Question. Who won the first professional road race?
Answer below.
1981 Cascade Run Off: Dashing For Dollars
On The Road column. Track & Field News, August 1981. Original title: A REAL Pro Race! Intro: In a move that could well shake track to its foundations, to say nothing of revamping the road circuit, professional racing by big-name stars is upon us.
Portland, – June 28 – An unemployed carpenter by the name of Jim Frank ran 52:09 in the Cascade Run Off. Greg Meyer, a member of the New Balance Track Club, covered the certified fifteen (15) kilometers in 43:19. Jim Frank placed 149th and Greg Meyer won the race. Both men are now professional athletes.
At a pre-race press conference announcing the Association of Road Racing Athletes pro circuit, ARRA legal counsel Chuck Galford – not coincidentally race director of the Run Off – said TAC officials had indicated an intention to declare every participant a professional.
Rule 53 would be enforced. [The so-called “contamination rule.” If you run with a pro, you are a pro. – ed. note]
Does it really matter? “The race itself has almost been overshadowed,” Bill Rodgers remarked. “It is not insignificant that I come here as an athlete.” No one thought of Rodgers’ presence as anything less than important, even though he didn’t run for money.
After all, for commercial value, Boston Billy is the most valuable of all “amateur” road racers. He has admitted earning $250,000 from running and related businesses in 1980. Billy would seem to have much to lose and little to gain if he ran.
Explaining his decision not to run for money, Rodgers noted, frankly, “I can make more under the table.”
Boy, did he run. All six thousand (6000) professionals ran. John Glidewell seemed to be pushing the early pace, leading the pack of virtual hundreds.
Olympic gold medalist Frank Shorter and 2:09 marathoner John Graham jogged by on the sidewalk as the leaders hit two miles in 9:15. Graham later said they covered the course – remaining uncontaminated – in about 49:00.
Herb Lindsay made his first appearance at the front, followed closely by Jon Sinclair, Meyer and Rodgers. Lindsay, who had been plagued by a hamstring injury for several weeks, seemed his old self. Bigger than life, or at least bigger than his competition. Sinclair was the titular leader at three miles with a split of 14:13. The pack had been reduced to perhaps a dozen.
Glidewell was the first to drop, just before Sinclair, et al., passed four miles in 19:08. Sinclair and Meyer were obviously pushing the pace uphill, as their Athletics West mates Benji Durden and Stan Mavis fell back. American record holder (43:12) Rick Rojas was dueling with Pete Pfitzinger for eighth. They were out of the picture, and soon out of sight.
Rodgers made a move at the crest of the initial hill. Possessed of a legendary downhill running talent, Rodgers seemed ready to use it, but the others covered Billy’s surge with no apparent effort.
At the start of the mile-long second West Hills climb, Sinclair and Meyer moved to the fore, passing five miles in 24:03. Two hundred meters later, it was Lindsay and Meyer surging again, actually breaking away by three to five meters. Sinclair, TAC’s national cross-country champion, finally let go.
At six miles (28:49), the quartet was still together, Rodgers and Domingo Tibaduiza having regrouped soon after the course’s highest point. Ten kilos was reached in 29:40.
Lindsay appeared to make a major move at seven-and-a-half miles, but it made little impression on his companions. At eight miles (37:34), Rodgers seemed tired but aggressive. He tried a move but to little impact. Tibaduiza looked to be in much better shape than the Americans, but Lindsay obviously wasn’t thinking of his hamstring. He was thinking of ten thousand dollars. $10,000.
Meyer kicked first. That was perhaps the key to his victory. He got the jump, establishing a margin he would not lose.
New Zealander Anne Audain led virtually all the way in recording a 50:33 win that was also worth $10,000.
“I just wanted to stay with the others as long as I could,” she said. “But I found that my rhythm was quicker on the hills, so I just ran my own race from there. If they caught up to me, I’d have raced them, but they never did.”
America’s best, Patti Catalano, finished fourth behind a trio of New Zealanders (Allison Roe 50:58, Lorraine Moller 51:25) with her 51:56.
The New Englander noted, “I’m in the best shape of my life speed-wise, but I’m no politician. I can train and race, or work for the cause, but I can’t do both. I race off my heart, and I left that at the ARRA meeting.”
Not easy being a pro.
Not easy being first.
Epilogue. Jim Frank had been a training partner in Salem, Oregon in the late Seventies. There was a recession.
I rode on the press truck, pretending to be an expert, which I was. Could identify any known runner at two miles. Something about the carriage. Maybe the way some athlete carried his left earlobe. Mean to tell you, I was real good.
Somebody new was in the mix. This can be a problem for the media. Who is it?
So, you can just imagine the surprise when I said, “Do-Ming-Oh Ti-Ba-Du-Wee-Za.”
There’s an actual hush on a moving flatbed truck. How do you spell that? Can he speak English?
Like he was the first guy from out of town who ever ran fast.
- Meyer 43:19 ($10,000)
- Lindsay 43:24 ($6,000)
- Tibaduiza 43:24 ($4,000)
- Rodgers 43:25 (amateur)
- Sinclair 44:05 ($3,000)
- Durden 44:10 ($2,000)
- Pfitzinger 44:13 ($1000)