A new meaning to the word “old”

With the Wind, Belle was the red-haired madam of an Atlanta brothel,

a no-nonsense woman with a heart of gold, and Rhett Butler’s mistress and confidante. 2: The character in the movie Gone With the Wind played by Ona Munson, she helps save Ashley Wilkes’s life when he is injured during the Shantytown incident. 3: The name of the once-premier marathon-running club in Buffalo, New York, a club that won many honors, including taking third place out of 71 teams in the 1978 Boston Marathon, now made up of mostly old geezers and ne’er-do-wells.

Bw Watling (bel wat’ lun) proper noun. 1: Character from the book Gone

The seeds of the first running boom

The year 1969 was chock-full of momentous events in our nation’s history. Richard Nixon was sworn in as president, and the Vietnam War was continuing on its nightmarish course. In the world of sports, Joe Namath’s Jets and the Miracle Mets both won championships. We put a man on the moon, and Ted Kennedy put his car in the drink at Chappaquiddick. While liberals went to see Alice’s Restaurant, Easy Rider, Midnight Cowboy, and Bambi Meets Godzilla, Tricky Dick’s newly named silent majority watched True Grit starring John Wayne. The Chicago seven were found not guilty, and Charles Manson and his cult went on a killing spree. Woodstock showed the world that flower power could work, but then Altamont showed the world that it didn’t work.

Lost in all this was a little-noted event that took place in Buffalo, New York, and was perhaps the most momentous event of the whole year. I am of course talking about the founding of one of the early running clubs in Buffalo, the Belle Watling AC. Yes, 1969 was the year “the founder,” Richard Sullivan, his brother Ted, and one Norm Wagner were sitting at the bar in The Place, a local watering hole that is still located at the corners of Lexington and Ashland Avenues on Buffalo’s west side, and they decided to run a race, since they had recently started running to get in shape. Even after sobering up, they still decided to go through

with it. And so they went to Delaware Park and, starting at a fire hydrant next to the expressway, had a race that was twice around the meadow, which equaled 3.6 miles. Dick Sullivan won, and back they went to The Place for the sports drink of the day, Boilermakers (not named after the race in Utica—that wasn’t around yet).

While discussing the idea of starting an actual running club, they decided that they needed a name for it. Sitting nearby was one Charlie Lesselles, a nonrunner who suggested the name Belle Watling. Seeing the quizzical looks on the faces of Sully and his pals, he explained that Belle was the red-haired madam with the heart of gold who was Rhett Butler’s confidante in the book Gone With the Wind. Being the scalawags that they were (and remain to this day), the name seemed perfect to “The Founder” and his brother. Thus, “The Place” may be the place where the seeds of the first running boom in Buffalo were planted.

The Belle Watlings went on to become a legendary and groundbreaking club in Buffalo and also in the eastern United States. The Watlings traveled far and wide in those early days, for there were few races around. In order to practice the Belle Watling motto, which is “Race hard, party harder,” they had to travel the width and breadth of New York and points beyond to find even one race per month. And the Watlings did leave their mark.

Old traditions

Even back in the day, the Belle Watlings were considered a team of old geezers. When people think of the Belle Watling AC today, they think o/d! I do not mean that they think, Cripes, that club has been around forever! No, they think old! People think: Average age between 87 and old!; I sure hope I can even walk when I’m that old!; I wonder if any of them knew Grover Cleveland? I’m still one of the babies of the club at 63 years of age, and I suppose I help keep their average age under the century mark.

When I first joined the Belle Watling AC in 1975, I thought o/d! Most Watlings were in their 40s with a couple of them in their late 30s, and Dave Bogdan, Fred Gordon, and I were the youngsters at 27. But the Watlings were one of the top running clubs in the area, and we used to bring home the team trophies when we traveled all over the state to compete in races.

Many of the races back in the day had team competitions, and this led to the growth of the running clubs in Buffalo such as Checkers AC, Greater Buffalo Track Club, the Buffalo Philharmonic AC, and the Nickel City Road Runners. You see, the competitive spirit and friendship that existed among the runners led to the team concept, which led to running clubs. Yeah, right, much the same as the competitive spirit and friendship among the leaders of the nations of the world led to World War I.

Back in the day, by which I mean the 1970s—a second here to explain something; when reading or saying the term “back in the day,” you must use the right inflections, with the emphasis on “back,” a bit of a pause, being almost religious about it, and then with reverence, “in the day,” with a bit of accent on “day” of course—the Belle Watlings started many traditions that still exist today in the Buffalo area, even though “the founder,” as Dick Sullivan is lovingly called, may deny some of them. One is the annual running of the Founders Day Race, held in honor of that fateful day in 1969 when Sully and friends ran twice around the park. The race still starts and ends at the Belle Watling Fire Hydrant, and some people consider it the top race of the year in the eastern United States. Some people feel that Buffalo, not Utica, should have gotten the Long Distance Running Hall of Fame because of this race. Some people consider this the only true runner-of-the-year race in Buffalo. Of course, by some people, I mean Dick Sullivan and his brother Ted.

Another tradition started by the Watlings is the party held each year after the Turkey Trot, an eight-kilometer race, which of course is on Thanksgiving here in Buffalo. First run on Thanksgiving in 1896 (no, the founder was not there), and having been run every Thanksgiving since, it is the oldest annual footrace in North America, having started five months before the first Boston Marathon. (The Around the Bay Road Race in Hamilton, Ontario, actually started in 1894, but it was skipped for a few years during the Great War, which the United States mostly skipped—the war, that is.)

Back in the day, after the race and awards ceremony, most everyone headed home for turkey, leaving the downtown streets totally deserted—except for the Belle Watlings. We would head over to the House of Quinn at the corner of Franklin and Chippewa. Chippewa Street, back in the day, was the red-light district in Buffalo, an area your mother might warn you about, making it all the more likely you would decide to check it out. It was a perfect setting for the Belle Watling year-end celebration—that and the fact that the House of Quinn was the only bar open on Thanksgiving.

Other than a hapless derelict or two, we Watlings were the only creatures in the bar or anywhere near it. Even the ladies of the evening took this day off. The founder would hang his autographed photo of Ona Munson over the bar. She, of course, is the actress who played the part of Belle Watling in the movie. I remember the photo well, for it was of her dressed for the part of Belle, the red-haired madam who would have fit right in on Chippewa Street.

We would gather round the picture and drink toast after toast to the old gal. I’m not 100 percent sure, but I believe Sully once dated her before his running days. Anyway, we would raise our glasses of redeye in her honor. Redeye was, for some reason not known to me, the drink we had to have after the Turkey Trot. It is simply a beer with a shot of tomato juice in it. It had the consistency

of Ensure mixed with pureed chicken livers, with probably the same flavor. At least we got our vitamin C.

In those days of the first running boom, there were only a few hundred runners at the Turkey Trot. Now we get over 13,000 hardy souls, and after the race, Chippewa Street, which is now the entertainment district of Buffalo, is filled to overflowing with sweaty runners jamming every bar on the strip, desperately trying to get through the crowds to get a brew. Down at Brinks, which used to be the House of Quinn, you will find the founder and the remaining Belle Watlings, mixing with the crowd and still raising a glass of redeye to Ona and all our running friends who have gone on to the big marathon in the sky.

When the old-geezers’ club hit its peak

Anyway, we runners back in the day were a very competitive lot, as were the teams, and this led to some very good PRs. We were mostly runners who put in 80 to 100 miles per week and who used the occasional short race as training for the big show, the marathon. That was what mattered, and of course, the Boston Marathon was the main event. I believe that at the 1978 Boston, the Belle Watlings put together perhaps the best effort ever by any Buffalo running club that competed in the main event.

Some people feel that 1978 was perhaps among the best Bostons in its own right, as 2,047 men (out of 3,872) and 29 women (out of 186) broke three hours, and 32 men broke 2:20. By comparison, the 2001 Boston, which I can attest to since I ran this race also, was pretty much the same as the 1978 event, weatherwise, and 840 men (of 8,592) and 45 women (of 4,814) broke three hours, with just 19 breaking 2:20. There were no Kenyans there in 1978 either, as nine Kenyans broke 2:20 in 2001. I am using gun-time results for the 2001 Boston, as that is all we had back in 1978.

The team picture on page 138 is of most of the Belle Watlings at their water tower in Hopkinton in 1978. The gathering at the tower for a team picture before the race is a Watling tradition started when Dick Sullivan discovered before his first Boston Marathon in 1973 that the tower is named after a Sullivan. He saw that as an omen, and so he adopted it as the Belle Watling Water Tower. The rest is history, although I do wonder what the founder was doing rooting around over by the water tower in the first place. Perhaps a lack of enough bathroom facilities back in the day is the answer, or maybe he was having a secret meeting with Kathy Switzer before the race.

In listing the PRs of the Watlings, I rounded down to the minute to simplify things. Also, if I listed actual times, mine would be 2:34:57 while the time of my brother Tom would be 2:35:12, a difference of a mere 15 seconds. (I know, a half second per mile is actually quite a bit but not enough for me.) Needless to

A The Belle Watlings of 1978 at the “Belle Watling Water Tower” in Hopkinton before the start of that year’s Boston Marathon. From left to right, with their marathon PRs after their name: Dave Bogdan, 2:35; Fred Gordon, 2:25; Ralph Zimmerman, 2:17, “Uncle Tom” Donnelly, 2:35; Bill Donnelly, 2:34; Bob Herzog, 2:54; Dick“The Founder” Sullivan, 2:52; Norm Schwendler, 2:52; Paul Schwandt, 2:49; Bill Cambell, time unknown; and Tom Donnelly’s face placed over an unknown runner, 2:35. Missing are John Pfeil, 2:23; John Richardson, 2:49; and Pat Janiga, 2:54.

say, 2:34 compared with 2:35 gives me a full minute on him. Is this fair, you ask? I’m the one writing this, so ha, ha Tom. Know, too, that all the PRs listed below the picture were not run on this fine day of April 17, 1978. The Belle Watling A team did have some fantastic results that day, however.

Only the top three runners for a team counted in the team scoring, and our team came in third out of 71 teams. In those days, they gave each team member a place number for where he came in among just those on teams and then added them up. First place was the Greater Boston Track Club, which, with the overall winner, Bill Rodgers, fifth-place finisher John Thomas, and 20th finisher Tim Donovan, ended up with just 10 points. In second place with 66 points was the Washington, DC, Running Club, followed by the Belle Watlings with 67 points. One point behind us was the Atlanta Track Club, which was gratifying to us since our club is named after that Gone With the Wind character who ran her house of ill repute in Atlanta, Georgia.

a S ze

The three top runners for the Belle Watlings? They were Ralph Zimmerman, who finished 28th in 2:18:55; John Pfeil, who finished 56th in 2:23:34; and Fred Gordon, who finished 76th in 2:25:29. Nowadays, instead of doing points, Boston just adds up the times of the top three finishers. Doing it that way, the 1978 Watlings had a combined time of 7:07:58. The winning team in 2001, the Lehigh Valley Road Runners, had a team time of 7:25:13. Looking at the records, the 1978 Watlings would have easily won the team title of any of the last several Bostons.

Not only was Zimmerman the fastest Belle Watling, he was the fastest runner from the state of New York. He was 40 seconds and five places behind the 1972 Olympic Marathon gold medal winner, Frank Shorter. At 30 years old, Shorter was seven years younger than Ralph, and that day, Zimmerman set the US age group record for those 35 to 39. Not bad for a guy on the brink of old!

I was the fourth guy on the Belle Watling A team. I finished 320th, but my time of 2:36 even (I’m not rounding down here to impress Tom, my time was 2:36, period) was well over 10 minutes behind Fred Gordon’s time, our third man. Fred always could kick my butt. One of the few times I ever beat him was that same year in the Lockport 10-Miler, which is in the lovely month of February. That day Fred ran to Lockport, New York, from his home near Delaware Park, a distance of 20 miles (while climbing over snowbanks), then ran the race, and

even took two wrong turns during the race. I beat him by four places. Ha, ha, Fred, I beat you.

Courtesy of ill Donnelly

A Older but wiser, and definitely better looking, six of the Belle Watlings line up in the same order as the water tower photo, 30 years later, at my wedding reception: Fred Gordon, Ralph Zimmerman, Tom Donnelly, Bill Donnelly, Bob Herzog, and Dick “The Founder” Sullivan.

I was darn happy with my time in Boston, though, as I may have gone out a bit too fast. I kept a running journal that year; unfortunately, it was the only year I did so back in the day. I’ve kept one ever since 1990, but boy, do I wish I had kept one for all the years I ran in the 1970s. Listen to the voice of wisdom, kids, or at least listen to me, and keep a journal. It makes fascinating reading all these years later.

Anyway, in my entry for that day, I have it that I hit 10 miles in 55 minutes. Yow! I go on to say that my legs tightened up on the hills and I had to slow down. I’ll bet I did. That was my style, the old going-out-like-a-bat-out-of-hell routine and then hanging on. Hey, it is downhill at first, and I sure liked to use that to my advantage. Nowadays that whole course just eats me up.

Among the Belle Watlings, Dave Bogdan, John Richardson, Bob Herzog, Tom Donnelly, Pat Janiga, and Paul Schwandt all broke three hours that day. The founder, 49-year-old Dick Sullivan, stayed back to make sure no one got lost, and he finished in 3:03:46. I should mention that my brother Tom ran 2:54:08 that day. Actually, I think I’ll round that up to 2:55, or better still, I’ll round it up to the nearest hour. Ha, ha, Tom, you ran a three-hour Boston that day. Anyway, not bad results for a small team of mostly old guys who all lived in Buffalo or the immediate vicinity.

And the beat goes on

Many of the original Belle Watlings from back in the day no longer show up for races. Several, after one too many marathons and the many miles of training it took to get ready for them, have had one too many hip and/or knee replacements to continue on. Some just burned out from being so competitive for all those early years of the first running boom. I know that I burned out and stopped running in 1982, but I was bitten by the bug in 2000 and got competitive again, although I toned down quite a bit.

And of course, being an old geezer club from the get-go, some former members have passed on to that big House of Quinn in the sky where it’s always Turkey Day and they are always toasting Ona Munson to her face with a glass of redeye. Of course, they may have made it to heaven, where they can drink regular beer if they want.

Of course, there are Belle Watlings still running in the races despite the fact that they still have strict age requirements for joining the club. There is only one member who is younger than me, and only by a couple of years.

Most show up for the local races to continue our motto, although now, instead of “Race hard, party harder,” it is more like “Race hard, but not too hard so as not to hurt yourself; party harder, but not too much harder so as not to mix too

much beer with all the medication you are on now.” But party we do, for that is another tradition Buffalo owes to the Watlings.

Back in the day we had to search high and low for races, as there were not many, and the main reason we looked for these races was so that we could party afterward. Races usually didn’t provide beer afterward, so we would bring our own. But those races that did provide the appropriate liquid refreshments, why, they were tops on out list. A lot of runners started to follow our example, and so too did the races.

Now for a race in Buffalo to be successful, they have to provide beer for the postrace party. Not all cities do this, but Buffalo does, and I believe it is thanks to the Belle Watlings. You will still find the founder and his brother Ted holding court after a race, munching on hot dogs and sipping a beer or three.

And some of the Belle Watlings, until recently, were still running marathons, just not as fast, which is understandable. One was Jack Meegan, a tough Watling in his early 70s, and in 2009 he ran his 30th Boston Marathon. A proud member of the Quarter Century Club (those who have run 25 Boston Marathons or more), he ran his first Boston in 1979 and missed only one since.

He wasn’t able to run Boston a few years ago because of a minor injury, thus breaking a string of 23 Bostons in a row. In fall 2001, it seems he fell out of a tree while hunting deer. According to legend, he broke some ribs, cleaned up

© MarathonFoto

his campsite, drove back to town, and parked himself in front of the TV with a couple of beers to ease the pain. When he realized he could open the bottles of beer using the two ribs that were sticking out of his chest, he decided it was time to go to the doctor. He missed the next Boston Marathon.

Anyone who has ever ridden the bus to Hopkinton and was lucky enough to sit near Jack would remember him for the shoes he wore. Actually, they would not so much remember the actual shoes themselves; rather, they would remember the shoes being held together by duct tape. You see, Jack had his favorite pair of shoes, Nike Terra TCs, which he wore in all 30 Boston Marathons he ran and in most all the many other marathons he ran, which were too numerous for even him to count.

Besides being a great runner, Jack became an expert on brands of duct tape and which ones held up the best under duress, which meant making it through 26.2 miles without falling apart. Through trial and error, Jack found a brand that could get him through 20 miles before giving out, but how he would get through the last six miles in those beatup shoes is beyond me.

Unfortunately, Jack never made it to his 31st Boston Marathon. While training for the 2010 main event and right after finishing his morning workout on January 14 of that year, Jack collapsed. His two good friends he had run with did what they could, but he passed away later at the hospital. His death stunned the local running community, as Jack was much loved, and though he is greatly missed, those of us in the Belle Watlings know that his absence is just a part of being in a club of really old runners.

Jack Meegan runs in the 2009 Boston Marathon, his last. If you look closely, you can see the duct tape holding his Nike Terra TCs together.

Another one who planned to run more Boston Marathons was the founder imself. A member of the Quarter Century Club also, Sully turned 83 last summer, so he hoped to compete in his 32nd Boston in his new age category, which is officially listed as old. I bet he had no idea what he was getting himself into when he first raced around Delaware Park back in 1969 and founded the Belle Watling AC. His plan was to stay one Boston ahead of his great pal, Meegan, but with Jack’s demise, so too went the urgency of running Boston again, what with

the grueling training that goes into it. And so, at 83, Sully gets to relax a bit.

However, the founder and his little brother Ted, who is pushing 80 himself, still compete in local races at least once a week, and sometimes even more often. Dick, in fact, won the national championship for his age group (o/d) in the USATF

but he still pushes himself.

And I used to think some of those guys in the Belle Watling AC were old. I’m still a Belle Watling and proud of it. I’m still one of the babies, but the old guys keep bringing home the hardware. They even still do some traveling to find races with team competition so they can clean up in the old categories. And they do, and I hope I can still come close to what they are doing when I’m old!

Maybe next year. LOE