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.