RON Hill is probably the greatest runner this country has had.

Three Olympic Games, a European Championship gold medal and setting a world marathon best as well as countless British records, understate what a collusus Ron was during the 1960s and 1970s.

He was running the sort of marathon times 30 years ago which few British men can achieve now.

Ron celebrated his 69th birthday on Tuesday and I caught up with him at his home in Hyde, just outside of Manchester.

He still looks thin and trim as ever, sporting a baseball cap, jeans and a sports top, we chatted for over an hour about those halcyon days of running and the sport today.

Remarkably, Ron has continued an unbroken streak of running every day since 1964. Come fair weather or foul, he has been out there running sometimes twice a day.

He is also on a globetrotting mission bidding to have run in 100 countries by the time of his 70th birthday next September. A recent trip to Ecuador has taken that number up into the nineties.

It was a pleasure and an honour to chat to Ron, who has a passion for running and a passion for the sport.

His was a generation when athletics made the back pages and runners were heroes. Today, Ron laments how the sport hardly generates any media coverage at all.

Does he look on the current crop of paid athletes with envy? Of course he does, but he has not regrets about what he achieved, the races he ran and the records he set.

I joined Ron later in the evening for a special birthday race which is held in his honour at Littleborough, just up the road in Rochdale.

It's a 5km race, organised by Ron's friend Andy O'Sullivan, with race headquarters a pub in the town.

Well over 100 runners had turned up for the run which started at the unusual time of 6.45pm with Andy bellowing through his megaphone for runners to get to the start on time.

After the long runs I have been putting in recently, it was a pleasure to enjoy a shorter run which started at Littleborough taking runners through the streets and along a lane to Hollingworth Lake, before heading back into town and a finish by the railway station.

I settled in for a nice gentle run and clocked 22min 42sec for the distance a few minutes ahead of Ron, who in his prime ran 14 minutes for the distance.

Not that Ron was bothered. He is a legend, and long may he continue running.