Bill Rodgers, tired and slow, near 60 years old...

ok he's injured and not running as fast as he used to. should you criticize him and tell him to quit? no

Not as bad as watching you blow up at Boston. . . :)

It is sad to see this running legend fade away. But, it happens and we shouldconsider ourselves lucky that we can still see a legend run the real races.

In otehr sports they retire and we never see them again.

ROgers raced like crazy in the "Golden AGe" of marathoning and Road Racing.

I always get nostalgic, but I loved those days of the hard core competitors.

I think they are returning with the great group of young runners we have!

If it doesn't bother Bill, then it doesn't bother me.

Bill Rogers has earned the right to run as slow or fast as he wants, whenever he wants.

Who the hell are you to judge him? What's he supposed to do, not run another step in his life because some nobody/never was like you says so?

Yes, and someday not to far in the future Dathan, Teg., Meb, Lagat will follow Bill. This is called aging and despite the hype and glow of our youth oriented "lets get gratified" culture, death continues to be the finish line for all of us. So, don't get too hung up on your times and let go , loosen up and enjoy a 10 minute mile jog...

macdash2 wrote:

This is called aging.

True enough, but the thing about Bill is the decline happened fairly quickly. It seems that his broken leg of a few years ago was the precipitating incident. Bill himself is somewhat puzzled by it; at Bix he said he is going to get some tests done to see if there's an underlying physiological cause other than "jes' gettin' ol'."

At least he's still running...how many former professional athletes are now really out of shape?

JimG wrote:

macdash2 wrote:

This is called aging.

True enough, but the thing about Bill is the decline happened fairly quickly. It seems that his broken leg of a few years ago was the precipitating incident. Bill himself is somewhat puzzled by it; at Bix he said he is going to get some tests done to see if there's an underlying physiological cause other than "jes' gettin' ol'."

Did you expect his decline to be a direct linear equation? The body rarely works that way.

He'll probably get the leg healed and bounce back (somewhat).

traxor wrote:

ok he's injured and not running as fast as he used to. should you criticize him and tell him to quit? no

Relax everyone. I am not sure why everyone is giving Ghost crap for his post about Rodgers. I read the post and didn't see anything negative in his post. He said it was sad to see, he talked about his limp, etc. but was not putting Rodgers down at all. In fact, I read the post as coming from someone who has great respect from Rodgers and was just sad to see him limping and not being able to run like he used to. I guarantee you that Rodgers feels the same way and wants to get back to running the way he used to.

Well, his speed may have faded, but I don't think his legend has. And its not as if he has been trying to be super competitive for a long time now. He acts as an ambassador to the sport. Even before he really slowed down in the last couple of years, with all the flying to races all across the country, he wasn't exactly focussed on being the fastest 50-something out there. And why should he be? He posted his numbers long ago. Boston Billy, stopping to tie his shoe lace and still winning by a couple of billion miles.

Actually, Ghost just copied and pasted a few graphs from a Quad Cities Times story about the Bix:

http://www.qctimes.net/articles/2006/07/30/sports/doc44cc5293bb1d3984531296.txt

Joe Henderson's column in the most recent Marathon & Beyond is about Rodgers slowing down. Henderson, while sounding quite sad about Rodgers' so-called decline, inspired me to start reading Rodgers' 1982 classic book Marathoning.

Rodgers, 35 when he wrote it, claimed to have run 130 miles per week for the previous eight years and was fortunate to have only a recurring sore arch. And he ran TONS of races. According to Henderson, he still completes about 20 a year.

Rodgers just can't stop, and why should he? He's a ambassador for the sport and damn good one.

Gee, multi dot person, I never said one negative thing about Bill, I admire hime and hope he keeps running- slow, fast, I don't care- so that more people get to meet him.

Lighten up and learn how to read.

Keep in mind that the year he stopped to tie his shoe on Heartbreak, he also stopped, yes came to a stop, five times to take drinks of water. This was before any organized aid stations so he just accepted water from fans along the way. And, oh yeah, he ran 2:09. If you don't believe me, I'll dig up the results book from that year(78 or 79 I believe) which shows him standing in the middle of the road, wearing that singlet w/ GBTC magic-markered on it, drinking a cup of water.

You mean Bill Rodgers, pushing 60, doesn't run as fast as he did in his 20's, 30's, and 40's? That his brother beat him in a race?

That settles it! Time to take him out back and shoot him!

They shoot horses, don't they?

We don't understand why great athletes stay around way past their prime either.

I saw Bill run the Boilermaker and my esteem and respect for him grew by leaps and bounds. It would be the easiest thing in the world for a great athlete who no longer runs fast to give up participation in this sport.

Bill running although he no longer is burning up courses validates the participation of millions of us who race and push ourselves even though we may not be the best.

When an elite runner continues to run he he telling everyone that he loves running. He didn't just race because he was the best but because he loves to run.

Very few people in Billy's position would have the sense of self, the security, to still be able to do that.

Great seeing him out there.