Feel like an archaeologist as I plow through the clippings of my life. Another essay.
One Man’s View Of The Decade
From Track & Field News February 1980. – JDW
In 1970 Jerome Drayton, Derek Clayton and Ron Hill were the world’s greatest marathoners. Joe Henderson had just left Track & Field News to become the editor of an obscure bi-monthly called Runner’s World. Jim Fixx was a pudgy magazine executive and I was a basketball player.
When the last decade began, Frank Shorter had never run a marathon and the women’s world record was 3:07:26.
There was no Falmouth, no Nike, nor even a New York City Marathon. There may have been a Fred Lebow but few cared.
The best road racing shoe was the Onitsuka “Marathon” which sold for $9.95.
In 1970, the winner of a marathon wasn’t paid $10,000, entry fees were often less than a dollar, and perhaps six (6) races in the entire country awarded t-shirts to the top finishers.
No runner marketed his own line of clothes, and there were no running stores.
In 1970, one thousand (1000) men – and no more than ten (10) unofficially-entered women – ran the Boston Marathon. Entry restrictions were imposed for the first time. A runner had to have fulfilled one of three obligations to participate: have previously run a marathon under four (4:00) hours, have competed in at least two ten-mile (10M) races, or have the approval of his local AAU official. It was the largest, most elite marathon in the world.
When the last decade began, Miruts Yifter was probably still thirty-seven-years-old, and the Olympics were still important.
Oh, some things do remain the same. It seems there has always been a Hal Higdon, a George Sheehan, a Francie Larrieu, a Bay-to-Breakers, a Johnny Kelley. The men’s marathon best is still Clayton’s 2:08:34. And so few really care. Perhaps few really should.
What we have done is not as important as what we will do.
Where we have been is not as important as where we are going.
And where are we going? Beats me. Certainly not to Moscow.
Some will head for Boston and New York. The superstars will head for the bank, as the obscure amateur/professional dichotomy evaporates.
Television will discover us, so maybe we can anticipate celebrity-sponsored races on the tube weekly.
“Hi, this is Howard Cosell speaking to you live from the Michael Douglas Open 10-Miler. Now a word from our expert commentator Ollan Cassell….”
In the next decade more of us will care, more of us will long for the simple days of the 70s, when business was business and running was running.
Then again, maybe we’ll be playing golf.
It is just a fad, isn’t it?
