Duel in the Sun Rematch

After the morning races, I staked out a spot in the Boston Public Library Auditorium. Runners’ World was sponsoring a number of talks by panels of famous runners and health experts (this was in addition to another 2 days of talks sponsored by the Boston Athletic Association). The main event was going to be a Alberto Salazar talking about his new book “14 Minutes”, which covers his life story as a running prodigy, marathon champion of Boston, NY and the Olympics, culminating with the heart attack he had while coaching this generation’s prodigy, Galen Rupp, at the Nike distance running facility in Oregon. They say that he had lost his pulse for 14 minutes, hence the title of the book.


I caught the end of the talk prior, which included Greg Meyer, the last American-born male to win Boston in 1984, Amby Burfoot, multiple Boston winner in 60’s and 70’s ,and writer for Runner’s World; Katherine Switzer, the first women to complete the Boston marathon; Lorraine Moeller, women’s winner of the ’82 Boston marathon, and my personal favorite, Dick Beardsley, who finished 2nd to Salazar by 2 seconds in record time in a wire-to-wire battle in the 1982 Boston Marathon famed in running legend as the ‘Duel in the Sun’. Dick was also going to join Salazar on stage for part of his talk to recap the 30th anniversary of that race.
The few minutes I caught were very lively, with these old road warriors talking about the difference between the elite American running scene then, and now. These days, there is a focus on running a certain time in a race – back then, all they cared about was beating the other guy – how to crush him on the hills, how to psych him out. One of the panelists was not an elite runner, but the coach of the Dana Farber charity team. He talked about the running for a cause being the “superman” or “wonder woman” cape for charity runners. That resonated with me, because I raised money for the Arthritis foundation for my first marathon, and Laura did the same when she ran her’s two years later. And besides that inspiration of helping people like Laura afflicted with arthritis, we also got the fringe-benefit of becoming closely acquainted with Dick Beardsley, who was a “celebrity coach” for them. Since Laura spoke at a past dinner when Dick gave a speech, he has treated us like old friends each time we have seen at the Chicago marathon, and at Boston. So, when Laura arrived, and Dick saw her in the hall, he called out her name, and gave her a hug. He is so genuine, and interested in other people. He will ask about our races, and remembers that Laura is doing triathlons.


After the first panel, I went up to talk to Greg Meyer . He is not as charismatic as Beardsley or Salazar, but back in the day, his credentials were sold, winning Boston and Chicago. I asked him to sign a poster for a friend of ours who was running the Boston marathon for charity. He had been the top single fundraiser ever for the Chicago Marathon last fall. When I told him that, Greg Meyer signed the poster ‘From one Chicago Champion to Another.”

We settled in for the main event, which was pretty much a book tour publicity stop for Salazar’s book. Runner’s World’s top writer, John Brant wrote the book with/for Salazar, and the Editor-in-Chief was the host. They showed a video recapping Salazar’s heart attack, and seeing the boyish Galen Rupp recount his coach/mentor/idol’s near-death experience was heart-wrenching. I had read an excerpt of the book in Runner’s World, and Salazar’s life is certainly fascinating, from training with Boston legends like Bill Rodgers, to the Duel in the Sun. I learned some new things, such as his father was a friend of Fidel Castro’s, but left Cuba when Alberto was 2 years old, mainly in response to Castro’s planned suppression of the Catholic Church. I bought the book, and I am looking forward to reading more.

The eventual interchange between Salazar and Beardsley did not disappoint. They both denied any lingering rivalry from the disputed finish where police motorcycles seemed to cut Beardsley off in the last half-mile, yet they playfully traded jabs about their shoe-sponsorships. Dick is such a great conversational storyteller, we have seen him give several speeches, planned and impromptu, and spent several hours getting a guided tour of the marathon route from him in 2010. Salazar is definitely charismatic in his own right, he is very matter-of-fact about his abilities, accomplishments, as well as his flaws and failings. He seems content to sit back and let others weave the narrative, but like a good kick, his timing and wit can punctuate the finish. Beardsley was talking about having Alberto sign hundreds of posters produced by New Balance of their Duel in the Sun. The intent was to raise money for Beardsley’s Foundation, but the posters showed Dick in the lead with a pained look on Salazar’s face. Just as Beardsley was saying how great a sport Alberto was, Salazar jumped in and said – “I had my son Albert do all the signing, and he wrote over all the New Balance logos.” -which I think was said jokingly, but like I said, Salazar lays it out there.

I would have liked to get pictures/autographs with one or both of these legends, especially together, but it was very crowded, as is the day before the Boston marathon. Laura and I feel lucky to have gotten to know Dick and his wife Jill, personally, and it is good to know that whether I show up at Boston again, or see Dick on the circuit before marathons from Napa to Grandma’s, he will welcome us back. Beyond his running accomplishments, his personal story of his battle against being addicted to painkillers is riveting and inspiring. John Brant wrote about both Salazar and Beardsley in the book “Duel in the Sun”; Beardsley wrote his own life story in “Staying the Course”, and they are trying to make a documentary movie about his life called “Against the Wind”. I have had some people in my life struggle with dependency issues, and getting a window into Dick’s life story, and seeing that the current chapter is on course to a happy ending helped me to not be judgmental to the people who maybe needed my help, or at least patience while they got the strength to help themselves. It seemed that if addiction can hit a 2:08 marathoner, one time potential Olympian, that maybe you can’t just blame it on personal “weakness”. If anyone in the local running community ever has an opportunity to get a speaker before an event, I would highly recommend Dick, or if you want to learn about his foundation, and maybe contribute, visit his website. Hearing a lot of aspects of Dick’s lifestory and seeing his personal interactions with hundreds of runners and people of all kinds of backgrounds and abilities, I would say he came out of the ’82 race a winner.