Author Archive
“Has he told you how I used to diaper him when he was little and he squirted me right in the eye?”
Original Gangster Of Running Lisa Larsen Weidenbach Rainsberger had a laudable, lucrative, lustrous career. Finished as the First Alternate at the USA Olympic Marathon Trials in 1984, and again in 1988 and again in 1992.
Yeah, really. Three consecutive times in a row.
Coach Chatman was beloved as coach and mentor of legions, who only last September concluded a 8,814-day (almost 24 years) streak of running at least one mile daily.
Coming in as the previous champion, I was given race number, “W1” making me feel like I had a bullseye on my back. I remember the gun going off and the pace immediately heated up along with the air temperature.
“The thing I had to keep telling myself was that I could be bleeding from the eyes and I would not drop out.”
“Greg Meyer was my toughest opponent. He would never give up, either in a workout or a race.”
Who was the obsequious twit who continually described Bill Rodgers as “Mr. Downhill?” Was that supposed to be a comment on Rodgers tactics, or on his career?
This piece does not appear in my award-winning, not-bestselling When Running Was Young & So Were We. Copies of first printing still available on Amazon. Think I have found six-seven additional articles my esteemed book researcher missed. Hell, I don’t remember writing them, so he remains esteemed.
My story is not a pleasant one; it is neither sweet nor harmonious, as invented stories are; it has the taste of nonsense and chaos, of madness and dreams
“If the question were ‘Who did you most enjoy competing against?’ the answer would definitely be Frank Shorter. Distance God.