Original Gangsters Of Running (Susan Henderson)
“In the end, though, don’t you think running gave us a healthy lifestyle, kept us away (mostly) from all the stuff out there in the ‘60s and ‘70s, and instilled some discipline into our day-to-day lives, which then became a lifestyle, even if we couldn’t always count on a 10-mile-run to burn up some calories? We should be patting ourselves on the back.
“And, oh, the way I want to go out is, with a sudden and deadly faceplant on my favorite trail.“
Feel I must explain why Sue Henderson is joining the Original Gangsters Of Running and why now.
Shout out to the likes of Lorraine Moller, Jon & Kim, Tracy Smith et al.
At just this moment, I can’t remember why now, but I do remember why.
There was a time in the ’70s in the Pacific Northwest when very few women competed.
You had a better chance to see Sasquatch than be challenged by a female.
Not fast enough to stay with the lead pack, I often found myself – the tip of a dull spear – at the vanguard of the also-rans.
And this spritelike creature – rare and rapid – showed up, practically alongside, and I took notice.
Dressed entirely in black, she was like a ninja ballerina speed demon. Think Marvel movie.
I was incredibly shy and completely married. She was as fast or faster than I could keep up with. So we never connected.
Bet you like I’m that mattress guy, I broke my ass to finish ahead of her. We all know it’s true.
Broke my ass.
Willing to wager, Sue Henderson caused many men to pick up the pace.
To my mind, that’s the connection.
As in, ‘Wow, you were there, too. Wasn’t that fun?’
Yes, it was.
Thanks for the push.
WHEN DID YOU START RUNNING AND WHY?
I started running in late 1968 in, of all places, Colon, Panama. My former husband was a Green Beret and was sent to Panama to teach jungle training to troops headed to Vietnam. Oddly, the military let me, our son and our VW bug come along for that year.
Unloading groceries one day in Colon, I noticed an ad on the back of a Fleischmann’s Margarine package. It was for a book called “Aerobics,” by Dr. Kenneth Cooper. I had never heard of Dr. Cooper nor the term “Aerobics” before, but his point system caught my interest right off. I just wanted to get in better shape, tone up, that kind of thing.
I liked the idea of points, goals, times, clear data. I had never done most of the sports in his book any organized way. I had done some mountain climbing in the Pacific Northwest, that’s about it. Anyway, I chose running … no racquet needed, no bike, no pool, no partner. Really simple: go to a track and run a mile. It was easy to take my baby son to the track and plant him in the middle, so I could always see him.
I didn’t even know how many laps around a track equaled a mile. Found out it was four. I ran four laps in 8:15. I think that put me in the “Good” category. I was kind of impressed I wasn’t in the “Poor” category. So, for the remainder of that year in Panama, I ran just a mile a day as hard as I could, and pretty quickly I got down to 6:32, and now I was in the “Excellent” category. When I ran that 6:32 mile, I beat a couple of Green Berets! Okay, that launched me. It turned out running was just what this slightly unsettled young lady needed.
TOUGHEST OPPONENT
At my level of running back then, there were few women showing up for races. Actually, my first competition ever was at the 1971 Birch Bay Marathon, near Bellingham WA. I didn’t know, until a couple of weeks, before it was 26.2 miles! Not knowing any better, a week before the race, I decided to run fifteen miles on a hilly road (Chuckanut Drive), which I am quite sure did not set me up well for the looming marathon.
I was the first woman to run Birch Bay and I was the only woman entered – 51 men and me. I thought I could run eight minute miles; I called that so wrong! I ran 4:26, but I wasn’t last, and I won this huge trophy, stockpiled by the race director Jim Pearson (simply “Pearson,” as he’s always been known). Jim was just waiting for a woman to run and finish Birch Bay. I received an obscenely big trophy, my first ever.
So, for a long time, in terms of opponents, it was just me against people around me, mostly men, some women. I loved the hard work and passing people. That was about my only strategy.
TOUGHEST INJURY
I wasn’t born perfectly aligned. I had to wear special orthotic shoes, brown, clunky, when I was in junior high school. I’m a very pronounced pronator. When I started running, someone saw I needed custom orthotics, so I’ve always ran with them. But still, it didn’t fully correct my alignment problems.
Where I took the brunt of my road running in skimpy shoes (with orthotics) was in my tibias, so tibial stress fractures were my issue. Bad injury, six to eight weeks to heal. I just learned to live with it.
MOST MEMORABLE RUN
My most memorable run is the 1983 Boston Marathon. A couple of good things happened there. That Boston race was the first opportunity to qualify for the 1984 Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials, to be held the following May, 1984. It was a huge priority for me to be there. The qualifying time for the Trials was 2:51:16. I had already run four 2:51s in a row. I thought I had reached my meager talent limit. But I decided to try and qualify as early as I could, so Boston was the place. It was my kind of course, point-to-point, potentially fast, but also very tricky and interesting, and I had run it twice before.
Turns out I had a great race and finished in 2:44:12, a PR at that point and a qualifying time easily under my belt. I had no idea what place I was in, but someone yelled at me that I was in the Top 10 women. I ended up 11th woman, so I just missed out on earning a medal. I went to the awards ceremony out of respect for the top ten women, and also with a secret hope that just maybe there had been a mistake. It was not to be, but I was satisfied with my PR and my good effort. And I was going to the Olympic Trials. I achieved my goal. Very memorable for me!
Running in the 1984 Trials in Olympia, Washington, was an incredible day. Every woman who was a distance runner came out of the woodwork to try to be in that historic race. More than 260 women qualified, having to run a 2:51:16 or faster. 238 woman made it to the starting line, and 197 finished. Everyone there was so good! There was nothing at stake but the top three places, so people went for it!
As the race wore on, I saw some top runners starting to come back. They had given it their best shot. I had total respect for that. I wasn’t anywhere near the top, but I was amazed to see some of the early race pace begin to take its toll. As it turned out, I had a PR of 2:43:05 and I was 51st. What was special about that race was the depth. Between the winner, Joan Benoit, and me (thirteen minutes), 49 women crossed the finish line! I was so impressed. I was very proud to be there.
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT
Looking back, I wish I had not been so headstrong. I wish I had listened to a few people who were attempting to give me good advice. All I wanted to do was run. I needed running for so many personal reasons. Coming back from a hard run made me feel like a new person. I loved testing my body, pushing it, I couldn’t get enough of this self-examination. Any runner knows that being out there and dealing with the discipline and discomfort is a good thing. You find out there’s a lot more in there, not just physically but mentally, too.
But my love of running sometimes got in the way. If I felt great right out the door for a training run, I’d often end up setting a new PR on my silly, local six-mile route. I left some good races out there running hard by myself. But that’s just what I liked to do. Out of my control …
On the flip side of that, I had a couple of people suggest I get a coach and train more and better, maybe work less. I’m really glad I didn’t do that. My running progression was great but sadly wasn’t indicating I had a future at the Olympic level. Perhaps I could have gotten faster, but not fast enough I could actually be “unemployed.”
BIGGEST TURNING POINT AS A NASCENT RUNNER
In Bellingham I met the amazing Jim Pearson, and also Matt Henderson, my husband of 52 years. Pearson had us driving to races in Canada, down to Portland for hour runs at Duniway Track, to Tacoma for all kinds of races at Pt. Defiance Park, and so many races in between, always munching on Spudnuts (he had a franchise). To this day, neither Matt nor I can pass up a good doughnut. Pearson got a lot of people literally hooked on doughnuts … and running, really the perfect combo! I was working at Western Washington University and running on my negotiated longer lunch hour. Pearson and I would meet up on the track there, where he had already run ten miles ON THE TRACK, and then he would run another six or seven with me. That got my attention.
it turned out my husband Matt was as serious and passionate about running as I was. He eventually went on to run 44 marathons, with a 2:27 best time, and a lot more in that sub-2:30 range. Running was something that we’ve shared over all these years. It’s been a great lifestyle that offered lots of opportunities. My son, Raoul Rossiter, who still lives in Boulder and is now 56 and insanely fit, has kept the family running tradition alive, mostly competing in ultras (50K, 50M, 100K) and a few road marathons, with a recent 2:54 at the California International Marathon, making us pretty proud! He loves the lifestyle and community of running.
MY FAVORITE COMEDIAN
George Carlin tops my list. He was so smart, insightful, nonstop on it.
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.
If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you’re gonna get selfish, ignorant leaders.
The wisest man I ever knew taught me something I never forgot. And although I never forgot it, I never quite memorized it either. So what I’m left with is the memory of having learned something very wise that I can’t quite remember.
WHAT WAS MY EDGE?
I guess I could say I didn’t back down from the hard work and consistency. I actually had a lot of mental toughness. I always liked the discomfort and even pain of a hard workout and how good it felt when I was done. In a race I liked the idea of strategy, keeping an eye on my competition, knowing the course and passing someone at the most difficult point. I could be suffering, too, but I made sure they didn’t know it. Kind of what I learned from my dad (former boxer, scratch handicap golfer) … it was all about the head game.
BEST STRETCH OF RUNNING
In terms of performance, I had my best stretch between ages thirty to forty, and a little bit beyond that, so ten to twelve years, which I think is pretty typical. We moved to Boulder, CO in 1978 when I was thirty-two. I had such a good period while we were there. I think that’s where my running really began to take off. Partly because I had run so consistently prior to that, kind of feeling my way through running and racing, learning a lot along the way. It began to show.
Matt and I left Boulder in 1985 for a year-long backpacking trip around the world. I was 39. We ran a lot on the trip, down bleak Scottish lanes that were incredible, in small patches of green in Bangkok, jungle tracks in Southeast Asia, in Burma, Australia, New Zealand, everywhere we went. We had a few races sprinkled in there, always so fun, We landed back in Europe and found ourselves in St. Moritz, Switzerland, where we stayed for two weeks in a youth hostel, running hard and getting mentally ready to get back to the States and, most importantly, back to work.
We ended up in Portland and stayed there for twenty-five years until moving across the Cascades to Bend, Oregon and the High Desert. I retired from adidas after sixteen years.
BEST TIME OF MY LIFE AS A RUNNER
Matt and I lived in Tacoma, my hometown, from about 1973-1978. We got involved with the newly formed Fort Steilacoom Running Club (FSRC). They always sponsored fun races at varying distances, there were people to train with, and there was such a good early running vibe there. One of its founding members was Keith Forman, a former University of Oregon runner under Bowerman. Keith was the seventh American to break the four-minute mile and such a talented runner. He was getting into distances, and we met him then. He and my husband hit it off right away, and hooked up a lot for marathon training runs, all of that.
Before there were training logs, they decided to create their own calendar training log. Matt was in the printing industry and Keith liked to draw, and they both liked to run. By the time the calendar was finished but not yet marketed, we had moved to Boulder. Matt took some of the calendars to Frank Shorter Sports but they weren’t interested. In fact, the calendar never quite got off the ground, mainly because it was a little late for that upcoming year. But through some people Keith knew at Nike, they stepped in and bought up a lot of them to give out as Christmas gifts to their sponsored athletes, and probably anyone who would take one. Maybe someone reading this has one, all filled in, in a basement box.
Also during that period, some of the FSRC members were invited to come out to the McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary to a track meet with the prison runners. We took the ferry out from Steilacoom to McNeil Island and had to go through a bit of a process to get in. We were competing against the male inmates and, as it turned out, I was the first woman ever allowed inside a federal prison exercise yard. I think the distances were more short track distances, although it wasn’t a real track, just a dirt oval.
I quickly picked up on the vibe there and pulled back on some of my efforts. Some of those guys were there for life, and getting “beat by a girl” was not cool.
It was fun just to be there. One of the inmates found out my husband was a printer and gave him some tips on how to successfully print travelers’ checks without getting caught. (This coming from a convicted forger!)
Susan Henderson
Career prize money – $1,500. Career wins – 16. Per ARRS.
Personal Bests
Performances
Sue Henderson ran – and won – a marathon in 1971. 1971, people.
That’s an Original Gangster of Running right there.
“The first woman ever allowed inside a federal prison exercise yard.”
OGOR, for sure.
