“I was an average person. Any of you can do the things I did.”
Marianne Dickerson, who won a historic silver medal for the United States in the first World Championship marathon for women in 1983, died on October 14, 2015 at age 54. The cause of death was not made publicly available.
I didn’t know this article existed.
Salute once again to the Garrisons at https://www.ebay.com/str/runningmagazinesbooksmemorabilia for providing me another opportunity to feel like a knucklehead. As I compiled When Running Was Young & So Were We, I lamented not having had the opportunity to write about more women. Such was the nature of the times. But then to discover “Dickerson No Longer Fooling Around.” Two full columns I don’t even remember writing. Sad on a couple of levels.
Dickerson No Longer Fooling Around
It is an image that will last a long time in one’s mind. [Not long enough, it turns out. – ed.]
The marathon at Helsinki was over for just one woman. Grete Waitz, to no one’s surprise, had emerged victorious, dominant as ever. A minute or two passed and then the second-place runner loped into the stadium. It was Raisa Smekhnova. No surprise there either, as the track world has anxiously anticipated serious marathoning by the Soviets. The genius of Waitz followed by the inexorable might of the socialist system.
But, what is this? Seven meters back is some spindly-looking kid. It’s Marianne Dickerson from the good ol’ U.S. of A. and she is not the slightest bit interested in politics, not concerned with some perceived Commie superiority.
The memory reviews that gutsy stretch run. Arms pumping furiously side to side in her awkward style, Dickerson runs down Smekhnova without difficulty. The 22-year-old, all 5’4″ and 97 lbs. of her, pulls away to place second in 2:31:09. [Outsprinting Smekhnova was doubly unexpected, as the Russian possessed sub-four-minute 1500 meters speed.]
It is only her third marathon and she is the silver medalist at the World Championships of Track & Field. For Marianne Dickerson of St. Joseph, Illinois (“You can practically throw a rock from one end of town to the other”), it is an image that will last a lifetime.
Nondescript and undistinguished are two words which describe her athletic experience at the University of Illinois. “I didn’t have an outstanding collegiate career,” Dickerson relates. “I was always running distances that were too short for me. When I finally did move up to 10K my senior year, I took third at AIAWs.”
[The official Illini Athletic Department website suggests Marianne was being modest. “‘She was one of the greatest Illinois Women’s Track Athletes of all-time and set the standard for the distance athletes that came after her.’ Dickerson is heralded as one of the greatest female distance runners to ever don the Orange and Blue. Along with her All-American performance in the 10,000m, she is currently holds spots on the school’s top-10 list in seven different events. For her accomplishments in 1983, Dickerson received the 1983 Illini Female Athlete of the Year award, the first cross-country or track and field athlete to garner the honor.”]
Graduating in December, 1982, with a B.S. in General Engineering, marathoning’s new find is now working on a master’s degree at the University of Michigan. Not coincidentally, that school is located near the home of Dickerson’s coach, John Goodridge.
“John called me last January,” explains Dickerson. “He’d seen me run and thought I had a lot of potential. We talked… I respected his opinion, and he’s been a big help.”
Dickerson appreciated Goodridge’s input because he seemed to have more confidence in her than she did herself. Her personal records, described in her own words as “kind of embarrassing,” are nonetheless noteworthy: 16:12 5K, 33:20 10K (both road) and a 4:51 mile.
“Judging from recent workouts,” she says. “I should be able to run them all faster.”
This instant marathon star plans to do just that, limiting her 26.2M efforts to just two annually. She won’t go 42K until next May’s Olympic Trials. “I want to prove to myself that I have more speed than people give me credit for.”
Dickerson’s marathoning career began June 19, 1982, in Duluth, Minnesota. Her 2:43:20 at Grandma’s was definitely a learning experience. “I told myself I would never run another marathon again,” says Dickerson, remembering her third-place finish.
“It was awful. I did the last two miles in about twenty minutes. I had blisters that covered half my foot. I couldn’t walk for a week.”
Obviously, Dickerson changed her mind. She also changed her training. “Before Grandma’s I never ran longer than ten miles. I never ran more than sixty or seventy miles weekly before this year.” Covering as much as one hundred miles per week now, with long runs of up to twenty-three miles, Dickerson went to Los Angeles and the Avon Marathon with added respect for the distance, but not yet for herself.
“Avon was the first time I’d ever run against the big names I’d seen in the running magazines,” Dickerson says. “I was just in awe for the first half of the race. But it was a good way for me to break into the national scene. Avon convince me that I really had potential.”
Obviously, she knew that her nearly ten-minute improvement for third in 2:33:44 was not to be the highlight of her career. She had no idea the World Championships might be.
“I didn’t think I was a contender for a medal,” concedes Dickerson, whose qualifying time was the tenth-fastest going into the race.. “I was really intimidated running with Waitz and Julie Brown. I basically let everyone else do the work, and I thought I’d just ride along.”
A conservative, tactical pace played directly into her hands, although she really didn’t understand that at the time. “It was a psych-up to hear everyone else panting and breathing hard when I felt so strong,” she remembers “I was an animal.”
Waitz was much the stronger animal, so when Grete shifted into another gear, Marianne had to watch her go. But Waitz’s move – and an Achilles injury – broke Brown… and then there was just the small town kid from Middle America and the Soviet.
Marianne Dickerson is now the fifth-fastest American, an international running celebrity, and really rather surprised by it all.
“I’m still on Cloud Nine,” she reveals. “I think of this as my Cinderella story. I keep wondering if I will ever do anything wonderful again.
Dickerson need not worry. Helsinki is obviously the beginning, not the end. She has just joined Nike’s Athletics West club. She has moved to Ann Arbor to work with her coach. She hasn’t been injured in her nine years of running. She is only twenty-two and, heck, she’s never even won a marathon. The one image may last forever, but Marianne Dickerson’s story is not over yet. There are other glass slippers to try on.
“I went to my high school reuinion recently and it made me feel a little guilty,” Dickerson admits. “I was the only one who wasn’t married or had a job. I was still fooling around running.”
Not to worry, Marianne, nobody thinks you are fooling around any more. And you’ve got the silver medal to prove it.
12/22/2015. At Tuesday’s village board meeting, Mayor B.J. Hackler will sign a proclamation naming part of Main Street ‘Marianne Dickerson Memorial Run.’ Marianne Dickerson Memorial Run will extend from the north end of Main Street, by the high school, and south to Evergreen. https://will.illinois.edu/news/story/village-of-st.-joseph-honoring-track-star-and-local-native-dickerson