Another guest post:
“For almost seventy years beginning in 1957, I have been a runner, starting with my high school years, then on to university years and afterward as a member of several clubs in the US, Canada, and Africa. I’ve only run eight marathons, not many by comparison to a lot of folks, but I’m proud to say all of them have taken me less than three hours. I ran my last one in 1982. Maybe I did go over three hours once, but that was when I entered the London marathon, but could not make it to the race, and a British schoolboy used my number to run with my name. My best was 2 hours 35 minutes and 55.92 seconds in Quebec City in 1981. You will note that runners like to be specific when talking about their performances. When I realized I would not get any faster due to aging, I said, “Enough”. But I didn’t stop running, just stopped running marathons.
Recently while cleaning out the stable, I came across a reflection I wrote the day after that first marathon. I put it below in it’s original typewritten form. There is also a picture of me at the finish of that race. This was the 1976 Ottawa marathon. It was also the Canadian Olympic trials as Canada was hosting the Olympics in Montreal that year. You may note that I mention there were only 550 runners in that race. That number is miniscule compared to the popularity of today’s marathon competitions which go into the tens of thousands. And the fee to run was probably only $5.00, whereas today’s organizers bilk runners several hundred to get into the ‘big’ races. I also mention that I finished in 40th place, an absurdly good finish in today’s races where the top times are much faster.
In the story below, I don’t mention it, but if you look at the picture of me at the finish you will note that my shorts look rather tight. They were. I forgot to pack a pair in my kit, and Sunday morning when the race was scheduled to start in Ottawa, I discovered that I had no lower gear to run in. There was no such thing as ‘running stores’ in those days, and if there were, to find one open at 8;00AM on a Sunday in Ottawa would have been impossible. Fortunately one of my fellow travellers, Bernard Beland had an extra pair. However, Bernard was about 5 feet 3 inches tall and had a much smaller waist than I had, but I managed to squeeze into his spare pair and run a somewhat strangulated race.
The Finish
Of note: No automatic timers, only a single individual recording our number and time by hand. Also notice that my number is hand lettered. Nothing like this anymore. And where is the finish line? When I moved to British Columbia in 2013, a lady in my new club the Comox Valley Road Runners told me she had also run her first marathon that day. Her name Diane Palmason. Diane became one on the great Masters runners in Canada in the following years.”
George’s article from 1976 after 1st marathon.