30 Year Ago: Running and Racing in 1980

I recently dug up an old sheet of paper with my summer mileage for the 1980 cross-country season at Wheaton College. I was never that talented of a runner, but 1980 turned out to be one of my better and more interesting running years. I ran some personal bests that year that were very pedestrian by collegiate running standards, but it was the best I could do.The sheet shows that in 12 weeks of summer training, I accumulated exactly 1000 miles of running.My goal over the summer was to do more mileage than anyone else on the team and hopefully make the varsity squad for my last year of college cross-country.

Here are some highlights of an average, but determined runner in 1980 that saw me race distances from 1500 meters to the marathon, plus a 50 mile run on the track. I basically wasn't needed on the track team in college, OK I stunk and we had plenty of guys much faster, but I did race a few meets here and there and practiced with the track team often.

1979 ended with me running my second marathon on Nov. 25 right after the cross-country season was over. This was the Philadelphia Marathon and I ran 3:03:57. After the race immediately  took a train to NYC, then a bus to Worcester, Ma., where I met some friends and we then drove 20 hours straight packed into a car to get back to college. Somehow I unwound myself to run the cross-country teams 24 hour relay on December 7- 8. We went 250 miles and then stopped earlier than 24 hours as too many guys were injured and couldn't run anymore. I said, "Never again!" to doing one of those. I like my sleep too much!

March 22-I ran a 1500m in 4:27 and a 5000m in 17:07.
April 13 I ran the Aurora Marathon in 2:54:38 (my 3rd marathon and my first under 3 hours. I had not run a training run longer than 11 miles since running the Philadelphia Marathon back in November-although I did run 30 miles in one mile intervals on Dec. as part of that 24 hour relay). My time in the Aurora Marathon is very important to me now. If I can get my hip and stride fixed, my number one running goal is to run another sub 3 hour marathon. If I do, I will get on this list of Longest Time Spans Between First and Last Sub 3 hour Marathons. The longer it takes me to go sub 3 hours, the higher up the list I go.

May 8- I ran a 1500m in 4:17 and an hour or so later ran a 5000m in 16:02. It was a beautiful night at a North Central College all comers meet. The 5000m was won in 13:50 something by teammate Danny Henderson. Olympian Steve Lacy and other top level runners werealso in the race. The closest I got was when I was lapped by the lead pack, but I got to watch the sprint finish from across the track.  Earlier that night an errant hammer throw went flying over a screen and hit a guy in the head. He died later that week.
May 17 Gil Dodds Marathon in Wheaton, Illinois. I ran 2:50:07 just missing the qualifying standard for Boston. I lost some seconds running into a parked car with about a mile to go and running too far around the  track before heading up the football field with just about 75 yards to go. It was a disappointing race to miss a qualifying spot by seconds, but I was the first Wheaton College runner to finish. 1980 was the only year the race was held. A lot of it was run on a gravel "prairie path".

Heading to the finish. I thought it would be one lap around the track.

Nope, you had to cut up the infield to finish. It was my second 11th place marathon finish in a row.

Summer training started June 2
Weekly mileage:
1) 98 miles
2) 74 miles
3) 107 miles
4) 100 miles
5) 71 miles
6) 92 miles
7) 53 miles
8) 92 miles
9) 90 miles
10) 55 miles
11) 73 miles  Ran the Falmouth Road Race in 39:58
12) 92 miles

I did make the varsity team for Wheaton College:
November 1- At the conference meet I secretly decided to try to have a "breakthrough" race. I went out with the lead pack and hit the first mile at under 5 minute pace. I tried to stay with the lead pack of North Central runners and other top runners as long as I could. It was going good until someone put concrete in my shoes and I waddled home in 27:55.The coach was mad! I was trying to go sub 26 minutes. You'll never know what you can do, if you don't try! I tried. I couldn't! !I then developed a sore right hip-later diagnosed as wallet in the back pocket of too tight jeans pain. I wasn't sure if I could run my final collegiate race.
November 15-My hip still hurt but I used a lot of Atomic Balm on it. Hit the first mile of the NCAA Div. 3 Midwest Regional race and found myself in dead last place. I can't imagine how slow that first mile really was. Fortunately my hip loosened up and I decided not to let my last cross-country race end this way. I took off and started passing people by the score and had a blast! I ended up running  26:52.

The end of cross-country running.

 November 23 I ran the Cape Cod Marathon. I finished in 2:51:57. It was not run in Falmouth in those days, but rather on the desolate and windy Otis Air Force Base. I was hacking away the whole race with a terrible cold and cough. Every cough seemed to send me backwards a bit. There was a lot of pack running and that time only netted me 44th place overall.

Here is a picture of race winner James Murphy finishing the 1980 Cape Cod Marathon.

Dec. 5 The Wheaton College Cross-country team was doing another 24 hour relay. After running the previous year, I said never again. I decided to start at the same time as the relay runners and run 50 miles around the track instead. I did have a plan to walk a lap at regular intervals as I was seeing what it would feel like to be an ultra-marathoner, not to go fast. It took me 8 hours 41 minutes and 43 seconds. I don't recall if I ate anything or what I did for nutrition. The highlight was that somewhere around 40 miles, someone dragged a stereo system out onto the track and played Bruce Springsteen's album "Born to Run". The second best thing is that I walked home and went to bed that night. I came back the next morning to cheer on the still running relay runners.

 

The day after running 50 miles and getting a good night sleep.The 5 guys on both the top and bottom rows were the 24 hour relay runners.They look the part, too!

The loneliness of a 24 hour relay. Jon Orewiler handing off to Coach Jim Whitnah.

Final victory lap for the relay runners. Mark Faris and Dave Whitnah can be seen sleep-running.

In 1980, Bill  Rodger's won his fourth Boston Marathon and Jacqueline Gareau was the female winner after Rose Ruiz tried to steal the win. 

Here is a great old clip off someone's home movie camera showing the Boston Marathon in 1980. You can see Bill Rodgers and other top runners racing by the camera. Interestingly enough you can even see Rose Ruiz (yellow shirt-45 seconds) after she sneaked onto the course. At the end of the video you can see the 1979 NCAA Cross-Country Championships that Alberto Salazar won. You can also see teammate Danny Henderson finishing in 10th place (just days after winning the NCAA Div. 3 XC Championships-blue shirt-orange shorts-orange hat). Then he did that 24 hour relay with us weeks after this race!


Here is another clip. At 1:28 you can see Jacqueline Gareau and the 2nd place female Patti Lyons Catalano. Notice the police horses on the course. In 1981 Patti would slam right into the backside of one of the horses during the marathon.


Bill Rodgers also won his fourth New York City Marathon in 1980. Greta Waitz was the female champion.

Tony Sandoval won the USA Olympic Trials Marathon (to nowhere). Part of the course was in Canada. Women were still not allowed to run the marathon distance in the Olympics.

Craig Virgin won his first of two World Cross-Country Championships with an outstanding finish. You have to see this, if you have never seen it before.



The USA did not participate in the  Moscow Olympics, but Seb Coe defeated teammate Steve Ovett after losing to him in the 800 meters.







 Miruts Yifter won the 5000 meters and the 10000 meters.





There was lots of running and track on television in 1980.

5 Decades of Sub 3:00 Marathons

That is me and Runner's World editor Amby Burfoot before the 2000 Boston Marathon (long story here). That is a picture of him in the background winning the 1968 Boston Marathon.

So Amby Burfoot and Gary Allen have recently created a Facebook page called "5 Decades of Sub 3:00 Marathons." If you are on Facebook check it out. The premise behind the page is to find marathoners with the speed and longevity to have run a sub 3 hour marathon in five straight decades. Amby wrote about Gary Allen and added a  few names of runners who he knows have achieved this feat here. I would assume hundreds if not thousands have accomplished this (and maybe they have) but there are only a few names on the list so far. The names include Derek Turnbull, the late Larry Olsen and a few others. A few name runners are also ready to achieve this feat at the start of this coming decade. Interestingly enough, even the great Johhny Kelley did not quite achieve the 5 decades of sub 3 hours. He missed it by 3 minutes in his fifth decade.

I had already thought about the fact that I am approaching the running of a marathon in my fifth decade (post -see the last paragraph).

So I got to wondering if I could place on this list. I lost the list of marathons I was trying to keep over 10 years ago due to a hard drive crash and I have never tried to start the list going again. I know I have done about 40-50 of them, I just have to do some research and get all the times and dates correct. At first I thought that I would just miss being on the list (if I could run a fast marathon this decade-by less than 5 minutes, but I am thinking the last 10 years went by too quickly and times I thought I ran a few years ago where much further back in time).

This is the list I can come up with for now.

1970's November 25 1979 Philadelphia Marathon 3:03:57 (close!)
1980's April 26, 1981 Lake County Heart Fund Marathon (Illinois) 2:48:36
1990's September 28,1997 Clarence Demar Marathon 2:56:11
2000's Octber 15, 2006 Bay State Marathon 3:09:30

So unless I find a missing faster marathon. I can join the sub 3:10 club as soon as I go sub 3:10 this decade.

Another way to look at decades of running is to go by teens, twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, and if needed sixties. This is probably a more fair way to count decades as it relates to personal decades and not just a point on the calendar. According to this way of counting races. I have come up with this list showing that I have already accomplished 5 decades of marathon running.

Teens: Dec. 3, 1977 (18 years old) White Rock Marathon (Dallas) 3:25:44
Twenties: April 26, 1981 (21 years old) Lake County Heart Fund Marathon 2:48:36
Thirties: September 28,1997 (38 years old) Clarence Demar Marathon 2:56:11
Forties: Octber 15, 2006 (47 years old) Bay State Marathon 3:09:30
Fifties: October 25, 2009 (50 years old) Cape Cod Marathon 3:22:44

Well I got in five decades, but I am not that close to a sub 3 hour club. According to this list, I am in a sub 3:25 hour club for 5 decades).

I wish I thought of going for such a feat in the previous years. For example I didn't decide to run the Bay State Marathon (fastest in my 40's) until a spur of the moment decision the night before. I took it easy the first half and lost about 3 minutes waiting for port-a-john halfway through. I ddn't race and recovered nicely enough to run 8 miles the next day and a marathon (only 12 seconds slower the next week). I did no training run over 16 miles before that race either. In fact, I have never truly trained for a marathon by following a marathon training plan in all my years of running. I never did any runs over 16 miles training for marathons until 10-15 years ago, although I often ran back-to-back marathons throughout the years.

So, like most things running related with me, I get close to achieving something, but never close enough. It reminds me of a great song by The Alarm called "Close." "I've been close, closer than close, so close, not close enough."



BUT WAIT JUST ONE MINUTE!!!!!!!

I started thinking about decades. There is some debate about when a decade officially begins and ends. According to the experts, a decade really begins on the first year of the decade such as 2001 or 2011.

"The new decade will start on January 1st, 2011! There was no year 0 (our calendar went from 1 BC to 1 AD with no 0 inbetween). So the first decade started with the year 1, the second decade with the year 11, the third decade with the year 21, and so on.
If the calendar didn't start in the year 0 how can you say it ends in 9? This decade and century started on January 1, 2001 and ends December 31, 2010. "

If we use this as our criteria, I actually have a chance to run five decades of sub 3 hour marathons. Can I do it? It might be close, but will I be close enough?

Here is a picture of the 1980 Gill Dodds Marathon  listed below. Back in 1980, you had to run a sub 2:50 to qualify for Boston (see a Runner's World daily news article from last year referencing my blog) . I missed it by 7 seconds. I did run into a parked car with less than one mile to go, stopping me for a few seconds and then after running onto the track for the finish in the stadium, I assumed we were to do a full lap like in the Olympics. No, as I went to finish the lap, I didn't notice that at the top of the track you were supposed to run onto the infield and finish on the football field. I lost a few more seconds turning around to finish correctly. Close, but not close enough to run Boston the next year. Oh yeah, I finished 11th. The top ten got awards. Always close!

Take a look now at my results according to this "mathematic" definition of a decade:

Decade starting in and ending in...
1971-1981 June 1980 Gill Dodds Marathon (Ill.) 2:50:07
1981-1991 April 26, 1981 Lake County Heart Fund Marathon (Illinois) 2:48:36
1991-2001 September 28,1997 Clarence Demar Marathon 2:56:11
2001-2011 Octber 15, 2006 (47 years old) Bay State Marathon 3:09:30

BUT, I still have until the end of this year to go sub 3:00 in my fourth decade. Someone explain to me if I have my math wrong. Can I do it? There is a good possibility. I am finding the balance in my muscles that have been missing for years. If I can train without getting injured, I believe by the fall, I could go sub 3:00 with effort and dedication. In fact, if I decide this is a worthy goal and my math is correct, then maybe I will have to follow a marathon training plan for the first time in my life! Then I would have to do a sub 3 hour one more time after the "new" decade begins in 2011. It sounds like I might just be developing a running goal in my mind. This could get fun, but would probably be noteworthy to no one else but me. It is a goal, however,  and this old runner could really use one. If not. I am keeping fit until my 60's and going for 6 decades of marathons, but I really do not want to think about that just yet!

And I might add, I may not have been very fast, but I guess I have had longevity in the sport!