I am talking with Lee Fidler, legendary among The South’s best road runners. The guy is practically a guru of fitness, so I asked him to tell me about his most memorable run.
Lee had three most memorable runs. (We most often mean races.) Which he gave me in order.
And I got this idea. The difference between one runner’s “THIRD most memorable” and another runner’s?
Lee says winning the first Charlotte Marathon was number three for him.
Maybe I am just a weird old running magazine editor. Hush, now. Anything is better than recipes.
Got me thinking. Never won nothing myself, not even my most favorite run ever.
What the hell would somebody like Bill come up with, I wondered. So, I asked him.
Tell me, my friend, what would be your third (#3) most memorable race?
Why?
Bill Rodgers:
That is truly a difficult question to answer but my thought is probably my ’78 Boston.
Probably my first two most memorable races are winning Boston in ’75 and winning or making the Olympic team in ’76, I think.
So number three, yeah, so I had won Boston by ’75 – a great honor and fun – and so to try it again in ’78 after dropping out in ’77. It meant a lot to win from several viewpoints, one that I’m a New Englander and it’s the granddaddy of marathoning here in Boston.
Surprised me a little, no mention of the New York City Marathon, where he was a four-time champion.
But, after all, his name is Boston Billy.
Tim Tays:
1975, sophomore in HS. My two-mile PR was 10:04 at altitude (in Albuquerque) on an eleven-lap-to-the-mile board track (you remember them, Dog). Which was my fourth most memorable run, because my PR had been 10:34 outdoors.
So, after a winter race of 10:04 we went to Clovis, NM, that spring which we considered “low altitude.” I got in a duel with some local dude who had me beat at 1-3/4 mile, but I kept digging in to hold onto second. Low and behold, the dude was coming back to me! I was tired until I saw he was floundering, so I closed the gap, and out of the last curve we kicked together and a guttural scream just popped out of me (kinda embarrassing) and I leaned at the tape.
Little SOB giving out popsicle sticks with places on it rushed up and gave the local dude #1, but the officials reversed that little dickweed’s decision and gave me the win in 9:48, which obviously was a huge PR and led NM HS boys two-milers all season. That’s when I started to believe I could be a state champion, maybe even go to Kansas to run (and, of course, win the Olympic 5000 eventually).
Dr. Tays, author of the iconic Wannabe Distance God memoir, got to Kansas.
Anne Audain:
In March of 1981. I was competing for the New Zealand Cross-Country Team at the World Championships in Madrid, Spain. While there, I learned about the road races in the USA, allowing women to race longer distances. like the 10K, half-marathon, etc.
My fellow Kiwi and teammate Rod Dixon encouraged me to go and try my luck and another Kiwi, Dick Quax, who was working for a young Nike company, got me entered into the Crescent City Classic 10K in New Orleans. I flew from London to New Orleans and what a cultural shock for a 25-year-old New Zealander!
The race director and committee were so welcoming and asked me to attend the press conference. I went to the room and sat in the back row but was asked to go up onto the stage with the other elite runners. Patti Catalano, Joan Benoit, Jackie Gareau, Margaret Gross , Bill Rodgers, Jeff Galloway and some I am forgetting. They began asking us what our plans were for the race. When it was my turn the MC stated ” you have run a fast 10K, what do you think you will do tomorrow?”
At that moment I realized that Dick had probably told a “white lie” about my 10K prowess to get me an entry and I quickly said, ” I think I will run my best time tomorrow.” Which of course would be accurate, as it would be my first ever 10K.
Race day found me on the front line at the start with 8000 of my fellow runners behind me, another first time experience. The gun went off and I tripped and fell. A good Samaritan hauled me to my feet as I watched my competition run off in the distance.
I was so mad and ran like hell to finish third behind Patti’s new USA record and Joan in second place. AND I ran 33:13 secs to beat my ” PR” by a minute!The media interviewed me and a young Toni Reavis from Boston – who was trying out doing writing and radio commentary on running – asked me how I felt about my race.
My answer: ” I think I could get to like this road racing!” And the rest they say is history.
Some of us run to change our personal narrative.
A very few, like Anne Audain, run to alter the course of the sport.
Bob Hodge:
I travelled to a few road races with Wally Johnson and John Crowther, some teammates from high school, and at one of these we heard about the Mount Washington Road Race (MWRR) and planned to run it in June. I was 18 years old.
We sent our entries in to race dictator, Johnny “Jock” Semple of the B.A.A. When I first met him at some race I thought he was cracked. Later I learned to love and respect him.
We booked a room at the Pinkham Notch AMC hut. John Crowther’s brother drove us all the way up there, dropped us off and turned right around and drove all the way back to Lowell. He would be back on Sunday afternoon to pick us up. Yes folks, back then the race was held at 1:00 in the afternoon on Sunday.
We were keeping a sharp eye on the weather and it did not look good. We made our way up the road to the “hill” and picked up our numbers. It was raining. We kept hearing frightful stories from the other runners: hail, 60 mile per hour wind gusts, deep rutted and muddy roads; geezus, everything but the boogy man mountain hermit with a shotgun screaming, “get off my land!”
One runner mentioned that Jock had been threatening to call the race off. I noticed something right away about the runners competing here—they seemed like a different breed. They were tough, crazy, fun loving runners. Call the race off after they drove a few hundred miles? No friggin way, we will run this hill with or without Jock and the BAA!
And so we did. It wasn’t so bad. I wore my super cool Nike blue suede leather racing shoes and they bled blue dye all over my bare feet inside. My feet are frightening enough but completely blue they looked like they had been hit with a sledgehammer. [Those shoes look like Tigers to me. – ed.]
I finished 14th in 75:42, not bad. Wally and John finished somewhere behind me and we walked and jogged back down the mountain together. Some of the older guys had beer that they shared with us, telling all kinds of funny stories about their races. Jock handed out the awards, most of which went to the B.A.A. runners. That made Jock smile.
Later, Crowther’s brother showed up and we piled into the car and headed back to Lowell. It was a great weekend adventure full of memories to help me through the work week ahead.
Bob chose a mountain climbed in his youth.
Jackie Hansen:
I must’ve told you my most memorable is the OTC marathon. A close second would be Boston ’73, since it was the pivotal point that launched my career.
You are right to think WR #1 might be next in line, but honestly, it’s not tops for most memorable.
Boston 1984 clearly ranks ahead as most memorable . . . in a mixed emotions sort of way, not all of which are positive like the first two I just mentioned.
You know the story, you know the drama.
Trying to qualify for the first women’s Olympic Trials after hamstring surgery, and two failed attempts post-op at a qualifying time, Boston was my last option. Then the IRC lawsuit went to court that day, of all days, but I went to Boston instead, and a hailstorm put me in hypothermia.
At 25 miles I got tunnel vision and felt like I was falling face first in the road.
Wanted to cry, but got mad. One mile to go! I deserve to finish. That became my mantra.
I lost four minutes and four places in the final mile, a mile I cannot remember.
Woke up on a hospital cot with dog tags around my neck. “Did I finish?” was all I asked.
Still, I had qualified to go to the Trials. But that marathon was just three weeks later. So while Joanie worked a miracle to win the Trials, I found my own miracle just to finish them.
Yes, extremely memorable. No, not entirely positive.
Jaqueline Hansen was instrumental in adding the Women’s Marathon to the Olympics. That first USA Olympic Marathon Trials, she helped to make that happen. Being IN the race was what mattered.
She chose a mountain near the end of her career.
My own #3 is a 2014 charity 5K with a superstar still glowing.
My memory was not good as a child, so you can just imagine. I know I ran the 1973 Boston Marathon, might’ve changed my life, but I don’t remember it. Except for a couple of mental snapshots. I know I ran my personal record at ’79’s Gathering of Eagles, a few more snapshots.
I have a better shot at remembering 2014.
Hadn’t seen Bill Rodgers in the longest time and it was just like Sonny and Cher reuniting.
I am so Sonny.
Bob Hodge’s “memory” of his cool, blue suede NIKE shoes bleeding color all over his feet accompanies a photo of him in his cool, blue TIGER shoes. Just sayin.’
– an observant former Nike employee