Bill Rodgers


After listening to Bill Rodgers (4x Boston and NYC winner, Olympic athlete, 4x winner of the Cherry Blossom 10 miler) talk at the expo on Saturday, I jokingly told Jan my goal was to run with, or at least yell to, Bill during the race on Sunday. Of course, out of 12,000 runners that was about as likely to happen as winning Lotto. I just purchased my lottery tickets for this weekend, as I not only saw Bill, but ran next to him and had a conversation for at least half a mile!
I've seen Bill at other races, even been passed by him and said hello during the Utica Boilermaker 15k. But, as a race fan and runner this experience was the best.
Just past seven miles Bill caught me (yes, he was behind, I was beating BR!). Sure, it was just a semi-long run for him, he was recovering from some health issues and he is a few years past his prime, but I don't care. I'm not exactly in my prime either. This was like being in a flag football game and having Jim Kelly show up and start throwing me passes. It was cool! I decided to start a scintillating conversation with him, so I said, "Hey bill". He didn't speed away in fright, but said hello as we continued running shoulder to shoulder.
Bill told me that no world records would be set today, which I didn't understand, so he explained how the course had changes from previous years that made it slower (too many turns now). He wondered what kind of pace we were running (I guess he never heard of a watch?). I told him we were on a 7:20 pace, which he thought was pretty good. I told him how much Jan and I enjoyed his talk the day before (actually he rambles quite a bit, not always directly answering questions, but still he was entertaining). Bill seems to think people like Joan Benoit, Frank Shorter and other world class runners were so much better than him, even though he kicked their butts many times over the years. It's so nice to listen to an athlete who isn't so full of himself and has some humility, appreciates all he has received from the sport and gives even more back.
After awhile Bill pulled away a bit and changed to the other side of the road. I was determined to stay in contact and kept him in sight (no, I was not stalking him). We finished about 30 yards apart, with Bill beating me, but that was okay with me. I'll take getting beat by a NYC champion. Just before Bill was about to be interviewed by a television reporter I thanked him for the great race and he returned it with a thumbs up and told me we ran well.
This goes in the books as one of my top all-time running experiences.

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