Take a look at me now

BBC Radio Five Live's Adrian Chiles talked to Australian running legend Herb Elliot about his career and tips for would-be champions.

Some people spend their whole lives working up to the peak of their sporting careers, winning - if they are lucky - the odd medal along the way.

Others, like Australian Herb Elliot, arrive at the top at the age of 22, and then retire to do something completely different.

Elliot won gold in the 1500m at the 1960 Rome Olympics, in the words of commentator Rex Alston: "making the thing look ridiculously and ludicrously easy."

And then Herb quit, becoming the only runner in history to remain unbeaten at 1500m and one-mile distances.

Running is trivial, you run round in circles and you end up where you started from

Herb Elliot

So what inspired Elliot to run in the first place?

"My father took me to the 1956 Melbourne Olympic games," he says.

"It inspired me to turn from a kid who was not particularly interested in going through all the ardour of training to someone who was prepared to dedicate themselves to training for a few years."

Once training, Elliot placed himself in the hands of a coach he credits with giving him his career direction.

"My coach was an extraordinary man, very volatile and eccentric as many geniuses are."

"His message was simple - running is trivial, you run round in circles and you end up where you started from."

"He said the only point of running was to grow into a better human being, and the only way to grow was to train outside your comfort zone."

Despite admitting that his training programme started three months too late, Elliot blasted away the field at the 1960 games, winning by a clear twenty metres.

The most difficult challenge is dealing with the daily tediousness and boredom

Herb Elliot

But then the motivation went, and with it one of Australia's great runners.

"There was a lot in my life apart from running and I'd just had enough of it," he says.

"By far the most difficult challenge is dealing with the daily tediousness and boredom of a process to improve yourself."

"One of the reasons there are very few champions is not because people don't have the dream or the talent, it's because they can't deal with the tediousness of it all."

Herb's tip to all wannabe champs is simple.

"You have to have the courage to deal with the hundreds of little compromises that go through your brain every day."