Do You Remember This Race? (Rod Dixon)

Haven’t heard back from Rod. Don’t know if he remembers me. We met maybe three times, that I remember.

The Pittock Mansion soiree for the Cascade RunOff 15K, Portland, Oregon. We were eyeballing slender ladies in black pants and white blouses who walked about like nymphs with trays of canapes.

Diet Pepsi 10K Championships in Purchase, New York. I ran off with the race promoter but that’s another story.

Poolside at Disneyland at Anaheim, California. Remember coming up out of the water, face draining wet, and I hear, “Jack, how’s it going, mate?” I remember thinking Rod Dixon had a good memory.

I did hear back from a couple of his victims at this particular event, the 1981 Falcon Classic 15K.

From the January 1982 edition of Track & Field News.

Dixon Wins Last ARRA Race

Alhambra, California, December 12 – By almost any measure, the Falcon Classic 15K – the final event of ARRA’s 1981 schedule – was an outstanding event. The times were superb, the winner famous and the $5000 first-place prize more than adequate.

Randy Thomas set the early tempo on the three-loop, uncertified course, with Rod Dixon, Jon Sinclair, Herb Lindsay and Benji Durden locked together behind.

This trailing foursome had become the leading quartet by the five thousand meter mark (14:17) as Thomas dropped twenty yards in arrears. Sinclair surged on the course’s single uphill stretch, but the foursome was back together by 10K (28:47).

At seven miles, Durden did a quick inventory and tried to break away. No one dropped, but with the difference between first and fourth places worth $3500, Durden’s move seemed sensible.

Dixon then made a brief test move.

When it came time to go for the finish, Sinclair first, then Dixon. They traded places four times in the final six hundred meters before Dixon swept across in 43:14, two seconds ahead of Sinclair.

Herb Lindsay (43:23), Benji Durden (43:28) and Randy Thomas (44:34) trailed respectively.

Jon Sinclair.

Yup… I definitely remember doing the race.  My only strong recollection of it was being surprised at Benji’s presence so deep into it.  There was a lot of hard running, then that kick and I was frustrated I couldn’t out-kick Dixon.  

Benji and I have talked about that race a few times and it has always stood out to me how good Benji was at shorter distances.  That was not where he really showed his best, but it does show his range, which he’s not given credit for.

Benji Durden.

It took some time, but I found one of the few log files I have of my running and this covers that time frame. This was during my PO2 tank training days and I was very fit.

I was also very motivated. ARRA (Association of Road Racing Athletes) had begun and I was one of the professional runners who had pushed for this change in the sport. I wanted to race as well as I could to be one of the top money winners.

And I was the top money winner that first year from Cascade Runoff back to the next June.

I flew in on Tuesday to be sure I wasn’t jet-lagged. I ran in the Pasadena area not exerting myself and gradually getting more focused on the coming race.

I felt comfortable in the early stages even though I was running quite fast through 5K (my track PR was 14:10, so 14:17 was close). I was 11 seconds off my 10K PR set earlier that year at Peachtree, but it was still not feeling that hard.

When I went at 7 miles, I was hoping to shake things up since it seemed like we were just waiting for the final straight to kick, which didn’t favor me. Of course, that is how it ended up anyway.

Sinclair still thinks it was amazing that I was even with them with 5K to go since he felt I was just a marathoner with no real speed. Usually, I would train through non-marathons since the money was normally for showing up, not how you ran in shorter races back then. I would run as fast as I could with tired legs, but it wouldn’t be the same as tapering for a marathon.

Of course, there were some races where I would ease up more because of the prestige, but since my focus was on marathon training I wasn’t as effective as I might have been. The best money came from running fast in marathons where there was often under the table place dollars as well as appearance money. Also, running well in major marathons boosted your appearance money in other races.

Herb Lindsay.

I checked my running diary from the day. I was still hurting with lingering hamstring and foot injuries.

I ran with Gordon Minty and Dennis Caldwell the day before the race. We stayed at the Hilton Hotel.

I ran with the leaders but couldn’t go when the leaders pulled away midway through the second lap. I noted my third place finish…and noted, “but I couldn’t let Benji beat me in a 15K…” I got $2000, Benji got $1500.

I was road and training weary and took a break from running for the next week following the race, instead doing cross training on the bike and in the pool.