This week the Letsrun community was trying to identify the top competitors in a photo of the start of the 1978 Falmouth Road Race that came from a post on the race I made last year. I helped out by posting a few extra newspaper clippings and decided to do another post with pictures from a previous Falmouth Road Race.
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| About runners leave the starting line of the 1980 Falmouth Road Race. Rod Dixon won the race in a time of 32:20:04. |
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| From an old postcard of the start of the race. |
Here are some pictures I took of the Falmouth Road Race 30 years ago in 1980. This year I am looking forward to another run at my hometown and favorite road race on August 15. If you want to see some wonderful photos of the actual race, Scott Mason has just uploaded a bunch of photos he took of the top runners at the 1980 Falmouth, You should view them and you will find them here.
The crowds at the finish line
Race winner Rod Dixon
Joan Benoit and Rod Dixon
Bill Rodgers and Fred Lebow(?)
Bill Rodgers
Joan Benoit (4th) and Rod Dixon.
Race winner Greta Waitz
Wheelchair pioneer Bob Hall
Herb Lindsey (2nd place)
Greta Waitz leading at 6 miles
Benji Durden (9th place)
Jackie Gareau (6th place)
Me (184th place)
Here are the results of the top few hundred in the race. I recall I had just finished over 1000 miles of training in the 12 weeks before the race trying to get ready to break onto the varsity XC team for Wheaton College. I finished in 184th place in 39:58 for the 7 mile race. I don't remember much about the race except for standing for an hour or two in place to be at the front of the 2nd corral. After this race, the road race officials started giving me a seeded number which I still get to this day (I hope I do this year too) as an age group competitor. This makes the race doubly fun. Now it is not just my hometown race, but I get a relaxed warmup before each race as well as I get to see the best road runners in the world up close and personal before the race start. Unfortunately, I can't find any newspaper articles on the race. There are a lot of great runners listed in the results and even some runners that I see around at races even 30 years later. Duncan Warden was one minute behind me. He was a teammate of mine when I started running in 9th grade at Falmouth High School and I still see him running at Falmouth every year still. Striders may know Dave Birse who was 30 seconds behind me.
There is one photo that I really wish I had. I think it was at the 25th Falmouth Road Race, in 1998, I hit the 5 mile mark at exactly 29 minutes flat running right next to Frank Shorter. At that exact moment, I heard an accented voice behind me and turned around to see Rod Dixonrunning steps behind us. I ran for awhile with Frank Shorter and Rod Dixon, two of the all time running greats, before they pulled away from me.
Here is a post by Scott Mason, a real runner and photographer, who photographed the race for Frontrunner magazine. Scott has a few stories to tell and here is a link to some of his 1981 Falmouth Road Race photos. Scott was at the 5 mile mark. Why couldn't he be there in 1998? I'll have to do a post on 1981 some day, as I have more pictures and articles.
UPDATED:
I found some new photos of the 1980 race in the 1981 Falmouth Road Race Souvenir Program.
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| Bill Rodgers 16th place |
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| Ric Rojas 3rd place |
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| Rod Dixon 1st place |
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| Grete Waitz 1st place |
Other Falmouth Road Race Posts
5 comments:
Good stuff, Jim.
I was there shooting, i even had my official photo pass signed by Ric Rojas who finished third but was practically overlooked afterwards because he wasn't one of the real big names. He was just sitting alone in one of the tents when i snapped a great shot of him. I will see if i can find the Frontrunner Magazine article and post it to my blog.
Scott
Scott,
I remember seeing some wonderful pictures you took at Falmouth, must have been that year. I'll have to post a link to them.
Jim
Jim, i just checked my photo site and realized my 1980 Falmouth shots aren't on it. I will get them up soon.
I found the 1981 shots and would love to see the 1980 photos.
Sorry to be late to these posts - does anyone have 1979 photos - especially the starting line?
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