Grandma's Helps Fund Another Career

It's been a tough week for three decade old records.  Last weekend a trio of high school kids from Long Island's Northport HS  tied the 39 year old feat of three Hammond High School distance runners by running sub-nine minute two miles at the New Balance HS Nationals in North Carolina.  Yesterday, Dick Beardsley's 33 year-old course record for Grandma's Marathon was beaten by Kenyan Dominic Ondoro, who finished the race in 2:09:06, 31 seconds better than Beardsley's 1981 mark.

Ondoro at the finish

Also yesterday at the Brooks PR Invitational in Seattle, the Northport trio that tied the Hammond High record almost set a new one in the 4 by 1 mile relay.  The record was set in 1976 by a team from South Eugene, Oregon who ran 17:06.6.  The Northport trio, plus one, ran 17:06.92.  Since the 4 by 1-mile is seldom run, that record might survive into a fourth decade.

The theme for the other two record performances was that the holders of the old marks all wondered why their records lasted so long.  Beardsley, who was doing his usual radio reporting at Grandma's again this year, was surprised at the longevity of his record.  At the time he had his breakthrough run along the shores of Lake Superior the World Record for the marathon was in the low 2:08s(Rob De Castella's 2:08:18 was the official record at the time.  Alberto Salazar had run 2:08:13 in the New York City Marathon, but his mark had been disallowed because of course measurement issues. The course had been measured along the blue line painted on the streets, not the shortest possible route the runners could take thus creating the possibility that the runners had not run the full 26.2 miles.)

While Kenyans had become the dominant nation in Olympic distance running by 1981, the marathon was the one event where they still lagged behind the Ethiopians.  As more Kenyans began to move up to or begin their careers as marathoners, the odds increased that Beardsley's record would fall.  With the current World Record for the distance being in the 2:03s and the number of marathons run between 2:03 and 2:09 increased exponentially it was only a matter of time before one of the second or third tier Africans came to Duluth and made a run for the record.

Ondoro, who has a PR for the distance of 2:08:00, which was set in Israel last year, does not get the invitations to major events, such as the World Marathon Major events in Chicago, New York, London, Boston, or Tokyo.  This year, for example, Ondoro ran 2:11:43 in Houston to begin his 2014 campaign, and followed that up with a seventh at the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10-mile in Washington, DC, and a tenth place finish at the Bloomsday 12K, before coming to Grandma's.

The weather, if not the erratic early pace, provided the field with conditions very similar to 1981 and Ondoro, along with other Africans in the field ran fast enough early enough to set up Ondoro's run for the record late in the race. Ondoro came through the half in 1:04:46, a pace that would have put him just under Beardsley's mark if he duplicated it in the second half, but near where the race really starts in a marathon, mile 20, Ondoro put it in another gear and ran the 21st mile in 4:39, about the average pace per mile of the current marathon World Record, and Beardsley, riding in the press truck in front of the race, knew his record was history.

Start of the 1975 Boston Marathon.  Steve Hoag is number 6
third from the right near race winner Ron Hill(1)

The memories of that day in 1981 flashed back.  It was an era in which US male marathoners were still prominent in the top ten lists of marathon performers.  Frank Shorter had dominated Olympic marathon racing in the 1970s and Salazar looked to be the heir to his throne.  Just as Gopher grad Leonard "Buddy" Edelen had led the development of US talent in the event back in the '60s by setting a then World Record of 2:14:28 in 1963, another Gopher, Steve Hoag,  finished runner up in Boston in 1975 in 2:11:54.  Ron Daws made the 1968 Olympic team and served as a mentor to Hoag and other Minnesota distance runners who wanted to move up in distance.

In 1980, still another U of M grad, Garry Bjorklund, who was an Olympian at 10K in 1976, had planned to transition to the marathon for the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.  The US boycott scuttled those plans, but Bjorklund, furious at the US government for mandating the boycott, took out his anger at that year's Grandma's race, setting the then course record of 2:10:05, accompanied during the full distance by Bill Kennedy, who was the elite escort for the men riding a ten speed in front of the race.

Kennedy, then a Dayton's employee, contributed to the running boom in other ways.  He was the founding race director of the Get in Gear 10K that now hosts runners going a variety of distances in the annual rite of Spring running in Minnesota.  While Bjorklund was experimenting with the marathon as a possible way to be an Olympic medal contender, Beardsley, the Wayzata High School grad,  continued his running career in junior college by running multiple distances in meets until he discovered where his running talent blossomed, the marathon. (Junior college was the only national collegiate meet to include a marathon among its championship events).

Beardsley(arm raised) and Norway's Inge Simonsen at the finish of the London Marathon

Beardsley steadily bettered his times in the event.  He qualified and placed 16th at the US Olympic Marathon Trials in 1980, beginning  a string of 13 marathons where he bettered his personal best in each.  New Balance sponsored his fledgling running career at a time when Beardsley's first wife, Mary's, parents often asked her when her husband was going to get a "real job."  In 1981 Beardsley got an invite to run the first London Marathon.  He tied for first in 2:11:38.  Two months later he came to Duluth aiming for another breakthrough.

1981. The dual in the mist.  Dick Beardsley and Garry Bjorklund(1)

Bjorklund, also sponsored by New Balance, wasn't racing fit.  He had put on a few pounds, but volunteered to help Beardsley run fast.  He wasn't really a pacer, but rather a mentor, a sensei for this young marathoning prodigy.  The pair ran side by side until they turned off of old Hwy 61 and headed into Duluth.  There the "student" was transformed into the master as he ran on to break 2:10 and set the course record that stood for the last three decades.  To this day, Beardsley maintains that his accomplishment on June 20, 1981 was inferior to Bjorklund's, who ran 2:11:31 without adequate preparation.(A typewritten copy of the 1981 Grandma's results that include both men's and women's course records is HERE.)

The London win and the Grandma's time launched Beardsley's career.  New Balance offered him more money, a $50,000 a year contract, and Mary's parents no longer asked about the "real job."  For Ondoro, the record setting win will offer a similar financial boost.  He won $10,000 for finishing first along with $5,000 for breaking the course record and a car donated by race sponsor Toyota worth $16,000.

The $31,000 payday will get funneled into the Kenyan economy. Ondoro told reporters after the race that the money will allow him to buy more cattle,  maybe help fund a school.  While the money Ondoro won is not much by professional US sports standards, it will go a long way in Kenya.  This opportunity to fund  a better life is the reason the US road running circuit is filled with young African runners seeking financial security.  Just as 33 years ago when road racing  helped launch the career of a US junior college Agriculture major named Beardsley.