[…] hoards the premier issue, but when you speak with collectors of longgone periodicals, it is frequently the second issue that is more valuable because it is difficult to find and add to a collection.

But editing a magazine is very much like running more than one

Adventure Running At Its WORST!

[…] marathon. The goal is to make the next issue better than the last, while in the back of your mind is the vision of that perfect marathon, that perfect issue. But like the marathon, if the perfect issue is ever achieved, it will merely reset the ideal to a new site farther beyond the distant horizon.

—Rich Benyo

In 1989, two runners set off to become the first to run from Death Valley to Mt. Whitney and back—in mid-summer. Lottsa luck,

Send $22 in US funds (shipping/handling included) to: Rich Benyo, Box 161,

Zip/Mail code

Country

Allow 6 weeks for delivery. If you wish a personal autograph, please include name of person for whom book is intended.

EDITORIAL ® 3

26th Anniversary Vancouver International

Marathon & Half May Ath, 1997

Japan Airlines g J thee vee

All marathon finishers receive a aus al ds nod ep T shirt, medal and certificate. All half marathon finishers receive a T shirt and

certificate. CITY SQUARE The Course NEGGune

Lion’s Gate Bridge and along the north shore of Burrard inlet with

its spectacular views of Vancouver’s skyline. Returning to the o start via Second Narrows Bridge and the eastern portion of TW Vancouver. Mostly flat course with hilly sections in Stanley Park

On paved roads through beautiful Stanley Park, over world famous i –

and Second Narrows Bridge. 60 to penronm MARATHON ENTRY FEES: LWER

Postmarked before Dec 31/96 $50Cdn./ $38US

Postmarked by April 01 $55 Cdn./$40US For more info/Entry form Postmarked by April 25 $75Cdn./$60US write to: VIM, P.O. Box 3213,

Postmarked after April 25 $99Cdn./ $75US Vancouver, B.C. V6B3X8

HALF MARATHON ENTRY

Postmarked before Dec 31/96 $30Cdn./$23us *Mail: vim@mindlink.be.ca

Postmarked by April 01 $33Cdn/$25US _http://www.wolfifs.com/wolf/

Postmarked by April 25 $40Cdn./ $30US

Postmarked after April 25 $50Cdn./ $36US Call: (604) 872 2928 Fax: (604) 872 2903

Vancouver ¢ Downtown

4 ™® MARATHON & BEYOND March-1997

On THE Road

with Kathrine Switzer

LOL ES DELL TE BEL. LS GI ETRE IEE SES ET SE

AGING

NEW ZEAL bottle of wine jumped right off the shelf and into my hands. I couldn’t believe the label—‘‘Harrier Rise.” The wine was a perfect choice for a dinner party of discerning American runners who were visiting us in New Zealand.

The wine was brilliant in taste, too, another small, sparkling gem among the thousands of obscure boutique wines in New Zealand. You have to be there to experience it. Ten thousand miles away means it won’t be exported, and that’s part of the charm.

My Kiwi husband Roger Robinson examined the label and said the vineyard was located in the Waitakere Ranges, outside of Auckland, the same fabled hills over which Arthur Lydiard trained some of the world’s greatest runners. The 24-mile run over these hills still stands, more or less, as the definitive Sunday run for serious distance types in New Zealand.

I don’t suppose the vintner had Arthur—or even running—in mind when naming the wine, but it was magic for us all: a nectar of the gods offered from the very hand of Zeus himself. For if there is a Zeus of running, it surely must be Arthur Lydiard. Some may argue with my decision to place Arthur as the head of the Olympian gods (indeed, it may be that his

place there is for my generation only), but there is little doubt that Arthur was both the prime mover behind the modern running boom and running’s mostinfluential coach. In other words, if you started running in the last 35 years, Arthur Lydiard has affected your life. If he is going to be displaced as the icon he is now, someone will have to do something pretty profound to affect the sport as much for the next 35 years.

Besides, you cannot deny anyone who carries thunderbolts in both hands! When Lydiard moves—like a little barrel-chested, crackling hot dynamo—you see him glowing and scorching. Don’t stand too close! When he speaks, the thunderbolts sizzle and connect with each member of his audience. Lydiard is an intimidating, imposing figure; that is, until

© 1997 by Human Kinetics Publishers, Inc.

ON THE ROAD WITH KATHRINE SWITZER ®@ 5

you stand close to him. And then you realize that he is actually quite short, with a great gentleness and kindness behind the thunder, a total generosity. He is a man totally beloved.

That sense of belovedness reached its zenith in New Zealand when Lydiard was honored with a sold-out testimonial dinner in honor of his upcoming 80th birthday. Organized by Colleen Mills, wife of Auckland mayor Les Mills (both former Commonwealth Games athletes), the black-tie affair showed that little New Zealand could hold its own in the glamorous gala stakes as well. Dinner tickets were as precious as those foranAll-Black Rugby Final (the New Zealand equivalent of the Super Bowl). Champagne flowed, and the entire event was televised.

For the first time inmy memory at a running event, eating the food was not the first priority. People jumped up and circulated, afraid to miss a chance to personally meet Arthur’s greatest athletes, including Peter Snell, Murray Halberg, Bill Baillie, Dick Tayler, and Barry Magee, among hundreds of others.

All of them spoke, including Arthur, but the highlight of the evening was watching old movie footage of these men in their early training days, and later the Movietone Newsreels of their world-record-shattering races. Seeing Peter Snell runa world-record 3:54.4 mile on a grass track in 1962 in Wanganui, New Zealand, was almost as impressive as his Olympic 8001500 double in Toyko. I wasn’t the

6 ™@ MARATHON & BEYOND

only one in the room imagining how fast those runs would have been on today’s tracks, in today’s shoes.

Lydiard’s genius is that what worked incredibly well for his elite athletes (who were his main focus) also spilled over into the general population and created a fitness revolution. His principle of long, sustainable running (running very long distances at a submaximal pace to create tremendous stamina) was adopted by joggers, who found a way to go longer and longer by slowing down.

While the LSD (long, slow distance) that roared into popularity in the 1960s and 1970s—thanks to Bill Bowerman, Ken Cooper, and Joe Henderson—is a bastardization of the tempo training that Lydiard espouses (“slow” is relative; none of Lydiard’s elites really ever runs slowly), the influence of this training principle has been profound. Average people have been able to make themselves into marathon runners and feel like heroes. And maybe most importantly, ordinary energetic kids everywhere were found to possess Olympic potential.

Remarkably, Arthur’s first three Olympic medalists—Snell, Halberg, and Magee—all got their medals a few days apart in Rome, and all lived just afew blocks from Arthur’s house. Neighborhood kids. This fact is not remarkable to Arthur, who says, “Talent is everywhere. It just needs the opportunity.” This was a refrain he repeated in his speech that evening. It is the credo he lives by.