...And it would be the second
time serendipitously I’d met Bill Rodgers, who was the four-time New York City
Marathon winner and four-time Boston Marathon winner.[1]
Only this time, it wasn’t just a “Hey. How you doin’?” Like in Pittsburgh on
May 5th of that year—as my husband and I walked by the Marathon
Running god. It was, “I can’t find my car in this underground parking garage”.
And my reply was, “Oh you’ve lost your car. I’ll help you find it.”
Earlier that morning I did a slow
thirty-minute warmup before the race. Again, the race was chockful of world
class runners. It was a rainy, nearly eighty degree day. I came across the
finish line as fourth woman and 110th overall finisher with a
1:17:31 for 20K. After the awards ceremony I walked around and spoke with some
of the runners who’d finished around my time. Then I got my bag and went to
find my car in the underground parking garage that we runners had been offered
to park in before the race.
The parking lot was about 65% empty by
then. There appeared nearly not a soul in the area, and just as I’d figured out
where I’d parked my car, I saw Bill Rodgers. Bill was wandering around. He
looked lost. I perked up, “Hey Mr. Rodgers what’s up?” He replied, “I can’t
find my car …” I replied, “Oh, you’ve lost your car. I’ll help you find your
car.” He gave me a description of his car,
As I searched for Bill’s car I told him I
was unenthused by my performance that day. He basically implied to me not to
sweat it. He’d felt I’d ran well and stated such. I thanked him. Nearly a minute
later I found his car for him in the underground parking garage. Then we said
our ‘good-byes’.
As I drove home, I felt a bit more uplifted
by what Bill said on my performance and racing. Over the next five days I had
soreness in various parts of me, my feet were the worst. Yet I got in 101 miles
that week and 100.6 miles in the next week and before I knew it—it was race day
September 20th.
The race was a five miler in Bricktown, New
Jersey. To win the 5-mile race would be the prize of a $2,000 bond. That was
one of my aims, along with using the five miler in sharpening for my next marathon
which would be the Twin Cities Marathon in Minnesota on October 11th,
1987—which would be another chance to qualify for the 1988 Olympic Trials Marathon.
Three weeks prior to that race day, the
Bricktown 5-mile race day had arrived as a cloudy, humid, damp yet cool to
warming temperature day, which wasn’t so bad. After my three-mile warmup I toed
the starting line. Again, I wasn’t favored. Suffice it to say, I was getting
used to being a dark horse everywhere I went. Yet, I’d gotten used to being
more like the underdog. I’d nearly always been a mudder for sure. I had no
talent, but I knew I’d always outwork the competition.
I also believed that if a woman was
talented and willing to outwork the men for competition in marathons and further
distances—that eventually she and other women like her would prevail over the
best of what men could offer in time at those distances. Girls and women just
needed encouragement.
So, here I was the unknown with some kind
of possibility, a wish, a dream of winning once again—and this time the bigger
payday was within my reach. I could feel it in the air, as my heart pumped and
the starting gun fired. I bolted off the line and didn’t look back. Running
5:22, 11:19, 17:07, 23:30, 29:33-mile splits and taking the win for the 5-mile
race.
It was nice not to be known. I’d just
slip in, warm up, listen to people stroking the hometown girl. You know, the
girl known as a high school star; then a collegiate track star. Hey, I didn’t
go to Villa Nova, nor Penn State and certainly was not Stanford material. I was
the left-over meatloaf of day five. You know the last day after the meatloaf
should have been tossed; however, someone left it in the refrigerator only to
be scoffed up by a voracious hungry animal that lived in the cave no one could
find. Yeah, that was me. Willing to do the deed at all costs. Scrappy, one
might say.---Jody-Lynn Reicher, from "Authentic, a Memoir"
Comments
Post a Comment