[New post] NEW YORK CITY MARATHON 1976 – THE CROSSROADS
Toni Reavis posted: " As the running world gears up for the 50th TCS New York City Marathon next Sunday, November 7, 2021, here's a look back at the time when the sport of marathoning crossed not only the Verrazano Narrows Bridge for the first time, but its own Rubicon, as we"
As the running world gears up for the 50th TCS New York City Marathon next Sunday, November 7, 2021, here's a look back at the time when the sport of marathoning crossed not only the Verrazano Narrows Bridge for the first time, but its own Rubicon, as well.
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It was always the same. Whenever somebody walked into the original Bill Rodgers Running Center in Boston's Cleveland Circle and saw the eponymous store owner for the first time, a taken aback look would flash across their face.
"Jeez, I thought he would be much taller," they would invariably say after Bill departed.
A light-boned 5'8", 128 pounds of sinew and tousled blond hair, Rodgers was ideally built for distance running, a proclivity he first picked up while chasing butterflies for hours on end in his hometown of Newington, Connecticut. Yet people were always surprised to meet a man slightly shorter than the average American male. But here's the thing: it seemed like every picture in competition caught Bill floating on air, half a head above his fellow competitors, hence the sense of his height as being that of a taller man.
Bob Hodge (left) battles Bill Rodgers at inaugural Litchfield Hills Road Race in Connecticut
Yet on 31 July 1976, Rodgers' springy stride had been reduced to a ground-bound hobble as he entered the Montreal Olympic Stadium for the final 400 meters, a broken man, physically and psychologically. Fifteen minutes had passed since Waldemar Cierpinski of East Germany, Frank Shorter of Boulder, Colorado and Karel Lismont of Belgium had finished their medal-winning performances at the 18th Olympic Marathon.
Of the 71 competitors from 36 countries who competed that Sunday, Rodgers would finish 40th place in 2:25:14. More tellingly, he wore bib number 1 on his deep red USA singlet, denoting him as the top qualifier in the field, an honor earned by his 2:09:55 American record win in Boston 1975.
For the man who had dueled step for step with the defending Olympic champion at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon on May 22nd, the result at the July 31st Olympic Marathon was particularly stinging.
Rodgers & Shorter at 1976 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Eugen, Oregon
"I came into Montreal as one of the favorites," said BR. "Seeing all those runners I could routinely beat in a training run ahead of me was devastating. I remember looking up at the big scoreboard and seeing, "see you in Moscow 1980" and thinking, wow, that's so far away."
For the first time in his budding career, the Newington, Connecticut native arrived at the start of a major marathon - THE major marathon - with a foot injury. Though not serious, it kept him from doing any speed work in the final two months leading to the biggest race of his career.
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