Archive For The “Running Free” Category
If I find many more forgotten pieces, I may actually have enough for a sequel to the award-winning, critically acclaimed When Running Was Young and So Were We. Which few purchased. Book would’ve been better with this conversation, first published in Track & Field News. May 1986. Tall, angular, lanky, lean, long-legged Pat Porter has his head…
I appreciate the nostalgia but please tell me another college/university anywhere on the planet that has a better facility. I’ll wait. I was there last summer for the Olympic Trials and it was electric. We are fortunate to have such a place in the US. – What??, Letsrun.com, 5/11/2025 True story. I buy lottery…
For almost a dozen years I proudly served as Senior Editor (Road Racing) for Track & Field News. Widely and correctly known as “The Bible of the Sport.” It was my honor. Like to consider myself an original gangster of running. With apologies to Buddy Edelen, Ron Daws, the Kellys. Like to think I changed running…
After getting screwed at Running magazine – not in a good way – Nike let me do this and that for the same money. I have a business card: Director of Sports Information. A job I always wanted somewhere. Wrote the liner notes for a certain album cover. Maybe 1981, maybe ’82. – JDW “Athletics…
Came across a copy of THE FUNRUNNER: Newsletter of the Nashville Striders. ($5 annual membership) February 1979. When running was young and so were we. – JDW The Managing Editor was Larry Wallace, who opened the mimeographed publication with “Editorial Comments.” Front cover, page one. WHY DO WE RUN? A couple of months ago I…
Be just like me to have a burst of energy as I near the finish line. Working hard, as hard as I can, to get my life in order. At least this one room, my studio. Came across an article – On Being Part Of The Run Off – featured in a certain classy race program….
Here’s an article I forgot I had written. Haven’t forgotten the runner. Keith Brantly was what I used to think of as a “trier.” Like all my favorite athletes, his biggest fault was working too hard to be best. From Track & Field News, February 1990. – JDW The thing I had to keep…
I met Jose Cruz in 1981-82 thereabouts at a Board of Directors meeting for the Portland Indoor Track Meet. I wasn’t invited. But the event had sucked so bad, I just had to see for myself who was responsible. Turned out to be a good group of folks, the best of whom was a Mexican-American…
As the original running boom gained heat, Runner’s World produced a sister publication, in newspaper format. I managed to write a book review for the premiere edition of On The Run which appeared April 20, 1978. – JDW RUNNING THE LYDIARD WAY by Arthur Lydiard with Garth Gilmour, World Publications If Arthur Lydiard had no…
Originally written for Track & Field News (1981). I added this introduction from Chapter Three: And Some of the Women in When Running Was Young and So Were We. – JDW Same story, different gender. Newsmakers? Back in the day, the ladies were nothing less than great explorers, seeking the outer limits of, well, their limits. Who knew…