Today was Bill Rodgers' birthday. I didn't see a thread on it. He's 66 years old.

Always been a huge BR fan. Never realized his birthday was on the 23rd. My birthday is on the 25th.

Happy birthday. Did you ever race against Rodgers/have you met him?

-- - A favorite Bill Rodgers memory is from a Millrose Games what ever year Coglan's son ran the boys mile 06-/07?.

Bumped into Bill and Tom Fleming going to the NYAC after party. Bill says- with that Gee Golly!!awestruck look he has- I rode down on the train from Boston with John Thomas, how cool is that, I sat with John Thomas on the way down!!!

During the course of the next couple of hours he must have told a dozen people the same thing. He was not Bill Rodgers Road Racing Icon that night he was the lucky fan who got to ride down from Boston with John Thomas.

Happy Birthday Bill!!

Josh Hamilton's Addiction wrote:

Happy birthday. Did you ever race against Rodgers/have you met him?

Before I really followed running I did... he still hobbyjogs races all over the country, pretty cool. I am fascinated by his training/racing schedule on Hodge's site.

same age the whole year wrote:

My birthday is on the 25th.

Me too

A class act.

Happy Birthday!

Yes, I have met Bill Rodgers. I also met Patty and Dan Dillon at a 5k a few years ago. Br has 17 years on me but it is still one of the highlights of my running when I finished behind Dan Dillon and in front of Bill Rodgers at that race.

I didn't run from 19-37 and once I started back up I ran 17:36 when I was 38. This race was when I was 39 and I ran 17:34 for a pr. Went on to run around 17:00 that summer.

It was the year after Rodgers broke his leg so he was getting back in shape and ran 18:03 at 56. The year before he had beaten me in a 20k by over 5 minutes. Those are the only two races I know of that we were both in.

"Today was"?

What's his speed and training now?

Ed Whitlock could run around 4:46 for 1500 at 66.

Bill:

" It’s gnawing at me that I want to do better—next year I want to do better at all of my races. I look at the guys who I was competitive with before I broke my leg, and I want to get back to competing with them."

Grammer and Speling wrote:

"Today was"?

Please. I posted the thread at 11:29pm. The day was essentially over, so using today was makes total sense.

Ever go to a ballgame at 1pm, have a blast, get home and have your dad ask, "How was your first ballgame, son?"

"Awesome! Today was great!"

never liked him, still don't....was pissed every time he beat frank....loved it when GV beat him 1980

Bill was a weeny....his running was limited to the marathon for the most part...some rare exceptions

RuKiddingMe!! wrote:

his running was limited to the marathon for the most part...some rare exceptions

I agree. These races are all I could find that wasn't a marathon.

15 kilometers - 43:39.8 (1977 - American Record)

10 miles - 46:35

20 kilometers - 58:15 (1977 - American Record)

1 hour - 12 mi 1351 yd (20.556 km) (1977 - American Record)

25 kilometers - 1:14:12 (1979 - World and American Record)

30 kilometers - 1:31:50 (1979 - American Record)

Falmouth Road Race: 3 wins

Lynchburg 10 miler: 5 wins

Cherry Blossom 10-Mile Run: 4 wins

Utica Boilermaker 15 km: 1 win

Beverly Hills 10 km: 4 wins

Azalea Trail 10 km: 4 wins

Gurnet Classic Beach Run, Duxbury MA

Bloomsday 12 km: 1 win

Gasparilla 15 km: 1 win (first yr.)

Jacksonville 15 km: 1 win

BIX 7: 2 wins (incl. first yr.)

Big Boy 20 km: 3 wins

1975 World Cross-Country Bronze Medalist

Josh Hamilton's Addiction wrote:

Grammer and Speling wrote:

"Today was"?

Please. I posted the thread at 11:29pm. The day was essentially over, so using today was makes total sense.

No, it did not make sense.

I understood what the OP did. Agree it was the most descriptive way of effectively getting his thought across.

The spoken language is more informal than our written communications are. I contend we tend to mimic speech in internet chat rooms.

Read for content and forget you own a blue pencil.

It's hard to take someone seriously when the can't speak/write proper English.

Also. . .28:04.4 - 4th place - 1976 Olympic Trials Final 10,000

Pointing Out the Obvious wrote:

It's hard to take someone seriously when the can't speak/write proper English.

There's no such thing as proper English. There's standard English, which I can speak and write just fine when needed, but it isn't needed here. This will be my last post about the written word--this thread's intention is to celebrate Bill Rodgers, and I'm done derailing it with petty comments. I truly don't give a sh\it about anyone here taking me seriously. Happy holidays, everyone. I'm off to open gifts.

By the way, you used the wrong pronoun when writing "the" [sic]. You should have used either "he" or "she" following the antecedent "someone." Notice I was able to understand and form a coherent reply to your post. It was not hard to take your post seriously. But perhaps your intellectual limitations are preventing you from breaking these simple communication barriers. I'll pray for you.