Benji Durden

1980 Oly team (the one that didn't go to the Games)

P.R. was 2:09:++ at '83 BAA Marathon (second place)

Benj would be 52 years old now. What's the race in Portland? Masters x-c championships?

By the way, Benj occasionally posts here, so you will probably get more info from him soon.

Didn't he win the Houston Marathon in 2:09 something?

I don't think so. As I recall, no American broke 2:10 on a loop course until some years later.

Oops! Actually, Benj was third in '83 BAA Marathon, in 2:09:57. Ron Tabb passed him toward the end.

http://www.boston.com/marathon/history/1983.shtml

Benji Durden's best marathon times:

2:09:58 Boston 4/83 (3rd)

2:10:41 Buffalo (USA Olympic Trials) 5/80 (2nd)

2:11:12 Houston Tenneco 1/82 (1st)

How did Benji train back in the day? Maybe someone (maybe even himself) can spell out what his training was like.

Hey oldguy-

Thanks for that link. I went back to '79 to see if I could find results-my first Boston. No luck. Is there some other place to look for those results?

Also, Benji was 9th at Falmouth in 1980 in 33:09. I have pic of him on the flat just before the downhill finish. He was passed by Kyle Heffner in 33:07. One tough cookie. Wasn't there a story way back then in RW about him training in several layers for heat training?

there is an excellent article in one of the early 80's runnerworld's about Benji Durden and his training. A good diet of 120-30 mile weeks and a little bit of speedwork as I can remember

Kind of a Ron Dawes story -- self-made Olympian who didn't have a lot of speed but trained systematically and prepared for heat by wearing sweats well into late spring. Benji could maximize his placing in big hot-weather races by slowing down less than other studlier runners. In 1980, Rodgers passed up the Oly Trials marathon at Niagra Falls because of the impending boycott. Ron Tabb (Mary Decker's first husband), Kyle Heffner from dallas and Benji (Atlanta) made the team in around 2:10. As a consolation prize, the three were called out of retirement to run the first Goodwill Games in 1986 in Moscow. No top runner would have wanted to run it without an appearance fee, and we only got $3,000 from TAC. The meet was held at the Olympic Stadium in the park near the river. Gorbachov made a speech at the opening ceremony. We stayed in a big hotel about 2 blocks from Red Square. Still the old Soviet style -- old lady at the end of the hall who took your room key, men who followed you around town to keep you out of trouble, a beautiful 20 year old interpreter (the young women were gorgeous; the old Soviet hags were notoriously dumpy and haggard). We went to the "GUM", the biggest department store in the world, and it was like a third-world market with endless stalls of the same five items: cheap brown shoes, plastic household crap, etc. Lots of money for missles, not much left over for the "workers." I couldn't believe how backwards the old USSR was on my first visit on a junior tour in 1978 to Donyetsk, a poluted coal mining city in Ukraine and home of Sergy Bubka. At Goodwill games Ben Johnson beat Carl Lewis. That man was HUGE. JJK had a good heptathlon.

Anyway, Benji is a smart and funny man who trained hard. In those days, marathoners were tough as nails and ran 20 miles a day, in hot weather and on hills. Not much more to say.

Thank you for your relating your experiences...very interesting to read!

Good story Jungleroy59. Almost factual.

Ron Tabb did not make the 1980 team. That would be Tony Sandoval.

2:10:19 1 Tony Sandoval '80

2:10:41 2 Benji Durden '80

2:10:55 3 Kyle Heffner '80

2:11:42 1 Alan Culpepper '04

2:11:43 1 Pete Pfitzinger '84

2:11:44 2 Alberto Salazar '84

2:11:47 2 Meb Keflezighi '04

2:11:50 3 John Tuttle '84

2:11:51 1 Frank Shorter '76

2:11:58 2 Bill Rodgers '76

2:11:59 4 Dave Gordon '84

2:12:02 3 Dan Browne '04

2:12:25 5 Dean Matthews '84

2:12:35 4 Trent Briney '04

2:12:42 6 Tony Sandoval '84

I believe that this is from the RW article. Rubio posted this in Mervs about 2 years ago.

Sunday 12 miles, double sweats, 74 min

Mon: 9 miles

Tues: AM: 7 mile warmup, 2 miles stride straights/jog turns, 1 x 1k in 2:54, 6

mile cooldown. PM: 9 miles

Wed: 8 easy

Thur: AM: 22 in 2:30, full sweats PM: 9 miles

Fri: 7 easy

Sat: 10k road race in 30:04, 5 mile cooldown

Yup, he ran 31 miles on Thursday and then ran a 30:04 10K on Saturday. So his big days were BIG, and he ran <10 on his easy days.

Guiseppi wrote:

Good story Jungleroy59. Almost factual.

Ron Tabb did not make the 1980 team. That would be Tony Sandoval.

2:10:19 1 Tony Sandoval '80

2:10:41 2 Benji Durden '80

2:10:55 3 Kyle Heffner '80

You are certainly right, Guiseppi. Sandoval was an awesome runner from New Mexico, I believe, of course I've already been wrong once today.

Oh well, never let too many facts get in the way of a good story. This is the Internet, after all. The GUM was sad and the interpreter was beautiful and it was a good track meet and a huge stadium. Russian vanilla ice cream on the street is great. Beer was served from a kiosk where after you drank they dipped your glass in a tub of water and then served the next person. The yogurt was awesome. It was 3 months after Chernobyl and they told us not to eat dairy. Maybe that's what happened to my memory. It got light at around 3 a.m. -- far north, no daylight savings time, and some screwy time zones. I forget a lot of the facts and figures but I'll never forget the relief at landing in Helsinki, walking into that beautiful but stark terminal with the broad parquet floors, and drinking fresh orange juice.

Ron Tabb was fourth at the '80 trials. In your defense, he himself says that he was a member of the '80 Oly team, presumably because he was the first alternate:

http://goboxers.pacificu.edu/xc/xcstaff.htm

Regarding Benji's training, Benji himself wrote about it on a thread here within the last few months. Although he had some high-mileage stretches, most of his best running was on a diet of relatively low mileage -- 85 to 90 mpw. His hard days were long and hard, but his easy days were very light and easy.

Oh, and as you can see from Tabb's bio, he did run in the '86 Goodwill Games, so your memory is fine on that point.

I'm running the Club Championships for the Boulder Road Runners 50-59 team. I'm 53 now and running about 70-80 per week, mostly just mileage, repeats make my calves too tight and don't seem to help as much as the used to. I'm in about 17:45 shape or so for 5K here in Boulder; I hope in the lower 17's at sea level meaning the upper 35's at Portland. We'll see in December. I have run a couple 100+ weeks this fall (it takes a lot longer, but it doesn't seem to be that hard on my body).

My PR's

1:56.6 880

4:13.2 mile

14:10 5K track

13:20's downhill road 5K

28:36 10k road

43:28 15K road (I ran 44:10? on the track once)

1:03:11 half

2:09:57 at Boston and 2:11:11 at houston (1982)

Hey Benji. Here in Chicago, we have a guy, Sam Cortez, who runs on the Circuit. He'll be 54 next month, and has been running around 17 and around 36 this year. I believe that he was a little faster last year. Apparently, he won the lottery a few years ago and spends a decent amount of time training.

Although most competitive runners are mostly interested in running fast now, do you have any advice to help runners make sure that they are still running strong in their 50s? Thanks for posting.

I think it is important to find a way to train for the fun of training and not get frustrated with the realities of aging. If you try to fight too hard and push too much as the aging process occurs it seems to me that you will spend a lot of time injured and you will loose the basic pleasure that running gives us.

Some, like me, like to do long runs and otheres like to run on the track. Both can be paths to better running if you listen too your body and make sure you are recovering and improving rather than just wearing yourself down.

I don't think there is a single path that will work for everyone.

Here's a BD story, perhaps he can confirm, but this is from my memory. He won the 78 or 79 Cooper River Bridge run (I forget the year) in Charleston, SC.

I was living at Isle of Palms at the time. The night before the race, he polished off a 10 miler on Isle of Palms at sub 6, then won the race the next day, a 10K, with sub 30 (?) Tough guy.

Benji, did you run the Furman Road Relays (5 guys X 5 miles). Atlanta always sent a team, and i seem to remember you, but it could be a false memory.