Running the Falmouth Road Race 50 years later: 1975-2025

I have had a few people over the years contact me to ask me whether I was ever able to "recover my stride" and return to running. Why yes I have. This video tells part of the story.



Here is a link to an old blog post I made on the 1975 Falmouth Road Race.

WHEN RUNNING WAS YOUNG AND SO WERE WE by Jack D. Welch

Having grown up with running during the running boom years, reading When Running Was Young and So Were We: the collected works of a sportswriter from the golden age of American running was a look back into the golden years of running and the people and events that shaped the sport and competitions of the 1970s to 1990s. Many of the articles seemed distantly familiar to me, as they should as they were written by Jack Welch for Running Magazine and Track and Field News and reprinted here. I started reading this book earlier in the year and enjoyed in particular reading about the world class athletes and races. The writing can feel dated, as if you picked up an old running magazine (which I have plenty of) and read through the articles. At times it is fun to read about events that are still crystal clear and well known historically, at other times you may be reading about a runner on the verge of greatness, who never quite made that step towards becoming a well known name years later.

I finally finished the book on some long plane rides last weekend. I found that I skimmed some of the later articles if they didn't interest me. Some of the articles highlight athletes such as Dick Beardsley, Jon Sinclair, Greg Meyer, Mark Nenow, Mark Curp, John Gregorek. Ed Eyestone, and Steve Spence. Other athletes include Chris Fox (his Syracuse XC team just won the men's NCAA Championships-I watched the race in the Philadelphia Airport between flights), Bob Kennedy, Alberto Salazar, Steve Prefontaine, Keith Brantly, Gerry Lingren, and Marc Davis. Female greats include Patti Catalono (now Patti Dillon), Lynn Jennings, Joan Benoit, Ingrid Kristiansen, and Mary Decker,

The section on running coaches may need a second read for those wondering about Chris Fox's coaching success as their are two articles on his coach Greg Shank. There are other coaches written about as well. The book also highlights many races. One annoying thing is for many of the more forgotten races, we are told the winners right up front, leaving out the mystery of who won the race as you read the recap. There are plenty of reports on the Boston Marathon, the New York City Marathon, the Chicago Marathon, and the Honolulu Marathon, among other races. The Hood to Coast relay race highlighting a Nike superstar team managed by Alberto Salazar refers to him as a "maniac" and "paranoid" traits that he carries over to his coaching today.

If you are new to running and unfamiliar with these champions, races, and period of time, When Running Was Young and So Were We would be a good piece of reading. If you ran during these years, you would enjoy a trip down memory lane.

2014 New Balance Games Grand Prix in Boston

Had a great time with my daughter watching the champion track athletes compete at the 2014 New Balance Grand Prix at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston. Lots of crazy things happened. Cam Levins, a favorite in the men's 3000m lost a shoe, Galen Rupp dropped out of the mile after setting two American records recently, and Jenny Simpson threw in a big last lap going for the American record in the women's two mile except it was not the last lap. She really had two to go and stopped before realizing she had to get running again to finish the race. Despite these unfortunate mishaps, there was a world record in the men's 4 x 800m relay, although Nick Symmonds' team was not involved and Mary Cain set another World's Junior record. This time in the 1000m. Here are some videos I took of some of the races. I need to get a better camera than my Flipcam.

Men's 4 x 800m world record had an outstanding finish!


Mary Cain winning the women's 1000m


Mary Cain after the race:


Men's Mile Galen Rupp drops out:


Women's 2 mile Jenny Simpson misjudges the finish


Men's 3000m last lap


Women's 2000m Kim Conley destroys the field

1982 Commonwealth Games Marathon video

Here is a recently uploaded video of the second half of one of the greatest marathons ever run. This race was just a few months after the Salazar/ Beardsley Duel in the Sun. Start at about 57 minutes if you want to watch the duel and race to the finish.

From the Youtube video:

The race that stopped the Nation ... October 8, 1982 ... Robert De Castella was the favourite to win the marathon at the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane. At the start of the race, Tanzanians Gidamis Shahanga and Juma Ikangaa raced to the lead and were 50m ahead of the pack after five minutes. After the 20 km mark, this gap had widened to several hundred meters. By the 23 km mark, Ikangaa had taken the lead from his compatriot, with de Castella in the main pack some 250m behind, but closing. de Castella passed the now tiring Shahanga at the 38 km mark, and in the next kilometre drew level with Ikangaa then took the lead. However Ikangaa was not done yet, and re-took the lead slightly. The duel continued for the remainder of the race. Eventually de Castella pulled away, and won by 80m in a time of 2:09:18, 12 seconds ahead of Ikangaa. Briton Mike Gratton finished 3rd in 2hrs 12min, 6sec, and Shahanga faded to finish 6th. The race finished on the streets of Brisbane, not in the main stadium.
This video shows the race coverage from the 60 minute mark.

Deek's Golden Day recent article and video where Rob De Castella recalls his famous sprint down Brisbane's iconic riverside road.

From a letsrun thread on the race video:

 I still think the most interesting and captivating time of the marathon peaked in 1984 at LA and this was part of it.Yes the competition and depth is far behind modern times with all the 2:04 marathoners on the flat courses but you the 1984 LA Marathon was the last time the marathon in the Olympics was a major media focus. 
You had stars like Salazar, Deke,and Seko in a showdown and darkhorses like Lopes, Rod Dixon, Shahanga, Ikaanga. (However most experts favored Lopes right before the games after his 27:17 10,000 that June).
This race in hot conditions on a hilly course was the fastest marathon ever run (after Salazar's 1981 World Best was found to be run on a short course).
At the time Salazar was considered the top marathoner then Deke and Igaanga have this race. A year later they all had a big showdown in Rotterdam which Deke won and outkicked Lopes and Salazar finished in 5th place. Add Seko to the mix and Rod Dixon and you have the most entertaining and exciting era of marathoning. And then Steve Jones breaks out a year later.
The marathoners of today are so much better its no comparison. But it was a more interesting time when you had top contenders from about 9 different nations, all established names with major wins racing for the Olympic tital.
By 1992 the Olympic Marathon started being relegated to not the major focus for top marathoners.
Imagine this race with two of the top marathons ever run at the time was in the freaking Commonwealth Games. Deke and Ikaanga destroyed themselves for a race that paid zero money. And their efforts along with Salazar, Rodgers, and Shorter started the competition amongst the major city marathons that brought the money out for the next generation. Without them there wouldn't have been the financial incentive that created the depth of talent today.

Now this is racing! "Drama all the way!"

This is quite a race and definitively worth a watch if you are a fan of running. I won't give away the end result, but there is so much happening in this 1979 5000 meter track race with the great runners of that time. In this race are the world record holder holder Henry Rono (13:08.4), Rod Dixon bronze medalist at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games in the 1500 meters as he is moving up in distance at this point (a few years later-1983-he would win the New York City Marathon);  Brenden Foster, the bronze medalist at the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games in the 10,000 meters;  Eamonn Coghlan, the speedy miler who would later win the gold medal at the 1983 World Championships for 5000 meters; Bernie Ford, and English runner who finished 3rd in the 1976 World Cross-Country Championships, American Rudy Chapa, Alberto Salazar's college roommate and storied high school and collegiate distance runner, and English runner Mike McLeod, who would later finish 2nd at the 1981 Falmouth Road Race and win the silver medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games 10,000 meters. Throw all that talent in a race and interesting things are sure to happen, especially with Henry Rono's weird surging tactics. There is even a fall in the race. Watch and enjoy. This is spectacular racing and the video is very high quality, something you don't often see in these older videos.

At the end of this race, there is a bonus race of Steve Ovett setting the 2 mile world record. It only shows the final mile, but again we have Henry Rono, Eamonn Coghlan, and Mike McCleod, as well as Nick Rose. Steve Ovett plays with the constantly surging Henry Rono and celebrates as he passes for the win and Henry's record.

Of course, showboating the finish didn't always work out for Steve Ovett, as this popular video "Arrogance Personified" shows. John Treacy never gives up  in this race. We also get to see the late great Bill McChesney running.

Growing up with The Falmouth Road Race

Meeting with Amby Burfoot in 2000.

I grew up in the small Cape Cod town of Falmouth. Falmouth is a town whose population more than triples in size during the summer season due to its lovely beaches and seaside lifestyle. Falmouth is also know for its annual road race and it was in Falmouth that I first loved running and racing as I literally  grew up running right along with the Falmouth Road Race. This post is a sort of part 2 to my previous post on Cameron Stracher's new book: Kings of the Road: How Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, and Alberto Salazar made Running go Boom. His book traces the history of running during the running boom years of 1972-1982 and highlights the Falmouth Road. Having started running a month after the first Falmouth Road Race in 1973 and being one of the 800 runners that ran the 1975 race with Frank Shorter and Bill Rodgers, I consider myself fortunate to be an ordinary runner during those extraordinary days and to witness and partake in the running boom years. These are just some personal reflections of growing up during those times as well as added reflections on the decline of running post 1982.

As a kid, I was not fast, as I don't think I was granted many fast-twitch muscle fibers. I was born with a lot of endurance, however, and I was told I would be a good distance runner some day when I didn't really know what that meant. I had some books on running and famous Olympic runners when I was in elementary school and decided that I wanted to run the Boston Marathon when I was in third grade. No one would take me to the race, so Amby Burfoot won instead! I guess I was a bit ahead of the curve, as I acknowledged the Boston Marathon, even as a kid. Running in the 1960s was not on many people's radar or even lists of things to do (unless you were a kid).

I recall being in 7th or 8th grade and the gym teacher had all the boys run a mile at Gov. Fuller Field. I was in the lead until about 3/4 of the way when stomach cramps hit me, but I was still the third runner to finish and I felt some accomplishment in beating all the guys in my grade who were considered the athletes at the time. Around the same time, I realized that one of my female classmates was very special, Johanna Foreman made the Faces in Crowd section of Sports Illustrated for her running prowess and the entire school had an assembly in her honor. At a time when girls where starting to pursue equality in sports, John Carroll began coaching girls alongside the boys and the girls were gaining National prominence for the Falmouth Track Club. Without knowing it, Falmouth was becoming known for its runners. Johanna went on to be a top American middle distance runner when she was in high school along with two other girls mentioned in Stracher's book: Tammy Hennemuth and Nancy Robinson (and there were plenty of other fast female runners). While I liked the idea of running and had even cut a few articles I had found of people who had actually run across the United States as some sort of inspiration for a later date, I was just a normal kid having fun doing all the sports of the neighborhood: street hockey and street football games, pickup baseball games at Worcester Court or at the ball field in Falmouth Heights right across from the beach, or just riding our bikes all over town.

Then I met my first runner. Well, I knew who he was already, but my family would marvel as we watched a high school friend and runner constantly running by our house and all over town through the summer seasons. Tommy Johnston lived a couple miles away and we kept seeing him zipping around and I think I recall that he was usually doing 8 mile runs. All that I can say is that I was very impressed and wanted to do likewise some day! In those days it was extremely rare to see anyone running on the roads at all!

Tommy Johnson running in the 1976 Falmouth Road Race.

I remember that during the summer of 1973, I kept hearing of a "marathon" that was going to be held in Falmouth. I had watched the great runners for years in track meets that were televised so readily in the 1960s and 1970s. I remember watching Jim Ryun at the 1968 summer Olympics in Mexico City and had watched everything that I could of the 1972 Munich Olympics including Frank Shorter's victory in the the marathon. Now a year later, a road race of 7 miles was going to be held from Woods Hole to that Falmouth Heights ball field just a short distance from my house. I recall thinking that it would be fun to run the race and that I might be good at it, but didn't really know what to do about it so nothing happened. I was happy that I didn't run when I saw how wet and rainy the race was in the newspaper articles afterwards. Tommy Johnston finished 9th in that inaugural Falmouth Road Race less than a month before he headed off to Wheaton College, where he continued to run cross-country.

A few weeks after that first Falmouth Road Race, I was a 9th grader at at the brand new Falmouth High School. I had intended to go out for the soccer team, but had been on vacation with my family during the preseason camp and sign up. A few weeks into the school year, Tommy's brother Stewart and I decided to join the cross-country team. It was an early release day, so there was plenty of time for running that day. I think the date was September 19, 1973 and if so, that is the date I became a runner. We ran the entire 2.9 mile cross-country course as a preview plus warmups and strides around the track as it was also a race day, we ran down the road to cheer on the varsity runners before our race. Stu and I ran together near the back of the pack when our race went off and about a mile into the woods, we went left where we should have gone right. We got lost and two girls from the opposing team followed right along. There was a lot of walking and a lot of time before we made it out of the woods and onto Gifford Street far past Brick Kiln Road where we were supposed to be . By the time we made it back to the school an hour or so later, everyone was worried about the two missing girls. No one even cared that Stu and I had been lost! I didn't run again until the next Monday (another race). All that I remember was that I could barely walk for days, let alone think about running. My legs were impossibly sore (at the time I think we calculated that we had done 8 miles of running and walking that afternoon).

Stu and I did not distinguish ourselves as runners and we usually finished last on our team of some very good runners. The only highlight would be the end of season team race which was a handicap race on our home course. I improved my best time on the course by 37 seconds and was the first to finish in an unremarkable time of 19:53 but I ended up "winning" the race: well, at least being the first finisher as I had improved the most and the starting times were based on your best time. I may not have been good, but I was hooked on running.

Unfortunately, with a new school came some really weird scheduling ideas and and an "out-there" school philosophy. Of course, this was the year when streaking became a fad and so there was a lot of overall weirdness going on. Classes were often only 20 minutes long (called mods) and there was tons of free time to study or seek out help from teachers. Right! Basically, I would spend hours in the gym each day playing basketball or would just hang out in the library with a large group of friends. By Spring, I would ride my bike to school, so I could leave school early and ride to a friend's house. We would stop along the way, if it was warm, and swim in the pond at Goodwill Park and then take his two person kayak out from Salt Pond, go under Surf Drive through the metal "tubes" underneath the road, and swim and play along the ocean off Surf Drive (around mile 4 of the Falmouth Road Race). I got a lot of biking and swimming in those days, which would serve me well in a few years.

With the school system in disarray, I along with 3 other Falmouth boys headed off to the Stony Brook School on Long Island. I knew the 2nd edition of the Falmouth Road Race was going to be happening that August and even though I was now a runner, I did not train or enter the race that year with all the planning I needed to move away from home.

I did go out for the cross-country team at Stony Brook where I found a great running coach in Marvin W. Goldberg and where I also found a running program steeped in tradition and success. Of course, I still was not fast, but I continued to love to train and to race. I also had a coach that would send me postcards in the summer months and mention that road race in my hometown and even the exploits about Johanna Foreman. The summer of 1975 was the first year I ran the Falmouth Road Race and it was my first ever road race. I was also incredulous at the thought that the two biggest names in the running world: Frank Shorter and Bill Rodgers were going to dual it out on the streets of my hometown. What a sport! I could run a race alongside the current Olympic marathon champion and the current Boston Marathon champion (and American record holder). By golly, I wasn't going to miss that race. Mr. Goldberg eventually made it out to Falmouth to watch the road race a few times as well and also to convince Bill Rodgers to be a speaker my school and at the New York State Cross-Country meet in 1977 (the year after I graduated).

After finishing the 1975 Falmouth Road Race.

I don't remember too much of the actual race. I recall heading down the wooden bridge to the Woods Hole shoreline in the first mile and running on the grass on the left side of the road when I could. I recall people shouting out and then seeing a guy in a wheelchair, Bobby Hall, go speeding by. I remember finishing and how very tired I was at the end and for the rest of the day, but I was hooked on the Falmouth Road Race and the running boom, now in its infancy was about to experience explosive growth, according to Cameron Stracher in his new book Kings of the Road: How Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, and Alberto Salazar made Running Go Boom. Many key components that fashioned the emerging growth of running as a sport happened at the Falmouth Road Race between the years of 1972 and 1982 with that 1975 race being a pivotal race. Road running was entering its heyday and Falmouth was the spot where the best runners in the country came to race and party. Every year each new edition of the race was like Christmas to this runner. All of the champions and up and comers that I had been reading about in running magazines would show up in my seaside community and duke it out on the roads I knew so well. Not only that, but I could join them, further back in the pack, and prove myself through my own running exploits. I was becoming known as a "runner" and even though my family never once saw me race a cross-country or track race, I would get their attention each year at Falmouth.

Classic Runner's World cover
of the 1978 Falmouth Road Race.

For 40 years, my dad was the pastor of the Falmouth Baptist Church on Central Park Avenue right down the road from the finish line at Heights Field. The runners would run by the back side of the church on Falmouth Heights Road right between services each race. I would always have a large cheering section there before hitting the 6 mile mark of the race and my parents would always be there cheering and snapping a few photos of the top runners from the cheap cameras I had at the time. Still to this day as I run Falmouth, I always look around hoping to see a few friends from long ago in the crowd at that point in the race and stop at the church to meet the few people I still know there as I walk back from the finishing line

After graduating from the Stony Brook School, I enrolled at Wheaton College in Illinois and ran cross-country there too! Yes, that is the same school that Tommy Johnston ran at and I chased his best times until the final cross-country race of my senior year where I finally beat his college best time. Even though Tommy was the first real runner I knew, I don't ever recall running one step with him despite both of us running for Falmouth High School and Wheaton College.

Heading for the finish in 1980.

In college, I still wasn't fast enough and with a teammate who could probably be rated the greatest division 3 distance runner of all time on my team. I knew that I would never approach being fast enough, because I truly saw what fast really looked like. I had the marathon bug. I had really wanted to run the first 5 borough New York City Marathon in 1976 when in my last year of high school. I could have just hopped on train the from Stony Brook to get to New York City, but wonder of all wonders, I was finally good enough to be on the varsity cross-country squad.I still regret  not running that race. However, after my first college cross-country season, I went down to Dallas to run in the 1977 Dallas White Rock Marathon. I was a full and willing participant in the running boom and completed 8 marathons while in college.

Eventual winner Alberto Salazar with Mike McLeod at the
1981 Falmouth Road Race.

The Falmouth Road Race continued to be a highlight of every year. I couldn't wait to see Bill Rodgers finally defeat Frank Shorter and then new champions emerge like Craig Virgin, foreigners like Rod Dixon, and finally a young upstart named Alberto Salazar. I loved the race so much, I even cut short a summer traveling around Europe with some friends so that I could be home in time to run in the 1979 version of the race.

1979 Falmouth winner Ellison Goodall

I was also watching the women's side of running as a sport make an emergence. That 1968 Boston Marathon that I wanted to run as a kid, was a year after Jock Semple had tried to pull the bib number off of runner #261 K. (Katherine) Switzer. The Falmouth Road Race also welcomed the world's best women runners and I got to see Greta, Joan, Gayle Barron, Kim Merritt and other top female athletes of the time. Sometimes, I even got to run with them. I remember running down Nobska Hill with Joan Benoit in the race one year and staying with her until we went under the bridge and she took off. One year, I finished alongside women's running pioneer Nina Kuscick. It may have been 1977. I am missing from the results, but I see her listed in different places as finishing in 9th place in 43:05 or 43:45 and that sounds about right where I would have been.




Cameron Strachers's book Kings of the Road: How Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, and Alberto Salazar Made Running Go Boom covers the glory years of American distance running during the running boom and the Falmouth Road Race plays an important part in the story. He says that the running boom ended with the 1982 version of the Falmouth Road Race. Not only did Alberto Salazar start to struggle being on top of the world after that race, but the dominance of American men in the running scene started to decline as well. In fact, since 1982 only one American male runner has won the Falmouth Road Race. It is erroneously reported in the book that Bruce Bickford won in Falmouth in 1985, but the only American male champion since Salazar was Mark Curp in 1988 (Bickford was ranked number one in the world for 10,000 meters in 1985). The 1983 race was won by a Kenyan, Joseph Nzau.

There are a few reasons for the decline of American male distance running after 1982 and Stracher covers those reasons in his book. I would also like to add one more reason to his list and it also has its Falmouth ties.

In February 1982, at a little known event held in Hawaii that catered to a small group of fitness fanatics, a young lady crawled to the finish line. Sports Illustrated had done an article on the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon a few years earlier and ABC had televised the race for a few years. I remember watching it in college and not having an understanding of the biking and swimming legs at all, but being enthralled with what type of athlete would prove most dominant. Julie Moss was less than one mile from winning the female race when her body gave out and television cameras caught the gut wrenching display of Julie making it to the finish line any way she could and ultimately being passed by Kathleen McCarthy for the win just before stretching her hand across the finish line. When the race was televised on Wide World of Sports  thousands of people watched and decided that they just had to do that race (including me). The television broadcast was such a hit and created such a stir that it was shown again the next week.



I think that event had as much of an impact on the way American's viewed endurance sports as Frank Shorter's triumph in the Olympic marathon. People took notice!  Just as I was on the running boom  and marathon bandwagon, I was soon to be on the triathlon bandwagon. The next year at the 1983 Boston Marathon, it was announced that Dave McGillivray was going to put on an Ironman distance race on Cape Cod that September. Dave was a big running figure already in New England as he had run across the country for the Jimmy Fund in 1978 and received a lot of publicity for his efforts. He had also participated in the Hawaii Ironman. As soon as I heard about the race, I was in, despite not having any swimming or biking background. I went out and bought a $300 bike and started training. I had no coaching and did not know any person who had even completed a triathlon, let alone any swimmers or cylcists. I swam that summer off (appropriately) Racing Beach in Falmouth trying to learn how to do the freestyle stroke and keep my head in the water. I biked out to the Cape Cod Canal and back and I ran. One note: Dave McGillivray became the race director of the Falmouth Road Race in 2012.

The Falmouth Track Club had been putting on a members only triathlon for a couple of years and that summer in 1983 that race became my first triathlon. I finished fourth overall, but the newspaper reports had the organizers already complaining about the size of the event and the non track club members in the race. Then, big time triathloning hit Falmouth. The nationwide Bud Light Triathlon Series showed up in Falmouth and about 900 triathletes came to race at Old Silver Beach. It was credited with being the largest open water swim on the east coast at the time and the race organizers were also credited with creating hills on the swim. It was stormy and the storm and angry waters were not just in the salt water. Falmouth officials did not want the swim to go off on time and instead wanted the organizers to wait for the waves to die down. The race organizers did not listen and the race started on time, but they were not invited back to Falmouth again. I got the feeling that the town was not really appreciating the attention the race got when they already had a road race that needed attention. Triathlons did not happen for many years after that in Falmouth.

One other side note about the USTS race. The day before the race at the prerace show, the featured guest was a young lady whose finish had brought the nationwide spotlight onto triathlons. Julie Moss was in town to be the master of ceremonies at this Falmouth event. While triathlons being hosted in Falmouth were stalled after that race, the attention given to triathlons and multi-sport races was on the upswing. And yes, that September I did complete my third triathlon at the Cape Cod Endurance Triathlon (a full distance Ironman event). The race passed through many Cape Cod towns, from Sandwich to Provincetown, but the one town it did not get near to was Falmouth.

Scott Tinley (here in 1985) and Scott Molina would both later win
the Cape Cod Endurance Triathlon.

I think Julie Moss, Ironman races, and triathlons in general heralded a shift from running to an interest in other endurance sports. It was the new kid in town and those athletes who were getting tired of running, found some new ways to test out their bodies. I also think that triathlons started a shift in thinking away from an admiration of whippet thin runners to more muscular or well rounded athletic bodies. If Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, and Alberto Salazar were going to be replaced as icons of endurance sports, then Dave Scott, Mark Allen, Scott Tinley, and Scott Molina were more than happy to take up the mantle. People also started getting curious about this new idea called cross-training and soon Greg LeMond and his Tour de France victories started getting people interested in cycling. Fitness takes on many forms and activities these days. I am glad to see American distance running making a comeback on the international scene, however the average runner these days does not have the drive and enthusiasm for all out training and racing like what was going on during the running boom years. It is amazing to think that those early years of the Falmouth Road Race are now part of the running past and showcase the history of your sport. I am thrilled that it happened in my own back yard and that I got to be a participant an observer of those wonderful days.

Other Falmouth Road Race Posts

1975 Falmouth Road Race

1976 Falmouth Road Race

1977 Falmouth Road Race

1978 Falmouth Road Race

1980 Falmouth Road Race

2006 Falmouth Road Race

2008 Falmouth Road Race

2009 Falmouth Road Race

And here is the coolest part of Cameron Stracher's book. It is nice to see my past blog posts played a part in his research for the book.

"Kings of the Road" by Cameron Stracher

If I were a writer, Kings of the Road would be the book I would have loved to have written. I am not a writer however, and I am so glad that Cameron Stracher did the heavy lifting and put into book form so much of what I love about the history of running. This is a wide-ranging, but smartly cohesive book that should be on the must read list of every person who calls themselves a marathoner, a road racer, a jogger, or a runner. The complete and marathon-length title of the book is Kings of the Road: How Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, and Alberto Salazar Made Running Go Boom (official release date is April 9). This is a book about how running invaded the consciousness of everyday people all across America in the years between 1972 and 1982: a time we now call the "The Running Boom." There were many catalysts of change that came together to create such a wonderful moment that reshaped the thinking and athleticism of people across the country. The running boom led to mass participation running events as well as to the world leading status of American distance runners. This book explores those roots and moments and how they all came together.

The Start of the 1978 Falmouth Road Race.

There were many catalysts which helped spur the running boom and Cameron Stracher covers them all. He adroitly captures the zeitgeist of the era through the music, movies, and politics of the time as he intertwines the significant people and events that shaped the running boom. He chose to identify the Falmouth Road Race as the unifying element upon which the running movement was shaped and polished. It was there that the three main running characters raced as the torch was passed from Shorter to Rodgers and then on to Salazar as the main players on the world and American running stage. The book is not just about Falmouth and these three runners, nor is it a biography of these champions. Stracher picks out the races and moments where the enigmatic and cerebral Frank Shorter, the friendly and somewhat loopy Bill Rodgers, and the aloof and focused Alberto Salazar strove for and achieved greatness. We learn their background, like we do the history of Falmouth, but we also learn of the multiple other characters, races, and events that merged together to help create the running boom.

Frank Shorter winning the 1975 Falmouth Road Race.

Stracher carefully and intelligently picked the details and moments that galvanized and transformed the running movement and which pushed running into the collective consciousness of thousands and millions across the country who decided that they too could become their own running heroes. No longer would a runner be laughed at for running through the streets in his "underwear" but rather the champion runners were widely known, even outside the running community due to mainstream newspaper, magazine, and television coverage, and thus wearing
red and white striped Dolfin shorts while running through town no longer brought catcalls or unpleasant comments (well, that may not be entirely true!). Runners were skinny, but tough and even admired. Besides framing and retelling the stories of Shorter, Rodgers, and Salazar and their impact on the world stage, this book delves into many of the influences and history of athletes and events from ancient times up to those preceding and coinciding with the running boom. Without being wordy, the details are enough and quite interesting for a reader already familiar with this history of running as well as for a novice without a knowledge of these facts. Many runners will already be familiar with the three chosen runners, but this is not their biographies. Their achievements are noted, but framed within the greater context of moving onto the story of how running became the popular sport of the masses at this time in history and how the careers of these three athletes intertwined over this short period of time.

Bill Rodgers leading the 1978 Falmouth Road Race
at about the 6 mile mark.

I love this story, because it is also my story. It is familiar to me because I was there, pulled along in the excitement of watching a world class event develop in my Cape Cod hometown of Falmouth. I became a runner just weeks after the first Falmouth Road Race was held in 1973 and the great champions who came to run and party just down the road from my house excited me to no end as a teenager. As I was watching it all develop, it certainly molded me into the runner and fan of the sport that I am today. I still love the sport, the competition, and of course the Falmouth Road Race as well as all the events that were spawned from the boom in the 1970s and onward  It is a story I know well (and have tried to chronicle in this blog) , but I was entertained by all the new details that Cameron Stracher was able to piece together and highlight in this book. The story is book-ended between two races in which Alberto Salazar twice almost ran himself to death and I was also a participant in both of those events: the 1978 Falmouth Road Race, where Alberto was read his last rights as he lay in a ice filled pool with temperature of 108 degrees, and the 1982 Boston Marathon "Duel in the Sun" between Salazar and Dick Beardsley. In between these retellings lie a history worth knowing.

This is the book that should resonate with the beginning joggers trying to go from Couch to 5K, to the charity or bucket list marathoners who fill the roads in the big city marathons, all the way up to the highly competitive racers who compete throughout the country in scholastic races or in road races measured in distances from the 5k on up to the marathon. Those who have run the Falmouth Road Race know its winding roadways and this book likewise twists and turns as the story of running unfolds. You will enjoy how Stracher combines the personalities and events that somehow can be traced back in some way to a seashore race run along Vineyard Sound.

The roads are crowded these days with runners, but I am not sure the younger post-running boom crowd really knows or appreciates the vibrant history of the sport that is so readily available to them each weekend with choices of multiple races from which to choose from in order to compete. It is time to remember.

A photo I took of the awards ceremony after the
 1976 Falmouth Road Race.
Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, Randy Thomas, George Reed,
Alberto Salazar, Amby Burfoot, Bob Hodge, and Mike Buckley.

If Born to Run can ignite a multitude of people to contemplate ultramarathons and barefooted running, then a more sensible book about the historic roots of road running and mass participation events should appeal to both the casual and competitive runner. A few years ago I was running with a very fast local runner in my running club and in conversation I realized that he had never heard of Steve Prefontaine. I can just as readily assume that many, if not most runners under a certain age might not have any clue who Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, and Alberto Salazar are or how they impacted the sport. Here, you can learn their stories, achievements, motivations, as well as learn their influence on the growing sport. You will also read about lesser known characters and contributors to the sport who also deserve credit for their part played in the history of running.The book is also about how the big city marathons got started as races went from dozens of participants or hundreds in the case of the Boston Marathon, to thousands of racers, and then to the point where races had to limit the number of participants.

Finish line at Falmouth 1980.

Nowadays, a race can sometimes have thousands of runners in just its first year. Hundreds of runners sign up for low key local races. My first road race (not including high school cross-country and track races) was the third Falmouth Road Race held in 1975. This was a most pivotal race in the running boom as it was the first time the 1972 Olympic Marathon Champion, Frank Shorter, and the 1975 Boston Marathon Champion Bill Rodgers competed against each other in a road race. A crowd of about 800 runners participated in the race that year and that was considered a huge field at the time. The running world and the national press took notice. Nowadays, Falmouth limits the field to about 10,000 runners. Of course, this 1975 race plays an important role in the Kings of the Road story and I was happy to be there.

Here is a photo I took after the 1980 Falmouth Road Race
 of Bill Rodgers and Fred Lebow of the New York City Marathon
 having an intense conversation.
You can read about Bill and Fred and their disagreements
 over money and competition
throughout "King of the Road." Little did I know that
I was probably interrupting a serious disagreement here.

The book is an enjoyable and fast-paced read. The details and background information is abundant, but not excessive so that a reader is not bogged down in wordiness. The thrill and unique excitement of those early days are readily apparent and definitely true to my recollections. Just like "Born to Run" Kings of the Road twists history, science, and culture together with a cast of compelling characters, a noteworthy setting, and some rather dramatic races. I have heard that certain parts of "Born to Run" were more storytelling than accurate reporting. The events and happenings retold in Kings of the Road are told with a reporters accuracy to the facts (I did notice a couple of minor mistakes). It all rings true to what I saw and experienced! I wanted to rip through the book to find its secrets, however I also wanted to slow down my reading and savor the retelling of events, because they brought back so many pleasant memories. Each chapter starts with a historic photo (nice to see), a running quote, and an intriguing title. As I was reading, I was constantly brought back to many a hot humid Sunday afternoon in August starting in the small village of Woods Hole and ending up 7 miles later on a ballfield in Falmouth Heights. The ocean along Vineyard Sound, the salty air, Nobska Lighthouse  the winding roads, crowds of spectators, bursting lungs and weary muscles, a downhill sprint finish, and a party with thousands of other runners where you could mingle with the running superstars of the day. This is the annual Falmouth Road Race and a great event to evoke the times when running became King and the Kings of the Road became superstars.

Salazar at 6 miles, 1977 Falmouth.

Please do yourself a favor and read this book and become enthralled with the athletes and a time when a sport was born. Learn the history of our sport and enjoy the many stories and characters. Just like any time you lace up your running shoes and hit the roads, I can guarantee that you will have a good time!

This is already a wordy post, but I have more to say. Look for additional posts centered more on my recollections and connections to the Falmouth Road Race with a local flair as well as an additional reason, with ties to Falmouth, for the demise of the popularity of competitive running and the nationwide disintegration of interest in the sport of running.

10 Best Running Books of 2012

This is my list of the top 10 running related books that I read this year. The links will take you to my more extensive reviews.

1) Dandelion Growing Wild by Kim Jones This was the most unexpectedly wonderful book that I read this year and it has stuck with me more-so than other books. Reading about world class marathoner Kim Jones' life and triumphs over the many adversities placed in her pathway from her childhood to her retirement from competitive running. The details read like fiction at first, but she deals with life's challenges from a humane and understanding perspective. You better get the Kindle version. A new copy of the paperback version is now selling for over $400 on Amazon! A newly edited paperback version will should be back on at Amazon next week according to Kim.


2) The Purple Runner by Paul Christman Not a new book, but a reissue of a classic running book that was hard to find, and it definitely lived up to my expectations. This is one of the best fiction books you will find about running.





3) Running with the Kenyans by Adharanand Finn I would certainly like to do what Finn did! He journeys to Kenya's Rift Valley  to live and train with the Kenyans to see if it would improve his running and to shine a light into the world of the Kenyan distance runners and their hopes and dreams.




4) Running for my Life by Lopez Lomong A wonderful story of survival with Lopez Lomong's journey from war torn Sudan, to a being a lost boy in a refuge camp in Kenya, to journeying to the United States where he becomes a high school runner and eventually a two-time Olympian for the USA. What a life!




5) 14 Minutes by Alberto Salazar The great American marathoner, Alberto Salazar, and his 14 minute brush with death to a heart attack. The book details the career of this great American runner and coach.





6) The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton This book is not really about running, but it makes you wonder if the same drug culture is/was as prevalent in running. This book was certainly one of the final nails in Lance Armstrong's coffin. If you want an honest look at how the cycling superstars kept their pedals in the game and their feet on the top of the winner's podium, then you should read this book.



7) Move Without Pain by Martha Peterson This is the only "exercise" book on my list although I have checked into many others. I use this as a go to book when I want to do Somatic movement exercises. It is a well thought out and presented book and the movements work!




8) Because I Can by Janet Oberholtzer Never give up! Janet is nearly killed in an horrific automobile accident and is told she may never walk again. Janet details the recovery process and the changes it made on her body and in her soul. Yes, Janet returns to running. This is an inspiring read!




9) I'm Here To Win: A World Champion's Advice for Peak Performance by Chris McCormack I didn't review this book, but Chris tells the story of how he became one of the greatest triathletes in the world and his eventual wins in the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon. Chris details the mental aspects of the game. He had to think like Mohammed Ali and plan out his triumphant race strategy in advance and get other triathletes in on his plan even when though they did not realize this.. Here is Chris McCormack on his 2010 Ironman Championship win.




10 A Life Without Limits: A World Champion's Journey by Chrissie Wellington I did not review this book on probably one of the greatest female triathletes of all time. Chrissie wrote more of a "gee-whiz look what I just did" account of her triathlon successes. I liked the thinking, training, and facing bits in Chris's book better as she does not go into the nitty gritty of what it takes to be a sports superstar. However, you do get a glimpse into her "well-lived" life and her many interests and accomplishments outside of triathlon racing. Here is Chrissie winning her fourth and final Hawaii Ironman World Championship, including her Blazeman roll. She said she has retired from triathlon just last month.



Some of the other running related  books I have read this year:

Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health by William Davis. I read half of this and was convinced to try going gluten-free. It seems to be working quite well for me one month later. The book was heavy on the science and you can find most of the gluten-free  information you would want online. The bread of today is not the bread that people ate for ages!

Anatomy for Runners: Unlocking Your Athletic Potential for Health, Speed, and Injury Prevention by Jay Dichary I think this is one of the best and most up to date books I have read on injuries and injury prevention. You can learn to be your own physical therapist!

Tread Lightly: Form, Footwear, and the Quest for Injury-Free Running By Bill Katovsky and Peter Larson of the highly regarded Runblogger blog.

Natural Running: The Simple Path to Stronger, Healthier Running by Danny Abshire and Brian Metzler Another book on how to run post "Born to Run" I was told that this post would be sent to Danny Abshire, but I never got a response. I got my questions and feet problems answered through Muscle Activation Technique (M.A.T.) and no longer wear orthotics and my feet and big toe are landing on the ground much better now!

Movement by Gray Cook It was much cheaper to buy the Kindle edition. It is not worth reading on a Kindle. I haven't read much of it, due to that fact. I would want to browse and leaf through this book to find what I want, not push Kindle buttons.

Corrective Exercise Solutions to Common Shoulder and Hip Dysfunction by Evan Osar Here is another book that I should have bought a hard copy version of instead of the much cheaper Kindle version. It is not easy to find what you want on a Kindle.

Marathon Crasher: The Life and Times of Merry Lepper, the First American Woman to Run a Marathon by David Davis This is a short 48 page book on a little known American woman and her achievement that has widely been overlooked.

Happy running and reading to everyone in 2013! I will gladly take recommendations of other books to read, as I am always looking for a good book!

Here are two books I am looking forward to reading in 2013.

Kings of the Road: How Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, and Alberto Salazar Made Running Go Boom by Cameron Stracher. I know that this book has been in the works for a couple of years and that the Falmouth Road Race plays an important part in it! Due out in April.

For fans of The Perfect Mile and Born to Run, a riveting, three-pronged narrative about the golden era of running in America—the 1970s—as seen through running greats, Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, and Alberto Salazar

In 1972 American distance runner Frank Shorter won Olympic gold in the marathon, a history-making accomplishment that launched a seminal decade in the sport.
Kings of the Road tells the story of running during that golden period from 1972 to 1981 when Shorter, then Bill Rodgers, and then Alberto Salazar captured the imagination of a disillusioned American public, as they passed their figurative baton from one to another. These three menwere American running during those years, and though all three toed the line together only a few times—at the legendary Falmouth Road Race—they gave their sport real conflict and drama for the first time. Each man built on what the other achieved, and their successes, in turn, fueled a nation of couch potatoes to put down the remote and lace up their sneakers.
As America now experiences a similar running boom, Kings of the Road delivers a stirring narrative of three men pushing themselves toward greatness and taking their country along for the ride.

Marathon Man: My 26.2-Mile Journey from Unknown Grad Student to the Top of the Running World by Bill Rodgers and Matthew Shepatin This one is also due out in April. Bill Rodgers will be signing lots of books at the Boston Marathon this year. I have his first biography from 1982  and it will be fun to read a new one!

The legendary long-distance runner details his historic victory in the 1975 Boston Marathon that launched the modern running boom

Within a span of two hours and nine minutes, Bill Rodgers went from obscurity to legend, from Bill Rodgers to "Boston Billy." In doing so, he instantly became the people’s champ and the poster boy for the soulful 1970s distance runner. Having won the Boston Marathon and New York Marathon four times each, he remains the only marathoner to have appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated twice. Winning the Holy Grail of marathons in an unthinkable record time changed Bill’s life forever.
But his dramatic breakthrough in Boston also changed the lives of countless others, instilling in other American runners the belief that they could follow in his footsteps, and inspiring thousands of regular people to lace up their shoes and chase down their own dreams. In the year before Rodger’s victory at the 1975 Boston Marathon, 20,000 people had completed a marathon in the United States. By 2009, participants reached nearly half a million.
Thirty-seven years later Bill Rodgers still possesses the same warm, endearing, and whimsical spirit that turned him into one of America's most beloved athletes. In Marathon Man he details for the first time this historic race and the events that led him there.