Thursday, July 29, 2010

1977 Falmouth Road Race

Here are some clippings and photos from the 5th Falmouth Road Race held on August 21, 1977. The race was won by Bill Rodgers and Kim Merritt.


Bill Rodgers 1st place (photos taken at about the 6 mile mark by family members)

2nd place finisher was a 19 year old Alberto Salazar.

3rd place finisher Greg Fredricks

5th place finisher Frank Shorter cooling down after the race.

Bill Rodgers post 1st place finish




Me (white shorts- no shirt)




Wearing Nike Elites (cool) and no shirt and white shorts (not cool)




High school teammate Bill Hobbs in his first road race. He wore spikes in the race just like he was used to doing in cross-country and track races.




Perrier post race!







Bill Rodgers nearing the finish.


Quotes from Bill Rodgers, Alberto Salazar's father, Cheryl Bridges Flanagan (mother of 2008 Olympic  bronze medalist in the 10,000m race, Shalane Flanagan), and Kim Merritt



It was the third Falmouth Road Race that I ran, but I can't find my time or place. It may have been the year I ran the last 1/2 mile with and finished alongside Nina Kuscick (pioneering woman's runner) and she is listed as finishing in 43:45. It is either that or the previous year that I finished with Nina. 

Gate City Stiders: Check out who finished in 33rde place. "Coach" Jim Stronach!

And check out that yellow van in the Frank Shorter photo. Did Dave Camire have a timing company back in 1977???

Other Falmouth Road Race Posts

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Vintage Running T-Shirts

I missed wearing a classic T-shirt last month at the Classic T-Shirt race in Lowell a few weeks back. Last week, my wife took a box out of the garage and said, "Let's throw away some shirts!" So I tossed a bunch of shirts from the 1990's that had been sitting there useless from the last time I had seen them (a few Mt. Washingtons, Pack Monadnocks, a 1996 Hawaian Ironman shirt (where did that come from?) and a bunch of others from various races, but I still hung on to a few shirts from the 1970's and 1980's (some have shrunk to ridiculous proportions) for future classic T-shirt nights. Then I saw a Vintage runnning t-shirt contest on Competitor.com and decided that I should enter a shirt.


First off all my most memorable race t-shirts were made into a hanging quilt by my wife many years ago, so I can't enter those. It hangs in my basement behind my computer reminding me of the best of my competitions and that way no one has to see it but me.

Top to bottom left to right:
1980 Falmouth Road Race -my hometown and favorite race- also my first ever road race in 1975
New England Triathlon Series- Fairlee Vt. 1987 -I did all the New England Triathlon series races the first few years it was held. There was a race in every state. In 1987 my car died on the way home. One year one of the Triathlon magazines did a cover story on this race and the cover was a picture of the start. My wife and friends who came to cheer me on were seen in the photo. I was just one of the masses with an orange swim cap on. 
1976 New York State Section 11 Cross Country State Championships. I worked hard to make varisty my senior year at the Stony Brook School. We finished 3rd in the state in our division at the Bear Mountain race and I was the 4th guy in on our team. This is probably the shirt I am most proud of because you had to earn it and it wasn't easy for me.
Bud Light U.S. Triathlon Series Boston 1986. I qualified to compete at the National Championships to be held at Hilton Head at this race. Too bad no one told me until I got the results booklet (after the National Championships had already been held- no internt in those days!).
1985 Lakeville Triathlon. I won this thing and beat a couple of guys who were sponsored triathletes.
1980 Gil Dodds Marathon. Held for only one year at Wheaton College. I finished in 2:50:07 (7 seconds short of qualifying for Boston). This was the most comfortable shirt ever given at a race. It was a football style jersey.
1985 Bay State Triathlon  Used to love this race. One year I ran with Dave Scott for about 1/8 mile-he was lapping me however!
1981 Lake County Heart Fund Marathon 19th place 2:48:36 finally qualified for Boston.
86th Boston Marathon 1982 My first Boston and the most painful race I ever finished.
1986 Cape Cod Endurance Triathlon I did this race the first 5 years they had it (1983-1987) and absolutely loved it!
1985 New England Triathlon Series Sharon, Ma. I loved this race series. One year that I did this race a competitor drowned.
1985 Green Mountain Steel-Man Triathlon. was a 1/2 Ironman distance race in the mountains of Vermont. My bike computer showed that I hit a maximum speed of 62 mph going down the mountain roads (that will happen when you copy pictures you had seen of Tour de France riders and put your chest on the handlebar and nose down by the front wheel-butt in the air). I liked the cow shirt!

The quilt is also good for sticking pins onto and the dowels make a great place to throw those medals you get at various races.




So I had to decide what shirt to enter into the contest. I had some older shirts, but decided to enter the 1982 Gurnet Classic Beach Run shirt beacuse it was such a classic New England race. The race was held in Duxbury, Ma. between 1975 -1988 and went out and back on the beach. It wasn't a race I did anything special at in fact it was the first race I did after recovering from broken and cracked bones in my ankle and heel. I ran my first Boston Marathon in 1982 and severely dehydrated in the heat. Six days later I ran my fastest 5 miler 26:36 and the next week broke the bones sliding into a base during a softball game. How was I to know the base was a sack of sand? The Gurnet Classic Beach Run was a race that would see the greatest road runners in the world show up to run (most of them were from New England): Bill Rodgers, Alberto Salazar, Bobby Hodge and others. I believe Bob Hodge won the year that I ran it.


photo from 1975 race: Al Salazar, Mark Duggin, Vin Fleming, Bill Rodgers, Bob Hodge

Article on 1978 version of the race (photo above)
Another article and iterview with Bob Hodge.

So here is my shirt and the finisher card I got that said I finished in 74th place. I am going to send it to the contest. It says you can also vote on your favorite shirt, but I don't see how. There are only two shirts pictured on the site now. Once I get mine up, you can vote if you like, but even better, enter your own vintage t-shirt. The winner gets a pair of Saucony shoes, so the odds right now are pretty good. The contest ends of July 31 Go here.






Trying to sneak the Gurnet Classic Beach Run hat on
during a family picture.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Higher Mileage

Good mileage this week for a total of 73 miles:
Sun 8
Mon-8
Tues 8 + 5k race
Wed 8
Thurs 13
Fri 9
Sat 16

I am slowly adjusting to the new insoles, but here is the peculiar thing; when I went to Dr. Dananberg to get the insoles for Functional Hallux Limitis, he said in passing that I had a shorter left leg. I told him that I have always had a shorter right leg (measured by many doctors from junior high and on) and then just let the comment pass as he is the noted podiatrist. Two days ago though, I noticed that he had glued a post on the bottom of the left insoles of about 1/4 inch. I didn't know he did that, but the funny thing is, I feel more stable and balanced with the insoles and the lift. He never measured my legs, he just used his observations, but who I am to argue if it works. Maybe it has to do with a more "functional" difference under walking and running conditions. I am still running slower than I would like, but it is nice to start getting the mileage up and the more I ran this week the better I felt.

Here is an intersting improvement on the hip flexor (psoas) stretch by Mike Boyle author of Advances in Functional Training: Training Techniques for Coaches, Personal Trainers and Athletes. You will find this stretch in the book, along with the advice to treat the soft tissue (I am getting ART), to stretch (like with this stretch), and to strengthen (he suggests doing seated psoas contractions with hands behind the back to maintain the lumbar curve and seating high enough that your feet don't touch the floor. Then begin with three ten-second holds and work up to ten X ten second holds).

Thursday, July 15, 2010

The Rules of Sprinting

Seems like the leadout man for today's stage (11) winner, Mark Cavendish, at the Tour de France got himself disqualified from the Tour for a head-butting incident. Mark Renshaw gave a headbutt to Julian Dean within 400 yards of the finish line as both cyclists were setting up their sprinter for the finish. Skip ahead to 4:15 in the video to see the triple head butt.



Here is an interesting video that highlights the rules of sprinting in a cycling race. This starts out with a clip of the disqualification of Mark Cavendish at the Tour of Switzerland this year. Remember the one where his front wheel got pretzeled into a Dali-like photo? The interesting video also shows  other famous sprint finishes and explains what is legal and illegal.


How The Race Was Won - Rules of the Group Sprint from Cosmo Catalano on Vimeo.


Of course if you don't like what the other cyclist is doing during the race, you can always accost him with your front wheel, such as what comically happened at the end of this years stage 6 of the Tour de France.



Here is a funny Aussie interview with Matt White, Matt lloyd, Julian Dean and Brett Lancaster all talking about the stage 6 post race fight.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

1980 Falmouth Road Race Photos

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.
About runners leave the starting line of the 1980 Falmouth Road Race.
Rod Dixon won the race in a time of 32:20:04.
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.


Bill Rodgers 16th place


Ric Rojas 3rd place

Rod Dixon 1st place
Grete Waitz 1st place
Other Falmouth Road Race Posts