Found just the one sheet of paper, pages five and six of a 1973 issue of New England Runner’s Magazine. Still read it. Perhaps the second best running magazine ever. Among the longest surviving. Good rag.
Guessing June 1973. I was just gonna borrow an interview with the race’s winner Jon Anderson and start with that.
So, instead of watching Chip, Joanna and Shiplap have yet another three-way, I transcribed the whole damn piece.
Thought. I’ll send it to Jon and see if he has anything to add.
Well, hell.
Jon Anderson’s Recollections
Jon Anderson’s recollections of his Boston Marathon victory, April 16, 1973. Written in July 2020.
Preface
The lead-up to the win in Boston covered about a year and a half of build-up, first to the Olympic Trials and Olympics and then to Boston. I believe in the long haul in training; that is, what you do in the many months prior to a big race is important to your result in that big race.
I started running in the spring of 1966 to get in shape for a ski season. At sixteen, I ran an all-comers meet joggers’ mile that summer in around 5:10-15. This was in July sometime, with about three month of running three miles almost every day. I turned out for cross-country the fall of my senior year and was the top runner on a not-very-good team in my second race. Then, I ran track that spring, shortly moving to the two-mile quickly. I knew from my prior attempts in other sports I was not very quick or fast. And, somewhere during this time and once I realized I was going to pursue running after high school, I think I had the notion that someday I would run the Boston Marathon.
I graduated from Cornell in June 1971 after a successful college career. I placed third in the 1970 NCAA 6 mile, after a strong cross country season the prior fall. Unfortunately, I was injured near the beginning of my senior outdoor track season. But I had my sights set on national-class running after college.
After graduation, I headed to the San Francisco Bay area to find a job in a hospital in order to meet my two-year obligation as a conscientious objector. I ended up living on the Peninsula from the fall of 1971 to the fall of 1973. I lived in the San Mateo/Burlingame area. There were plenty of runners in the area. Jack Leydig was the head of the West Valley Track Club and provided contact with many of them: Tom Laris, Jim Dare, Don Kardong, Duncan Macdonald, Greg Brock, Bill Clark, Peter Duffy, Alvaro Mejia, Domingo Tibaduiza, among others.
My workdays consisted of waking up at about 05:30, running five miles to work, working, jogging about a mile home, napping, working out, eating dinner, then going to sleep. Weekends I enjoyed driving to other places to run: Golden Gate Park, Stanford and Woodside, Tiburon were some of my favorites. This schedule toughened me. I competed in some cross country and road races, running my first marathon in December in Petaluma and winning in 2:23:44, then a fast ten-miler in February.
It was an Olympic year (1972) and I had qualified for the marathon trials. I don’t recall what the standard was for the 10K, but I think I qualified for that race in the spring. I recall running pretty well at a race in Santa Barbara. My employer, Peninsula Hospital in San Mateo – and the draft board – allowed me to take leave (I think in May sometime) to get ready for the trials. I moved home to Eugene and focused on training.
I ran in the AAU National Championships in Seattle a couple of weeks prior to the Trials in Eugene. They were held separately back then. I ran 8th, but the sixth American in a fast race. My 28:35 gave me a qualifying time for the Olympics; something that was needed if a country was sending three in each event.
I made the team! A different story, as I am trying to write about the long path that led up to Boston. I got the okay to train, and not return to the job in the Bay Area. Plus, I got ‘credit’ on my two years of service for the time I was on the team. So, the Trials ended in mid-July, and I focused on the 10K. Trained in Eugene, then travelled to Maine where the team assembled and trained for a couple of weeks, then to Oslo for more training and some pre-Olympic competition. The Olympics in Munich were in early September, so from May through most of September, I was just a runner focused on training, etc. Spending time around some more experienced runners was a big help. I recall seeing Kenny Moore do a 30-mile run in Oslo in his preparation for the Munich marathon. He twice did a 15-mile out-and-back run to cover the distance. I was impressed.
From Six Months Out
I ran my second marathon in the early day OTC (Oregon Track Club) marathon upon return to Eugene on October 1. Steve Savage and I ran it as a workout of sorts, tying in 2:25:11. The course was on the bike paths along the river. We were fit! Then back to the Bay Area to live the routine I described above. Continued training and racing. I ran four races the remainder of the year. Perhaps noteworthy was a 20-mile road race in Sacramento in 1:43:00, running most of it by myself.
Sometime along the way in 1972 I reunited with an old girlfriend. She was a nurse and got a job at the Stanford Med School. In short order, we were engaged and ended up getting married on March 10 1973, in Oregon. I ended up moving to the Stanford area after the marriage. (We divorced after 10 years.)
From the fall of 1972 until Boston, as I wrote above, it was back to the same routine in the SF area.
The two-plus months of training prior to the Boston race are interesting to me to this day. Weekly mileage ranged from 57-131 with the 131 the second biggest week of my career. I ran the San Blas Marathon in Cuomo, Puerto Rico, on February 4, finishing behind Victor Mora, a Finn (Kantonen), Tom Fleming, two Africans (Juma and Bileta). I finished 6th over 21.7 km in 1:07:26. Ahead of Lasse Viren! The Finns were in warm weather training in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in South America at altitude somewhere, I think.
I ran the West Valley Track Club marathon as a workout just a week later on February 11, the day after competing in the Oakland Indoor on one of the old 11-lap per mile tracks; sixth in a 3000m in 8:21.5. The WVTC course was a five-lap course in San Mateo. I started with Duncan Macdonald, Jim Dare, and Francie Larrieu and ran with all or some of them for 10-15 miles, then picked up the pace and ran by myself the last 10+ miles or so. I finished third in 2:23:57. I was fit! The last ten miles were likely at 5:15 pace and less, given how slowly we started out in the first two laps.
I didn’t run any races between the ‘test run’ in the WVTC Marathon and Boston. The week of low mileage (57 miles) was due to the marriage. Long runs in the two months prior were key: February 18 – 2 hours 30 minutes-22 miles; February 25 – 3hr-28 miles; March 4- 2hrs 6 mins-20 miles; March 25 -3hr 18 min – 30 miles; April 1- 2 hrs 4 mins 20 miles; April 8 – 2 hr 17 min – 20 miles.
On that last slower run, my diary has the comment “Tired, ran easy.” In the two weeks in Oregon for the marriage and downhill skiing at Mt. Bachelor, I missed three days with the mileage for the two weeks at 98 and 57.
I do recall when the call to my father was in a moment of doubt and struggle. It was sometime in the month between my marriage and the marathon.
I traveled to Boston on the ‘redeye’ Friday night prior to the Monday race. I didn’t draw any attention, despite being on the Olympic team little more than 6 months prior. I guess it was because my marathon resume was not impressive (a PR of 2:23:44). My father put me up at the Copley Plaza. I knew Boston a bit since my brother went to MIT and I went to visit him from Cornell a few times in the two years we ‘crossed paths’ during college. It was fairly easy for me to get from the airport to the hotel by the subway and then get around Boston after my jogs.
Only thing I recall I did other than jog the two days prior to the race was go out to Boston College. There was a track meet there Saturday and the weather was pretty good, though I don’t think as warm as it got on race day. I found Bill McCurdy and some of his athletes in the stands and chatted with them. McCurdy was the longtime coach at Harvard. As I was just a couple of years out of college, I was acquainted with some of the Harvard athletes and we sat in the stands chatting. I think the BC track at the time was an afterthought in a football stadium and was longer than 440 yards (the measurement of the day) and kind of square.
I did not go over the marathon course and only knew about it from reading, media coverage, etc. Turned out that may have been to my benefit.
I have forgotten how they handled registration for the race. Likely it was at the Prudential Center, where the finish line was back then. So, I picked up my number and bus ticket in the day or two prior.
Race Day
I woke up on race day and got myself to the buses that took the masses out to Hopkinton. I bumped into a runner from the SF area (Peter Stein) and I think we rode in the same bus together. Peter was an enthusiast, not really a top competitor but a nice and enthusiastic guy.
The race started at noon back then. I think the buses dropped us off at a school close to the starting line. Somehow, I joined up with Jeff Galloway. Given the very warm temperatures, he took me to an apartment to relax. I think it may have been Amby Burfoot’s place (with a roommate or two?). Amby and Jeff knew each other from their days at Wesleyan. My recollection is there were 10 or 12 of us in a room with little if any furniture. We sat around the room, with the wall as a seat back. I think most of the other runners were living locally. Looking at the results, I suspect Ric Bayko, Tom Derderian, John Vitale, Max White, and maybe even Bill Rodgers, were among the group, but I am only guessing on this.
I did receive a low number (28), which was a bit of an assist to get to the front of the 1,500 or so runners. But again, Jeff provided guidance; he had run at Boston in 1972.
My goal: be the first American. I knew who was entered and the foreign contingent had pretty good credentials. Lutz Phillip, a German, drew the most attention as I think he had the fastest PR. Two or three Finns, a Brit, Bob Moore from Canada, a Swede. The American entries were good, but I felt I could run with them: Tom Fleming, Galloway, John Vitale, Ron Daws, Steve Hoag, Ron Wayne, Jack Fultz, Russ Pate, among them.
I started with Galloway, knowing he’d run the race before and had great pacing sense. Lutz Phillip took off almost immediately, I think. Fortunately, with Jeff’s help, I took it easy with him down the hills in that first ten miles.
Frankly, I don’t recall much of the race until I passed Olavi Suomalainen, the defending champion. He and I had met in Puerto Rico at the San Blas Half Marathon in February. We even took a run the day after the race, along with Tom Fleming and Jeff Galloway.
I passed Olavi very close to the 20-mile mark, which is near the top of Heartbreak Hill. By the way, I was ‘on’ that day and found Heartbreak Hill fairly easy to get over.
When I took the lead, I felt a swell of emotion. But I quickly refocused on finishing the last five or six miles. Now, the press truck was in front of me and some of the reporters on the truck let me know how things looked. All the reports were good. From there on, I ran as hard as I could. The downhill into the city is tough on one’s thighs – they screamed at me! But the motivation was great, for sure.
As I mentioned above, the race started at noon back then and Patriot’s Day is also a day the Red Sox hold a game at Fenway. After the race, I was told, and I think it was reported, the game had just ended. The result was the streets were packed from the Fenway Park area to the finish line.
I remember the last bit of the race, from the underpass, I think on Commonwealth Ave, then the turn onto Hereford and short run on that street before making the left turn onto Boylston St. I believe the run on Boylston is slightly downhill. As I ran toward the finish, I spotted a wall of photographers right behind the finish line (I think they had set up small bleachers). Once I crossed it, I realized I could get overwhelmed by a bunch of reporters, so I turned around and ran back up Boylston to celebrate in front of the large crowd. There are several pictures of me doing this. I remember seeing Tom come down Boylston to take second.
“Fleet of Foot – Strong in Body – Sound in Mind.”
Jock Semple found me and we had the ceremony with the trophy, wreath, and medal. I don’t remember much about that, though I think the mayor was not available so the awards were presented to me by some other local politician. The trophy I received is large with the inscription “Fleet of Foot – Strong in Body – Sound in Mind. Congratulations to the Winner of the 1973 B.A.A. Marathon, Massachusetts Podiatry Society.”
Jock Semple led me into the Prudential. I think that’s when we passed a fountain and I jumped in to cool off. This was the ‘beef stew’ era after the marathon days and somewhere I got a bowl of stew to nibble on. He led me to a press room. I sat on a platform and a bunch of reporters fired questions at me. I have a recollection of them all of a sudden leaving at once.
After that, I asked Jock for a phone so I could call my wife (of just over a month). He got me to a phone, and when I was about to dial, he looked at me and said “Jon, collect?” (Will recent generations know what a collect call is about? I doubt it.) This is not meant to be a criticism of Jock Semple. He kept the Boston Marathon and the BAA operating on a shoestring budget for years and was known as a frugal Scot.
I failed to reach my wife, tried my mother and got her. I later heard that my father, the mayor of Eugene, was in a meeting when someone told him. Somehow, I must have connected with my wife and father later.
I don’t know if they still make the award, but back then there was a three-man team competition scored like a cross country race. The Oregon Track Club won with 36 points; Ron Wayne was 15th and Russ Pate was 20th. Both teammates were originally from the East Coast, but were living in Eugene at the time.
Not sure of much after all the hoopla until partying with the Finns at the Lenox Hotel. I don’t remember where I had dinner; it could have been at the Lenox. Fleming and I hooked up somehow and had a good time with Suomalainen and some Finns from the local Finnish community at the Lenox. In some photos of me crossing the finish line, one will see an extra ‘N’ hand painted in the “FINISH”. Someone in that crowd at the Lenox was likely responsible.
I don’t remember when my flight was the next day but it wasn’t early. I woke up and walked alone with luggage and the big trophy to the subway stop near the Copley Plaza. My first experience of running a hard, hilly marathon and walking down steps the day after. It was painful, but I made it down to the subway and then to the airport. Given that I had to take the trophy through the airport and then onto the plane, I got plenty of “congratulations” etc.
It’s curious to me some notion cropped up in a few articles over the years that Tom Fleming was quickly gaining on me at the end of the race. Admittedly, my ego surfaces in the following: There are various times listed in the many reports, etc., for Tom in second place: 2:17:03 (precisely a minute behind me!?), 2:17:43, and 2:17:46. In the Boston Globe’s Sports page of Tuesday after the race, Jerry Nason reported “He won decisively … by 1:43, or about a quarter of a mile …” and “Fleming … finish(ed) strong (2:17:46) …” Yet, in the same section in the back pages there is a results list that has Tom’s time as 2:17:03. The BAA web site (and many others) lists Tom’s time as 2:17:03, likely pulled from the Globe’s results list. The correct time for him is the 2:17:43.
I doubt he was gaining on me. I passed him somewhere between Wellesley (13.75 miles) and Lake St. (21.6). I took the lead from Suomalainen near the crest of Heartbreak Hill, and my second half of the race was notably faster than my first half (the first half reported by Nason at 1:08:46, putting my second half at 1:07:17). Now I’ll put my ego back in check.
Nason also noted in his lead article that the weather “would have been an inferno had not their backs been kissed by a persistent s’west breeze …”. Of course, that breeze at our backs was not an aid, as a breeze in our faces (not a strong wind) would have had a cooling effect and the breeze at our backs had little or no such effect. Frankly, I don’t recall any breeze.
Back to the SF area and work, I was welcomed by many at work and in the SF Bay Area running crowd. Did some TV spots, etc.
So, those are my recollections at age 70! I was fortunate to live a dream I had shortly after I got into distance running.
The women’s winner, Jacqueline Hansen, finished about thirty seconds or so per mile faster than me. Forty-seven years later, I’m surprised it was that close. We both got faster. Years later, I eventually closed to only to, well, the same thirty seconds per mile.
Give me a break, she set world records. Her 3:06:05 Boston time was a course record, lopping a four-plus minute chunk off Nina Kuscik’s 3:10:26, set the first year the ladies were official.
Jackie has been telling tales of Patriots’ Day, April 16, 1973, since early in the afternoon of April 16, 1973. I challenged her to come up with something new. And not the heat, not the hills. Everybody’s heard about the heat and the hills.
What heat? What hills?
OK, so things just settled down from the workday (at home but still busy) and I can give this matter some thought.
I know I was being flip about heat and hills, but really, I was/am used to running both. Granted, it was only my second road race, but I ran a lot of cross country and unlike the east coast or abroad, our cross country courses are always hilly and hot in California.
Heartbreak hill is no worse than San Vicente Blvd. – – most popular route for runners in Santa Monica, where all my long runs took place.I really wanted to come up with a new angle for you because I have told the wool socks and terrycloth shorts story ad nauseum. As well, the story about not drinking in the race was also true, but told often. What did I know about running roads or running long?
I don’t recall ever being in distress during the race, but happily tossed those wool socks and soaked my feet in a fountain at the finish line. Pretty sure Jon did, too.
I remember my teammate Patrick Miller drove me to Yale (where he attended) and had a little celebration party before I flew home. The trophy and laurel wreath adorned the coffee table and we stared at it. Someone said wow, there are only two of those in the world today…. I am not sure it had sunk in for me yet. Not for a while.
A couple years later, I was at Tom Fleming’s house and was in awe at his trophy case….including more Boston trophies than I’d ever seen. As I exclaimed, he replied, yeah, but you have the only one I want.
You asked about Jock Semple.
It was my aforementioned friend Patrick’s idea to go to Boston. After I won the Western Hemisphere Marathon on my first try, Pat said you know Boston just opened a women’s division this year, you should go next year. He attended Yale and frequently ran Boston.
So, by this time, Jock was on board completely. However, Will Cloney required a letter from my doctor. Really.
Two things were different for women, but it was not uncommon in any race (Western Hemisphere Marathon did the same). One, women needed medical clearance. Second, the best medals went to the top ten overall (combined men and women).
Sidebar story. The medals thing went on for years. When I won WHM in World Record time the next year, my husband Tom Sturak shamed them into giving me one of those medals…..which they even engraved and I still have it. Somewhere. Looks the size of an Olympic medal!
The BAA took a lot longer than I thought it would when I asked. I figured there were five women’s winners like me who did not have the medal. It’s unique, gold plated, unicorn traditional logo, with a diamond chip in his eye. Top ten only. I figure it’s as rare as an Olympic medal, both marathons being the longest-held races in the world (over 100 years).Well, I finally was awarded one with the other women at the 100th Boston in a special ceremony.
Are you sorry you asked?! I also have a vague memory of seeing Charlotte Lettis at various places on the course, cheering me on.
A couple years later, we met at the NYC Mini-Marathon. I remembered her. Although we both had one of our best ever races, she beat me soundly….and I told that story this week, to which Tom Derderian said Fred Lebow stated that race changed women’s running (as the press covered a competitive race, an actual athletic event, sports, instead of a novelty).
But I digress. My point? Boston launched a career for me.
Boston might very well be a more valuable medal than an Olympic medal.
Cool. Found – faded and crinkly, just like me – three pages of the Boston Globe.
My name is on the same list as the best runners.
Ron Wayne
I remember very little about the race. It was the third marathon of my life (’72 Boston was first marathon and Eugene Olympic Trials, second Marathon) and I still had no idea about race strategy and pace. I was greatly under trained for my first two marathons (lack of high mileage and 20-25 mile runs), but for ’73 Boston, my mileage was creeping up to twenty miles a day that included a twenty-mile run on Sunday.
I ran the first third (guessing?) of the course (maybe more) with my training partner and Oregon Track Club teammate Russ Pate. With Jon Anderson winning and Russ placing 20th, we won the team prize.
“GO MIKE!” In the 1973 Boston Marathon, wearing my very technical shorts with Nike iron-on letters, many dozens of people misread Nike for Mike and yelled words of encouragement for “Mike” to do well in the race. It was kind of amusing, but then again, who in 1973 knew what Nike was?
My finish time was a PR, beating my inaugural marathon by about 37 seconds. For about three days after the race, because of sore quads, I had to walk backwards down the stairs (caused by all of the downhill running on the course).
Jack Fultz (23rd in 2:30:55)
Oh, my, ’73. I’d just gotten out of the Coast Guard – after nearly four years (I had some saved up leave time I took also. So my final month leading up to Boston may have had more than a few late nights, a few too many brews (and whatever)…etc. The year before I was in Tunisia for the CISM – world military XC meet in Feb/March and really hadn’t focused my attention on preparing for Boston – and my race showed that. ’73 wasn’t as bad as ’76 but far from very good – and I’d forgotten it was that hot, so I’ll use that as an excuse:-)
Anyway, other than those vague recollections, I don’t remember a lot.
Though once I recovered from that ’73 race, it was off to the “races”, as I was starting at Georgetown in the fall. Training with Joe Lucas (NCAA Steeple champ and record setter at 8:30), I got to work on lengthening my stride just so I could keep up with him. Took a while but it worked.
It was more the three years of quality training I did at Georgetown – combined with my predilection to run higher mileage – that set me up for Boston, ’76. The heat likely cost me only 10 – 15 seconds / mile (which would have given me a 2:13 – 2:15…somewhat in the range I believed I was capable of running.
Some thought that training in DC prepped me for the hot weather in ’76 – to which I explained – not in the winter time.
Bill Rodgers
The ’73 Boston marathon was my first marathon and it was a hard day for me. I had hoped to run 2:20, at the slowest 2:25 but I dropped out at top of Heartbreak hill and walked home.
I wrote in my “Running Record’ the day before the race,”sunny and warm out. 60 or so. Ran about 3/4 miles with Amby on Boston Common. Still have remnants of a cold and I think my breathing will be affected and my overall strength for the race tomorrow.” I was right!
I wrote about my race afterwards, “ran as hard as I could but I felt terrible from the first mile on in the Boston marathon. Made it over Heartbreak Hill and then quit the race for good. Stopped thirty or forty times because of severe cramps all over my body, but especially both sides.”
I had number 38. I started the race at good pace, but even though I was way behind the leaders, it quickly became apparent my lungs weren’t functioning as they should have and my whole body paid the price. I learned several things;
1. I learned don’t run unless you feel ok,
2. I learned more about pacing myself,
3. I think i should have had more for breakfast, I only ate a single small cup of yogurt.”
I also wrote about over-drinking water, need for salt tablets.
About two weeks later, my wife and I travelled west. My goal was northern California where I could prepare better for warm weather racing. Of course, we had no plan as to a job, where to live, no contacts or friends and there sure was no Mammoth Track Club/shoe Company help or USATF support system for a wannabe distance runner like me.
After driving about California a few days we decided there were too many cars in San Jose, etc. and maybe it would be a good idea to go home and start fresh. Did that.
My congratulations to Jon Anderson and Jacqueline Hansen on their Boston Marathon victories on that hot day in April 1973! Also a tip of the hat to Ron Wayne on his fine Boston that day.
Jack Dog Welch
I ran my first marathon a year after I started running. March 4, 1973, finished the Connecticut AAU Marathon in 3:22:03. Qualified for Boston!!! Entry fee was, I believe, five dollars.
What follows is a transcript of my running diary. The second notepad purloined from my job as a unarmed security officer for IBM HQ in Armonk, New York. I managed to be the slowest and the fastest at the same time. Lived in Danbury, Connecticut. And my running buddy was a state senator. Think free room at the Parker House.
Monday Apr. 16 Patriots Day. (pulse 43) Well, today’s the day. Don’t feel bad, don’t feel good. Still feel fat and haven’t taken a decent shit in two days. 7 a.m. temp. is 50 degrees with southwesterly winds 15-20 miles. Temperatures expected to near 70 during marathon. Now that’s something to look forward to.
[Later.] Finished 493 of 1574 registered starters. (many started who were not registered.) Maybe 1800!
The hottest April 16 in Boston this century. 79 DEGREES at the start. Don’t know my time yet but it was approximately the same as Middletown CT last month. The heat was unbelievable as this was probably the first time I had run in plus-55 degrees since last October. I passed 10M in 1:09:45, but began to lose it soon after. Walked partway up Heartbreak Hill which I reached about two and a half hours out (approx.) Just didn’t see any percentage in trying to run up it. I was fried.
Started to pick up the pace at 22 miles (A BIG MISTAKE!) and ran completely out of gas at 24 miles. Struggled in with some walking – quite destroyed. Took me 14 hours to recover from nausea, headache, chills, diarrhea, stomach pain & some other stuff.
Official time – 3:19:40. I have a certificate. Figure I lost a minute and a half to get to the starting line.
I think this was the Boston when Howard Cosell strolled through the Hopkinton High School mumbling, please, no autographs, no autographs, when nobody was asking.
It was getting hotter and hotter and we had a marathon to race.
Jacqueline had this to tell Runner’s World magazine on the fortieth anniversary of her iconic victory.
What are your biggest memories of the 1973 Boston Marathon?
Jacqueline Hansen: Well, it was my second road race. The first was the Western Hemisphere Marathon just four months earlier. I did so many things wrong. I came from a hiking background, so I wore my thickest, heaviest training shoes. And like hikers, I wore two pairs of socks, a thin pair, and then woolen socks over the top. I wore these blue-and-white checkered shorts made of terry cloth.
I didn’t drink anything, because that’s what my coach advised. When it got hot, and we started running through the hoses, my shorts held water like a towel. They got heavy and started pulling down off me. I had to reach down and wring out the water. It dripped down into the wool socks, which went squish-squish. I didn’t actually suffer from the heat, coming from California, but I had all these equipment problems.
https://www.runnersworld.com/women/a20843832/pioneer-jacqueline-hansen-on-1973-boston-win/
I am as surprised as you are but the man called the tune.
Came out of nowhere. How funny is that?
It’s true.
And you should.
Tighten up.
“We were marathon pioneers in those days. I almost didn’t go to that race.”
– Jeff Galloway (5th in 2:21:27)