Want to say, everything good about distance running is contained in the following report.
Might not be wrong. From Track & Field News, August 1980. – JDW
Litchfield, Ct., June 9 – Stride for stride, Bob Hodge and Randy Thomas neared the finish line of the 4th Annual Litchfield Hill Seven-Mile (7M) race. But there was no frenetic sprint for the win, nor even an attempt to hold hands for a tie.
With perhaps two strides remaining, defending champ Thomas checked his gait, allowing Hodge to pass in front of him to win by a single second in 34:40. “Last year he let me win,” Thomas explained. “So, when we reached three and a half miles, I told Bob, if we were still together at the end, the race was his.”
The Boston pair let Kevin Ryan lead through two miles in 8:57 and Tom Fleming through three miles (13:52). But the duo of Hodge & Thomas opened a fifty meter lead by four miles (18:36) and reached six miles in 28:36.
They then started up the ominously-named Gallows Lane hill. A 6:04 final mile says something either about the demands of that incline or about the accuracy of the splits.
Joan Benoit astounded the field by finishing twelfth (12th) OVERALL (39:26). She noted, “That hill was probably the toughest part of the race.”
Certainly more so than the competition, as Joanie posted a victory margin of almost 3 1/2 minutes in destroying the 41:14 course record set last year by Patti Lyons-Catalano.
