In the early 1960s, Bideford used to hold a Sports Day in the same week as the Regatta, and it gave local people a chance to see their local sporting hero, Bruce Tulloh. in action.
He was actually born in Datchet, Berkshire, but his mother got divorced when he was young, so she bought a cottage in Instow, and moved there with her son.
He was educated at Wellington College, paid for by his grandfather. He went on to study botany at Southampton University, where he got his degree (his mother was a botanist).
Bruce got his inspiration for running from watching Czech runner Emil Zatopek in the 1948 London Olympics. He won his first long distance race at age 12, and decided to dedicate himself to the sport from there on. He became the British record holder at one, two and six miles. He gained international fame in 1962, when he won the gold medal for the 5000 metres at the European Championships in Belgrade.
He was famous also for running barefoot, a habit he developed running along North Devon’s sandy beaches in boyhood, a long time before Zola Budd and the other African athletes did the same. Asked why he ran barefoot, he said that it was easier to accelerate without shoes, and of course you did not have to worry about the weight of your shoes slowing you down.
He failed however to find success in the Olympics. In 1960, in Rome, he found the heat oppressive, and failed to get into the finals by one place; In the 1964 season, he felt on top form, but then contracted measles from his young son, Clive, and wasn’t feeling well enough to compete in the Tokyo Olympics. In the 1968 Mexico Olympics, he, like many athletes at the time. felt that the high altitude runners had an unfair advantage, and did not compete.
He then felt that he needed to change tack. Whilst reading the 1968 Guinness Book of Records, he discovered that there was a competition for running across the USA, so the following year, he entered this, with wife and child accompanying him in a caravan along the route. He ran the 2,876 miles from Los Angeles to New York, knocking eight days off the record.
At a later date, he settled into a career teaching biology at Marlborough College, whilst continuing to coach younger athletes, including his own two daughters, who also ran barefoot and achieved considerable success in the 1980s, and Richard Nerurkar, who was the World Cup Marathon winner in 1993. He continued himself to run marathons and other long-distance races into old age.
Bruce’s original ambition was to write, and in the end he wrote 23 books, all on the subject of running, including his book about his American epic journey, ‘Four Million Footsteps’, which became a best-seller. He wrote many articles for running magazines.
North Devon played a significant part in his life. Apart from living here as a youth, he trained as an athlete on the local beaches, and, as a coach, would set up training camps at Braunton and Croyde.
When he retired, he continued to live in in Marlborough. What many people may not have appreciated is that he kept on his mother’s Instow cottage, and would return to Instow frequently throughout his life, until a few weeks before his death in late April of this year, of cancer, aged 82, where he continued to support and inspire younger local athletes.
He is survived by his wife, Sue, and his three children. Chris Trigger.
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