when running made history

Reviewed by William Steele, Lipscomb University

31 october 2018 archive

For many Americans, distance running only appears on their sports radar every four years when the Olympic games take place. The recent successes of marathoners Meb Keflezighi (2014 Boston Marathon winner), Shalane Flanagan (2018 New York City Marathon winner), Galen Rupp (2016 Olympic silver medalist and 2018 Chicago Marathon winner), and Desiree Linden (2018 Boston Marathon winner), however, have helped generate an interest in the sport perhaps not seen since the days of Bill Rodgers, Frank Shorter, Grete Waitz, and Joan Benoit Samuelson.

For Roger Robinson, who grew up in London post-World War Two, distance running has been part of his life since watching Emil Zatopek win the 10,000 meters at the 1948 Olympic games. It quickly grew into a passion that allowed him to continue setting national and world records into his seventies. He also achieved success as a track and field announcer and developed a following for his running related articles.

In When Running Made History, Robinson presents a combination of memoir and running history as he recounts eyewitness accounts of the most important distance races in which he either participated or saw himself. The twenty-one chapters are organized chronologically starting with Zatopek's run in the first post-war Olympics and ends with the lesser known Libby James's 25:11 5K in 2016 at age 80, improving the world record for her age group by more than three minutes. In between are such notable events as Abebe Bikila's barefooted victory on the cobblestone streets of Rome during the 1960 Olympic marathon, signaling the start of African dominance in distance running, to Ron Clarke and Gerry Lindgren battling their way to a new world record in the 3-mile in 1965, to the emphasis on women's running at the 1980 Avon Women's Marathon in London and the 1982 New York City Marathon.

Robinson combines his personal accounts against the historical backdrops of the Cold War, the women's movement, the era of rampant drug use in the 1980s, and the terror attacks in September 2001 and the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013. Though not every chapter is about a race familiar to casual runners, those who are distance running fans will recognize most of the major world events chronicled. And those lesser-known events, such as the Bridge 2 Bridge Run, a five-mile race in the Mohonk Preserve in New York state, are included to demonstrate the positive impact running groups have made on the environment, including planting trees, becoming more eco-friendly, and promoting ways to reduce humans' footprint on the earth.

In his introduction, Robinson emphasizes that the book is not intended to be a comprehensive history of distance running. Rather, it "is in part a history of running since 1948, but history from the varied individual viewpoints of a single close witness or actual participant" (xvi). The chapters, therefore, cover a period from when he was a nine-year-old boy to his seventy-ninth year in such roles "as a child fan, runner, spectator, stadium public address announcer, television or radio commentator, reporting journalist, columnist, environmental advocate, author, husband [to running icon Katherine Switzer], historian, and finally runner again, in a disconcertingly senior age group" (xvi).

While the seven decades of history provide readers a wide-ranging perspective on specific runners, important events, and significant developments, the collection is not without some weaknesses. Though his programs and the notes he took in them help provide important details like lap splits and runners places at various points in the races, some of the early narratives are largely based on Robinson's memories after more than sixty years have passed. The early chapters, then, are occasionally written in a style that seems more suited for fiction than history. Describing the final lap of the men's 5,000 meters in the Rome Olympics, Robinson writes, "The last lap lives in my memory with the intensity of a slow-motion dream" (27).

The book is at its strongest when Robinson's personal recollections extend running's impact beyond his own life and into the larger global running community. For example, when he came to the United States in 1980 to run a series of road races across the country, he describes the impact the running boom of the 1970s had on society at the time. Describing the Peachtree 10K Road Race, held in Atlanta on July 4th, he reflects, "this celebratory dimension shows the running boom in some ways to be a later expression of the spirit of the sixties" (99).

The greatest anomaly in this collection is the chapter dedicated to the men's 100-meter final in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, when Ben Johnson tested positive for steroids, introducing sports fans around the world to the reality known in professional running circles for years—some of the world's best athletes were using drugs to achieve their successes. As it examines the only sprint race covered in a book filled with distance races, this chapter seems out of place but serves as a reminder of why so many recent records in the sport are often viewed with suspicion.

But even in the aftermath of some tragic events—185 people killed in an earthquake shortly before the 2011 International Track Meet in Wellington, New Zealand and the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings—Robinson reminds us of the power sports often has in paying tribute to those whose lives were lost and allowing those who survive a chance to move forward with their lives.

This book is one any distance running fan will enjoy as it provides an interesting glimpse into how the sport has evolved to include people from every nation, embraced women as equals, and has most recently established races for runners who, like Robinson, have a desire to push their physical limits even into their eighties and nineties. The non-running fan will appreciate how the book need not be read chronologically and provides snapshots into iconic moments in the sport's history while providing insight into lesser-known equally important people and events. Three helpful appendices provide timelines for The Running Boom (1960-1982), Women's Running (1896-2017), and Masters Running (1909-2008). Perhaps most importantly, Robinson's collection of memories reminds readers that distance running exists even when it is not an Olympic year.

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