In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. – Benjamin Brewester.
When did you start running and why?
In the winter of my 8th grade year, we moved from Moscow, Idaho to the Seattle area. I had always played baseball in the spring and summer, so I attended tryouts in my new neighborhood, but didn’t make the team. I tried football in the fall and got hammered. I was too short for basketball, so I tried out for the junior high track team. I made it and did well, coming in second in the 880 at the District Championships. I later learned that I was genetically predisposed to be a distance runner; my grandfather and his brother went 1-2 in the state mile in 1905, and my dad was a 4:30 high school miler in 1931.
I stuck with it because I liked to run and was good at it. Growing up in Seattle was good for my development as a runner. Local heroes Gerry Lindgren and Doris Brown (now Heritage) served as great role models. The absence of any professional sports in the area drew a lot of attention to local track and field events.
Toughest opponent?
Steeplechaser Mike Manley. We ran against each other both domestically and internationally and always had great races. We were on several USA teams together and raced our hearts out. Mike Fanelli once posted a great shot of Mike, Doug Brown, and me at the finish of the 1974 US Championship race at UCLA. Mike Manley was an Olympian, a tough competitor, and a good friend.
Most memorable run?
Prelude: My most memorable race was the one that really helped me establish my running career. It was the result of a year-long effort. I entered the University of Washington in the fall of 1968 on a track scholarship. That was an era of change within college athletics. At the time, freshmen were not eligible to compete with the varsity squad. The only exception was, if we made the qualifying standard, we could compete in the NCAA championship meet, to be held in Knoxville that spring. Essentially, we had three years of varsity eligibility. As a result, in the spring of 1969, all the freshman meets were against local junior college teams and clubs from British Columbia. I was a two-miler in high school, having taken second at the Washington State high school championships in both 1967 and 1968, with a best time of 9:09. The qualifying time for the NCAA three-mile in 1969 was sub-9:00 for two miles, and sub-14:00 for three. I just managed to break nine minutes in a meet in Abbotsford, BC at the end of the season to qualify.
Knoxville was hot and humid on the afternoon of the race and that took its toll on all runners. For most of the race I held seventh place but faded at the finish, falling and crawling across the finish line at 14:25.0. Several of us were treated to intravenous rehydration in the trainer’s tent because of heat exhaustion. Ole Oleson of USC won with a time of 13:42.0. I returned to Seattle and underwent testing and examination by the athletic department doctor who concluded I wasn’t suited for the longer distances and should focus on shorter stuff. And that led to the most memorable race in my running career.
Got to be honest, I’m real curious now.
The race: For the winter of 1970, my coach, Dan Ghormley and I focused on the mile. Up to that point, my best time was 4:10. I trained for the indoor season with Bill Smart (a 4:02.1 miler who was sixth at Knoxville). In February, I was invited to run in the Achilles Indoor Games in Vancouver, BC. The field was headed by John Mason and John Lawson, both representing the Pacific Coast Club. They were two of the top indoor milers in the country at the time. The race was held on an eleven-lap-to-the-mile plywood track set up in the NHL hockey arena in downtown Vancouver.
We went out strong at the start of the race and I found that I could stay with them. We kicked, and I ended up finishing third with a time of 4:01.6, less than a second off the winner, Mason. That race taught me I was competitive with the best milers in the country and all the work I had done over the summer and fall had finally come around and paid off.
Epilogue: A month later, our second dual meet of the spring outdoor season was against USC. I ended up running the three-mile (trying to prove something, I guess) against Ole Oleson. I won in 13:33.0 and beat him by six seconds. It was the season’s fastest collegiate three-mile at the time. It just reinforced that I could run with the best and beat them.
Biggest disappointment?
Not making an Olympic team. I participated in the Trials in ’72, ’76, and ’80 in the 5000 and steeplechase.
What would you do differently if you could do it again? Why?
I’m pretty happy with how life has turned out, so I can’t say I would change much. We lived in a different era back then. We were all amateur athletes and the governing bodies had strict rules about getting paid. I finished my master’s degree in engineering while I was still running and then in 1975 took a job in order to support my family. Today runners have the option of turning pro and signing a contract which allows them to train at an elite level longer. Three years later I was accepted into the USOC’s new athletes’ assistance program. It was an effort to get companies to hire qualified athletes to work with time off provided for training and competition. I was offered a job with PACCAR and stayed there for twenty-three years, well after I had finished my running career.
Favorite philosopher?
Yogi Berra – “You can observe a lot by watching.”
Quote?
I have several favorite quotes; in fact, I have a file full of them. Two that have a relationship to running are both attributed to Steve Prefontaine:
“I do it because I can, I can because I want to, I want to because you said I couldn’t.” Steve Prefontaine
To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.” Steve Prefontaine
These last two have more to do with life in general:
“Nobody pays to watch a guy juggle one ball.” Col. Rick Johnson The Biggest Stick: The Employment of Artillery Units in Counterinsurgency (Combat Studies Institute Press, 2012)
“The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.” Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Special song of the era?
Anything by Chicago.
Favorite comedian?
Steve Martin
Top Row L-R Dr. Mike Pollock, Kenny Moore, Steve Prefontaine, Jim Crawford, Ted Casteneda, Philip Ndoo, Unidentified, Dr. Kenneth Cooper.
Middle Row: Jeff Galloway, Doug Brown, Russell Pate, Perry Pittman, Gary Tuttle, Richard Pettigrew, Mike Manley.
Bottom Row: Unidentified, Ron Wayne, Jim Johnson, Paul Geis, Don Kardong, Unidentified, Frank Shorter
What was your ‘best stretch of running’? 1970-1975
And so why do you think you hit that level at that time?
Great coaching under Dan Ghormley, and fantastic training partners. Bill Koss (Pac-8 steeple champion), Bill Smart (Canadian Olympian 1972 in 1500 meters) and I lived in a six bedroom house just off the UW campus. Those guys plus Herm Atkins (2:11 marathoner), Don Kardong (4th in 1976 Olympic marathon), and Greg Gibson (first UW undergrad sub four-minute miler) helped me grow, then maintain my skill as a runner. Competition played a great part also. The quality of the guys I got to run against was a big part of my improvement (“iron sharpens iron”).
Don Kardong
A year after graduating from Stanford, I enrolled at the University of Washington in 1972 to get a Bachelor’s degree in English and a teaching certificate (two years total). I was still training seriously, so I frequently hooked up with runners from the UW, especially Jimmy The Jet. Jim was a perfect training partner for me. We were of very similar ability and both with Olympic aspirations. I think Jim was doing graduate work at UW, but whatever he was doing he was able to find time to train. And he trained hard. Very hard.
In one workout I remember we ran from UW to Greenlake, and on the way we did some mile repeats on a route Jim was familiar with. It wasn’t my idea, but I was following his lead on the workout, so that was that. We ran the rest of the way to Greenlake, and did quarter-mile repeats on the track at Lower Woodland. Then we ran back to UW. I don’t remember the number of mile or quarter-mile repeats, but this was an intense training session, one of the hardest I ever did. And all at Jim’s discretion.
Because we were of similar ability and liked running all-comer meets at West Seattle Stadium, we agreed to pace each other as we tried to improve our personal bests. One week Jim would pace me in the mile, and I would make an attempt to break 4 minutes. The next I would pace him in the 2-mile, and he would shoot to improve his 2-mile time. I never broke 4:00, but I did run 4:01.9, which was, I daresay, a pretty solid mile time for an all-comers meet. And I thank Jim for pacing me in that race, which was the fastest mile of my career.
I greatly admired his work ethic and dedication, but one thing he never inspired me to do, and that was run the steeplechase. There are limits after all.
Greg Gibson
In ’74, Ghorm moved me up to the Mile to have some fun, explore the future of the event and develop strength for the 800. I was injury-prone, and as Ghorm said, on any given day, I could compete with anyone in the country in the 8. Getting through two rounds of qualifiers at nationals and running strong in the final, I needed more strength.
Ghormley matched Jet and me up in a couple of workouts for the first time in January and February of ’74, his strengths against my weaknesses and vice versa. The first was 3×880 at 2:00 on the old Pavilion indoor 220 track. I thought there was no way I could do this workout, but Jet got me through it.
A few days later we had 8×220 at 24-25. I knew Jet was strong. Mile on up, and I thought there was no way he could stay with me in this workout. He certainly did, and my perspective on Jet was fixed in my mind, he was a great distance runner and not someone who had dabbled in greatness. The iron sharpens iron for us began.
Jim Johnson is a great friend and idol of mine. We clicked, thanks to a loving God!
What was your edge, Jim “The Jet”?
I think versatility would describe my edge (see quote above by my son about juggling). When I graduated from UW in 1972, I held school records in the mile, 2 mile, 3 mile, 6 mile (we didn’t do “metric” back then), and steeplechase. I ran the indoor mile at three NCAA championships (made podium all three times) and came second to Joe Lucas in 1972 in the steeplechase. I later won a national championship in the steeplechase and set an American record in the indoor 5000 meters. I ran internationally at distances from 1500 meters to 10,000 meters and eventually the marathon.
What supplementary exercises did you do?
We worked out on the weights on a regular basis. I had a writer from Strength and Health tell me one time that he would write an article about me and weight lifting if I ever broke 4 minutes in the mile. When I did in 1973, he kept his promise. Still have a copy of the magazine with pictures of a skinny guy lifting weights.
What was your toughest injury and how did you deal with it?
I had a run of problems with my right hamstring leading up to the 1976 Olympic trials. It took hours in the swimming pool doing laps to keep up aerobic fitness and quality time in the training room to get through it. I also worked closely with a new company (then) called Nike to get some shoes that would help keep the hamstrings under control.
If you have anything new to say after 50+ years of running, let’s hear it.
For over 20 years running was a very important part of my life. Through it I learned to set goals. Someone once said that a goal without a plan is just a dream, so I also learned that planning and execution were critical to meeting goals. In running, showing up to practice, working hard every day, and learning how to race are critical. Knowing that you can’t do everything yourself and learning to work with coaches (mentors) and friends is key. These lessons were a big part of who I became and helped me later to be a better husband, father, and leader long after my career as a runner ended. They don’t teach these things in school, but they do teach them on the track.
Track and field at its core remains one of the few pure athletic pursuits. Distances and times are measured objectively; style points are not awarded. Athletes compete on a level playing field. Everyone runs on the same track or throws from the same circle. The one who finishes first or throws the farthest or vaults the highest is the winner. Simple as that. We as athletes are not afraid to be judged; in fact, we welcome it as it is the only way to become better. I still enjoy hanging out with old and new track friends. In the past five years, the University of Washington, my alma mater, has developed one of the best distance running programs in the country, and I now have the chance to re-live my running career vicariously through the efforts of much younger runners.
Club Northwest is a nonprofit athletics club founded in 1972. Our mission is to support and develop track & field, cross country, road racing, race walking, and mountain/ultra/trail running in the Pacific Northwest. We are well known for our bright orange jerseys and continuous presence in the local, regional, and national running scene for over 50 years.
Our History
Club Northwest began on a rainy afternoon (we presume) on November 20, 1972, when the representatives of seven small alumni clubs gathered at the University of Washington (UW) to form a new track and field club. The instigators of this process were Jim Johnson, Bill Koss, and Doug Hansen, the Track-house and UW steeplechasers, UW track and field manager Bill Roe, and UW distance coach Dan Ghormley. Since that day, Club Northwest has been a leader, both in the Puget Sound and nationally, for track and field and road running.
From our founding, Club Northwest has always sought to support the local and national running scene through by supporting athletes and engaging the local running community. CNW has supported a number of Olympic athletes, including Don Kardong (1976 Montreal Olympics —Marathon), Fred Luke (1972 Munich Olympics — Javelin), and Herman Nelson (1992 Barcelona and 1996 Atlanta Olympics — 50K Racewalk), as well as several national champions. This tradition of excellence continues to this day.
Our impact on the local community has been most visible in the events we organize and publications we’ve produced. We operated the Seattle Marathon (1975-1980) and Emerald City Marathon (1983-1990) and hosted the AAU/USATF Cross-Country (1978, 2011) and Track & Field Championships (2014). We also helped start and organize many races now staples in the Puget Sound running calendar: the Shore Run, Seafair, Resolution Run, and FireCracker 5000.
Many remember the magazine The Nor’wester (Northwest Runner), started by the club in 1976 to chronicle the Pacific Northwest running scene and published continuously until 2016.
Perhaps our proudest accomplishment is the Bill Roe All-Comers Track & Field Series, whose precursor CNW took over in 1969 from the long-defunct U.S. Track & Field Federation and which we have operated continuously since. In that time, we’ve welcomed nearly 100,000 athletes from age three through middle school, high school, college, open, and masters athletes.