Bruce Tulloh


Michael Swinton "Bruce" Tulloh was a long-distance runner from England who competed at the 1960 Summer Olympics.

Athletics career

Tulloh became the British 3 miles champion after winning the British AAA Championships titles at the 1959 AAA Championships and at the 1962 AAA Championships.
Tulloh won the European title in the men's 5000 metres at the 1962 European Championships in Belgrade, Yugoslavia with a winning time of 14:00.6. He was also part of a national title winning team Portsmouth A.C. in cross-country and road running in the 1960s. He was famous for running barefoot in many of his races. His twin daughters were teenage running phenomena in the 1980s setting age-best marks running for their club Swindon A.C. They also ran barefoot.
He represented England in the 1 mile and 3 mile races at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth, Western Australia. Four years later he competed in the 3 mile and 6 mile races at the 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. In between he won his third AAA 3 miles title at the 1963 AAA Championships.
In 1969, Tulloh ran 2876 miles across America from Los Angeles to New York City in 64 days. This is described in his book Four Million Footsteps, published by Pelham Books and as a Mayflower paperback in 1970.
He was coach to British marathon athlete Richard Nerurkar.
DistanceTime DateLocation
Mile3:59.327 January 1962Hamilton, New Zealand
3 miles13:12.017 August 1961Southampton, U.K.
5000 m13:49.422 July 1964Helsinki, Finland
6 miles27:23.788 July 1966London, U.K.
10,000 m28:50.430 August 1966Budapest, Hungary

Personal life

He taught biology at The Bulmershe School, Dr Challoner's Grammar School and then Marlborough College for 20 years.
He wrote a book, Running is Easy, that is essentially an amateur's guide to becoming a good runner.
Tulloh also wrote for Runner's World. One of his most important contributions was a three-fold training programme for the ten-mile race : the first programme was how to get sub-80 mins, the second was for sub-70 mins and the third for sub-60 mins.

Death

Tullloh died at his home in Marlborough on 28 April 2018. He was 82.

Publications

TitleYearPublisherISBNPages
Long-distance running1967Amateur Athletic Association31
Tulloh on running1968Heinemann
Four million footsteps1970Mayflower175
Naturally fit1976Barker167
The Olympic Games1976Heinemann72
The complete jogger1979Macmillan138
The marathon book1982Virgin190
The complete distance runner1983Panther224
Bruce Tulloh's running log: the complete runner's companion1986Stephens160
The teenage runner1989Kingswood156
Running your first marathon and half marathon1989Thorsons64
Track athletics1994Blandford79
Running is easy1996CollinsWillow192