My college cross country team moved practice that day to an early time specifically so we could be done in time to watch the Olympic Marathon. ABC had announced that they would cover the entire race, something that had never been done before and we all wanted to see that.
At the time of course, no one knew that Shorter was going to have the career he did, though there certainly had been indications ever since he'd graduated in 1970. I actually thought he would win that race.
And as you said, he started the running boom that day. It wasn't just that he won the race but that he was so dominant and made it look easy. His form was flawless. He never seemed to struggle or thrash. He was never challenged once he'd made his move. Over the next few years you'd read an interview done with someone who had just won a race and the guy would say something like, "I'd been a pretty good high school runner but stopped once I'd been in college for a year or so. Then I saw Shorter win the Olympic Marathon and thought that maybe if I came back and got really serious I could do something special like that."