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Hopcroft was born in
Cheswick, England and was active in many sports as a schoolboy. At the age of 17, Hopcroft joined Ashcombe AC, and competed on the athletics track and in cross country races. A few years later in 1939, he was called up to military service at the start of World War II. In 1941, he
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After 20 years competing for Thames Valley
Harriers, business, family commitments and an ankle injury ended Hopcroft's running career in 1961. He stayed with the club as Road Running Secretary, developing a strong road running section. He was then President of the club from 1970 to 1973 and again
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in central London along the Bath Road to the village of Box. He was accompanied for the first five miles by John Legge and Bill
Wortley, who intended to go the whole way, but they dropped off and he carried on alone. He passed the marathon distance in 3:02 and reached the halfway mark in 5:46:37.
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Hopcroft continued running on the track until 1949 when, at the age of 31, he turned to road running to improve his endurance for the cross country season. He began to increase his weekly mileage going from three runs a week to training seven days a week, and twice a day. By the mid 1950s, he was
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organised an event to beat
Hopcroft's record on twenty laps of a five mile circuit at Walton-on-Thames. Twelve runners, including Hopcroft set out at 4am. Although the leaders were two minutes ahead of Hopcroft's pace at the 30-mile mark, Arthur Mail won the race in 13:17:39. Hopcroft did not
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and Bill Kelly in a time of 5:47:11. The following year, he won the race in 5:36:26, beating
Richards who came second, and Kelly third. But in 1957, he was beaten into second place in 5:40:31 by the South African Gerald Walsh, while Kelly finished third again.
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With five miles to go, Hopcroft had 48 minutes to complete the course inside the world record time. Accompanied by motorists, cyclists and other runners, and cheered on by spectators, with encouragement from
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from 1986 to 1988. He also volunteered as a track and cross-country official, acting as timekeeper at
Veterans Athletic Club events, until 2007.
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set the 100 mile record of 12:20:28 in 1953. Five years later, at 5am on 25 October 1958, Hopcroft set out on the 100-mile route from
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was posted back in London and discovered his athletics club had disbanded, so he joined
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In the 1955 London to
Brighton Road Race, Hopcroft came third behind
296:"HOPCROFT - Deaths Announcements - Telegraph Announcements"
257:"The 100-miler: Part 8 (1950-1960) | Ultrarunning History"
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A year later, almost to the day, on 24 October 1959, the
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278:"Ron Hopcroft 27th February 1918 – 17th March 2016"
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374:British long-distance runners
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179:competing in ultramarathons.
134:100 miles: 12:18:16 (1958,
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126:50 miles: 5:23:30 (1957,
332:"100 miles Race Report"
114:Achievements and titles
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108:Thames Valley Harriers
394:World record holders
318:www.gbrathletics.com
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259:. 7 September 2020.
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16:British ultrarunner
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62:(2016-03-17)
23:Ron Hopcroft
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389:2016 deaths
384:1918 births
161:Early years
150:ultrarunner
34:Nationality
368:Categories
234:References
225:Retirement
48:1918-02-27
119:Personal
156:Running
121:best(s)
87:Running
74:Country
37:British
93:Event
84:Sport
69:Sport
104:Club
57:Died
42:Born
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