Its 6 AM and, in the dark and swirling wind, I am running on the boardwalk in Atlantic City. In the Casino lights I can see the mist and fog blowing in from the Sea.
The temperature is somewhere around 30 degrees and the wind makes it seem like I’m going uphill. It is my first run of 1996. The 30 inches of snow and the ice of the preceding week made even the thought of trying to do so evaporate.
As I run, I reminisced of the times in the past I had run on this boardwalk. Al and Frank Wick and I had dinner together on Tuesday of this week and we talked about the run from Longport to Absecon Inlet in the early seventies. It ended on the boardwalk. You left the beach at Orient Avenue, I think, and finished on the boardwalk in the Inlet. It seems to me that later in the seventies the boardwalk did not go that far due to storms having washed it away. The last time I ran on the boardwalk was the St Patrick’s Ten Miler in March of ’95 with Bill and Paul Jr. The time before that was the 10K in October of ’94 to celebrate my return from the bypass. It started in the front of the Showboat Casino and went out to the inland waterway and then back on the boardwalk. You then ran down and back on the boards ending at the Showboat. Where I was running this blustery dark morning was part of that 10K run. Today was also the second anniversary of my ambulance trip to Hahanmen in ’94. The boardwalk, the run, and the past led me to revive some notes I saved over the years of things that happened, stories I heard about and of running.
One is about Tom Osler. He was I believe a professor at Glouchester State College in the late 60’s or early 70’s. It is difficult to confirm this since most runners seldom spoke of their job or the life outside of running. Even family was not discussed unless it was in relation to the sport… like, “Does your wife run? Or your son?” So whether he was a professor or a gunrunner I don’t really know but it is not material to the story. I first heard of Tom through either Bill King or Browning Ross (founder of Road Running Clubs in America). They either had met him, or read his book, Training for Long Distance Running. A small brochure in what looked like typewriter print and bound by staples but for many in those early years the bible…if you bothered to read at all about “how to”. He was entitled to write a book since he was the MAAU Road Running Champion of the 20K, I think 1965-8 (?).
Now the story: In those days when the guys decided to go for a long run they would schedule it. Like, “How about we meet on Sunday at…such and such a place and go for 20?” It was expected that the proposer would pick the route and the time would be generally agreed upon. Well, it seems, as reported to me by Harry Berkowitz and Browning Ross, that Tom scheduled one such run. They were to go 30 miles. They met with Tom and off they went. He left them in the dust or such, in any event, they lost him. They continued their run and thought nothing of it. It happens sometimes. A guy feels good, or he wants to go bit harder then the rest so he takes off…no big deal. However, the next day Harry noticed a “fill-in” item on the Sports Page…”Tom Osler wins the MAAU Road Runner’s 50 K.” or the likes.
This could have only have happened before the running explosion that came after Frank Shorter won the Olympic Marathon. (1972) Running was “in” then, and thus even the sports page would take note, on occasion, of a run. Running was not a “fill-in” anymore.
Speaking of Tom Osler, and his book, recalls a recommendation he made therein: “Get good shoes if you were going to do some serious running.” He recommended “hush puppies”! I doubt if you could buy such things today, or if the salesman ever heard of them. The only “running” shoe was a sneaker… it was used for almost all athletic events in those days except maybe tennis, and the sports requiring a cleated shoe. So hush puppy was an incipient running shoe. It was a shoe, yet soft enough to take some of the pounding. So Tom wasn’t all “hot dog”. He clearly knew something about running.
Browning Ross or “Brownie”, as he was known to most, was the Pan American Games 1500 Meter Champ in 1948. I think that was his last year at Villanova. He later ran in two Olympics 1952 and 1956 He may also have been in the 1948 Olympics, but not in the 1500. I believe he ran the steeplechase for USA in the ’52 and’56 games. He was the founder of the Road Runners of America in the late ’50’s long before running was “in”. He had the first paper or magazine I ever saw on the sport of Road Running. He published the “race results” in a mimeograph sheet. It had little more than that. However, on one occasion there was a report that has stayed with me over the years.
The run was around the river. It was in ’70 or maybe ’71. The total number of runners was perhaps 30. It started at the public boathouse and also ended there after a tour around the Museum, up the West River Drive, and down the then East River Drive now the Kelly Drive. It was 8.3 miles. In Brownie’s report he would put the place, the time, and if you did not make it he would add your name at the bottom of the list and put DNF (Did Not Finish). In this particularly run we had a tragedy of sorts. A runner collapsed and even though there was a doctor in the run who offered assistance, and EMTs were on the scene in minutes, he died. We later learned he had severe fibrillation of the heart muscle and it caused his death. We also learned later that he had suffered from a Rheumatic Heart as a child and it was the running that made it possible for him to live to the age of 35. However, in the report of the race by Brownie he had to put him at the bottom of the page with a DNF. But then he added to be more precise, “RIP”! For those unfamiliar with Latin, it means in English, “May he rest in peace”!
Another story of Brownie’s occurred in the early Seventies. We had a run starting on King’s Highway in Haddonfield. There were 30 or 40 runners. All or most of whom were there because of Brownie. Most had run with him or in runs similar to this one. The run distance was maybe five miles or so. It was from there to a National Veteran’s Cemetery somewhere along the Delaware below Camden. I can’t remember the name of it. There were no extra people at these runs – no one to stop traffic, give directions, etc., etc. In any event Brownie stood at the head of the pack and gave us directions something like this: “We go out Kings Highway to North Street, turn left, then down West St. 2 or 3 miles to Alpine St., and then …OH! The Heck with it! ! Just follow the guy in front of you!” Now that’s how competitive these things were…Of course I had no problem with this type of instructions, since there would always be a “guy in front” of me. But the others who might reasonably be concerned never seemed to be…so off we went. The run was the thing, not the race.
This certainly is enough running stories for a while. The month of February is here and the snow has returned to Philly. I am beginning to feel that we moved and now are living somewhere in upstate New York. Speaking of moving, this weekend is the move for Mary and Ron to Yardley, Pa…to become the “Yakes of Yardley”. The new address will be Apt #1013, 300 S. Main St.Yardley, Pa. 19067. The phone number, though not operable at this time (2/2/96) is 1-215-321-5063…We wish them well in their endeavor and hope to give them an assist on Sunday…depending on whether we have to go by sled or not.
I’ll end here with a hope in the next issue to continue to fill in Meaghan’s book.
I came across an old familiar verse I liked. It is by Alexander Pope (1688-1744):
“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian* spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.”
(*Of Muses or the arts) SEE YA!!