Bill Rogers

Triathlon Forum
1

I grew up running, starting at age 10 in 1979. The heros of my classmates were Terry Bradshaw, Roger Starbach,Tony Dorsettetc. Rogers, Shorter, Coe and Ovett and Scott were mine. At the time, Bill Rogers was the greatest! Take a look of the high volume of marathon racing he did. It is amazing that he can still walk, assuming he can! He was unbelievable. His 4th in 86 BOSTON was pretty amazing as he was 39 years old!

Marathons 1973 Boston Marathon (Did not Finish)(DNF) 1973 Baystate Marathon (2:28:12) 1st Course Record (CR) 1974 Boston (2:19:34) 14th 1974 New York City Marathon (NYC) (2:36:00) 5th 1974 Philadelphia Marathon (2:21:57) 1st CR 1975 Boston (2:09:55) 1st American Record (AR) 1975 Enschede Marathon, Holland (DNF) 1975 Fukuoka Marathon (2:11:26) 3rd 1976 Olympic Trials (2:11:58) 2nd 1976 Montreal Olympics (2:25:14) 40th 1976 NYC (2:10:10) 1st CR 1976 Sedo Island, Japan (2:08:23) 1st CR (200 meters short) 1976 Maryland (2:14:28) 1st CR 1977 Kyoto, Japan (2:14:25) 1st 1977 Boston (DNF) 1977 Amsterdam, Holland (2:12:46) 1st CR 1977 Waynesboro (2:25:12) 1st 1977 NYC (2:11:28) 1st 1977 Fukuoka (2:10:55) 1st 1978 Boston (2:10:13) 1st 1978 NYC (2:11:28) 1st 1978 Fukuoka (2:12:53) 6th 1979 Boston (2:09:27) 1st AR 1979 Montreal (2:22:12) 15th 1979 NYC (2:12:12) 1st 1980 Boston (2:12:11) 1st 1980 Toronto (2:14:47) 1st 1980 NYC (2:13:20) 5th 1981 Houston-Tennaco (2:12:10) 1st CR 1981 Boston (2:10:34) 3rd 1981 Atlantica-Boavista, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2:14:13) 1st CR 1981 Stockholm, Sweden (2:13:28) 1st 1981 Bank One, Columbus, OH (2:17:34) 7th 1982 Houston (2:14:51) 5th 1982 Tokyo (2:24) 301st 1982 Boston (2:12:38) 4th 1982 Atlantica-Boavista, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (DNF) 1982 Big M, Melbourne, Australia (2:11:08) 1st 1983 Orange Bowl, FL (2:15:08) 1st 1983 Boston (2:11:58) 10th 1983 Beijing, China (DNF) 1983 Chicago (2:21:40) 1984 U.S. Olympic Trials (2:13:31) 8th 1985 New Jersey Waterfront (2:14:46) 2nd 1985 NYC (2:15:31) 7th 1986 Boston (2:13:35) 4th 1986 Chicago (2:15:31) 11th 1987 Phoenix (DNF) 1987 Boston (2:18:18) 15th 1987 NYC (2:25:01) 54th 1988 Phoenix (DNF) 1988 Los Angeles ( 2:20:27) 2nd masters 1988 Boston (2:18:17) 2nd masters 1988 NYC (DNF) 1989 Los Angeles (2:22:24) 1990 Boston (2:20:46) 5th masters 1992 Vietnam International 19th 1996 Boston (2:53) 1999 Boston (DNF)

2

Even with all of that racing, it’s impressive to see how much he peaked for Boston every year.

3

Boston Billy returns to the Quad-Cities every year for the Bix 7. I had the pleasure of running next to him last year and it was like running next to Norm from “Cheers.” Everybody knew who he was, and he politely greeted everyone. As to his running, he had another gear in the last mile that I didn’t, and despite having about 25 years on me he finished about a minute ahead of me.

Getting smoked by Bill Rogers ranks among my greatest athletic experiences.

4

Bill Rogers (and Frank Shorter) always race a 10k near where I grew up. The Orange Classic 10k in Middletown, New York. In my prime I ran a 34:30 and beat Bill Rogers!! Sure, he was twice my age…but still fun. Really good guys. Alas, still not enough to beat Shorter, he finished 3 spots in front of me!