The Frank Shorter Story

I agree. Great article and thanks to Frank for opening up about his childhood. I am sure his story will benefit many.

I competed against Frank during the 70's. He was always measured and quiet and not that easy to get to know. He was/is my idol still today. As I read the article I found myself weeping, but also realizing why he was distant in those days.

Frank Shorter is America's true distance running legend. Never mind the talk of Rupp/Sol etc.

Young runners should watch his Olympic victory in 72. So smooth, so coolly-planned and executed. Mastery in action. It should have been double Olympic gold from 76 too, after Cierpinski's PED expose.

By far, FS is the greatest living American distance runner.

This was a very moving story. He's doing a good thing by fronting up to it. It's sad to see, even in this case, the denial of others who knew the family. They are a warning to all of us to be on guard against not wanting to listen to our instincts.

The shiny super-family with the domineering do-gooder parents is always a very dubious institution.

My dad was much worse then Shorter's. He beat my bare back, butt and legs with his belt in the basement when I was 10, was sexually abusive to me, and knocked me down with his fist out of the blue long before that. My earliest memory is of him hitting me. The last time when I was 17 and he was twice my size he beat me for 45 minutes and ended up banging my head on the bathtub until he broke my jaw and I curled up in a ball.

When I was 10 he beat me to get me to apologize for something I'd done wrong and I never would but would just keep screaming that I hated him and was not going to apologize, so he beat me till he got tired of beating me. The same thing when I was 17, I was screaming at him the whole time, never hitting him but he almost killed me.

My brother was like Shorter, he would stand there and do nothing and act like it was my fault my dad was beating me. Maybe that's why I never had any use for Shorter, though I never knew his dad was abusive to him. But why does he wait till his dad is dead to speak up. I never understand people like that. As far as I know my dad never layed a hand on my brother or my mom, and they always supported him beating me. Maybe because of that, they were safe. I am definitely fortunate to have survived and even to still have my senses. But even so, that I spoke up, it was dangerous to me. But I'm me and I'm happy to be me. I'm happy that I spoke up even though I was the only one at the time.

I always waited for the time that my dad would die, and wondered if I would feel any safer then. But the thing is, I don't feel any safer now. It's wasn't just him, it's the world. The way he treated me, I see the good in the world but I also see people like him in the world, so I learned from that. It makes me angry, but also there is some peace to know that he was just a person trying to survive, like we're all trying to survive and making mistakes. So I can hate what he did, and still understand how it could happen, feeling pissed off and angry, having some fear, and yet finally being at peace.

Thanks for sharing this. I do not make a habit of reading the homepage of this site or of RW, so I would have missed it if not for this thread. Powerful story and good writing.

Me thinks the Good Doc made a lot of unnecessary housecalls, too.

J.R., I'm sorry these things happened to you, and I'm happy that you found some peace. You obviously have a lot of strength and courage, and I hope that you still trust that there is goodness in this world and that people (even strangers on running forums) care and wish you to be safe and happy.

J.R. wrote:

But the thing is, I don't feel any safer now. It's wasn't just him, it's the world.

I looked first at the home page but did not see it, so I clicked onto your link. I had to read all of it, I got choked up reading it. In fact, I get choked up when I read similar situations including (J.R.'s)

The best think you can do is share your story. Let others hear it even if it is uncomfortable to talk about.

Thank you again for sharing the link...

Harrowing story...

I could have aworn this general topic with no mention of FS went up yesterday before the Shorter story published.

Was it was deleted?

J.R. wrote:

But the thing is, I don't feel any safer now. It's wasn't just him, it's the world.

return to index wrote:

J.R., I'm sorry these things happened to you, and I'm happy that you found some peace. You obviously have a lot of strength and courage, and I hope that you still trust that there is goodness in this world and that people (even strangers on running forums) care and wish you to be safe and happy.

That is very nice of you. Thank you very much for saying this.

J.R. wrote:

J.R. wrote:

But the thing is, I don't feel any safer now. It's wasn't just him, it's the world.

return to index wrote:

J.R., I'm sorry these things happened to you, and I'm happy that you found some peace. You obviously have a lot of strength and courage, and I hope that you still trust that there is goodness in this world and that people (even strangers on running forums) care and wish you to be safe and happy.

That is very nice of you. Thank you very much for saying this.

It could have been a nice post had you not treated it like a competition with Frank. Your family experience was different than what Frank went through though you both had horrible fathers. But, to blame him or to 'have no use for him' is ridiculous and a sad reflection on you.

It is good that you survived your situation and actually grew into a better man than your father. As a father of two, I truly cannot understand how a parent can do this to their own children.

I suffered much much less abuse, but was hit often and hard enough to know what the effect can be over the long term. I also have friends who have similar backrounds as FS and Frank's achievements and personality make a great deal of sense in this perspective.

I recall that Gerry Lindgren's dad was also very abusive and of course there are the revelations by Greg LeMond about his uncle. I wouldn't be surprised if there are may other top endurance athletes with a history of child abuse.

You're very welcome.

I've often thought that the drive of many long distance runners came from having first-hand knowledge of the darker side of man. Running provides a protected space that moves along with you, wherever you go.

Withheld wrote:

J.R. wrote:

That is very nice of you. Thank you very much for saying this.

It could have been a nice post had you not treated it like a competition with Frank. Your family experience was different than what Frank went through though you both had horrible fathers. But, to blame him or to 'have no use for him' is ridiculous and a sad reflection on you.

It is good that you survived your situation and actually grew into a better man than your father. As a father of two, I truly cannot understand how a parent can do this to their own children.

This is intense stuff to share /write. I think the poster can be given a wide path of understanding if he did not write it perfectly (for you.)

I did not see it as a competition.

Sharing child abuse is not a competition -- I've spent thousands of hours studying family psychology. When an individual finally, or occasionally lets this stuff out, it can trigger - or re-trigger - lots of emotions.

One could pick nits with the RW writer, and even with some of Franks frames and quotes...if you wanted to get clinical... Somehow, I don't think that is the point.

There is a meta-message that is far more important than picking nits... ALL child abuse is BAD (BAD, BAD, BAD, you know, harmful to little evolving human spirits and personalities).

It's not a contest. Abuse that could be judged as "less" than "abuse" another little human experienced...might have worse outcomes in life for the receiver of the abuse. There are so many variables, that the variables aren't really important.

What is important is that the victims be heard, and get the best treatment available -- and when these stories come out -- "we" as a society stop blaming, or shaming the messenger.

Treat your children well.

savagesquid wrote:

Frank Shorter is America's true distance running legend. Never mind the talk of Rupp/Sol etc.

Does that include Mills????

return to index wrote:

You're very welcome.

I've often thought that the drive of many long distance runners came from having first-hand knowledge of the darker side of man. Running provides a protected space that moves along with you, wherever you go.

This is an interesting nuance-point.

I think Frank implied at one point that running gave him the opportunity to think, contemplate, work some things out about the world.

I know in my high school era, we runners got to learn about the darker side of our peers -- if you weren't playing football you weren't tough. What we runners (eventually, those of us that stuck with it and got good) knew was that we had a toughness these guys couldn't even imagine. (Let's see you guys run up a mountain for 7 miles, run 23 miles home from school one day just to see if you could do it...etc.)

I remember reading an interview once with a famous musician, where he said that he "found childhood extremely difficult, that in his case it wasn't anything his family did, they were fine, it was the society around him (so he made himself famous to escape it.)

If you are a parent, or are going to be one... I highly recommend reading "Social Intelligence," by Daniel Goleman. The intersection of social neuroscience and developmental psychology are extremely cutting edge spaces for understanding what is the human ape...

I know it's popular to trash RW, but these articles make it worthwhile. It's crazy that those that are robbed of childhood spend their entire lives as children.