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

Also:

Ohme 30k in Japan in 1976 (which is a major race over there).

BTW, how many marathons did he win (the majors are obvious: 1 Fukuoka, 4 Bostons, 4 New Yorks -- London, Chicago and Berlin weren't as prominent back then in the pre-prize money era)

Spider wrote:

Also:

Ohme 30k in Japan in 1976 (which is a major race over there).

BTW, how many marathons did he win (the majors are obvious: 1 Fukuoka, 4 Bostons, 4 New Yorks -- London, Chicago and Berlin weren't as prominent back then in the pre-prize money era)

BR also won the Bay State Marathon in 1973... his first marathon win, I believe.

Josh Hamilton's Addiction wrote:

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. ...

By the way, you used the wrong pronoun ...

Hypocrisy detected.

My Rogers story... In 1984 we were running a 10,000 on the track at BC. I got lapped by a couple of runners who qualified for the trials. When those two went by I stayed on the rail and let them go around me. When Bill came around in about 4th, I moved out and gave him the inside lane. That's how much respect I have for the man. Turned out to be the last track race he has ever run.

So the MODULATORS screwed with the thread heading and got the DATE wrong.

IT'S THE 23RD!!!!!!!!!

OOPSIE...... wrote:

So the MODULATORS screwed with the thread heading and got the DATE wrong.

IT'S THE 23RD!!!!!!!!!

Looks like they just screwed up on the front page.

Met Bill in the Dec. '78 when he was in Miami to help promote the old Orange Bowl Marathon. Ran with him a few times and then corresponded occasionally for a year or two thereafter. In early '80 I wrote to ask him if it would be okay to establish a Bill Rodgers award for the high school XC team I coached, and, if so, what criteria the award should have. He said he would like it to go to the one who loved running the most. Typical Bill. We gave out major sports awards for all seasons at a Spring banquet and in early April I wrote to Bill to tell him a little about the two kids who were going to share the first award bearing his name. A few weeks later he wrote back and also enclosed personal handwritten notes for each kid. Notes which they treasured far more than the generic plaques they received. And Bill's letter was postmarked from Texas 3-4 days after he had won his 4th Boston Marathon. Despite all the focus and energy he had put into the race followed by the demands on his time from TV and reporters and fans in the hours and days following that historic win, plus all his travel, he had taken the time while on the road to write personal notes to kids he had never met. Typical Bill.

That story is so Bill. It would not surprise me if there are a couple zillion similar stories out there.

I don't know Bill personally, but I lived in Boston for many years and know two people who knew him well (and were much better runners than I ever was). This sort of generosity seemed to come naturally to him.

It seemed there were two things he could do without it being a psychologic burden -- things others could do, but for Bill it seemed more effortless: (1) be generous with his time; (2) run very high milegage year after year -- for the latter, refer back to the training logs posted in the original post. I note days with things like 13 mile run in the morning, 16 mile run in the afternoon -- same the next day, same the next day, same the next day.

Awesome story. Thanks for sharing.

Let me help you with spelling

its Rodger's

stick with eharmony wrote:

Let me help you with spelling

its Rodger's

A grammatical savant is needed tell you about apostrophe placement but I can tell you his name is Bill Rodgers not Bill Rodger

Regardless of his name it's Rodger's.

Please understand the difference between plurarl and possessive thanks

stick with eharmony wrote:

Regardless of his name it's Rodger's.

Please understand the difference between plurarl and possessive thanks

Youre' welcoml!

I raced against him. He was in his 40's. He still ran 15:10 for a 5k in Hartford, CT. corporate race in the mid 90's. It was awesome. Gary Nixon was also in his 40's, they came in one-two.