Original Gangsters Of Running (Jacqueline Hansen)

Like to kid Bill Rodgers about how I outran him at the 1973 Boston Marathon.  One of those I-Trained-All-Winter-In-The-Snow-Now-It’s-83-Degrees marathons.  BR was still learning and overcooked it early.  I didn’t outrun Jacqueline Hansen, who finished looking like a flower.  A winning water lily, sure, drenched through with several layers of sweat.  Green wreath on her head, just learning myself, I thought that must be one tough lady.

Don’t kid JQ about how I outran her at the ’76 Avenue of The Giants.  I was setting a personal record and she was right there in front of me.  Right there.  Was wondering how I could possibly beat her when she darted off into the redwoods with a look of – lady-like, of course – ‘Oh, shit!’

True story.  Women didn’t always run long and females never ran on the road.  Just the way it was.

Remember thinking, this must’ve been 1974, if I was female, I’d be the thirteenth (13th) fastest woman in the world.

Jacqueline Hansen changed the way it was.

“There had always been a voice inside me wondering,” she has said, “how far I could run without stopping.”

Not saying Jacqueline Hansen is Wonder Woman.  But no one has ever seen the two together in the same room.

Why did you start running?  Running marathons?

When I was in high school, I loved sports as much as I loved reading books.  But I was terrible at sports, at least all the traditional sports. But when a Physical Education teacher offered the opportunity to run track, I leaped at the chance and discovered I loved to run.  We were limited in competition to 440-yards.  But it instilled a love of running in me.  I graduated to the 800-meter (or 880 yards) and eventually the mile.  A chance encounter with another woman runner (Judy Graham) brought me into her track club under her coach, the famous Hungarian Olympian Laszlo Tabori, the third man in the world to break the 4-minute barrier in the mile. 

I was trained for the mile.  

But I also had a teammate named Cheryl Bridges.  I watched Cheryl run a marathon, setting a world record, and the first sub-2:50 for women.  I took that as inspiration and ran my first marathon the following year on the same course.  Boston was my second marathon and launched a career. 

I found my event.

Toughest opponent and why?

Christa Vahlensieck of West Germany.  She was always a formidable and yet friendly “rival” throughout my career.  We respected each other and we shared some historic milestones together.  She was a fierce competitor, and I’m not sure I ever won a head-to-head competition against her.  I did get to the first sub-2:40 marathon mark before Christa and I broke her world record.  Nonetheless, she eventually beat my mark, and I never did run faster.

Chantal Langlace of France, Christa and I shared marathon world records back and forth in the mid-1970s.  In 1974, when I PR’d at the first Women’s International Marathon in West Germany, I came in first American, but Christa was ahead of me. When I convinced the race committee of the historical Sao Silvestre New Year’s midnight run in Sao Paulo, Brazil, to host a women’s division for the first time in 1975, I helped build the women’s field by suggesting an invitation for Christa.  She came in first and I came in second. 

The “Hour Run” was a favorite race of mine; and once I had the best American mark for women, but Christa broke through the 10-mile barrier, so I ran the race again (back-to-back weekends) and broke 10-miles, too . . . . but hers was yards farther than mine.  When I dropped out of the New York City Marathon, wearing bib #2, because my foot had a stress fracture which broke through on the bridge approaching Central Park . . . to my surprise, Christa was right there with me, dropping out with her own foot injury (and wearing #1). 

Together, we sat at the finish line watching Grete winning her first-ever marathon while breaking Christa’s World Record.  I consoled her.

We were competitors, but first and foremost, we were friends who respected each other.
We certainly brought out the best in each other.

Biggest disappointment?

Dropping out of the NYC Marathon.  Why did I think running the 50-miler in the prior month was a good idea?  Why would I not think it would be a detriment to my training for the marathon?  Why did I think I was Wonder Woman? 

A wise observer once said that “much of your greatness is based on your stubbornness.”   😉  [That was me!  I said that. – JDW]

The day I asked Laszlo for permission to run my first marathon – yes, one had to have permission – he responded with, “You are the most stubborn runner I know. . . I think you’ll go far.”    

Personally, I prefer “determined.”  Determined.

It’s true although –when I want something bad enough, it’s worth pursuing and I don’t quit.  Normally.  So, I suppose I thought it was possible to run a 50-miler and a marathon in consecutive months.  I certainly trained towards those goals.  It was pretty disappointing for me personally to hit the wall at mile 35 in the fifty, and even though I gained eleven (11) world records en route, and was the first female finisher, I did not get the 50-Mile WR because of slowing . . . but I finished with determination.  

In hindsight, only now do I see that I did not allow enough recovery between the 50-Miler and NYC Marathon.  I gambled.  I lost.  I have said in my defense, if you’re going to chase records, you’ve got to be willing to push the limits a little bit.  I pushed the window.  NYC did not work out.

Most memorable run and why?

I would say that breaking 2:40 for a WR at the OTC Marathon in 1975 in Eugene was most memorable, for the obvious reasons but also because it was a rare “peak performance” with all the hallmarks from “sports psychology” before that was even a term.  The race was effortless and euphoric.  It was extremely evenly paced, at 6:02 per mile average, with the slowest at 6:08 and last 10K at 5:55 with negative splits.  It was at once a sense of no time passing, and yet a sense of being keenly aware of every mile mark, every water bottle taken, and every split time.

[Look at photos of that OTC race.  She is smiling – broadly – most of the last 10K. – JDW]

I honestly felt at crossing the finish line I could do it again on the spot. 

It was the most incredible feeling of a perfect performance I would ever experience. 

Favorite training tip?

Consistency is the only key to success.  Trust your training, trust that the long slow endurance workouts combined with the faster speed workout days will all come together on race day. And don’t underestimate the need for rest days.  It’s all a balancing act, be consistent and trust the training.

What would you do differently today?

In hindsight, I now know the importance of balancing, finding consistency in training, and taking the rest days as seriously as the workout days.  Perhaps I would add a dash of cross-training in the mix.

I have her book.  Just holding it in your hands will make you a better person.

Got to thinking about the book’s message.  The woman is a pioneer and a freedom fighter.

Asked her a softball question, certain to get an answer the world can likely use.

What would you tell a girl today if she was thinking about setting fifteen (15) world records as a runner?