Question for HRE

islandmaster wrote:

I've read your posts about Bernie Allen and was wondering if you could elaborate a bit on what his "off" days looked like. What did he do on the other 3-4 days per week when he wasn't running? Did he do any crosstraining, or were his off days truly off? Thanks!

I will have to tell Bernie he's subject of a question here. His off days looked like off days, i.e. he worked or in his DC days went to grad school classes. He never did anything like cross training. Bernie probably could have run 2:11-2:12 if he'd ever been able to organize his life and just gotten 70-80 a week consistently or maybe even just the 60-70 he did for ten weeks before winning Enschede and beating Mamo Wolde. But he often had jobs that didn't pay real well so he needed to put in a lot of time.

And he was not good at getting himself out the door when those work days were done on his own. He needed training partners and would never miss a run if he'd arranged to run with someone but was sketchy at getting out alone. And he ran so hard that guys weren't always lining up to run with him. We did a five miler in Boulder once that I really wish I'd timed because I KNOW it was much faster than I'd ever run for the distance except for possibly another five we did in Finland in 1975. So things were always haphazard for him. There was a Boulder Marathon around 1980 (not at all sure how close to 1980 it was) that he won in 2:29. He was working about 80 hours a week and would have worked more but his wife wouldn't let him work on Sundays so he did a twenty each week and nothing more for that 2:29.

But there was a time in 1982-83 when his life took a different turn and he was just working part time for several months. He was living at 8,000 feet and worked his miles up to 120 or so a week. He was 37 and ran 2:15:31 in what would have been his 97th or 98th marathon. But not too long after that he was back to 60 plus hour work weeks and wedging runs in. He managed to win his age group at the AAU cross country championships then.

Sounds like a fascinating guy. Thanks.

Very much. Bernie's the toughest person I know. He's been threatening to write his memoirs for the last 25 years. If he ever does it will be a great read.

I am just heading out the door for my first race in close to 18 months (I never got into the virtual races), but wanted to say thanks for the detailed info. Sounds like a fascinating person. Definitely encourage him to write that memoir!

What type of work did he do?

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

What type of work did he do?

He started out as a grad student/assistant in chemistry at the U of Maryland. When that was done he started resoling running shoes for Jerry Turner (of Brooks and then Turn Tec.) He went to the UK for their '76 Olympic Trials Marathon and came back with two big suitcases filled with Ron Hill's Freedom shorts and a deal o be Ron's US distributor. He sold the shorts at races and sold out quickly.

Then he moved to Boulder and kept trying to re-order shorts from Ron. But Ron never responded so Bernie found some seamstresses and made a very similar short, also looking like the British flag, as Ron's did. This did not endear him to Ron. Eventually he expanded his flag designs and had shorts with flags of various countries and US states. Around this time Dick Quax moved to Boulder for a while and suggested making shorts that looked like the Kiwi flag, Silver Fern and all. It was the New Zealand Split and was very popular. His company was originally called International Sports Distributors but around the time of the NZ Split changed to International Sports. Eventually he lost the business and the people who took it from him changed the name to InSport.

After that he was a short order cook in Boulder. That was the 120 a week period. Shortly after that he moved to Boston to be near his daughter. He worked some night shifts in group homes for mental patients and started driving a taxi. Then he went to work for Saucony, not sure what his job title was but it must have had something to do with product development. He left Saucony for Foot Joy and again, I don't know what his job was but I know both jobs had him going back and forth from Asia constantly. I'm pretty sure he finally had his fill of corporate BS and left to go back to cab driving.

Sounds like a character.

Ghost of Igloi wrote:

Sounds like a character.

Definitely.

Is Bernie the guy from WRC that had a little dog, "Shelie" as I recall. Little dog would race 10k, 10m, full marathon. WRC dudes rocked back then, Bernie (if I'm remembering correctly-HS), Phil Stewart, Bruce Robinson would go up against Boston TC and fo well at Boston.

218er wrote:

Is Bernie the guy from WRC that had a little dog, "Shelie" as I recall. Little dog would race 10k, 10m, full marathon. WRC dudes rocked back then, Bernie (if I'm remembering correctly-HS), Phil Stewart, Bruce Robinson would go up against Boston TC and fo well at Boston.

No. That was Ed Somebody who had the dog. Can't think of the dog's name but it could have been Shelly. Shelly and Ed always ran together and Shelly, if that's the name, was killed by a car. Not long afterward Ed too was killed by a car when on a bike ride. It's going to drive me nuts now trying to think of Ed's last name. And we had a "Shelly," Sheldon Karlin in the WRC for a while. He won the New York Marathon in 1972 or '71.He, Bernie, and I roomed together for a while until Shelly moved back to New Jersey..

Ed Jerome had the dog and I think Shelly was the dog's name,