History question about women's Olympic marathon trials in 1984

Can't help on the first paragraph.

Verification process: most races would send a postcard with your results on it. Photocopy that, or a newspaper article, and send it in.

Qualifying standards: the USATF equivalent of the time would send out publications with that information. Major publications, such as Runner's World or Track and Field News would also have the information.

Application: through the USATF equivalent of the time.

The Boston 2008 women's trials site had a good history of all of the previous women's trials but it is no longer up. Maybe contact the BAA to see if they would cough up the information that was there. Otherwise go back to vintage Runner's World or Track and Field News for info.

I believe the standard was 2:51:16 (or maybe :17) for 1984. I think the last marathon to try to qualify was Boston, about 3 weeks before the trials. I don't remember, however, the earliest that you could qualify, but it probably wasn't more than a year time period. And you could only qualify with a marathon, not a shorter distance.

HISTORY OF The Olympic TRIALS:

http://www.usatf.org/statistics/champions/OlympicTrials/HistoryOfTheOlympicTrials.pdf

My recollection is that in 84, contestants had from Jan 1 1983, to Boston 84 to qualify. It might have been Boston to Boston, though. The standard in that year was set as the 100th fastest time of 1982. I think the same was true (just for the men, obviously) for the 1980 trials.

Thanks for the dos, Hodge. I hadn't realized how close the marathon trials and track trials were in 76. Both Rodgers and Shorter qualified in the marathon on May 22 and for the 10000 on June 20 (Well Rodgers was fourth, but still). Less than a month later. Then they ran the games less than a month after that.

Link wrote:

I hadn't realized how close the marathon trials and track trials were in 76. Both Rodgers and Shorter qualified in the marathon on May 22 and for the 10000 on June 20 (Well Rodgers was fourth, but still). Less than a month later. Then they ran the games less than a month after that.

Thanks, everyone.

The details about how the standard was set and about the verification process are very helpful.

I'd actually read all the links you posted except for the Bill Rodgers one, which is great stuff.

Much appreciated!

Link wrote:

Thanks for the dos, Hodge. I hadn't realized how close the marathon trials and track trials were in 76. Both Rodgers and Shorter qualified in the marathon on May 22 and for the 10000 on June 20 (Well Rodgers was fourth, but still). Less than a month later. Then they ran the games less than a month after that.

That was back when men where men. Not like today, a month after the marathon trials and Hall would be on his 28th day off and in Africa trying to save all the poor kids there.

Hodgie good history stuff as usual. Was the RRIC up and running at that time? I know they were in '88. Perhaps times were verified through the Honikmans?

Yeah. I just hadn't noticed the proximity of the 10000 trials to the marathon before. But, thank you - and Bill, or course - for making those logs available.

On October 24, BR ran 2:10:10 at NYC, on a course that featured stairs! Two weeks later he ran - essentially a 2:09, then, the evening of that race, went out for another 6! All in the course of a 6772 mile year with 5 marathons. If anyone wants to know how to go from a good (but not great) HS runner to one of the top marathoners in history, they would do well to read Bill's logs. I just got in from a 'run'. After looking at those again, screw lunch. I'm heading back out for more.

Hey Link, do you happen to know if it was the 100th fastest U.S. women's marathon time in 1982, or the 100th fastest women's marathon time worldwide in 1982?

It was the 100th fastest US women's time in '82 that was the '84 OTM cut-off.

Ray - the NRDC, w/Ken & Jennifer Young were responsible for clearing times for the OTrials.

Hey Scott,

I was just looking at the oldest sub-2 thread, and it reminded me of.... I think, Pete Hallop, but one of the AATC guys, who broke 2 for like 25 years in a row. Do you remember who that was and how many years in a row he did it?

Manly man back then wrote:

Link wrote:

Thanks for the dos, Hodge. I hadn't realized how close the marathon trials and track trials were in 76. Both Rodgers and Shorter qualified in the marathon on May 22 and for the 10000 on June 20 (Well Rodgers was fourth, but still). Less than a month later. Then they ran the games less than a month after that.

That was back when men where men. Not like today, a month after the marathon trials and Hall would be on his 28th day off and in Africa trying to save all the poor kids there.

So...Lemme see if I unnerstan...

Because Hall consistently performs at the top of the American talent pool, he is not allowed to have a personal life or other interests that would take his time to pursue? Is he supposed to eat breath sleep drink and crap ONLY the marathon? Get another life my friend...you need it.

Link wrote:

On October 24, BR ran 2:10:10 at NYC, on a course that featured stairs!

The 78th street overpass from the FDR Drive to 78th Street has both a ramp and a set of stairs it was never the intention of the course designers to have the runners use the stair part. You can search engine John Jay Park 10021 and look at the ramp and stairs combo.

I've heard reports that some runners ran past the 78th street overpass only to be confronted with the 3 story climb up to the John Finley Walk at 81st.

Thanks Scott H my brain is old and losing bits of memory!

To all you guys that decided to hijack a women's marathon thread with comments about Hall and men's races of the past ....f ....off!

Link wrote:

Hey Scott,

I was just looking at the oldest sub-2 thread, and it reminded me of.... I think, Pete Hallop, but one of the AATC guys, who broke 2 for like 25 years in a row. Do you remember who that was and how many years in a row he did it?

Bill Stewart - don't know how many consecutive years he broke 2 - but near 20. He also set the masters indoor mile record about 2 weeks after turning 40 long ago. I don't know that PHallop ever broke 2.

Ray wrote:

Thanks Scott H my brain is old and losing bits of memory!

Know what you mean Ray...my memory grows hazy w/time. With regards to this topic @ hand, I'm lucky to have at least 3 valuable resources at hand to consult: all the back issues of the NRDC News from about '83 on, copies of The International Runners' Committee newsletter from '80 on - courtesy of Jacqueline Hansen (thanks again Jacqueline!) and the final copy of 'Marathon', the newsletter for the '84 Women's Oly Trials Marathon which had full results, story of the race and related race info. (Was cool to be able to quickly compare the '84 & '12 results - both deep and fast!) Dole Pineapple was a principal sponsor of the Trials. The IRC newsletter was the communication force that detailed the effort to include a women's marathon on the Oly schedule.

Scott H, would you be willing to make copies of the newsletters if I reimbursed you for the costs and threw in some extra? This stuff would be absolutely invaluable to what I'm working on.