the 1896 Olympics, the inaugural Paris Marathon was established a few months later and Len had the honour of the being the race’s first winner. He won in 2 hours 31 minutes 29.8 seconds, a full 27 minutes faster than Spyros Louis’ winning time in the Olympics. Len was one of the first athletes to have a strict training and dietary regime and he was a contributor to Alf Downer’s book Running Recollections and How to Train. His approach to the sport paid off as he became one of the best long distance runners in the world at the turn of the Century, and he won the Paris Marathon again in 1900 and 1901. In 1903 he won the first professional London to Brighton Race, covering the 52.5 miles in 6 hours 32 minutes 34 seconds, a time that stood as a record for 21 years. Since the 1950s, the winning team in the London-Brighton race is presented with the Len Hurst Belt, which is the actual belt Hurst received for winning the 1903 race.

Len’s last race of significance was the Madison Square Garden 6-Day Race in New York. Although Len and brother Joe were one of the 43 two-man teams to enter they did not win event but Len covered 597 miles in six days. He retired fully from racing after failing to finish a 30-mile race in December 1907. His career saw him win more than 200 handicap races from the scratch position, and in his 20-year carer it is estimated he won over £30,000. After retiring he became landlord of the Eagle Hotel in Finsbury, London and from 1911, until the time of his death, he was landlord of the Neptune in Camden Town.