Nice post. Sometime in the early part of this century I read an article in the New York Times during their lead in to the NYC Marathon. I don't remember any of it except a part where they described runners who trained hard and ran for a good place or time as "snobby eliteists." When I read it I knew the sport I'd known was gone.
I started working at races in the mid 70's.
The majority of the participants in races were runners.....running was their primary sport. Then as we moved through the decades that number appeared to dwindle and new participants were added who were fit but running was not their primary sport or form of exercise.
You can also see this with the masses where the top of the bell curve has been shifted drastically slower over the past 35+ years.
Plus, many courses back in the 70's and into the early 80's were not as accurate as the courses today.
This is Jim Kiler wrote:
I really started to run road races in 1979, and in the Midwest, nearly everything was a 10K with a 2 mile Fun Run accompanying.
Other common race distances were 5 miles, 15K, and 20K. There were one or two halves, and one or two marathons.
A lot of the non-10K courses were short, or long, GPS tells me that today. Some of the bigger 10K events were on legit courses, still in use now. A big race would have 3-500 people. More common, though, were smallish community races with 75 or so.
We'd pay $3 or $5 with a T-shirt.
The courses were right in the middle of town, using major roadways. I recall one that was point-to-point, on basically a highway. No trails, no business park loops, very rarely out-and-back.
Interesting post. Nowadays so many people work on the weekends, so many businesses are open that only the biggest races can shut down major roadways and downtowns. I love running races that are not on some bike trail, boardwalk, or around business parks. There are probably still the same number of major races shutting down the roads as back then but so many more have sprung up that wouldn't have a prayer of getting those permits. I just paid $115 for a race 3 months out with the processing fee alone being $13.
You still do get races where most everyone is competitive though - they are open xc and track races with no frills, tshirts, foods, bands, etc.
I think so many races have sprung up on trails because of how hard it is to get permits to close down roadways.
Avocado's Number wrote:
old owl wrote:
As far as guys running under 23:00 at Franklin Park, happened only two times, John Treacy and Gerry Deegan from Providence, think it was 1977(22:47-22:49), I was in that race, just not in their race, they ended up 2,3 at NCAA XC.
I was a spectator at that race. It was amazing. Treacy and Deegan were flying over the course, neck and neck the whole way. As they approached the finish line at the end of that long final straightaway, Deegan ratcheted it up one more gear, and Treacy couldn't stay with him. I remember thinking, "Poor John Treacy. He pushes so hard, but he looks so awkward, and he just doesn't have the raw speed to ever run with the very best." A few months later, Treacy won the world cross-country championship. And did it again the next year.
Umm, you mean the guy who outkicked Steve Ovett?
D.Katz wrote:
I started working at races in the mid 70's.
The majority of the participants in races were runners.....running was their primary sport. Then as we moved through the decades that number appeared to dwindle and new participants were added who were fit but running was not their primary sport or form of exercise.
You can also see this with the masses where the top of the bell curve has been shifted drastically slower over the past 35+ years.
Plus, many courses back in the 70's and into the early 80's were not as accurate as the courses today.
Thank you for your service.
The Northern California running scene in the 1970s was insanely competitive with big races almost every weekend and a lot of talented runners. I read through some of the newsletters recently and was surprised at just how much racing was going on and how common fast times were
From the Vault wrote:
5k? In the 70s? Almost never anything that short unless it was maybe a fun run in conjunction with a longer race or some other very unusual occasion.
$2 entry fee? Ballpark
17:42 slowest time? See the comment about 5ks.
Frequently there was no prize.Biggest prize I ever heard of was a black and white portable TV. Porsches as prizes were about as rare as functioning brain cells are for you.
Yeah, 10ks were the distance most-often run in the 70s and then even into the early 80s.
Australian table wine - Coq du Rod Laver wrote:
Avocado's Number wrote:
I was a spectator at that race. It was amazing. Treacy and Deegan were flying over the course, neck and neck the whole way. As they approached the finish line at the end of that long final straightaway, Deegan ratcheted it up one more gear, and Treacy couldn't stay with him. I remember thinking, "Poor John Treacy. He pushes so hard, but he looks so awkward, and he just doesn't have the raw speed to ever run with the very best." A few months later, Treacy won the world cross-country championship. And did it again the next year.
Umm, you mean the guy who outkicked Steve Ovett?
Well, Ovett just LOST that race because he thought he had it won.
Naperville Runner wrote:
If you were a runner in the 1970s you were pretty serious. I've compared some local races from the late 1970s to today from the area where I grew up in Northern California and the average times were quite a bit faster than today. As an example, the Clam Beach Run which has taken place in Trinidad, CA for about the last 50 years. My time as a HS junior which earned me 20th place and 5th HS runner in 1976 would have earned me 2nd place overall in 2019. There probably weren't as many people running and racing but those that were raced faster than today. I'm curious whether others have noticed the same thing
Yes, I noticed the same. I heard this one guy bragging about his shoe contract. This dude was not that good. Turns out he was working in a running specialty store.🤡
That 2 buck fee didnt last long. Very few 5k races in my area in Norcal. Biggest prizes were not money, but bottles of wine, little medals. I got my only 1st place open win in a race at Anderson Dam outside of San Jose. Tiny tin trophy of androgynous athlete, and I had to go to the grocery store (sponsor) to get it.
3:01 at the Petaluma Marathon in "69 , my first, put me just a step ahead of a senior woman. Good time then, good time now.
I started racing in 78. A lot of odd distances. Numbers were often a piece of paper with a magic maker number on it. I once had one disintegrate in the rain. Newspapers gave little or no coverage & when they did often got the distance wrong. Rounding up or down to an even mile ¬ always the closet one. 5.9 might be 5M! Distances were suspect. I know of one race that was held twice a year. over a several year span it always started at the same telephone pole but had at least three different finish lines, that I know of. It was always advertised as the same distance. (I always believed that even the shortest one was long) In small races prizes were non-existent or odd. I remember winning a loaf of home made bandana bread & on another occasion a case of oranges. But as a college student food was better than a trophy.