Was the mid 1980s the peak of road racing and distance running in US in terms of being popular

HRE wrote:

I think you need to define popularity before you answer this. There are way more people running and entering races today than there were in the '80s but races have become less competitive in many cases and there is very little media interest in them, In the '80s there was more media coverage, you could occasionally find a road race covered by Sports Illustrated The New York and Boston Marathons had national TV coverage. That interest really faded once Africans started winning everything. But people entering races don't seem to care much about who wins those races.

The peak, IMO, was between around 1976 to 1984 (maybe up to 86). Road racing was very popular. It might seem like more people run today because more people enter the big races, but they were far more races back then. Every weekend there was a race within driving distance if you were in a metropolitan area. There were dozens of marathons across the country with a thousand or more entrants. Each city had 2-4 half marathons. Dozens of 10k and other distances. 15k, 20k, 25k, 30k. 10-mile races were common. Or just some random 7.2 mile tradition race where the course just happened to be 7.2 miles - maybe a point-to-point, or some sort of natural loop.

If you entered some random 10k in your city and ran 31:00 to 32:00, you were probably somewhere around 5th to 20th place just depending on what time of year it was. There might be a few races you could win running 31:00, but not many. In a big 10k in your city, you might be 50th at 32:00, maybe 25th at 31:00. Unless it was a race where elites ran, then you might be another 10-15 places back.

People did not flock to Boston, Chicago (not an elite marathon until about 82/83), or NY. There was one in your city or your state that you ran instead.

If you were an elite, there were dozens of races where the big names entered. All across the country. : Falmouth, Cherry Blossom, Bloomsday, Peachtree. There was a big 10k in Phoenix or Tuscon. Boulder to Boulder. A couple of big races in Florida. I can't even recall all the names. I'd have to pull out my old TnF news magazines.

This ^

Races were everywhere, every day of the weekend. All-comers meets all summer, weeknights. Only the fastest went to Boston, it didn't have waves of starters.

You could race any distance you wanted, there was a race for you, or just run at the three or four 10Ks that were going on in your town that same weekend. You'd see people out running, as in 7 minute pace (for the slow ones). There was no plodding.

I saw this, lived it, 77-88 or so. By 1990 it had all changed.

In terms of pure popularity of running, no.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/280458/number-of-marathon-finishers-united-states/

https://www.runningusa.org/RUSA/Research/Recent_Reports/Marathon_Report/

Now, in terms of the general public's investment in the pro levels of the sport? Maybe. But that's a different question. Then again, our perception of how important running was at the time may also just have been due to the fact that we were all limited to our own bubble more than we are now.

I was competitive from 77-89. I did 65 miles a week. (That was low mileage compared to the guys I competed against) Cycled (100-200M) as cross training. Raced at 5:30ish pace. I won 4 of the smallest road races ever to exist. Other than those I never came close to first, even when I finished second. I would see runners all the time. During my runs & not. About a year ago I started running again. I seldom see other runners. Even on tracks. When I do I often pass them. I am 61 years old & slow. Over the past several years I have noticed local race result with winning times around 6:00 pace. I see race after race award medals to every entrant.

Open Male qualifying time for Boston used to be 2:50 & no or very few charity entrants. Even small towns had running stores. Back in the 80's I was nothing special but when I talk to younger runners today I feel like I'm bragging. As I said I do not see anywhere near as many runners as the old days but I also think there is a sharper divide between "Competitive Runners" & joggers. Maybe they are less visible because they are doing a lot less mileage thus on the road less time?

tarckstar wrote:

This ^

Races were everywhere, every day of the weekend. All-comers meets all summer, weeknights. Only the fastest went to Boston, it didn't have waves of starters.

You could race any distance you wanted, there was a race for you, or just run at the three or four 10Ks that were going on in your town that same weekend. You'd see people out running, as in 7 minute pace (for the slow ones). There was no plodding.

I saw this, lived it, 77-88 or so. By 1990 it had all changed.

There seemed to be a 5 Miler or 10K every weekend. I don't recall many 5Ks.

There are more marathon finishers now, but there were more races then.

And the field sizes were smaller then, but the times were faster.

I was in a small Midwestern city, and a large 10K would be 500 people in the late-70s. You'd have winning times in the 29s and 30s. I was a finish line volunteer in Omaha in 1981 or so, the marathon winning time was 2:16.

tarckstar wrote:

This ^

Races were everywhere, every day of the weekend. All-comers meets all summer, weeknights. Only the fastest went to Boston, it didn't have waves of starters.

You could race any distance you wanted, there was a race for you, or just run at the three or four 10Ks that were going on in your town that same weekend. You'd see people out running, as in 7 minute pace (for the slow ones). There was no plodding.

I saw this, lived it, 77-88 or so. By 1990 it had all changed.

Do you think that the fact that it was all new was a factor? It is called the Running Boom for a reason, it became a huge thing very quickly.

I lived in a small town and even WE had a road race that had both a 5k & 10k. The winner was usually a lower 15 or just under, the 10k had 30 flat guys.. and that is a small road race in the south!

The demise of the 10k makes me sad. It's really a nice distance to race, maybe if they'd started to market it as a quarter marathon or something it would still be viable.

Whatever happened to New Zealand Splits? wrote:

tarckstar wrote:

This ^

Races were everywhere, every day of the weekend. All-comers meets all summer, weeknights. Only the fastest went to Boston, it didn't have waves of starters.

You could race any distance you wanted, there was a race for you, or just run at the three or four 10Ks that were going on in your town that same weekend. You'd see people out running, as in 7 minute pace (for the slow ones). There was no plodding.

I saw this, lived it, 77-88 or so. By 1990 it had all changed.

There seemed to be a 5 Miler or 10K every weekend. I don't recall many 5Ks.

I recall a 2 Mile "Fun Run" starting immediately after every 10K race.

1986 everyone was running wrote:

Show of hands! Was 1986 or 1987 the peak of running being popular? Everyone ran; they used to have weekly shows on like Danskin Running and Racing, races were every week, pros would battle it out week in, week out, and they had multiple running magazines at the news stands. Local races were also deep with talent! Everyone was running!

Hmm, I smell boomer nostalgia here. Popularity? 1986 NYC Marathon ~ 20,000 finishers. Now? 55,000

Large groups of obese women didn't walk hand-in-hand across the road in 1986 quite as frequently as now.

saw all the good concerts wrote:

Large groups of obese women didn't walk hand-in-hand across the road in 1986 quite as frequently as now.

Even more disturbing is the walking during a 5k and the hostility towards fast people at times, as if racing is somehow ‘suspect’ or aggrieved.

I’m Gen Z and I fondly remember when races were called ‘mini-marathons.’ There definitely was something about the ethos of a road race that was a little bit raw and delightfully unpolished. Now everything seems packaged and hermetically sealed.

There are a lot more races now and people race less often these days, so the fields are watered down.

In the 80’s the vast majority of races were either 5K, 10K, or Marathon. Half marathons and other distances weren’t a thing, so racing 4 marathons per year was pretty common.

On the flip side, road racing was male dominated back then whereas today >50% of participants are women.

"Post collegiately, for elite and emerging elite, that has changed a lot. Back in the day, it seemed that more kept going for a number of years and there were more informal/or formal training groups. Now it's go pro or go home (get a contract or get a job). Letsrun itself promotes that. Either you're 3:33/13:06 (4:02/14:52 for women) by age 23-24 or you're a bum who needs to be making $450K a year and making angry-hateful comments on this forum."

and that, my friends, is LRC in a nutshell.

No. The peak of that running boom was ~1976 (first NYC Marathon) through the 1984 Olympic Marathon.

November 6, 1988, was the exact date when competitive road-running became a non-competitive endeavor. That day Team in Training started the NYC Marathon in a fundraising effort for the Lymphoma Society. It was the first organization to offer a (purple shirt), a training plan, and a destination vacation 'race' for those willing to support a cause. As long as they are charitable a person no longer has to train to be 'fast' enough to enter a marathon .

llort_vbo wrote:

saw all the good concerts wrote:

Large groups of obese women didn't walk hand-in-hand across the road in 1986 quite as frequently as now.

Even more disturbing is the walking during a 5k and the hostility towards fast people at times, as if racing is somehow ‘suspect’ or aggrieved.

I’m Gen Z and I fondly remember when races were called ‘mini-marathons.’ There definitely was something about the ethos of a road race that was a little bit raw and delightfully unpolished. Now everything seems packaged and hermetically sealed.

Isn’t Gen Z the current college aged generation?

llort_vbo wrote:

1986 everyone was running wrote:

Show of hands! Was 1986 or 1987 the peak of running being popular? Everyone ran; they used to have weekly shows on like Danskin Running and Racing, races were every week, pros would battle it out week in, week out, and they had multiple running magazines at the news stands. Local races were also deep with talent! Everyone was running!

Hmm, I smell boomer nostalgia here. Popularity? 1986 NYC Marathon ~ 20,000 finishers. Now? 55,000

Again, I think you need to define popularity. If you wanted to watch the NYC Marathon on TV or read about it in something like Sports Illustrated or your local newspaper it was a lot easier to do in 1986 than it is today. Presumably that's because there was a lot more interest then than now in the competitive side of the sport. And the mega marathons of today have sucked up many, many, runners who in 1986 would have run in other marathons, some of which went belly up. If you want to do a valid numbers comparison between 1986 and a current year you'd need to get the total number of marathon entrants over the whole country (if we're looking at US popularity) for a specified time period remembering too that the general population today is a lot bigger than in 1986.

I do believe there are many more people running today than there have ever been so if that's how you define popularity I'd say it's now, though again, there are about 100 million more Americans now. But another way to look at this is to look at running as a competitive sport versus running as a healthy activity, i.e, are there more people today interested in seeing how much they can train, how fast they go in races and how high they can place than there were in the '70s and '80s? Allowing for differences in population size I'd bet not.

Awesome thread. Someone mentioned TV coverage and I remember the old "Saucony Running and Racing" show on ESPN hosted by Marty Liquori . Would never see something like this on TV today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn-sTaIqmAI