Being where I first ran sub-three and Ron Wayne put himself in the right place at the right time

Wednesday, May 15th. Flagstaff, Arizona. Last day of school! 163 lbs. My diary says I did eight miles at noon. “Extremely slowly. Felt kinda terrible. Too much study, not enough sleep.”

Thursday, May 16th. Phoenix, AZ. 0615. Ran 7 miles, took me 3 miles to warm-up. Yonkers, NY. 1900 hrs. Three “hot, hilly, humid” miles.

Friday, May 17. Danbury, CT. 1215. Very hot & humid. 8M 58:00. Heat really affected me. Yonkers. 1830. Three miles. easy-medium, hilly course.

And so it went until Monday, May 27th. Tenth Annual Greenwich 5-Mile race. Finished 71st of 384 starters in 29:24. “Excellent conditions for spectating. Satisfied with time but by no means overjoyed.”

The first couple of 5M PRs came at Greenwich, which measured 4.81 miles. The good news, I was over five minutes faster than a couple years before.

Then the big race.

“Sunday, June 2. 11 a.m. Upper 50s. Very humid. Drizzle. 1974 AAU Championship/Yonkers Marathon (Yonkers, NY). With some 350 starters, finished 91st in 2:59:25 (6:50.8 pace) a PR by some 5+ minutes. Though the weather was exceptionally good, the surface was abominable, with much mud & some very rocky sections. Also quite hilly. (Last 8 weeks total 528.85 or 66.1 miles per week.)“

My first sub-three marathon. On a tough course at that.

It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over by Ron Wayne

The first 4 marathons I raced were very high profile.  In 1972, my initial marathon was Boston (placed 30^th) followed by the Olympic Trials (placed 20^th).  In 1973, I again ran Boston (15^th Place) and the AAU Championship (7^th Place).  In general, I was under trained and quite simply, I didn’t have a clue on how to tackle a marathon.  

An example of my marathon innocence was that the month before my first marathon, I won the New England 30K Championship and the week before Boston, Jerry Nason of the Boston Herald wrote that my 30K time would put me with the leaders at Boston.  The Herald even picked me as the local favorite to win and I hadn’t even raced a marathon!  Armed with Jerry’s statement, I went out with the leaders for the first 8 miles and paid for it.  My last 6 miles were pure torture.   

In 1973, while a Graduate School at the University of Oregon, I began training with my Oregon Track Club Teammate, Russ Pate.  The experience I gained by racing the aforementioned 4 marathons, as well as the mileage build up with Russ, lead to a breakthrough in 1974 that included running 4 sub-2:20 marathons, a feat that no one else in the world had accomplished. 

My first marathon that year was Trails End, finishing 2^nd in 2:17.45.  Then came Boston where I finished 8th in 2:16.58, third American.  Next, was a victory at the AAU Championships at Yonkers, in 2:18.52.  This was the first marathon won in New York under 2:20 and 45 years later, is still the fastest time ever run at this race which is the second oldest marathon in the US.  Lastly, I placed second to 1974 Boston Marathon winner, Neil Cusack, at the Rice Festival Marathon in a time of 2:16.16 making me the 14th fastest US marathoner. Track and Field News ranked me third in the marathon for 1974.

One of those 1974 Marathons, Yonkers, had a controversial finish. Two days prior to the race, my former wife, Barbara, and I flew from Eugene to her parents house in Ridgewood, NJ.  On race day Barbara drove me to the event.  The course started with four half mile laps on the dirt horse race track, followed by four six-mile repeat loops away from and returning to the race track.  There was a light rain falling and the temperature was near 60.  A pack of runners, led by Carl Hatfield, that included John Vitale, Terry Ziegler, Justin Gubbins and me stayed together for about eight miles before John Vitale made his move. 

Just over half way, I broke from the remaining pack, but because the course had many hills and turns, I could not see Vitale.  At the start of the last six- mile loop Vitale had a 79-second lead on me.  With a little over a half mile to go, a car of race officials drove up next to me and screamed that Vitale was just up ahead.  About that time, I reached the top of a hill and for the first time since just after the eight-mile mark, I could see Vitale.  Up to that point, although I had a comfortable lead on the third place runner, I was running defensively to stay in second place.  But after seeing John, I had renewed energy and went after him. 

The lead was shrinking to the point where I thought maybe he had hit the wall and I had a chance to catch him.  Vitale entered the race track gate alongside a lapped runner and two directions were given by the official at the gate.  The lapped runner was told to do one lap on the race track before leaving to complete the six-mile loop and the other direction to John was to go straight to the finish line. 

Guess what direction John paid attention to?   Vitale still had a 25-yard lead on me with 100 yards to go.  I dug down for a final sprint and caught Vitale at the finish line.  My finish time was 2:18.52.8 and John’s was 2:18.53.0 .  After 26.2 miles, I had a two-tenths of a second victory over my collegiate rival.

A disappointed Vitale claimed, as he entered Yonkers Raceway, a race official told him to run a lap on the track meaning Vitale thought he had another half mile to go.  I don’t remember whether I read about the exact location of the finish line or whether it was explained to us at the start of the race, but I knew that once I entered Yonkers Raceway, I was to head straight to the finish line and not run another lap on the dirt track.

The lesson here is to know the course.  This was the third year in a row that John Vitale finished second in the US Marathon Championship.  Two years earlier, in Syracuse, John finished second to Ed Norris, my high school teammate.  Ed and I are the only two runners from the same high school to win the US Marathon Championship. 

As Yogi said, “It ain’t over til it’s over!

---

I watched the finish, saw the whole damn thing go down.

Because I was six (6) miles behind the race leaders.

I was getting lapped, so I was close enough to be completely amazed.

John Vitale was the closest thing to Amby Burfoot back in Connecticut when I started road racing and I felt his loss.

Rick “The Polish Rifle” Bayko finished 16th in 2:26:33. Here’s what he remembers.

It’s funny how one’s expectations can change.  In January and February of 1974 my mileage slipped and I felt lousy while running, having a hard time transitioning from college student to high school teacher and trying to adapt to a new routine.  I wondered if my best days as a competitor were behind me.  But in March I knuckled down and got back on track, twice a day, everyday, longer, harder.  By the Boston Marathon my expectations had changed back to breaking the 2:20 barrier.  Although coming up a bit short at 2:20:56, I’d run a PR by 2:36 and placed in the top twenty for a fourth straight year.  Life was good.

A couple of hard training weeks followed, but then I tired a bit and back off some, trying to time things right for the National Championship in Yonkers, NY on June 2nd.  On Saturday I drove to Yonkers with North Medford Club teammate Siggy Podlozny and we stayed in some fleabag motel, which was a step up from when we had slept in the car the night before the Caesar Rodney Half-Marathon in Wilmington, DL in 1967.  

The course didn’t please me, although I figured it would be good for the spectators.  Several laps of a horse racetrack and the local Yonkers neighborhoods, three, or maybe four, laps?  I don’t remember.  But I didn’t like lap courses.  Too easy to get an uncontrollable feeling of just stopping at the end of a lap if having a bad day.  Point to point were my favorite courses.  On the other hand, it was raining, which would keep it cool and comfortable.

Despite thinking of myself as one of the top guys, based on my good Boston, I just couldn’t seem to get up to what I felt was full speed.  I didn’t run badly, I just didn’t run well, at least not in my own mind.  My expectations had gotten ahead of my ability.  By the end I had worked up to 16th, cursing myself the whole way, and was disappointed in having run ‘only’ 2:26:33, over five minutes slower than Boston on what I felt was a relatively easy course.  Nothing at all like the monstrously hilly Yonkers I’d done in 1970 from the Chippewa Club. 

In the midst of my funk I learned that John Vitale had misjudged the finish line and was nipped at the tape by a second when Ron Wayne’s furious kick judged the finish line perfectly.  John seemed to get snake bit more than his fair share.  My own misery seemed a bit less by comparison.  Curious though, in that I was happy for Ron.  I was friendly with both guys and found myself sympathetic for one and glad for the other in the same situation. 

Siggy and I got in my Gremlin and drove back to Massachusetts.  And just to add icing to the disappointment cake I took several wrong turns on the complicated NY highways and took at least an hour longer to get home than it should have taken.

In October I went down to Crowley, Louisiana and placed 4th in the International Rice Festival Marathon in 2:23:14.  Boston winner Neil Cusack won, and Ron Wayne was 2nd, running his 4th or 5th sub-2:20 of the year, something no other American had ever done.  Two months later on an easy jog from home I tore my right Achilles tendon and started the long slide downhill that continues to this day.

1974 was my best running year, with the three marathons ending up as my first, third, and sixth fastest ever.  Looking back, that 2:26:33 doesn’t look bad at all. 

Too bad I didn’t appreciate it more back then.

Like Joni Mitchell told us, “You Don’t Know What You’ve Got Till It’s Gone.”

1974 Yonkers Marathon (38th Year) National AAU Championship

Name	Age	Club/ Residence	Time
1	Wayne, Ron	25	Oregon Track Club	2:18:52.8
2	Vitale, John	25	New Haven Track Club.	2:18:53
3	Zeigler, Terrance	24	Tulsa Running Club	2:19:26.6
4	Hatfield, Carl	27	W V Track Club	2:20:05
5	Gubbins, Justin	22	Millrose Athletic Association	2:20:26
6	Sudzina, Marty	22	Duquesne, PA	2:22:27
7	Allen, Bernard	27	Washington Sports Club	2:22:55
8	Hoag, Steve	27	Twin Cities Track Club	2:23:05
9	Mahurin, Jack	32	North Carolina Track Club	2:23:24
10	McAndrew, Art	30	Boston Athletic Association	2:24:05
11	Loeschhorn, John	30	West Valley T.C.	2:24:22
12	Strabel, Ed	29	North Carolina T.C.	2:24:52
13	Mueller, Ken	38	Boston A.A.	2:24:54
14	White, Max	23	Washington Sports Club	2:25:07
15	Morrison, Ray	27	Washington Sports Club	2:25:10
16	Bayko, Rick	27	New Medford Club	2:26:33
17	Bragg, Bill	25	New York A.C.	2:26:39
18	Fredericks, Larry	25	Maw York A.C.	2:27:47
19	Hereford, Eddie	27	North Carolina T.C.	2:28:24
20	Hoffman, Paul	22	North Texas State	2:28:40
21	Robinson, Bruce	24	Washington Sports Club	2:29:07
22	Sander, Dr. Norbert	31	Millrose A.A.	2:29:30
23	Stewart, Philip	23	Washington Sports Club	2:30:07
24	Fletcher, Dale	23	West Point	2:30:37
25	McDonald, Kevin	24	North Jersey Striders	2:33:14
26	Baxter, Michael	30	Boston A.A.	2:33:49
27	Rivas, Ernie	23	East Coast A.C.	2:34:09
28	Adams, Marshall	30	North Carolina T.C.	2:34:40
29	Bostick, Pat	40	Millrose A.C.	2:34:42
30	Tuers, Edward	18	Central Jersey T.C.	2:35:22
31	Handelman, Frank	29	Central Park T.C.	2:35:55
32	Brennan, Jack	25	Central Park T.C.	2:35:55
33	Gordon, Bill	39	St. Anthony’s B.C.	2:36:24
34	McElroy, Doug	24	North Carolina T.C.	2:36:38
35	Garlepp, John	35	Millrose A.A.	2:36:50
36	Piliero, Paul (Y.T.)	21	University of Rhode Island	2:36:57
37	Harrell, Haywood	27	North Carolina T.C.	2:37:00
38	Kennedy, James	19	John Hopkins	2:37:10
39	Kraszeski, E. Kevin	23	North Medford C.	2:37:36
40	Bellor, Ken	22	Unattached	2:39:46
41	Gray, Robert Paul	26	North Medford C.	2:40:22
42	Duval, David	26	North Medford C.	2:40:36
43	Fortier, Chet	41	North Medford C.	2:41:24
44	Perry, Charles Dean	24	Bethel Bannanas	2:41:35
45	Konig, Michael	28	Central Park T.	2:42:28
46	Hempton, Robert F.	28	Delaware Sports Club	2:42:41
47	Tetzlaff, John	21	John Hopkins University	2:43:35
48	Hudson, David	23	Shore A.C.	2:43:44
49	Buhl, Al	25	Central Jersey T.C.	2:43:54
50	Burns, Joe	45	East Coast C.	2:44:51
51	Comanor, Cliff	24	Millrose A.A.	2:45:04
52	Brill, Peter A.	27	Shore A.C.	2:45:44
53	Johnson, Bruce	19	St. Anthony’s B.C.	2:46:51
54	Marshall, Nick	26	Harrisburg A.A.	2:46:57
55	Becker, Richard	29	East Coast A.C.	2:47:18
56	Baker, Wayne	38	Unattached	2:47:45
57	Citarella, Sal	32	Hagerstown R.F.F. Club	2:47:50
58	McDonagh, Jim	50	Millrose A.A (B)	2:48:07
59	Grotsky, Steve	32	Millrose A.A. (B)	2:48:16
60	Streeter, Stephen M.	20	Hartford Track Club	2:48:42
61	Jerome, Edwin	31	Washington Sports Club	2:48:52
62	Neubaur, James	20	Iona College	2:49:16
63	Patterson, James	33	Unattached – N.Y.	2:49:17
64	Sinatra, Jr. Frank	24	Yonkers – Unattached	2:49:18
65	Basis, Howard	35	Brooklyn – Unattached	2:49:32
66	Weygandt, Neil	28	Pennsylvania A.C.	2:49:35
67	Dixon, Don	46	Hastings, N.Y. – Unattached	2:50:06
68	Heit, Phil	30	East Coast A.C.	2:50:08
69	Corbitt, Ted	53	N.Y. Pioneer Club	2:50:53
70	Friedman, Norman	29	St. Anthony’s B.C.	2:51:05
71	Spadaro, Francis	24	Yorktown – Unattached	2:51:50
72	Martin, Clarence	18	Leagures T.C.	2:52:19
73	Deasey, William	26	Pennsylvania A.C.	2:52:22
74	Donnelly, Fred	35	Larchmont – Unattached	2:52:46
75	O’Loughlin, William	21	Rutgers A.A.	2:53:48
76	Stern, Hal	28	St. Anthony’s B.C.	2:53:54
77	Berard, Joe	44	Shore A.C.	2:53:55
78	Duggan, Dr. William	32	McBurney YMCA	2:54:00
79	Giuntini, Roland	23	Indiana University	2:54:40
80	Ott, William	20	Essex City College	2:55:00
81	Lockyer, C. Allan	23	Southern State College	2:55:05
82	Riefberg, Paul	24	Long Island A.C.	2:55:10
83	Howes, John P.	43	McBurney YMCA	2:55:11
84	McMahon, Richard P.	31	Yonkers – Unattached	2:55:30
85	Jackson, Frank	20	Massena, NY – Unattached	2:56:01
86	Boring, George	38	Shore A.C.	2:56:11
87	Diamantini, Augusto	2:56:37
88	Cohen, Mitchell, H.	16	Verona, NJ – Unattached	2:57:45
89	Greenblatt, Mark	26	Brooklyn – Unattached	2:58:39
90	Brekeller, Martin	37	East Meadow, NY – Unattached	2:59:15
91	Welch, John E.	27	SISU Striders	2:59:25
92	Berkowitz, Harry	33	Pennsylvania A.C.	2:59:28
93	Hack, John J.	32	Tyrone Pannell T.C.	2:59:39
94	Kuscsik, Nina	34	Suffolk A.C.	3:00:01.6
95	Safier, Randall Mark	18	John Hopkins University	3:01:10
96	Warfield, Donald	22	Fairfield City Striders	3:01:15
97	Erich, Guenther K.	41	S.C. Schwaben	3:01:36
98	Duncan, Walter A.	32	SISU Striders	3:02:18
99	Urie, Bob	45	Central Park T.C.	3:02:22
100	Kmiec, Ronald	32	North Medford Club	3:05:12

Yonkers was the real deal back in the day.

Here’s a 1977 pre-race story as times changed.

The sport, too.

Marathon Runners Head for Yonkers

By DAVID L. SHIREY MAY 15, 1977

MARATHON fever is running very high for next Sunday’s Yonkers Marathon. Although not quite so exalted as the Boston Marathon, run a month ago, the Yonkers race is one of the most renowned marathons in the country and the second oldest, next to Boston’s. Marking its 41st birthday this year, the 26‐mile, 385‐yard race will attract marathoners from all over the country.

“Any runner, whether he’s a marathoner or not, has heard of the Yonkers race,” said Joe Kleinerman, coordinator for the race and an official of the New York Association of the Roadrunners Club.

“It’s a race with class, pizzazz and color, lots of history and memories, one of the most scenic runs anywhere and one of the toughest courses. People talk about Heartbreak Hill in Boston. Hell, Boston is a series of knolls compared with the steep hills we have in Westchester. Any marathoner worth his speed and endurance wants to try Yonkers at one time or another. He hasn’t really proved himself as a marathoner until he has.”

If Boston is known for its Heartbreak Hill, the famed New York City marathon for its 59th Street Bridge and the Jersey Marathon for its freezing temperatures and snow, Yonkers has a reputation for its exhaustingly tough and numerous hills. Boston runners have to negotiate six miles of hills at the end of the race, but Yonkers marathoners are pitted against eight miles of hills at the end of the race, the period of the competition that weeds out the weekend runners and provides an arena for the stars.

Other difficulties Yonkers racers have to face that the Boston runners generally do not are the sometimes torrential rains, hotter temperatures and the sobering humidity. Bodies are more easily tired and dehydrated in Yonkers and minds are scrambled and frayed more readily. Within the last 15 years temperatures have frequently hit the 90’s and the humidity has been as high.

But if marathoners have their spirits dampened by the weather and their legs enfeebled by the relentless hills, they have compensations that might help soothe and pacify.

The main reward is that they have run in the Yonkers Marathon and finished, feat of which any marathoner can be proud. Another is the landscape surrounding the course, one of the most beautiful in the country.

“It is delightfully picturesque,” said Mr. Kleinerman, “from beginning to end. A runner who thinks about the beauty of the trees, the sky and the water might be able to keep his mind off his fatigue, at least for a while, and be able to finish the race.”

The course starts and finishes at Lake Avenue in Yonkers but what is in between focuses on a run winding up to Tarrytown during which the marathoners will run through many small towns in Westchester County. The runners turn at Tarrytown and head for the last part of the course, the roughest and toughest, heading down Broadway from the Tappan Zee Bridge to Yonkers while passing by the Hudson Palisades.

“The race is a competition celebrating Westchester County,” said Deryl Thornton, a marathon coordinator and an official of the Yonkers Y.M.C.A. “The race is run through a large part of the county, the runners pay homage to the communities through their participation and the communities turn out in large numbers to pay homage to the runners.”

Yonkers is characterized by racing stars as a “pack race.” They mean that the best runners in the country are pitted against the course, as well as runners who simply like to run long distances and run marathons in competition with themselves and for other reasons.

Weather permitting, some good times by top runners will undoubtedly be chalked up this year. The best time recorded at the race was in 1974. 2:18:52.8 —by Ron Wayne of the University of Oregon, who came in a mere two-tenths of a second ahead of John Vitale of the New Haven Track Club. One of the consistent winners at Yonkers was J.J. Kelly, who won the race seven years in row, from 1956 through 1963, turning in his best time at 2:20:13 in 1960.

The race, which will be sponsored by the Yonkers Jaycees and the New York Association of Roadrunners Club, offers prizes to all runners, fast and slow. “We want all kinds of qualified runners,” said Fred Lebow, the president of the Roadrunners Club and director of the New York City marathon. “It’s a democratic race, designed to bring out a cross‐section of marathoners—men, women, singles, husbands, wives, children, you name it.”

The winner will be given the Yonkers Marathon Trophy as well as other awards and there will be a Jaycees Award to the first Yonkers resident who places. American Athletic Union championship medals will be given to the first six finishers and trophies will be handed to the first three women to finish. There will also be awards to finishers in each age division. T‐shirts as well as certificates with recorded times will be given to all finishers.

In fact, as Mr. Lebow says, the race has become more democratic as more women and older and younger people are participating in it. The oldest individual entered in the race now is 69 years old and the youngest is 14. Only a few years ago women began to enter and this year as many as 40 or 50 are expected in a field of more than 400.

All pre‐entries for the race must have been received by the Yonkers Jaycees as of yesterday, but post‐entries are open until 10:45 the day of the race at a cost of $5. All runners must be registered with the A.A.U. and all individuals under 18 must have parental consent to participate in the race. Accommodations for dressing at the marathon will be provided in Gorton High School, at the corner of Park Avenue and Convent Avenue.

The race this year will be tinged with nostalgic edge. It will return to the old course, which has not been used since 1972 when the marathon was moved to the Yonkers Raceway, a grueling track noted for its monotony caused by a fourtime repetition of the same loop. Since the Yonkers marathon was started in 1936, the race has usually been contested on the course that will be used this year.

“On May 22, many of the old‐timers – both people living in Westchester and runners who had run over the old course —will turn back the clock,” said 65‐year-old Mr. Kleinerman, who has been running for 50 years and has run at least 15 marathons, including the Yonkers several times. “A lot of the old‐timers will be showing their stuff against the newcomers. If I were a newcomer, wouldn’t take those senior‐citizen runners for granted. They still have a lot of speed, stamina, and, yes, old‐time guts and endurance.”

---

https://www.runnersworld.com/races-places/a20836504/can-the-yonkers-marathon-survive/