“I thought I would run well tonight, because it was a flat course. But I thought the competition would be easier than it was.” – Bill Rodgers
If you remember anything at all about the endurance athlete best known as Boston Billy Rodgers, you can well imagine he had a lot of energy and could go real fast without seeming even to take a breath.
Still that way.
Asked Bill for some input re Hank Pfeifle, legendary Maine runner with the last name nobody could spell correctly.
Here’s what Bill said, exactly as I got the message. No – change that – edited for clarity.
Hank Fievel, I recall him very well because I remember him racing in a number of different races. I was in Salem, it was just a few days after I dropped out of the marathon in de Brazil marathon of Brazil and Rio where I was defending champion. Greg [Meyer] had won the year before and then I won the second year. Dumb but the heat and humidity got me as I chased some unknown Runner who had broken away. That was always a big mistake I used to make in my marathoning. Had a number of casualties because of that, especially at Boston.
But – turned out – he folded his cards and at fifteen miles I was pretty hurt by that fast pace heat and humidity and the race went right by my hotel. It would have meant going out another five miles, then back five miles, so I folded my cards.
I was kind of beat up, so I went to this little 10K like the next weekend. First prize was a trip to I think Bermuda or Bahamas and I entered the race and I hateful [Hank Pfeifle] is there. I think he might have won a TV for second place and I did win the first place prize.
Hank was a real competitor. I remember I had to race hard to Edge him. I gave the trip away to a relative but those are true road racing stories, the kind you write about.
Bill uses “Voice-to-Text on Android.” I checked.
‘I never want to get out of the 29s in a 10K race. A 30 would have been a rotten 10K for me. But I knew the race would be in the 29s with Hank Pfeifle there.’ – Bill Rodgers
Hank Pfeifle provided some follow-up.
As I was saying there were a number of evening races during the summer that had good attendance and many runners used them as a check of their fitness. Sometimes it was fun just to slip away and go to some obscure race and just have fun.
(Also attached is a pic of me winning The Five-Mile Magnolia race held on a Thursday evening in Manchester on the Bay.) Magnolia started out as a challenge race between doctors against lawyers from the area and grew from there. Jon Bemis, a friend from the area, invited me to come to the race because I think he wanted to compare me to the locals.
In gearing up for the race, I pulled out the old Euro playbook and warmed up away from everybody and then showed up just minutes before the start – all sweaty with race face on.
Crazy but I wanted to impress for Jon, so I ran hard right through the tape and won with a 23:10. Probably won by 2+ minutes but the time stood with a number of good attempts to break it. Wally Collins came closest with a 23:12.
I think, when Bill went to Pickering Wharf, he was expecting something like what I found at Magnolia.
Nobody who could keep up.
