Original Gangsters Of Running (Beth Bonner)

On February 28, 1970, Caroline Walker set a world best in the marathon with a time of 3:02:53 at the inaugural Trail’s End Marathon in Seaside, Oregon. She was sixteen-years-old.

My first marathon hero was a woman – Nina Kuscsik, the women’s winner at the 1972 Boston Marathon. Back when you could afford a hotel room. Thought if she could do it, I could do it. Not that she made it look easy. Fun maybe, but not easy.

The first New York City Marathon, organized by the New York Road Runners Club, took place on Sept. 13, 1970. The 127 registered runners each paid an entry fee of $1. Only 55 of them finished the race.

Nina Kuscsik was the only woman among the 127 entrants. She dropped out after fifteen miles, feverish and sick to her stomach.

Do you remember Beth Bonner?

May 9, 1971. Beth Bonner runs a World Record marathon 3:01:42 in Philadelphia at the AAU Eastern Regional Championships.

On September 19, 1971, the 19-year-old became the first winner of the women’s division of the New York City Marathon. Her 2:55:22 World Record performance generally acknowledged to be the first sub-three hour performance by a woman.

The second woman under three hours was a 32-year-old mother of three – Nina Kuscsik in 2:56:04. (Adrienne Beames of Australia broke 3:00 earlier but the conditions were suspect. Ergo uncertified.)

Born June 9, 1952, Beth Bonner was a distance running pioneer from Reedsville, in Preston County, West Virginia.  Involved in equestrian sports from an early age, Beth discovered running in the eighth grade.  Somehow, some way, the Bonners heard of “Mr. Zann”, a running coach in Morgantown, a half-hour’s drive distant. Athletic opportunities being minimal – if not entirely non-existent – for high school girls in the late 1960’s, Bonner convinced her parents to let her attend high school in Morgantown to work with Coach Zann.

On February 28, 1970, Caroline Walker set a world best in the marathon with a time of 3:02:53 at the inaugural Trail’s End Marathon in Seaside, Oregon. She was sixteen-years-old.

Bonner graduated from high school in 1971 and enrolled at a Junior College in Brandywine, Maryland, where she continue distance training. During 1971 she is credited with two world record setting marathon performances, first a 3:01:41 in Philadelphia and later she became the first woman to finish a marathon in less than three hours when she won September 19th in NYC Marathon in 2:55:22. It bears repeating. She was nineteen.  

In 1971, Beth was selected for the USA’s team at the World Cross Country Championships, where she ran 3,000 meters in 9:48. Selected again in 1972, she became friends with two-time Olympian and five-time World XC Champion, Doris Brown Heritage. Heritage, having competed for Seattle Pacific University, was still coached by Ken Foreman at the college. In 1973, Bonner once again traveled to a distant school where the best coaching was available.

After graduating from Seattle Pacific, Bonner returned home where she taught English and coached in Preston County schools for several years.  Later, she received her PH.D. from Auburn University in Alabama. She taught and coached at Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas until her death.

I was pleasantly surprised when I visited the Schreiner University campus… everyone was really friendly and the campus has a lot of wildlife roaming around. Kerrville is a nice size town and an easy drive to San Antonio.Todd F. (Five Stars) December 10, 2023.

Beth Bonner died on October 9, 1998, hit by a truck while biking. She was forty-six.

She was inducted into the Road Runners Club Hall of Fame in 2008 and the Morgantown High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2014. An annual 5K run is traditionally held in Beth Bonner’s name in Arthurdale, West Virginia.

You would think breaking The Three-Hour Barrier would’ve been a bigger deal. But no. Not then. Too soon. As Toni Reavis has noted “women’s running wasn’t accorded an equal position with race organizers at the time, nor in the mind’s of the general public, or the sporting press.  So it wasn’t publicized as groundbreaking despite the fact that it was.”

In 1970, – also unpublicized – Nina Kuscsik was the first woman in the American history to OFFICIALLY DNF in a marathon.

At a celebratory lunch in late 1994, Nina explained, she might have trudged on, if only she had known.

“I had no idea how important the race would become,” she conceded. She could’ve been the first here.

Nina Kuscsik insisted she could have finished, despite a fever that caused her to drop out after fifteen miles. At the luncheon, Nina admitted she hadn’t continued in 1970 because she couldn’t achieve Fred Lebow’s dream of becoming the first woman – Nina, not Fred – in history to break three hours.

“I wasn’t ready,” she said.

Beth Bonner was born ready, but she wasn’t at that celebratory luncheon in 1994. Her quotes weren’t in the papers of the day. Turns out Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas, would not give Coach Bonner the time off to travel to The Big Apple.

Like her school administration thought being the first woman – an American at that – to complete a marathon in less than three hours was no big deal. No big deal?!

Beth Bonner was a big deal. She should be celebrated.

And remembered.

IDs for photo above. Thanks to Jaqueline Hansen.
Bottom row (left to right):  Nina Kuscsik, Betty Jo Springs, Miki Gorman.
Middle row: "me", Eleanor Simonsick, Sharon Barbano.
Top row: Bobbi Gibb, Doris Brown Heritage, Ruth Anderson (back), Beth Bonner, Cheryl Flanagan (& pregnant here) at the back, and Judy Ikenberry.

Jacqueline Hansen – first woman under 2:40 – calls this sorority “Lady Pioneers” because they blazed a trail.

I call them Original Gangsters Of Running because they were just so damn tough.

And inspirational.