“She was the women’s marathon world record holder in 1971. She was the first woman to break 2:50 in the marathon.” – 1988 RRCA Hall Of Fame
When did you start running and why?
My mind and body are so connected I have a hard time not remembering the ugly parts of my life when I think about starting running. It saved me in a way I haven’t heard from others.
I was brought up to be a rule follower. Which also meant respecting adults. But my mom married a child abuser when I was nine. The sexual assaults began randomly and without warning. By the time I was a preteen his unwanted visits had me screaming into and beating up my pillow after he went back downstairs. I hated feeling so vulnerable and helpless. I hated him.
I ate to soothe myself. But I hated the weight and where it was going. And that would lead me to more attention. In my junior year of high school, I was restless. I wanted to be pretty, popular, smart, and, like most kids at that time and age, have the perfect body. Looking back, I think I was just looking to be in control of something. Self-analysis of what I thought I wanted and was it attainable. I read about Bill Bowerman feeling fitness (meaning losing weight and getting healthy) could be reached by walking and running, I was ready to try it.
No one ran for fitness in 1964. No one ran around the block or in the woods or anywhere. You only ran if you were on the track team. And you were a boy.
Running became my constant friend and one I could and did turn to. The talks that went on in my head took the form of coming up with the retaliatory remarks I wished I could have thought of in the heat of the moment, the letters I wanted to write and envisioning how to defend myself when placed in situations I should never have had to endure. I needed to conquer my surroundings before I could gain the courage to be me.
Running and everything that it involved saved me. From what? Who knows. But where I am now would not have been possible without it. Running showed me I was the only one who could hold me back.
Favorite quote?
“You are not in charge.” At a book sale, I found myself in the religion section and picking up a book that looked interesting. I don’t remember the title or author and have since loaned it to someone and never saw it again. But I do remember that one phrase and how it suddenly lifted a burden I didn’t know I was carrying. It also explained so much I didn’t realize I had been questioning.
That sentence told me to stop feeling ashamed of being divorced twice. The most important thing was loving my girls, being there for them. Their existence in the world was the most important gift I got to be a part of.
My first marriage was to Larry Bridges who was ten years older than myself. He got me out of an abusive house. He didn’t know that. But I will be forever grateful for those ten years of marriage.
My marriages served a purpose in a life. And ‘we’ are not always the center of that attention. ‘We’ are often a part of someone else’s lessons. We may serve as an example, good or bad. But not everything is about us. Thus, ‘we are not in charge.’ It assured me I was a good person and to stop being so hard on myself. If I would stop rushing and be open to what was around me, I would see where I was to go next. In the meantime, continue following the Golden Rule. It also reassured me there is a higher power.
Being an only child until ten and having a stepfather who was like Jekyll and Hyde – angry, critical, belittling; taking pride in making you fear him. And then when you started to mature wanted to see what was going on behind that sweater. I could never relax and self soothed with food. And, since you weren’t allowed to talk unless you were an expert, I didn’t learn how to socialize. I was and am still an observer. Maybe that’s why I turned out being a good sports photographer.
That sentence reminded me that I didn’t create the abuse by a stepfather. It wasn’t something I did wrong. I had tried to deal with my father divorcing us when I was two. But I kept myself busy enough that I didn’t allow the tears and anger to take center stage until I was in my forties. I read help books, wrote unsent letters to express my hurt and disappointment that no one showed up to save me. And I cried.
I had to find a way to deal with all of this. I could only accept my past realizing it was my connection to others who needed help. Exposing my past exposed him. I didn’t do that until I was in my forties. But I broke the silence.
Most memorable run?
A trail in the Northwest surrounded by waist-high ferns. The air smelled so fresh, the ground felt easy on my legs and I felt no fatigue in such a beautiful surrounding.
Biggest disappointment?
Not getting to train with other women. Only if I qualified for the USA World Cross Country team did I get to run with other women. We each had to raise our travel and housing funds once we made the team to represent the US. Being able to run with other women who were at the same fitness level as you was so much fun.
What would you have done differently?
Questioned more. Acted on my instincts. There wasn’t much information available about nutrition or weight training. Either of those would have made a huge difference in my performances. I was in college (1966-69) the first time ‘ice therapy’ was introduced at a Health, Physical Education and Recreation (HPER) convention. Take a small paper cup, fill with water and place in the freezer. Tear back the paper cup to access the ice as it melted on your skin and constricting the blood vessels. Good for sprains.
Favorite comedian?
Tim Conway!!!
What supplementary exercise did you do?
We didn’t do any supplementary exercises. Wish we had. We just ran more.
What was your toughest injury and how did you deal with it??
I was really lucky when it came to injuries. My worst were sprained ankles. I only suffered a couple, but one was during a long run when I lived in Albuquerque. I laid my ankle down on the pavement and really stretched the ligaments. It was winter, so I packed snow in my sock and limp-walked back towards town. Someone stopped and gave me a ride after a mile or so. But that experience taught me to stay on my foot if I could stand it, with ice, and keep the blood flowing by walking. My ankle barely swelled or discolored.
What was your edge?
Not sure if I really had an edge. If anything, I guess it could be that I was willing to try different events and distances. Just out of college we lived in Michigan and found the Canadian cross country courses were more like orienteering. I loved it! They also had a steeplechase on a dirt field where the water pit was dug into the ground. I think that could have been my event if we had been allowed to run it. I hurdled the barriers as part of my cross country training.
Toughest opponent and why?
Five months after giving birth to my daughter Shalane, I started back running with a friend. After Shalane’s 4 a.m. nursing we would hit the Boulder streets for an hour or so. A couple months later the Cherry Creek Denver Frank Shorter Store was going to host a 50-miler in Denver. I had just stopped nursing the week before and decided to jump into the race. I was pretty happy with going through the marathon at 3:16. This was the first time I had ever taken in liquid on a run. I was shocked at the jolt of energy the Coca-Cola gave me. In spite of that help, I didn’t finish the distance. While pregnant with Shalane, her head would periodically affect a nerve in my groin and cause my leg to give out. Somewhere around 38 miles I could feel that nerve getting aggravated and dropped out rather than get injured.
Special song of the era?
I loved ‘Motown’ and 1960’s music!!
In addition to giving birth to one of the greatest female runners in USA history, Cheryl Bridges Treworgy contributed in other less obvious ways.
I really never left the sport. I just kept finding ways to stay involved. But I also learned being independent was where I am most comfortable.
I was part owner and corporate buyer for the Frank Shorter Stores.
As a result of the Title IX deadline to have women hired at the college level, I became head track and field coach at Michigan State University. (Overlapped with Magic Johnson entering school. My office was next to Jud Heathcote’s.)
Patented a couple running bra designs. Licensed one to Gilbert Gear and opened running and department stores (LA Gear poster models wore the bra in their ads) but Nordstrom’s turned me down on the second design because they said, ‘THOSE women don’t exercise’ (meaning cup size C & D). My response was, ‘it’s because THOSE women don’t have the right equipment!’
When Shalane made her first World XC team as a senior in high school (2000), I bought a point-and-shoot digital camera and flew to Portugal to photograph the meet. I was hooked. I knew the sport. I just needed to learn the camera. And I did. I just retired from my freelance photography company PrettySporty.com after twenty years of covering all sports. Arthritic hands that I wanted to save for other interests reminded me time’s a wastin’. Like time for sewing, knitting, embroidery and whatever artistic medium struck my fancy.
It has to be said. Cheryl, thanks for sharing your story. Not always easy to rehash the past, but I believe many women – and men – will be enlightened by your candor.
Even though I was in business with Frank, it wasn’t until after he revealed his past to the world that he became a ‘warm’ person. [Frank Shorter revealed his abusive childhood in an excellent memoir written with John Brandt – My Marathon: Reflections On A Gold Medal Life. – JDW]
I just listened to Patti Catalano Dillon’s podcast with Charlotte Lettis. Learned Patti had an eating disorder. Mine was not allowing myself to eat. I didn’t realize I had a thyroid problem, so I ate once a day because it took so long for food to go through me. Plus I was older than my competitors who hadn’t gone through puberty yet. I felt huge compared to them. Wasn’t until just a few years ago the thyroid diagnosis was made.
I also didn’t drink water. Especially when I ran. What a difference it could have made in my performances.
Andy Amey wrote about Cheryl’s legacy in Indiana and beyond. For the Tribune-Star (Serving Terre Haute and Wabash Valley.) April 5, 2020.
In 2017, the Tribune-Star published a book titled “Legends Through The Decades.” The idea was to pick out the five most memorable athletes and teams from each decade from the 1950s onward.
Here, we continue with the 1960s.
Cheryl Pedlow had no plans to become a pioneer. She was just determined to run.
Cheryl Bridges became a pioneer whether she wanted to or not.
Cheryl Flanagan became the mother of world-class distance runner and aspiring cookbook author Shalane Flanagan.
And Cheryl Treworgy became — and is — a renowned photographer and chronicler of athletic events, particularly cross country and track and field, around the world.
“People know me as four different people,” Treworgy said recently, but it was Cheryl Pedlow, girl scout and determined novice runner, and Cheryl Bridges, Indiana State’s first female scholarship athlete and eventual world record holder in the marathon, who blazed trails in the 1960s.
The daughter of a high jumper and a field hockey player, Pedlow became interested in orienteering as a girl scout. When she was a junior at Indianapolis North Central High School, the track coach was her social studies teacher, and he offered to let her run with his team.
Powers that be quickly squelched that idea, forcing her to run on the opposite side of the school’s campus from the boys team, but the seed had been planted. “Running was an addiction,” she said recently. “This was something that was all mine.”
She joined the Hoosier Track Club, where one of her coaches was Larry Bridges. He saw her potential and marketed her to Ball State and Indiana State. With Dr. Eleanor St. John in charge (“She got it,” Pedlow said) the Sycamores offered the scholarship, the first one ever offered to a female athlete at ISU.
There was no team at ISU and her competition was mostly limited to AAU meets, although at least she got to practice with the ISU men’s team. In the spring of 1969, her third and final year before graduating, she and three other women rounded up by Grete Trieber and Dorothy Ritchie went to a national championship meet at Southwest Texas State. This was before the NCAA sanctioned women’s sports.
“We had four girls, we all tripled [three events each] and we tied for second [as a team],” Treworgy said.
http://www.garycohenrunning.com/Interviews/Bridges.aspx
Personal bests
| Type | Distance | Time | Flags | Site | Date | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RD | 10 km | 37:47 | Denver CO/USA | 05 Oct 1980 | ||
| RD | 15 km | 1:01:57 | Boulder CO/USA | 24 Aug 1980 | ||
| RD | 20 km | 1:21:55 | Frankenmuth MI/USA | 04 Jul 1978 | ||
| RD | Marathon | 2:49:40 | Culver City CA/USA | 05 Dec 1971 | ||
| OT | 2 mi | 10:51.3 | Los Angeles CA/USA | 06 Mar 1971 | ||
| OT | 5 km | 17:30.5 | Phoenix AZ/USA | 21 Mar 1971 |
http://www.marathonandbeyond.com/choices/Morales2010.pdf
Performances
| Date | Finished | Time | Flags | Type | Distance | Site | Race | Prize money | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 05 Oct 1980 | 4 | 37:47 | RD | 10 km | Denver CO/USA | Governor’s Cup | |||
| 24 Aug 1980 | 5 | 1:01:57 | RD | 15 km | Boulder CO/USA | Run for the Roses | |||
| 26 May 1980 | 3 | 38:55 | RD | 10 km | Boulder CO/USA | Bolder Boulder | |||
| 17 May 1980 | 3 | 40:01 | RD | 10 km | Denver CO/USA | L’eggs | |||
| 02 Mar 1980 | 4 | 53:16 | RD | 13.2 km | Denver CO/USA | Denver Symphony | |||
| 27 Oct 1979 | 2 | 38:04 | RD | 10 km | Denver CO/USA | Dannon | |||
| 19 Aug 1979 | 6 | 39:43 | a | RD | 11.265 km | Falmouth MA/USA | Falmouth Road Race | ||
| 12 May 1979 | 1 | 1:36:39 | x | RD | 25 km | Grand Rapids MI/USA | Old Kent River Bank | ||
| 06 May 1979 | 1 | 40:28 | RD | 10 km | Albuquerque NM/USA | Cooperage | |||
| 04 Jul 1978 | 1 | 1:21:55 | RD | 20 km | Frankenmuth MI/USA | Volkslaufe | |||
| 25 Sep 1977 | 4 | 2:58:53 | RD | Marathon | Chicago IL/USA | Mayor Daley | |||
| 21 Aug 1977 | 7 | 42:29 | a | RD | 11.265 km | Falmouth MA/USA | Falmouth Road Race | ||
| 28 Feb 1976 | 38 | 17:42 | XC | 5 km | Chepstow WAL | IAAF Crosscountry Championships | |||
| 29 Nov 1975 | 9 | 17:23 | XC | 3 mi | Belmont CA/USA | AAU Championships | |||
| 30 Nov 1974 | 11 | 18:41 | XC | 3 mi | Bellbrook OH/USA | AAU Championships | |||
| 16 Mar 1974 | 28 | 13:36.8 | XC | 4 km | Monza ITA | IAAF Crosscountry Championships | |||
| 24 Nov 1973 | 8 | 18:20 | XC | 3 mi | Albuquerque NM/USA | AAU Championships | |||
| 20 May 1973 | 1 | 45:20 | RD | 12.55 km | San Francisco CA/USA | Bay to Breakers | |||
| 15 Apr 1973 | DNF | DNF | RD | Marathon | San Luis Obispo CA/USA | Laguna Lake | |||
| 12 Aug 1972 | 1 | 2:55:44 | RD | Marathon | Terre Haute IN/USA | Marathon | |||
| 21 May 1972 | 1 | 44:47 | RD | 12.55 km | San Francisco CA/USA | Bay to Breakers | |||
| 05 Dec 1971 | 1 | 2:49:40 | RD | Marathon | Culver City CA/USA | Western Hemisphere | |||
| 27 Nov 1971 | 3 | 14:49 | XC | 4 km | Wickliffe OH/USA | AAU Women’s Crosscountry Championships | |||
| 21 Mar 1971 | 1 | 17:30.5 | OT | 5 km | Phoenix AZ/USA | n/a | |||
| 14 Mar 1971 | 1 | 16:36.0 | OT | 3 mi | Los Angeles CA/USA | n/a | |||
| 06 Mar 1971 | 1 | 10:51.3 | OT | 2 mi | Los Angeles CA/USA | Municipal Games | |||
| 06 Dec 1970 | 1 | 3:14:45 | RD | Marathon | Culver City CA/USA | Western Hemisphere | |||
| 28 Nov 1970 | 7 | 10:51 | XC | 2 mi | St Louis MO/USA | AAU Women’s Crosscountry Championships | |||
| 21 Mar 1970 | 18 | 16:02 | XC | 4 km | Frederick MD/USA | International Women’s Crosscountry | |||
| 22 Mar 1969 | 4 | XC | 4.5 km | Clydebank SCO | World Crosscountry Championships |
Women’s World Marathon Records which preceded Cheryl’s “First Woman Under 2:50.”
| Time | Name | Nationality | Date | Event/Place | Source | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5:40:xx | Marie-Louise Ledru | France | September 29, 1918 | Tour de Paris Marathon | ARRS[9] | |
| 3:40:22 | Violet Piercy | United Kingdom | October 3, 1926 | London [nb 7] | IAAF[53] | The ARRS indicates that Piercy’s 3:40:22 was set on August 2, 1926, during a time trial on a course that was only 35.4 km.[9] |
| 3:37:07 | Merry Lepper | United States | December 16, 1963[nb 8] | Culver City, United States | IAAF[53] | Disputed (short course).[90] |
| 3:27:45 | Dale Greig | United Kingdom | May 23, 1964 | Ryde | IAAF,[53] ARRS[9] | |
| 3:19:33 | Mildred Sampson | New Zealand | July 21, 1964[nb 9] | Auckland, New Zealand | IAAF[53] | Disputed by ARRS as a time trial.[nb 9][93] |
| 3:14:23 | Maureen Wilton | Canada | May 6, 1967 | Toronto, Canada | IAAF,[53] ARRS[9] | The ARRS notes Wilton’s extended time as 3:14:22.8[9] |
| 3:07:27.2 | Anni Pede-Erdkamp | West Germany | September 16, 1967 | Waldniel, West Germany | IAAF,[53] ARRS[9] | The ARRS notes Pede-Erdkamp’s extended time as 3:07:26.2[9] |
| 3:02:53 | Caroline Walker | United States | February 28, 1970 | Seaside, OR | IAAF,[53] ARRS[9] | |
| 3:01:42 | Elizabeth Bonner | United States | May 9, 1971 | Philadelphia, United States | IAAF,[53] ARRS[9] | |
| 2:55:22 | Elizabeth Bonner | United States | September 19, 1971 | New York City Marathon | IAAF,[53] ARRS[9] | |
| 2:49:40 | Cheryl Bridges | United States | December 5, 1971 | Culver City, United States | IAAF,[53] ARRS[9] |
