Marathoner
In 1973 when I was 39 years old I was supervising the Contracts Branch at the Naval Supply Center in Norfolk, and recently separated from my first wife Maria. I had to find a way to relieve the stress so I got into long distance running. A few miles at first, then five, then one day I ran ten miles - what an accomplishment. Occasionally I would run on the Old Dominion University track. One day there I met Lou Smart who had run a couple of marathons, then had a massive coronary. After six months recovery he was back on the track again. When he started running he had a stressful job, was overweight and smoked and drank too much. But, his doctor said that if it had not been for his running he would have died. The running had strengthened the small arteries around the occluded artery; that is what saved him. His custom was to run ten miles after work, Monday through Friday, then rest and spend the weekend with his family. He never varied his routine. He ran forty laps at an 8 minute (per mile) pace. I ran with him a couple of times a week and we would talk the whole way. I couldn't take more than a couple of days a week on the track so I scouted out circular routes around Norfolk: six mile loops, eight mile, ten mile, 15 mile, etc.
Lou convinced me to run a marathon (26 miles, 385 yards). The first one I tried was the Peach Bowl Marathon in Atlanta in 1973 - a couple of days before my fortieth birthday which is December 30th. It was a cold, misty day with the temperature in the lower fifty's. The course in Atlanta is two identical loops - and hilly. By the time I finished the first loop (thirteen miles), I knew I was in trouble. By eighteen miles I had "hit the wall:" I was totally exhausted. I had burned all the glycogen in my liver. Since I had slowed to a walk I was getting hypothermia. I hitched a ride back to the starting point and made it to my car. The problem was that I was shaking so violently I couldn't drive. Then I had the dry heaves, vomiting black bile. I had to stop two or three times to throw up before I got to the apartment where I was staying. After a hot bath some warm soup I felt better.
Since I didn't finish the first marathon I was even more determined to try it again. More LSD! (That's long slow distance in runner's parlance - not what you thought.) The next one I tried was the first Shamrock Rotary Marathon in Virginia Beach in 1974. It wasn't easy, but I finished it in about 3 hours, 48 minutes. (When speaking of marathons, 3:48 means hours:minutes; when speaking of shorter races, e.g. the mile, 3:48 would mean minutes:seconds.) I "hit the wall" at about the 22 mile mark, but I walked/jogged to the finish. Then I ran the next four Shamrock Rotary Marathons. In 1975 I finished in 3:37. In 1976 I was sure I could break the 3-hour:30-minute barrier because I was better trained than before any other race. Unfortunately, I felt too good. I started at a 6:30 pace, then slowed to 7:00 and fell in with a group that included the Old Dominion University track coach who always swore he would never run a marathon. Then at about 12 miles I discovered that I had over-extended my self. By the time I got back to the starting line (15 miles on that figure 8 course) I knew I had done myself in. I ended up walking the last three or four miles and finished in about 4:10.
I also ran the Lynchburg Ten-miler the first five years of this annual event. It is an awesome course. It starts at the E.C. Glass High School and is flat for about half a mile. Then there is a mile-long descent and about a mile back up the other side; then flat for a while and through a little park with some very steep hills; then the same course on the way back which means that there is a mile-long climb starting about one-and-a-half miles from the finish. My best time on that course was about 73 minutes. To put things in perspective, Bill Rogers and Frank Shorter (of Boston Marathon and Olympic fame) ran the race one of those years. They finished in 47:something. Then there was the race-walker (world class competitor) who walked it in just under 70 minutes: he passed me on the hill.
The best ten-mile time I had on a flat course was 69:50, so one time I was able to run ten miles at a 7 minute pace. The only reason I made that was that one of the club's better runners was running it at a 7 minute pace as a training run for some other event. When he saw me slowing, he forced me to keep up the pace. During summer track meet sponsored by the Tidewater Striders I ran the mile in 5:51 - thought I'd die - legs like lead for the last two laps. The Olympic times for the mile are around 3:48. Olympic times for the marathon are around 2:09; which means that these guys are going at about a 4:54 per mile pace for twenty-six miles.
In 1978 I had the good luck to get into the New York City Marathon. During this time I was moving to Washington, D.C., so my training was not what it should have been. I finished the race in about 4 hours. However, it was one of life's highlights. The course goes through all five boroughs in New York City. Starting in Staten Island, then across the Verrazano Narrows Bridge into Brooklyn, through Queens, the Bronx, and finishing in front of Tavern On The Green in Manhattan's Central Park. Crossing the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, there are two levels of ten lanes each completely filled with runners. After coming off of the bridge there were mobs of people lining the streets the whole way. I had people offering me beer, joints, whatever, all along the way. It's a crazy city.
To top off my marathoning career I ran the Marine Corps Marathon in 1979, also in about 4 hours. It starts and finishes at the Iwo Jima Memorial, running through Washington, D.C. I have not done much competitive running since then - just an occasional three miler or ten-K. I ran the NASA Race For Space 3-miler three or four years, starting and ending at the Air and Space Museum on Independence Avenue. Now I'm reduced to just jogging 6 miles two or three times a week and some light work-outs in the gym.
In 1978 Runners World started a quarterly magazine called Marathoner. They only printed five issues, then decided it was not making enough money so they stopped publication. I have all five issues.
Walter E.(Ed) McClelland Page