April 16, 1979 – “The King. The greatest long distance runner in the history of the world, the greatest runner alive today. Ladies and gentlemen – Bill Rodgers!”
Finish line announcer Tom Grilk may tend, when excited, towards hyperbole and redundancy but no one cared as Bill Rodgers bested a Boston Marathon field of perhaps 10,000 while establishing an American Record of 2:09:27. Fukuoka victor Toshihiko Seko placed 2nd in 2:10:12, while Bob Hodge surprised everyone by slashing over 16 minutes from his PR to finish 3rd in 2:12:30. Tom Fleming, who led for the first 15M, maintained a strong effort to place 4th with 2:12:56.
Twenty-one-year-old Joan Benoit of Bowdoin College and Cape Elizabeth, Maine, also set an American Record, winning in 2:35:15 (477th overall). Patti Lyons, who received a pre-race cortisone injection for bursitis in her right foot, finished 2nd in 2:38:22. Both shattered Liane Winter’s 1975 course record of 2:42:24.
The 1979 Boston Marathon was a record breaker, there is little doubt. Fourteen men broke 2:15 (ten had done so in ’78). Fifty-four went below 2:20, surpassing last year’s record of 32.
Fifty-seven Americans reached the Olympic Trials qualifying standard of 2:21:54 – Frank Shorter, who placed 79th, missed the mark by just two seconds. The once formidable 2:30 barrier was breached by 286 athletes.
Twenty-one-year-old Joan Benoit of Bowdoin College and Cape Elizabeth, Maine, also set an American Record, winning in 2:35:15 (477th overall). Patti Lyons, who received a pre-race cortisone injection for bursitis in her right foot, finished 2nd in 2:38:22. Both shattered Liane Winter’s 1975 course record of 2:42:24.
The 1979 Boston Marathon was a record breaker, there is little doubt. Fourteen men broke 2:15 (ten had done so in ’78). Fifty-four went below 2:20, surpassing last year’s record of 32.
Fifty-seven Americans reached the Olympic Trials qualifying standard of 2:21:54 – Frank Shorter, who placed 79th, missed the mark by just two seconds. The once formidable 2:30 barrier was breached by 286 athletes.
The women shattered some marks themselves. For starters, 520 females had qualified for the race by having run sub-3:30. Here, fifteen bested 2:50′ and 2:55:23 was worth no better than 25th. Benoit’s record was more than 35 minutes faster than Nina Kuscik’s winning time in 1972.
Clearly, this year’s April classic was amazing even before the gun sounded. Ten sub-2:12 racers were entered. some 90 entries had broken 2:20, and 7877 officially qualified marathoners combined with, I don’t know, two or three thousand shadow runners to form the largest – and the best – field in Boston’s history.
As no less than a half-dozen helicopters hovered overhead, the starter’s gun barked. Fleming burst to the fore, and the world-class front runners followed, while most of the rest jogged in place.
With drizzling, overcast skies, and temperatures of 42-45 degrees, the runners were in no mood to hang around Hopkinton. Australia’s Elizabeth Hassell led the women through 5M in 28:00, as Mr. Fleming led everybody, passing 6.7 miles in 31:54 and 10.8M in 50:08 (4:39 pace).
Bob Doyle, unaware he would run a PR 2:14:03, recalled, “We went by 10M in 48:30. I looked up and there were two hundred guys ahead of me. I almost quit right there.”
Fleming didn’t quit. “I just figured I’d run as fast as I could for as long as I could,” he said. “I wanted to see if they could catch me.”
At one stage, the 27-year-old veteran from Bloomfield, New Jersey, had built a lead of perhaps 250 yards. Rodgers remained in the chase pack with such luminaries as Shorter, Don Kardong, Chris Stewart and Jerome Drayton.
“Tom was running a 2:08 pace and I knew it was too cold to run that fast,” Rodgers said. “I figured he had to come back to us.”
Fleming did come back. After passing the Wellesley checkpoint (13.75 miles) in 1:05:01, he finally surrendered the lead to Garry Bjorklund at 15M.
Here, Rodgers thought BJ would win. “Garry seemed very smooth, very strong,” the defending champion noted. “But I just tried to keep things together, to stay close… I wanted to wait for the hills.”
Clearly, this year’s April classic was amazing even before the gun sounded. Ten sub-2:12 racers were entered. some 90 entries had broken 2:20, and 7877 officially qualified marathoners combined with, I don’t know, two or three thousand shadow runners to form the largest – and the best – field in Boston’s history.
As no less than a half-dozen helicopters hovered overhead, the starter’s gun barked. Fleming burst to the fore, and the world-class front runners followed, while most of the rest jogged in place.
With drizzling, overcast skies, and temperatures of 42-45 degrees, the runners were in no mood to hang around Hopkinton. Australia’s Elizabeth Hassell led the women through 5M in 28:00, as Mr. Fleming led everybody, passing 6.7 miles in 31:54 and 10.8M in 50:08 (4:39 pace).
Bob Doyle, unaware he would run a PR 2:14:03, recalled, “We went by 10M in 48:30. I looked up and there were two hundred guys ahead of me. I almost quit right there.”
Fleming didn’t quit. “I just figured I’d run as fast as I could for as long as I could,” he said. “I wanted to see if they could catch me.”
At one stage, the 27-year-old veteran from Bloomfield, New Jersey, had built a lead of perhaps 250 yards. Rodgers remained in the chase pack with such luminaries as Shorter, Don Kardong, Chris Stewart and Jerome Drayton.
“Tom was running a 2:08 pace and I knew it was too cold to run that fast,” Rodgers said. “I figured he had to come back to us.”
Fleming did come back. After passing the Wellesley checkpoint (13.75 miles) in 1:05:01, he finally surrendered the lead to Garry Bjorklund at 15M.
Here, Rodgers thought BJ would win. “Garry seemed very smooth, very strong,” the defending champion noted. “But I just tried to keep things together, to stay close… I wanted to wait for the hills.”
Wait, he did. At 19.6M, Billy – with Seko following as if on a leash – passed Bjorklund. Despite feeling sluggish, Rodgers relentlessly cranked up the pace, establishing a 50-yard lead in the next two miles.
The 23-year-old Seko, a 27:51.7 10K performer and history’s 10th-fastest marathoner, was no match for Boston Billy. The Japanese star later lamented: “It wasn’t that the hills were so big; it was just that there were so many of them.”
There is only one Bill Rodgers. On the downhill side of Heartbreak, which sounds like a country tune, Bill displayed his incredible ability.. By Coolidge Corner (24.12M, reached in 1:58:41), Rodger’s third Boston victory was assured. He could savor his win this year, in contrast to 1978, when he was forced by Jeff Wells to sprint to the finish line.
“I was running easily the last three-quarters of a mile,” Rodgers said. “I never knew how fast I was going until the last 50 yards, I saw the clock over the finish line and realized I had to sprint to become the fourth fastest in history. I probably could’ve gotten under [Ian] Thompson’s 2:09:12, if I hadn’t spent so much time waving to the crowd. Oh, well.”
Oh, well, indeed. Even while relishing his victory and acknowledging his fans, Rodgers still managed to run the last two miles in 26 seconds less than he had while clocking his former American Record (2:09:55 in ’75). More incredibly, he could read a clock, remember record lists, and then sprint, after demolishing one of the most impressive collections of marathon runners ever assembled. Clearly, Bill Rodgers is a man apart.
So, too, is his team, the Greater Boston Track Club. With four of the top ten finishers, one wonders if anyone even bothered to total point scores before awarding the team trophy. In addition to Rodgers, Bob Hodge was 3rd, Randy Thomas 8th, and Dick Mahoney 10th. As Rodgers himself said, “We didn’t just win the team prize; we beat all the other countries. We could take this club and win the Olympics.”
Such an eventuality might not be any more surprising than Hodge’s breakthrough to the No. 11 spot on the all-time U.S. list. One does not really want to call Hodgie a “surprise.” But, after all, the 5-8/125 Lowell graduate was wearing bib number 1066.; his previous best WAS a 2:28. Even Hodge described himself as “mildly shocked,” since his goal was 2:15.
He was similarly shocked when he went past 10M in “47 and change” with 26-30 guys. Despite a slight lack of confidence in his training – averaging 99 miles weekly – Hodge never faltered.
“I knew I could race the hills, ’cause we had run them very hard regularly in training. I just decided to hang tough.”
Hanging tough was what the 83rd Boston was all about. Bjorklund faded off the pace at 20M, but still hung on for a PR. “At 22 miles, I felt like someone had hit me with a hammer. I’ve never felt that bad.” BJ was clearly not satisfied. “I ran a shitty race. What does 5th-place get you except tired legs and depression?”
Fifth will also probably get Bjorklund a shot at the Pan-American Games, if he wants to go. Both Rodgers (“I don’t want to die!”) and Hodge (“It doesn’t exactly thrill me.”) are unlikely to participate in the July marathon in Puerto Rico.
Rodgers plans to run the World Cup in August and “probably” New York City in October. Hodge, admittedly not a hot weather runner, is one who prefers his marathons few and far between.
“I was running easily the last three-quarters of a mile,” Rodgers said. “I never knew how fast I was going until the last 50 yards, I saw the clock over the finish line and realized I had to sprint to become the fourth fastest in history. I probably could’ve gotten under [Ian] Thompson’s 2:09:12, if I hadn’t spent so much time waving to the crowd. Oh, well.”
Oh, well, indeed. Even while relishing his victory and acknowledging his fans, Rodgers still managed to run the last two miles in 26 seconds less than he had while clocking his former American Record (2:09:55 in ’75). More incredibly, he could read a clock, remember record lists, and then sprint, after demolishing one of the most impressive collections of marathon runners ever assembled. Clearly, Bill Rodgers is a man apart.
So, too, is his team, the Greater Boston Track Club. With four of the top ten finishers, one wonders if anyone even bothered to total point scores before awarding the team trophy. In addition to Rodgers, Bob Hodge was 3rd, Randy Thomas 8th, and Dick Mahoney 10th. As Rodgers himself said, “We didn’t just win the team prize; we beat all the other countries. We could take this club and win the Olympics.”
Such an eventuality might not be any more surprising than Hodge’s breakthrough to the No. 11 spot on the all-time U.S. list. One does not really want to call Hodgie a “surprise.” But, after all, the 5-8/125 Lowell graduate was wearing bib number 1066.; his previous best WAS a 2:28. Even Hodge described himself as “mildly shocked,” since his goal was 2:15.
He was similarly shocked when he went past 10M in “47 and change” with 26-30 guys. Despite a slight lack of confidence in his training – averaging 99 miles weekly – Hodge never faltered.
“I knew I could race the hills, ’cause we had run them very hard regularly in training. I just decided to hang tough.”
Hanging tough was what the 83rd Boston was all about. Bjorklund faded off the pace at 20M, but still hung on for a PR. “At 22 miles, I felt like someone had hit me with a hammer. I’ve never felt that bad.” BJ was clearly not satisfied. “I ran a shitty race. What does 5th-place get you except tired legs and depression?”
Fifth will also probably get Bjorklund a shot at the Pan-American Games, if he wants to go. Both Rodgers (“I don’t want to die!”) and Hodge (“It doesn’t exactly thrill me.”) are unlikely to participate in the July marathon in Puerto Rico.
Rodgers plans to run the World Cup in August and “probably” New York City in October. Hodge, admittedly not a hot weather runner, is one who prefers his marathons few and far between.
Let us not forget the women, no one did. No one could. Benoit passed the mile mark in 5:42, way behind the leader. Lyons was leading at the halfway mark, as well she should have been – her unofficial time was a brilliant 1:14. Consider that women’s “World Record” is 1:15:01 and Patti was running on a sore foot.
Benoit, Boston Red Sox cap askew, finally caught Lyons at the base at Heartbreak Hill. These two marvelous athletes raced stride for stride, until Joanie pulled ahead a mile later. She never looked back.
Her win slashed 15 minutes from her personal best (a 2:50 workout in Bermuda this January) and 68 seconds from the American Record (Julie Brown’s 2:36:23 at Nike/OTC last September). The pixieish – the adjective, soon to be abused by reporters and despised by the subject, is nonetheless most descriptive – Benoit is now the world’s 4th-fastest marathoner. Grete Waitz’s 2:32:30, Christa Vahlensieck’s 2:34:48 and Chantal Langlace’s 2:35:13 are the only faster runs. Clearly, those marks may be in danger if Benoit applies herself to the 26.2M event, as she appears capable of a sub-2:30.
In contrast to the chaotic crowd situation of 1978, this year’s spectators were a more ruly group. Certainly, the cool, dismal weather played a role, but more people along the route is almost unimaginable. No portion of the course was without its coterie of marathon aficionados.. Obviously, the various law enforcement agencies decided to do an exceptionally professional job of crowd restraint. There were no problems, except for the few runners who fell in a heap after stepping in a heap left behind by a mounted policeman or, more precisely, by the policeman’s mount. However, apparently, the best policing of the crowd was by the crowd itself. The people of Boston love the marathon, and the safety of the marathoners this year became a major concern.
The Boston Marathon has always been special because of the spectators’ support. No one received more support this year than favorite son, Bill Rodgers. Few have so richly deserved it, or so spectacularly responded to the adulation. There have now been 22 marathons run at sub-5:00 pace, and he has run five of them. Grilk may not be exaggerating. Rodgers may just be the greatest long distance runner in the world today. Bill Rodgers may just be “The King.” He would wear the crown well.
Benoit, Boston Red Sox cap askew, finally caught Lyons at the base at Heartbreak Hill. These two marvelous athletes raced stride for stride, until Joanie pulled ahead a mile later. She never looked back.
Her win slashed 15 minutes from her personal best (a 2:50 workout in Bermuda this January) and 68 seconds from the American Record (Julie Brown’s 2:36:23 at Nike/OTC last September). The pixieish – the adjective, soon to be abused by reporters and despised by the subject, is nonetheless most descriptive – Benoit is now the world’s 4th-fastest marathoner. Grete Waitz’s 2:32:30, Christa Vahlensieck’s 2:34:48 and Chantal Langlace’s 2:35:13 are the only faster runs. Clearly, those marks may be in danger if Benoit applies herself to the 26.2M event, as she appears capable of a sub-2:30.
In contrast to the chaotic crowd situation of 1978, this year’s spectators were a more ruly group. Certainly, the cool, dismal weather played a role, but more people along the route is almost unimaginable. No portion of the course was without its coterie of marathon aficionados.. Obviously, the various law enforcement agencies decided to do an exceptionally professional job of crowd restraint. There were no problems, except for the few runners who fell in a heap after stepping in a heap left behind by a mounted policeman or, more precisely, by the policeman’s mount. However, apparently, the best policing of the crowd was by the crowd itself. The people of Boston love the marathon, and the safety of the marathoners this year became a major concern.
The Boston Marathon has always been special because of the spectators’ support. No one received more support this year than favorite son, Bill Rodgers. Few have so richly deserved it, or so spectacularly responded to the adulation. There have now been 22 marathons run at sub-5:00 pace, and he has run five of them. Grilk may not be exaggerating. Rodgers may just be the greatest long distance runner in the world today. Bill Rodgers may just be “The King.” He would wear the crown well.
I write about the 1979 Boston Marathon with some authority. My bib number was 2566. I was among the legions who jogged in place – took 48 seconds just to get to the starting line. Then, still no room to run. My official time was 2:53:18, which I noted in my diary had to be worth no worse than 2:50.
One more thing.
A few months shy of four decades later, I am finally in my penultimate box of archives.
Where I discover a handwritten letter on official Runner’s World stationery. From the Consulting Editor Joe Henderson.
Dated May 18, 1979
Jack:
Hey, what do you mean showing up those of us who have been writing about running since we left diapers?
That T&FN piece was by far the best I saw on the race, and I saw most of them.
Nice work – really!
I just remembered you’re probably in Greece.
Happy running,
Joe
Still makes me proud. I may just have to frame that sucker.