Oh his life has been more vivid than Jacob's coat of many colours. More tough than teak. More heart rendering than ET.
He first drew breath as James Deane, not the Hollywood icon but a rebel with a cause in his case. A little lad from the slums of Glasgow whose dad was killed by a landmine in Berlin on the penultimate day of the Second World War and his mam lost to tuberculosis by the time he was five.
Forced to live in various orphanages, at nine years old he was adopted by a new family moving permanently over the border into Morpeth.
However despite all the chaos, the upheaval, and the heartache Jim Alder, as he was now known, blossomed into a legendary long distance runner, the man who blazed the path for superstar North East athletes such as Brendan Foster, Mike McLeod, Charlie Spedding and Steve Cram.
About to celebrate his 80th birthday on Wednesday (June 10), Alder can look back on a life packed with treasures gained against all odds through the sheer guts that epitomised his running style. It deservedly brought him the award of an MBE in 2007.
His most famous victory of many was the Commonwealth Games marathon gold medal claimed in the year when England won football's World Cup at Wembley with Bobby and Jack Charlton carrying the Geordie flag.
Alder's long run to glory in the early Jamaican morning to beat a blazing sun was not without its drama because, on the cusp of gold, he lost his way!
A 5.30am start on a course where James Bond's Dr No was filmed, Alder had worked his way through the field to the very front as the stadium came into sight.
Then catastrophe! The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles, and Princess Anne had made an unscheduled visit and both marshals and race officials abandoned their posts to rush to their aid.
"I couldn't find the entrance to the stadium and there was no one there to ask," Jim recalled. "By the time I made it to the track I was blinded by sunlight only to discover that Bill Adcocks, who I had dropped, had obviously found a quicker way in and was 50 yards ahead with only 300 yards to go.
"I pulled Bill back yard by yard and beat him to the tape by 15 yards. The gold was mine."
No grudge was held either over what had been put at risk. Alder has always been a royalist. "I was chuffed they had got up at the crack of dawn to come and watch the end of the race. It just shows you what kind of people they are."
The year was 1966. On June 30 the Charlton brothers from Ashington six miles away had lifted the World Cup and on August 11 it was Alder and Morpeth's turn for global glory.
Geronimo Jim ran and ran during the truly amateur days of athletics combining his marathon performances with his everyday job as a bricklayer and builder.
Geronimo? That was because Alder had watched an American comedian jumping out of an aeroplane on telly shouting 'Geronimo' so as often as not Jim would yell the name of the famous Apache chief as he crossed the line in first place.
"Oh, I'm envious of the money athletes made after my best days but, hey, look at the greatness of Jackie Milburn and what today's footballers earn. What we always had, though, were our special memories.
"It cost me a month's wages when I won my gold medal - I had to take time off work as a brickie which was doubly difficult because my wife was pregnant. John Hillen, who often ran against me, organised a whip round to help me out.
"However Squadron Leader Rush, who was a director at Newcastle, got me a free pass into the directors' box at St James' Park for the next five years and as a football fan I was made up. That was a prize in itself!"
Alder was Tough of the Track and King of the Roads all rolled into the same straight-talking relentless medal winner and world record setter.
He had spectacularly burst into the big time on October 17, 1964. Left at home as a non-travelling reserve for the marathon at the Tokyo Olympics because of a freak knee injury, he vented his frustration in a two-hour track race at Walton on Thames.
Alder set world records at 30km (1:34:01.8) and 20 miles (1:40:58.0) en route to a new global mark of 23.6 miles (37.994km) for two hours. If he had run on for another 10 minutes he would have smashed the world marathon record. Had he been in Japan he could have become Olympic gold medallist.
Yet Alder achieved that incredible time on an ash track wearing a pair of modest Dunlop Red flash trainers!
"You peak about four or five times in your career - ask Alan Shearer," he says. "I did that day but I was in the wrong place."
I got to know Jim well as a pioneering runner, coach of considerable stature with Morpeth Harriers, and athletics correspondent for the Chron.
He still as his 80th looms large on the horizon walks for an hour and a half first thing every morning and helps out young athletes with his invaluable knowledge.
"I've never written out a training schedule in my life," he told me. "I just talk to them."
Happy birthday James. Glasgow born or not, we're claiming you as one of us. One of our finest.
ALDER ROLE OF HONOUR
1966 Commonwealth Games, Jamaica, marathon gold medal and 10,000 metres bronze medal.
1969 European Championships, Athens, marathon bronze medal.
1970 Commonwealth Games , Edinburgh, marathon silver medal.
1970 Crystal Palace, World record for 30km on the track.
1962, 1970, 1971 Scottish Cross Country Champion.
1965-71, 1974, 1976 NE Counties Cross Country Champion.
1961-77 Represented Scotland in the International Cross Country Championships.
1963 Intercounties 20 mile Road Race Champion at Battersea Park.
1965 and 1968 Intercounties 6 mile Track Champion.
1965-74 Morpeth–Newcastle Road Race winner on five occasions including setting course records in 1965 and 1969.
1964 Walton-on-Thames, World’s best for 20 miles and 2 hours on the track.
2009 The seventh athlete to be inducted in the Scottish Athletics Hall of Fame.