Ny Most | Unforgettable , Marathon

(And What | Learned From It)

BY RON WAYNE

‘COURTESY OF RON WAYNE

OSTON, April 18, 1977—The third

Monday in April is Patriots’ Day, a state holiday in Massachusetts, and the unofficial first day of spring.

Growing up in the Boston area, I had my ownritual that day from the time I could walk until I graduated high school. I would visit my grandparents’ house in Brookline, a town adjacent to Boston, watch a late-morning Red Sox game on TV, and then cheer on the runners in the Boston Marathon as they ran by my grandparents’ house.

As the runners passed by me on Beacon Street, I would wonder, Is this the only race they enter each year? How do they prepare for this event? I learned that in the ’50s and ’60s the top finishers were usually from Finland and Japan, along with an American named Johnny Kelley “The Younger.” One year, while running in the lead pack, Johnny was knocked down by a dog, and in the spirit of competition, arunner from Great Britain, Fred Norris, stopped and helped Johnny back to

Ron Wayne during the early miles of his magical 1977 Boston Marathon.

his feet. Little did I know that many years later, Fred Norris would help me, too, and I would be one of those runners watched by over one million people lining the course of this world-famous event.

DECISION: A BASKETBALL PLAYER OR A RUNNER?

In the fall of 1965, my junior year at Brockton High School, I tried out for the cross-country team. It wasn’t that I wanted to become a runner, but I wanted to play basketball. Harry Allen, the cross-country coach, was also the assistant basketball coach. I figured that if I did well on the cross-country team, I might havea better chance of making the basketball team. In the 60s and ’70s Brockton had a rich tradition of success in football (in the mid 80’s they were ranked number one in the USA Today high school football poll) and basketball. I wanted to be part of this glory.

I bought a pair of running shoes and reported to the first practice in midAugust, several weeks before school started. One of the senior runners, Ed Norris, was one of the top runners in the state, so we followed his lead. His father, Fred, a former world record-holder in the two-hour run on the track, and the athlete who stopped to help Johnny Kelley when confronted by a dog in the Boston Marathon, helped coach the team on weekends. That year Ed went on to win the Class A (big schools) Massachusetts State Championship, and I finished 19th, after two and a half months of running. A few weeks later, when the time for basketball tryouts came along, I had a decision to make: was it going to be running or basketball? I opted for running. I became the “official scorekeeper” for the basketball team and a member of the indoor track team.

ANOTHER TASTE OF THE MARATHON

My senior year in high school I won every cross-country race I ran, including dual meets, invitationals, the Massachusetts State Class A Championship, and the New England Championship. Next up was the indoor track season, and I kept winning in either the 1,000 yards, the mile, or the two-mile in league dual meets.

I took my undefeated string of 23 races to the Boston Garden, where Bob Timmons, the track coach of Jim Ryun of the University of Kansas, came to watch me race in the high school mile. I finished third and never got an offer from Kansas.

Idecided to attend the University of Massachusetts. While coach Ken O’ Brien was trying to whip us into the best milers and two-milers we could be, a certain group had their own agenda: they ran marathons. During our distance-training

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runs, these athletes would talk about their marathon races. Some days we pretended to be Olympic Marathon runners, each representing a different country. We would jockey for position and make surges. If nothing else, this got me through the long training runs through the beautiful Amherst countryside.

One of my teammates, Tom Derderian (who would in 1994 author his definitive book, Boston Marathon,) was the leader of the marathon rebels. He would talk about running in the Earth Day Marathon, Philadelphia Marathon, and the Boston Marathon.

Another four-year teammate was Leo Duarte, who one day on his own circled the wooden-banked, 10-laps-to-the-mile indoor track for 26.2 miles. Usually the most exciting thing that occurred in the fieldhouse in those days was watching “Dr. J” (Julius Irving) play basketball. Leo’s time of 2:47 is probably an indoor world record. But, then again, befitting the spirit of our daffy little group, he’s probably the only runner to ever attempt the feat.

MEETING PRE

Winning the 1970 New England Collegiate Cross-Country Championships, I qualified to run in the NCAA Cross-Country Championships held at the University of Virginia. On race day morning I boarded a bus that took the runners out to the start of the race. Only seven other runners accompanied me on the bus, and their green sweats read Oregon. I was in awe, as I recognized this crew as Steve Prefontaine and his teammates. My race didn’t go as wellas I’d have liked. With a 48th-place finish, I didn’t make All-American, but my former high school teammate, Ed Norris, made it on behalf of Kent State by placing 22nd.

MARATHON TRAINING BEGINS

In 1971 my military draft number was almost as low as my NCAA CrossCountry finish, which meant I was off either to Vietnam or for six years in the Army Reserves. I chose the Reserves, which meant I was obliged to serve four months’ active duty. So it was off to Fort Lewis in Washington for basic training and then to Fort Polk in Louisiana for “advanced infantry training.”

This training was serious business for those going to Vietnam, but for me it was only a temporary obligation. Even though I was allowed to go for runs after my daily training regimen, my weight went from 142 pounds to 155, the heaviest I had ever been in my life. So much for the Army trying to get me into condition.

My active duty military training ended in November of 1971. My goal was to attend graduate school, but since it was the middle of the school year, I decided to return to Amherst to help coach and begin marathon training.

Running twice a day, my weekly mileage climbed to over 100 miles a week. This was a different mentality of running compared to the 60- to 70-mile weeks at the much faster, intense pace to which I was accustomed. I began reading biographies of all the world’s top distance runners. This was a very relaxing lifestyle: I was either training, coaching, or reading about running.

MY FIRST MARATHON

In March of 1972, in preparation for my first marathon, I ran the longest race of my life to that point: the Silver Lake Dodge 20-Miler. In 30-degree temperatures, wearing gloves, a turtleneck shirt under my singlet, and a stocking cap, I finished first, winning a free winter automobile undercoating from the local Dodge dealer.

The last section of the race was on the Boston Marathon course, and the Boston Globe, in an article leading up to the Boston Marathon, wrote that my winning time in the 20-miler would put me near the lead pack at the 20-mile checkpoint of the marathon. Armed with this knowledge, I entered my first Boston Marathon with confidence (or, more accurately, a decided lack of knowledge). I ran with the leaders for eight miles before dropping off the pace. Eventually the race became areal survival test for me. I struggled home in 2:27, finishing 30th. The prize was a bowl of beef stew and a chance to try it again at the Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon.

THE OLYMPIC TRIALS

In May of 1972 Ireturned home to Brockton to train with my former highschool teammate, Ed Norris, who had also qualified for the Olympic Trials. We ran together twice a day in preparation for the trials, and our community of Brockton donated money for our trip to Eugene.

Recalling what had happened to me by going out with the leaders in Boston, I ran conservatively in the middle of the pack, leaving the front-running to Frank Shorter and Jeff Galloway. I worked my way through the pack, finishing 20th. In the process, I learned a bit more about how to properly run a marathon.

The trip to Eugene made a great impression on me. The community was very involved in running, and many of the top U.S. distance runners trained there. Eugene was nicknamed the Running Capitol of the U.S. A new running shoe company, Nike, introduced their products at the trials.

Although I had already been accepted to graduate school at Springfield College in Massachusetts for the fall of 1972 and had an assistantship to coach track, I wanted to be closer to where the action was. I applied for and received acceptance to graduate school at the University of Oregon.

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After spending the remainder of the summer at home, I loaded up my car with clothes and other personal belongings and drove across the country to Eugene.

Upon my arrival, I went to the cross-country team’s locker room in hopes of finding a place to live. There I ran into some of the same runners I’d briefly met on the bus ride at the NCCA Cross-Country Championships in Virginia, including Prefontaine and his roommate Pat Tyson. I asked if anyone needed aroommate, anda voice yelled out, “Do you have acar?” I subsequently moved in with Paul Geis and half-miler Steve Bence. Paul, a transfer from Rice University, later competed in the 5,000-meters in the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

While in Eugene, my marathon training progressed to 140- to150-mile weeks, resulting in an eighth place finish at the 1974 Boston Marathon and a first place in the ’74 United States Marathon Championships in Yonkers, New York, where I ran the fastest marathon time ever run in the state of New York (my mark was later broken by Bill Rodgers when he won his first New York City Marathon). Ed Norris had won the U.S. Marathon Championship the year before. In both years John Vitale finished second.

A MEMORABLE RACE

Racing marathons is a constant learning process, and by the start of the 1977 Boston Marathon, I had 14 of those educational experiences under the waistband of my running shorts.

My routine for Boston was essentially the same as what I’d used the previous five times I’d competed there. I stayed in Brockton at my parents’ house for the three days prior to the race, and I practiced the classic carbohydrate-loading diet. For the first 2-1/2 days of the 5-day diet, I eliminated carbohydrates from my diet. This was extremely tough, as I was accustomed to eating a loaf of toast a day, as well as cereals and pasta. Still running 20 miles a day for the first two days of the diet, this high-protein diet made me very irritable.

However, the last 2-1/2 days were more enjoyable, as I decreased my mileage to 12, 6, and 3 miles per day; I overloaded on carbohydrates by eating pizza, pasta, and breads. The theory behind this depletion diet was to starve my muscles of carbohydrates the first part of the diet cycle, so I could store more glycogen (the fuel my body needed to run 26 miles) in my system. I usually gained from 5 to 7 pounds during this diet, but some of the gain was water.

In Hopkinton, the seeded runners were allowed inside the Hopkinton High School gym, less than a mile from the start. Two of my Body Ammo Track Club teammates were there. Brian Maxwell, a Canadian who later founded PowerBar, and Mike Spino, an author and current cross-country and track coach at Life College in Atlanta, rounded out our team.

Thad the opportunity to shake hands with Johnny Kelley the Elder and wish him good luck. Johnny is currently the Grand Master of Boston, a race with whom his consistency is closely associated.

We paced the gym with growing anxiety, warriors preparing for battle. Eyes met, and nods of acknowledgement were passed around. This was an opportunity for us to study the competition and figure out who we could beat and who was a threat to us. Jock Semple, who administered the Boston Athletic Association and was a trainer for the Boston Celtics and Bruins, shook my hand and wished me well. The BAA was the first track club I had ever joined while back in high school.

THE RACE

April weather in Boston can vary from 30 to 80 degrees. In 1977 the temperature was much closer to 80 than 30— not the best conditions in which to race a marathon.

At noon the gun banged at the Hopkinton Town Green, and the 5,000 runners were off on their 26.2-mile journey to the Prudential building in Boston.

One thing runners must be wary of on this point-to-point course is that the first three miles are rolling downhill. You can easily start off too fast and pay forit later. I decided not to get caught up in the early excitement by going out too fastin the heat. Ilet the lead pack go and settled in with the pursuing second group.

My goal was to settle into a comfortable pace and remain relaxed, to be patient. I ran the early miles with some marathon buddies from around the country. We represented a brotherhood, and we had great respect for each other.

—_.]sw sss Ron Wayne MY MOST UNFORGETTABLE MARATHON @® 101

Over the second half of the race, Ron moved from 24th to 4th place. JEFF JOHNSON

We told stupid jokes and occasionally discussed the runners who constituted the front pack.

On race day both local newspapers, the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald, listed the names and numbers of all entrants. Wearing number 13, I heard spectators calling my name and yelling words of encouragement.

Through the towns of Ashland, Framingham, and Natick, about a dozen of us floated in group formation. Occasionally arunner would join the party or fall off the pace. The lead pack eventually pulled away and out of sight.

Conservative by nature, that was how I was going to run. The only marathon [had ever dropped from was Boston a year earlier, due to 90-degree temperatures. I certainly didn’t want that to happen again.

About halfway through the race, in Wellesley and still running in the second pack, I was in 24th position but feeling very strong. A local Boston runner, Vin Fleming, representing the Greater Boston Track Club, came up on my shoulder, and that’s when my race began. Feeding off each other’s energy and competitive spirit, we each picked up the pace and started passing the runners who were now paying for their fast early pace on a warm day.

Going up Heartbreak Hill in Newton, we passed a very tired Bill Rodgers, who two years earlier had set the course and American record at 2:09:55. I turned to Fleming and blurted out, “Did you see who that was?” Excitedly, I picked up the pace, towing Vin with me.

Entering Brookline, we were now running in the top 10 and, looking up the long stretch of Beacon Street, we could see other runners. With another energy surge, I was off to catch them. Along that stretch I saw my grandfather standing on the sidelines cheering me as he had done the four other years I had run this race. The sight gave me yet another surge of energy.

Ibegan to pull away from Vin in the last two miles as we were running fifth and sixth. Approaching Kenmore Square, I caught still another runner—another Fleming. This time it was New Jerseyite Tom Fleming, who had finished runner-up in this race on two occasions.

Kenmore Square is next to Fenway Park, and thousands of spectators lined the street as a Boston Police motorcycle pulled up next to me and guided me toward the finish. I couldn’t see any runners in front of me, so I thought maybe I was the lead runner. Given the screams the spectators were producing, I thought I must be winning.

Every runner has that one special day, and this seemed to be mine. Around the last turn and down the hill toward the Prudential, I clicked up into still another faster gear. But when I reached the finish line, no finish tape or laurel wreath awaited me. I saw my teammate, Brian Maxwell, cooling his feet in a nearby fountain. Canadian Jerome Drayton had won, Turkey’s V. Bally took second, Brian had taken third, and I was fourth, the first American, in a time of 2:18:18.

JEFF JOHNSON

Ron’s 4th-place finish at Boston in 1977 was his top running experience of his 20-year racing career.

The 1977 Boston Marathon was the top running experience of my 20-year racing career. My performance, and the subsequent recognition I received, resulted in several invitations to compete internationally, including in Europe and Japan, as well as in many top events in the United States. In addition, I have spoken at dozens of running clinics throughout the United States. Finally, it helped launch my career in sports marketing and promotions.

Ron Wayne MY MOST UNFORGETTABLE MARATHON @® 103

What I Learned From It…

FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH THE COURSE

As with every marathon that | ran, | drove the course to familiarize myself with the terrain. This practice will help get you into a comfort zone on race day and help you plan your race strategy.

DUPLICATE PRERACE ROUTINE

if eating a certain food worked in the past, eat the same meal. If you didn’t experience any problems with a certain shoe in previous races, use the same model.

SET A GOAL FOR YOURSELF

Your goal may be a certain time, or it may be just finishing the race. Whatever it is, visualize yourself completing the goal. Try this just before you go to sleep at night.

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE YOUR FINISHING POSITION Run like a winner. If you have never beaten someone, that doesn’t mean you never will.

ADJUST TO THE WEATHER CONDITIONS If it’s warmer than you’re used to, try starting more conservatively. You can’t beat nature, but you can adapt to her whims.

DRINK PLENTY OF FLUIDS

You think runners wouldn’t need this reminder, but part of the reason | dropped out of Boston in 1976 was because | did not drink enough water to keep hydrated. Even if you think you have had enough, it may not be.

CHOOSE A SENSIBLE EARLY PACE The terrain and weather could affect your performance. At Boston the early downhill is very deceiving.

USE THE SPECTATORS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE Enjoy the million people lining the race course. They are cheering for you. Use their encouragement to guide you from one town to the next.

RACE WITH COMPATIBLE RUNNERS Run with someone going about the same pace as you and share each other’s energy. You can help each other.

ENJOY THE EXPERIENCE ‘ You have dedicated yourself to hard training. The race is the reward. ¢

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