Honolulu, December 13. Track & Field News, January 1982.
Anderson Hot In Honolulu
At a seminar Friday afternoon, Jon Anderson spoke in support of professional road racing. At the 9th Annual Honolulu Marathon Sunday morning, Anderson let his feet do the talking, winning the event in 2:16:53, second-fastest time ever on the course.
Because of what one news service reported as “ideal weather – blue skies with temperatures in the high 70s and low 80s,” Anderson began the race cautiously.
“The way to approach a marathon in a climate like this,” said one of the sport’s more cerebral athletes, “is to take it easy at the start.” No great insight there, but just try keeping your head when people all about aren’t keeping theirs.
Anderson let Kjell-Erik Stahl force the early pace before taking over at 14M. His greatest challenge came when Duncan Macdonald moved close at 20M, but the sub-4:00 miler couldn’t get close enough and Anderson had a win by forty seconds.
Jon: It was 2:16:53 … don’t recall that it was the second fastest, but I guess it was at the time. I remember the out and back course a bit … start and finish were in different places, with the finish in Kapiolani Park. Did we start at 6am because of the heat? I think so … or at least by 7.
Stahl was a tough runner … he took off early, and it seemed almost certain that a Swede would wilt in the heat. There’s a loop out past Diamond Head, it’s not quite out and back, I guess. I don’t recall running with Duncan and I think I moved away from a pack (he was likely in it) to chase after Stahl after going over Diamond Head, but before the loop.
I have this picture in my aging brain of a silhouette-like form of Stahl ahead of me as the sun rose. Maybe that’s not how it was, but it’s a nice memory … or mental myth! I ran quite a lot of the race alone. Just hit the right day and felt good.
Did you go to Maui with Hollister?
Yes, we went to Maui at least twice. Those were the silly days when Nike’s revenues were exploding and they spent money like crazy. My now-ex and I were essentially given carte blanche both in Honolulu and at the resort on Maui.
The professional running subject … ARRA days and we were the rebellious bunch. If Shorter hadn’t been in the $-clutches of the AAU’s crooked head Ollan Cassell and if he had joined the rebels, we would have moved the sport much more quickly to open professionalism.
Ahh, nostalgia … fun to look back sometimes, but “yesterday’s gone … yesterday’s gone.”
Patti Catalano proved she owns the women’s crown by winning her fourth straight here, lowering her course record to 2:33:35. “I just wish it had been more competitive,” she said of her third sub-2:35 of the year.
What does Mrs. Dillon remember about this weekend in paradise?
Patti: I have mixed memories. All good somehow. Broke my tail bone bodyboarding at Sandy Beach . Had a huge rat at the house where I was staying. I mean, not quite the size of a small dog, but a huge rat.
Before the race a prominent marathon race director said to me in public, out loud, that I would never run fast again without Joe, my then-husband and coach.
Meanwhile, we were having a disagreement with Nike about the type of effort I should put in. I wanted a PR. All said to save it for a BIG RACE. Every race is a big race. I never ran other than my best effort.
I was so distraught that I solved it the Patti way. Basically trained through. Ran several two-hour runs, including two days before the race.
Each run during the time I was there before the marathon was a gathering. I was gathering, People would call it confidence. Whatever.
I did the best I could do.
My only regret, disappointment, I didn’t catch Kenny Moore. He finished right ahead of me, having ” dumped” me at five miles. He was totally shocked with that ‘wow, you were still right there’ look on his face. That’s embedded into my memory .
I knew I was going to run the best I could do, like all of my races. As I approached them as life and death.
Jack, to me marathoning is life. Ups and downs, and it’s the inbetweens where stuff happens.
I’m positive you know – life is in the details.
Which she remembers.
While I don’t – at all – remember being there.
