The symbol of the journey reflects our state, for man is surely on the move toward something. Many of us sense that our human race is on a tightrope and that we must keep moving or fall into the abyss. – Michael Murphy, Golf in the Kingdom.
Somebody mentioned Gookinaid and bam! I remembered I knew that guy once. Bill Gookin, he’d written for our magazine, sure of that, so I thought I’d see what I could find.
Life was copacetic in ’77. I think. Don’t much remember. Including Vol. 2 Issue 4.
That Michael Murphy quote comes from “Transcendental Running” by Michael Fessier, Jr. A hippy-dippy reprint with permission from Human Behavior, which I am guessing I discovered in the State Library of Oregon. Just a couple blocks away at the time. Imagine my tiny cottage long ago made way for a gigantic parking garage.
Grinded out many an hour in that library, looking for some sort of key I never found.
Fessier opened with “Jogging, it can be argued, is not an imaginative thing to do. But running, really running hard and long, can carry you right into strange and uncharted places.”
That turned out to be true. Phil Knight’s weekend getaway in Bend. Phil’s Rose Garden seats when MJ was not in town. First strangest two that come to mind. Really. The Plains of Athens. Unemployment office. Therapist. Uncharted.
“Running becomes a mental exercise, an ambulatory yoga, as much as a physical discipline.”
Segue into the next quote in Fessier’s article: “The prehistoric hunters were among the greatest runners the planet has known. Each of us still owns some fragment from that ancient glory. All of us – if only in our fantasies and dreams – are hunters.” – George Leonard, The Ultimate Athlete.
Hunting a lifestyle, I think. Hunting the key that would turn the ignition to move forward.
Excerpts from Joe Fall’s The Boston Marathon seems a coup. Sample this.
When I run, it flushes everything out. The poison. It keeps it down. It’s like an internal shower. But the main thing is the friendships. I’d have never met Billy Rodgers if I didn’t run. What a tremendous person. What a tremendous example for youth. There’s no hassle about him. He’s dedicating his whole life to emotionally disturbed children. You hear about these professional athletes and their negotiations and their contracts and you get fed up. If I was a kid I’d look to somebody like Bill Rodgers. In Europe and Asia, why, he’s a god. I’ve heard it myself. I was in Puerto Rico. I heard them down there talk about Billy. They didn’t talk about the Bruins or the Celtics – they talked about Billy Rodgers. He’s more than a runner – he’s an artist. He runs on his toes. I don’t know how he does it, but that’s what he does. – Tommy Leonard
Joe Falls, The Boston Marathon
Another woman, Nina Kuscik, who led all women runners in 1972, is standing against a wall. She is being interviewed by several reporters.
An attractive woman, a registered nurse, she was telling them how her divorce spurred her into running.
“I went through a terrible ordeal,” she says. “The divorce knocked me for a loop. All of a sudden, you are left with complete care of the children (she has three) and you have no medical insurance and no credit.
“I had to get myself straightened out. I had to do something to help my self-image… to know that I was still important.”
She took up running… and beat her ex-husband by eleven minutes.
ibid.
Dr. E.C. Frederick essayed some physiology with ‘How Fast Will Women Run?’ The WR for the women’s marathon – not yet an Olympic event – was 2:38:19 by Jackie Hansen in 1975. We had heard of Chantal Langlace’s 2:35:15 earlier in 1977, but numbers had already been crunched.
Ned predicted the women’s world record in 1987 was potentially 2:17:17. Potentially.
Progress wasn’t as steep as the numbers might suggest. I’m thinking the number of ladies grinding out the number of hard miles needed over a number of hard years was – early on – too few, not enough.
We needed to see Allison do it and Joanie and Grete and Patti and Grete again and again and Ingrid and Tegla and Naoko and Catherine for girls to emulate, to follow.
On October 13, 2002, Paula Radcliffe won the Chicago marathon 2:17.7. So, he got the time right.
Probably forgot to factor for ubiquitous sexism and plenty of misogyny. Tough data to quantify.
An Equipment column reviewed Nike’s LD-1000. Suggested retail $39.95. I probably wrote it. My ankles still hurt thinking about that particular model.
Clancy Devery is the fastest 17-year-old marathoner in history at 2:23:05. Devery believes the LDs permit him to run another twenty miles more per week. Another friend and national record holder (50 km.) Chuck Smead was wearing these shoes while prepping for the Olympic Trials marathon last year. Running as many as two hundred (200) miles weekly, he had no conpolaints, excepot for the heel’s width. Smead cut off a portion of the interior side because he had been painfully hitting his opposite leg on each stride.
Inside back cover was shared by advertisements for YANKEE RUNNER and JACK’S ATHLETIC SUPPLY.
Publication still black & white. Hadn’t met Wieden & Kennedy yet.
Here’s a thought. Never given myself enough credit for the distance forward I did move.
I am stationary by nature.