mplatt,
That was Dick Beardsley in the 82 race.
mplatt,
That was Dick Beardsley in the 82 race.
I think that Andy Warhol said something like that? No matter, for now on, whenever appropriate on these message boards, instead of using the now cliché "fifteen minutes" as a lexeme, we can now substitute "twenty-five bucks!"
Mikey, Mikey, Mikey, what are we going to do with you? "Grammar school" is a metaphor, to illustrate Spence's lack of perspective. Before Spence came along there was no money. His words come from the first generation of American runners who think someone owes them something - a contract, a sunglasses deal - or at least TWENTY-FIVE BUCKS.
Do not take everything I say literally. Have you ever heard me say that, or is your name really "Leslie" not "mplatt"?
Let's see, mplatt, I ran 23:11 in that race cited by Hodgiesan, there was no prize money, not even appearance money, not even twenty-five bucks. I want my twenty-five buck!!! I ran 23:38 in the same race two years later and was - YOU GUESSED IT! - fifteenth place. I go to my mailbox every day, in hopes that my check (dated 1984) for TWENTY-FIVE bucks finally arrives.
Hmmmm, fifteenth place? I ran a 23:03 for - RIGHT AGAIN! - fifteenth place in 1981 and still no check for my birthright of TWENTY-FIVE BUCKS!
Mike, I got news for you, for running a 23:00 five-mile you don't deserve TWENTY-FIVE BUCKS. If someone gives it to you should consider it to be a gift.
yup, you are right. Every time I see Beardsley in less than a marathon I think of Greg instead of Dick. Greg was faster at that distance though.
Joe,
Check out those old running mags for other 5 mile race results 82/83. In July 82 I ran 23:38 at Carver Ma. a local race, in Sept. 23:08 in Lowell Ma. local race (day before New Haven 20k).
Even 20 years ago in local races with no prize money you saw some very credible times.
In a race 20 years ago offering an equivalent prize ($400) as the one Steve Spence ran, you would have likely seen some very good times.
More Agawam Riverside history:
Boston Globe
May 27, 1985
BICKFORD ROMPS TO RECORD WEIDENBACH SETS 5-MILE WOMEN'S MARK IN RIVERSIDE RACE
Author: Joe Concannon, Globe Staff
Edition: THIRD
Section: SPORTS
Page: 41
Estimated printed pages: 2
Article Text:
AGAWAM - By the time Bruce Bickford had made the turn off Adams street onto Suffield at the halfway juncture of the Riverside Twilight 5-miler yesterday, his coach Fred Treseler put this race in perspective: "He's gonzo from here. We're not going to see the rest of the race. We're only going to see Bick."
Correct. In a devastating performance against one of the best fields assembled in this country for a race of this distance, the impatient Bickford obliterated Greg Meyer's 1982 American record by 28 seconds in a runaway 22:18 in a race that started outside Riverside Park and finished on the oval inside.
When Bickford passed through the two-mile mark in 8:58, Treseler observed: "He's going to run his brains out in the last three miles. He doesn't care if he doesn't win. We're going to try to do something specific. He's been looking real good. After two miles, we decided to go."
Lisa Larsen Weidenbach of Marblehead, who ran without serious competition to a victory in the Boston Marathon last month, broke Julie Shea's American record of 26:12, which was set at Maggie Valley in North Carolina. Weidenbach won by nearly two minutes (25:58) over Nancy Conz (27:36) of nearby Southampton. Weidenbach ran under the record as she hit five miles in her 10- kilometer Landmark win last weekend in Boston.
This was Bickford's first race since he finished 10th (first American) in the World Cross-Country Championships on March 24. He was there last night when Mark Kimball took the race through the first mile in 4:26.7, then Bickford took it through two miles in 8:58 and through four in 17:48.
Guy Stearns of Portsmouth, N.H., who won the Landmark 10K a week ago, solidified his reputation as one of New England's top road runners by taking second in 22:53. Ireland's Richard Mulligan, who has been kept off the tracks and the roads by a spinal injury, was third in 22:57, as 43 runners broke 25 minutes.
Bickford has been on a roll on the track, the roads and the cross-country trails. He traces it to his fourth-place finish in the Olympic trials 5000. "Now that I look back at it," he said, "that was my breakthrough." He went to Europe, beat Olympic 10,000-meter gold medalist Alberto Cova in Brussels and hasn't slowed down.
"I had a good week of training behind me," said Bickford. "I just started doing a couple of track workouts a couple of weeks ago. I peaked for the cross-country championships. I wanted to prove that there were more Americans there than Pat Porter and Ed Eyestone. And I did."
The race seemed effortless, American record-styled effortless. "I felt great at two miles," said Bickford. "The first two miles were as easy as some of my training runs. I guess people tried to go with me. It wasn't a strong field up front, but probably the solidest field of top 30 runners ever."
Stearns took second, this former University of New Hampshire runner who saw his 10K times shrink from 29:40 to 29:19 to 28:38 in the past two years. "I caught second after the crest of the hill by the starting line," said Stearns. "Nobody was going to go with Bickford today. He opened it steady. It showed how strong he is.
Copyright 1985, 1998 Globe Newspaper Company
Boston Globe
May 26, 1985
A FAST, FORMIDABLE FIELD FOR THE RIVERSIDE 5-MILER
Author: Joe Concannon, Globe Staff
Edition: FOURTH
Section: SPORTS
Page: 45
Estimated printed pages: 4
Article Text:
The Riverside Twilight 5-miler was born as a 10-kilometer race five years ago, and it was your pure amateur event. "The first time, I took my own car, drove it over the course and measured out 6.2 miles," says Ed Carroll. "You might say it wasn't totally accurate, but we survived it."
The entry form for the sixth Riverside race tonight at 7 in Agawam touts the event as "America's fastest 5-mile race." Well, Greg Meyer set the American record (22:46) on the course in 1982, and five of the seven fastest 5-mile times run on American soil have been run in Agawam.
John Doherty equaled Meyer's time when he won the race a year ago. John Gregorek ran 22:47 in 1983, Bob Hodge was timed in 22:48 in 1982 and Wally Collins clocked a 22:52 last year. There was also a 23:00 by Bill Rodgers in the 1983 race over the course that starts on Main street and finishes on the Speedway Oval inside Riverside Park.
"I've been running for a long time myself," says Carroll, who operates Riverside Park and rolls out the red carpet for the elite runners. "When we started off, there were a world of things we didn't know. We changed to 5 miles the second year and we had a few name runners show up."
He then sought out running guru Tommy Leonard, who kicked off the weekend by receiving an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters at Westfield State College's commencement on Friday night. "He sat down in my office," recalls Carroll, "and said, 'Do you know who you need?'
"He said I needed Dick Beardsley to run the race. That was the year he had that great race in Boston with Alberto Salazar. Tommy picked up the phone and asked for information in Rush City, Minn. He said to the operator, 'My dear, I want to speak to your favorite son. Dick Beardsley.' Next year, Beardsley came."
From a field of fewer than 120 the first year, the race will attract a field of 1000 for its new date. The race traditionally had been run in August, but Carroll and the co-sponsoring Sheriff's Track Club felt the weather would be more favorable if the race were held at 7 tonight. Also, tomorrow is a holiday - so the party can go on.
The field is led by top US runners such as Bruce Bickford, Paul Gorman and Guy Stears, and includes the Irish lineup of Marcus O'Sullivan, Richard O'Flynn, Mick O'Shea, Charlie Breagy and Ray Treacy. Olympic marathon bronze medalist Charlie Spedding of Great Britain is also in the field. Boston Marathon winner Lisa Larsen Weidenbach heads the women's field.
Carroll has paid appearance money to 35 athletes, and will offer prize money based on performance. Plans call for an additional sponsor to match the $10,000 put up by Riverside Park to have a total purse of $20,000. The race tonight should be incentive enough.
"It should be a real horse race," says Carroll. "The course is very, very fast. It starts on a downhill outside the amusement park, and you return downhill to the stadium."
The race will be televised live by Springfield's Channel 22, and Rodgers will supply commentary.
Dave McGillivray's version of Race Day in Medford is a week from today, when the cross-continental runner puts on five races, starting with a children's mile at 9:30 a.m., then a women's mile (9:45), men's mile (10), celebrity mile (10:15) and a 10k open to all (10:45).
"The idea started when I had a grand opening of a store a couple of years ago," says McGillivray. "I thought of putting on a series of miles named after well-known Medford runners. The whole concept became too complex. Now we'll have upwards of 1000 in the five races."
The celebrity list includes Boston Mayor Raymond L. Flynn, former Bruins Gary Doak, Don Awrey and Ken Hodge, former Patriots Ron Burton, Houston Antwine and Steve Corbett, and former Celtics Dave Cowens, Hank Finkel and Steve Kuberski. Jim Nance, the former Patriot recovering from a stroke, and Derek Sanderson, the former Bruin recovering from hip surgery, may walk the distance.
Rodgers ran his 25th sub-2:15 marathon on May 5 in the New Jersey Waterfront Marathon. He plans to run either New York, Chicago or Dublin this fall. "I think I can prepare better if I can find a cool-weather marathon," says Rodgers . . . The field for the L'eggs 10k for women on June 1 in Central Park includes Olympic marathon gold medalist Joan Benoit, silver medalist Grete Waitz, Olympic 3000 gold medalist Maricica Puica of Romania and New Zealand's Anne Audain . . . The Montreal Marathon is playing down the prize- money issue and relying on its track record of luring top runners from Africa, the Soviet Union and Poland. "The prestige (of the race) is based more on the quality of runners it attracts from Eastern countries and Africa than on the overbidding of prize money," says race director Serge Arsenault. "Our marathon has a good reputation at the international level, and this permits us to welcome world-class runners who are not involved in this 'commercial system.' " . . . Norway's Ing rid Kristiansen earned a reported $100,000 for her world record in the London Marathon, and former world-record holder Steve Jones earned a reported $75,000 for his victory. Wonder why they weren't in Boston?
Groups in Duluth, Minn., and Olympia, Wash., are planning to submit bids for the 1988 women's Olympic marathon trials, and a group in Pittsburgh plans to bid for the 1988 men's trials. There is even a group in Boston eyeing the possibility of bidding for the men's trials . . . Ed Markey, the athletic director and former basketball coach at St. Michael's College, started to run following minor knee surgery and his goal was to jog 100 straight days. He passes through his 1260th consecutive day of jogging today, and the string includes a 3:27 first marathon at age 55 . . . The New York City Marathon on Oct. 27 will be expanded to take in 19,000 entries, with 7500 coming out of a July lottery. Requests for entry blanks must be accompanied by a nonrefundable $3 handling fee. The check should be made out to the New York City Marathon and be mailed with the obligatory stamped envelope. Requests must be postmarked no earlier than 12:01 a.m. June 3 and sent to Marathon Entries, PO 1388 GPO, New Yor k 10116 . . . Entries are also available for America's Marathon/Chicago (Oct. 20) and can be obtained by writing the marathon office at 214 West Erie, Chicago 60610 . . . The eighth Casco Bay Marathon will precede the two giants on Oct. 13 with a 7 a.m. start in Portland, Maine.
Memo:
ROAD RUNNING JOE CONCANNON
Copyright 1985, 1998 Globe Newspaper Company
10k silver, marathon bronze, steeple silver, 5000 silver, 1500 GOLD. Hardly sucking, bad thread.
What changed in the past fourteen years? More well-funded professional groups, more serious training at the high school level (more quality depth), and also quite a few Kenyans at WCAP.
What a great thread. It reminds me of how awesome the boards were back then. People with a ton of knowledge discussing (and disagreeing, respectfully) about an interesting topic. No trolling, no infantile name-calling.