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WINNING WORDS

Frank Shorter, Katherine Ndereba and other Boston champs recall the thrill of victory

By Susan Rinkunas

Photographs by David Barry

PUBLISHED 04/01/2008

Jacqueline Hansen, 1973 champ

"My first marathon was Dec. 1972 in Culver City's 'Western Hemisphere Marathon.' That effort was inspired by watching my teammate, Cheryl Bridges (now Flanagan) become the first woman to break 2:50 on that course the prior year. Up until then I was just a middle distance runner with absolutely no long runs whatsoever. Upon winning my first marathon (considerably slower than Cheryl's record and considerably humbled by the experience), a fellow runner suggested that I go to Boston. I answered, 'what's in Boston?' and the rest is history."

"To get there, I had to convince my coach, Laszlo Tabori that running marathons was a good idea. The Hungarian Olympian 1500m runner's attitude was that you only ran farther when you were too slow to run shorter. His intense interval training only doubled (or tripled) when he finally consented to my marathon hopes. LSD [long, slow distance] was not in his vocabulary."

"To obtain the means to get there, my sisters contributed all their sales percentages from selling Avon products and my neighbor, a Hollywood star, contributed to the cause and gave me a new sweatsuit."

"I arrived in Boston days before the race, checked into my hotel, went to the highest point in the Pru tower, and scouted out where were the green places where I might run. Thus, I discovered the Charles River. I went through all the museums I could find in between training runs. Making friends with other runners, I went to a baseball game, as I recall, and went to some restaurant on the waterfront where some runner I met was working. Those are my memories upon arriving in town. Being a woman runner was somewhat of a novelty. So was being a California import."

"Race day, I lined up with my newfound guy friends, but we didn't stay together for long. Running with over 1,500 runners was an overwhelming experience at the time. The weather was so California-like warm. Make that hot. What did I know about dressing for the conditions though? I donned a patriotic red, white, and blue embroidered T-shirt with stars and stripes in honor of Patriot's Day (a holiday we never heard of in California), and blue-checkered shorts to go with it. Unfortunately I didn't think what would happen to those terry-cloth shorts if they got wet. Some well-intending bystander poured buckets of water over us en route! And I'd not only chosen my most supportive training shoes (i.e. heavy) but added two pairs of socks, appropriate for hiking—my specialty—with one thin cotton pair inside a thicker wool pair. Bad idea, as I sloshed along with all that water poured on me!"

"I remember where Heartbreak Hill was only because the guys had pointed it out to me the day before. At the time, we were running on it and I asked where's the hill? It was nothing in comparison to where I trained at home, but strategically placed at a tough time if one were having a bad race, I supposed. From the news accounts I guess that's where I passed Nina Kuscsik, the lead woman. From newspapers accounts, I know they said I looked like Florence Nightingale sailing through the fallen troops. From news accounts, I recall the headlines saying that the champ ate pizza and root beer floats in celebration. Why do people to this day say that was such great stuff?! I never quite understood that one. Oh well. (I ritualistically gave up things in serious training, like for Lent, and in this case it was obviously pizza and root beer floats. No big deal.)"

"The win was such sweet victory! To this day I have saved that laurel wreath, pressed and laminated. Winning Boston launched my entire career. I have such a special place in my heart for Boston. I returned for memorable moments like qualifying for the women's first-ever Olympic Trials in 1984—the most dramatic day in my entire running career. After a 10-year ordeal fighting the IOC to gain admission to the Games, I was finally qualifying for the Marathon Trials while on the very same day having a lawsuit in court to seek admission for the 5,000m and 10,000m races! To make matters worse, running Boston in a hailstorm, I ended up with hypothermia and had to ask the doctor if I finished. Yes, I qualified, but the lawsuit had suffered a setback in court that day. Two TV crews were following me around that day, hoping to find a shot of the fall, when I passed out—fortunately, over the finish line."

"I returned to Boston to run the 100th, too, despite retiring from running in favor of swimming for a few years because of my arthritic knees, and discovered that pool-running could get me through the race after all."

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