Remembering the First Running Boom

[canalrunner]

The Jerome Drayton piece got me thinking about the first running boom. I ran for 5 years in my early 20's from the 1979--1984 and then like Forest Gump I quit before starting again in 2004. Here's what I remember:
Training Advice: Jim Fix, Complete Book of Running, Runners World magazine now and then, some discussion of fartleks (which even then was funny) Speed work: that's what Jimmie Hendrix did
Measuring Mileage: no GPS, odometer in car trying to recreate route (a lot of ish), trained mostly by time (1 hour run, 2 hour run etc..)
Boston: a dream, at one point 2:50 BQ time, likely changed but not a lot of ways for a kid from small town Ontario to find out
Races: fewer, not many half marathons, remember the Sunday Star Trek in Toronto which I think was 20k, Burlington 15 mile road race, 10ks were popular, first race was CHOK 8 mile run across Bluewater Bridge in Sarnia
Race timing; no chip times, just a guy with a watch at 1 mile and usually the half of a race calling out split times
Hydration: don't remember carrying any on training runs, hated summer when schools shut off the outside fountains, at races: oranges and water. Heard rumours of flat coke but never tried it. Don't remember many water stations at marathons. Some but not a lot. No Gatorade.
Elites: Bunch of Canadians: Dyon, Butler, Drayton, Edge, Gareau, Maxwell (before he invented Powerbar) US Stars: Rodgers, Shorter
Heroes: Terry Fox: saw him run through Woodstock, Ontario, was at starting line of 10k race in Cambridge, Ontario when I heard he died
Shoes: Brooks Vantage, NikePegasus,Adidas Boston, New Balance 660. Not sure what the mileage limit was. Used Shoe Goo to extend wear. Never heard of motion control or stability shoes Ran till there were holes in side too big to repair.
Stores: no running stores just sports stores, shoe choice was limited to what they had
Marathons: seemed to be sponsored by beer companies. Molson Montreal Marathon 1979: first marathon, free beer. Labatts Running series. Ottawa and Montreal seemed to have fairly big fields, Ottawa was a start and finish at Carleton University with the run going down Colonel By to Parliament Buildings out to Lincoln Fields and back.
Swag; not yet invented, no medal, cotton shirt, certificate mailed out months after race

[Spirit Unleashed]

haha, I've made it clear I've been running since I was 13 right? haha, 39 years.

I went to school in Davis California, when Dave Scott was the big iron man dude. (and I knew him). More important, I belonged to the Aggie Running Club when the Lenichi Brothers were there. They invented the Lenichi turn, still famous with centipedes at Bay To Breakers.

I remember: Nike LDV, marathons with 2 aid stations which had water and oranges. Finisher's shirts but no medals. Shoe Goo (sp?), since the heels on running shoes wore out fast and this was before blown rubber outsoles.

The Tevis cup had only horses, but Doug Lenichi ran that too. I knew Cowman Shirk, who is recorded as the second runner.

[Habs4ever]

Love it!
Started: 1984
Mileage: yup, hop in the car and plot out a route.
Races: I didn't even know "regular " people could enter them until 1987.
Shoes: K-Mart special. then I thought I was so cool when I got a pair of Nike Tailwind.
Training book: book by Jeff Galloway-still have it.
Clothes: I sewed my very first set of race clothes. Aqua and white striped shorts and shirt. I was so proud of them.
Schwag: what's that?

[5km]

Start: March 1, 1977 - The running boom was on. I had been reading a lot about Bill Rodgers etc. First of a new month seemed an auspicious time to start. I quit smoking a month or so later!
Shoes: First pair of real running shoes Adidas SL76, later Brooks Vantage and Vantage Supremes. Shoe Goo - yes!
Hydration and nutrition: Are you kidding?
Running ethos: Train hard - race harder.
Races: First race was about a year after I started running. It was a 5K. Then 7 Burlington 15 mile road races, 1 Around the Bay and a few 10K's and 5K's
Hiatus: December 1996 start of 9 year break from running - injury + life Returned to running December 2005
Running heroes: Terry Fox, Jerome Drayton, Bill Rodgers and Dr. George Sheehan
Goal: Keep running as long as possible.

[Spirit Unleashed]

I sewed my very first set of race clothes. Aqua and white striped shorts and shirt. I was so proud of them.

Would be worth posting the pics.

[Habs4ever]

I sewed my very first set of race clothes. Aqua and white striped shorts and shirt. I was so proud of them.

Would be worth posting the pics.

There you go, picture of a picture! Oh goodness, brings back memories.

[ultraslacker]

love it!

[JoaniB]

I sewed my very first set of race clothes. Aqua and white striped shorts and shirt. I was so proud of them.

Would be worth posting the pics.

There you go, picture of a picture! Oh goodness, brings back memories.

Those are awesome! Do you still have the pattern for those??

[Half-Mary]

Great outfit, Habs!

I`ve only been running for four years, so I`m finding this thread quite interesting. I started running with a clinic, and we had a 25 minute talk all about shoes in the second week since there are so many different options out there now!

[Habs4ever]

I sewed my very first set of race clothes. Aqua and white striped shorts and shirt. I was so proud of them.

Would be worth posting the pics.

There you go, picture of a picture! Oh goodness, brings back memories.

Those are awesome! Do you still have the pattern for those??

That was 25 years and 6 moves ago, so the answer would be no.

[purdy65]

I love the outfit Habs!

[HCcD]

You had a lot of hair then, and a different colour ...

[Habs4ever]

You had a lot of hair then, and a different colour ...

Everyone had more hair in the '80's.

/hijack!

Another thing I remember from back then was that people called it "jogging" not running.

[Hammie]

Me at track & field day during the first running boom in 1981 (I'm 4th racer from the left):


I was in grade 1 in this photo, but one of my teachers was really into distance running and started the "100 kilometer club" after school. You ran every day after school with the group, logged it on a big chart, and got badges ( to sew on your shiny polyester addidas tracksuit, of course) for every 100km that you ran that year.

[phorunner]

lol. started early may 2010.

When I started, I had no idea of the sheer volume of people that ran just to run. (I figured most people just did it to stay in shape for other stuff). No idea of "booms" and trends; here's my story.

Turns out, a girl I was dating earlier in the year was a runner, and she and her friends were signing up for a clinic and she invited me. It was going to be a couples thing we'd all do.

She also previously mentioned she ran 20k on a sunday morning and when, with genuine curiousity, I asked "how long is that?", she said something to the effect of "more that you (pho) would ever be able to do".

Anyways, a month before the clinic started, I started really researching it, and decided that I not only wanted to reach 20k, but that I wanted to double it and then some. I set a goal to do Scotia in 2011.

A couple of weeks later (before my first clinic started in may), we broke up - that only got me even more fired up.

I trained for 2 years, working my way through the clinics and ran that marathon. It was brutal. But that sheer rage kept me from giving up (and the new gf cheering at the finish helped a little too). My time sucked, but I did it, and it's probably the medal I treasure the most.

Not sure when my next one will be, but I have a couple of halfs I'm going to keep doing in the meantime...

(all this coming from the kid who blacked out during his high school beep test and slid across the gym, vowing never to run again)

[Mid_Packer]

Started about '79-80 to mange weight, never a runner in high school as all those events were for the fast people--100's' to 800's.

No one really mentioned that running shorts were, well....short. Today generally a longer inseam, vs those days when it was cut right up there. Still see a few views of that type when they show basketball from that era...way different look than today.

Did my running in adidas and some nike I think. Cotton shirts of course, but I don't remeber having to use bandaids, maybe I my chest muscles were firmer in those days? Some medals later on in the later eighty's but they were smaller, today every event tries to outdo the other for a bigger flashier medal.

Timing?, well my first marathon was Detroit in '92 and it was gun time only. When I did Boston in '93 we walked 3 minutes before getting to the start line, but my finisher certificate doesn't say that.

Races were smaller, Detroit was 2500 people in all events, now about 15,000. Boston was huge at 9600 then.

Awareness of events and sign up for events was before internet. We sent in checks by mail for sign up and sometimes we had to get a money order from Canada Post for US races.

[Spirit Unleashed]

Here's my first marathon in 1978: Avenue of the Giants



Long and interesting story.

[Avis]

My family did downhill skiing when I was a kid. My mom constructed a pre-ski-season get-in-shape workout. The whole family gathered in the basement to do duck-walks (squating down and waddling around the ping pong table in that position), wall sits, and I don't know what other exercises she found in Ski magazine. The evening concluded with a "jog" around the block. I hated it, the whole routine, but on the other hand, none of us ever got injured skiing.

I wouldn't have believed that 40 years later I would be running for the thrill of it.

[canalrunner]

Running on the weekend at the cottage and encountering 4 dogs off the leash on the road at various parts of the run (thought it was a dog holiday), reminded me of the other thing from the first running boom: more dog off the leash encounters. Could be I was running in the wrong neighbourhoods but it felt fairly regular. Also got a fair bit of taunting/honking of horns. Remember people yelling at me "Run Terry Run" when I was running during Terry Fox's attempt to run across Canada.

[getfit]

Great thread. My first running experience was back in 1979, high school track, we weren't allowed to walk. HATED.EVERY.SECOND. Next attempt at running, 1981, friend and I started jogging to lose weight. One night on one of our 'jogs', I passed a Newfoundland dog. He was with his owners, on a leash and as I passed he jumped at me and took a bite out of my backside, right through my jogging pants. Didn't run again until 2003, the year I turned 40. I have the RR to thank for getting me started and making it ok to take walk breaks. I have my friends and fellow maniacs to thank for keeping me going

[erinmcd]

Wow- neat photos. Which Instagram filter did you use?

[canalrunner]

Perhaps they were taken with a Polaroid camera (that was sweet technology). Envious of anyone who had one.
Also like the picture of the kids. Lots of early knee high compression socks (don't they know they only really good for recovery!!)

[Spirit Unleashed]

Kodak Instamatic....

either that or Dad with his complicated European job and the pain of standing there forever.

[barebuns1]

Great thread!
My 1st Marathon was 1983 in Ottawa. It was called the Sri Chinmoy Marathon, I finished 13th out of I think 15 marathoners. There were no medals or t shirts for this one. I think we started at Carleton University and ran 2 loops of the Rideau Canal.

[Dstew]

My dad told me about running the Calgary marathon in the 1960s. No aid stations that he could remember and the streets were not closed for traffic. He had tennis shoes and normal socks and one foot became a bloody mess. He favored it so much that he hurt his knee. Everyone carried change as when he dropped out, he had to call my mom to pick him up. No medals or shirts and did not even have to tell anyone he did drop out.

Sometimes I shake my head about how complex we have made running. All of the advancements in equipment is great and would never want to turn back the clock with regards to that. Or how well most races are run with all of the support. But then I hear people whine that there were only 12 aid stations when other races have 13. I asked my dad for advice on how to train and run a marathon and his response was make sure you have extra in the tank for the finish. Or in other words, do not start the race too hard or train too hard. I have to wonder if we really need anything more than that? On the other hand, talking about farleks does make this activity a little more fun and can separate us [runners] from the general public. How neater to say I did farleks yesterday, I am doing a tempo run today, then intervals at the track and I am thinking about adding some strides to my race pace run but I have to see how the long run goes. Should really work in a AT run as well.