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Catching Up With . . .
Bill Rodgers, marathoner
October 29, 1979
Posted: Tue August 18, 1998
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(Heinz Kluetmeier)
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Though
he turned 50 last December, Bill Rodgers still looks
strikingly like the man who was the preeminent marathoner
in the world two decades ago. His hair is blond and thick;
his frame remains slender and fit, a testament to his
principles. "Being a runner is
very ordinary,
really," Rodgers says. "I believe in living an
active life—using your body and your muscles. We're
all meant to move. We're all meant to be
athletes."
Rodgers became an icon of the running boom when he won his
hometown marathon four times from 1975 to '80—thus
earning the nickname Boston Billy—as well as four
consecutive New York titles from '76 to '79. Rodgers
hasn't competed in a marathon since
1993, but he faithfully runs 70 miles a week and still races
about 25 times a year. In '97 he set six U.S. records for
49-year-olds at distances ranging from five kilometers to
the half marathon. Along with friend and rival Frank
Shorter, he was inducted
last month into the National Distance Running Hall of Fame in
Utica,
N.Y.
(Damian Strohmeyer)
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Outside his sport, Rodgers
has traveled a rockier road. His first marriage ended in
1981; seven years later his once-successful running-wear
business collapsed. He had to sell his house in Dover,
Mass., to pay his debts and found himself racing to make
ends meet. "It was like the
23rd-mile mark of the marathon," he says of his
financial woes. "It was a bad
patch."
Rodgers now earns his living as a representative of Etonic
and by making promotional appearances at races across the
country. He is also a contributing editor for
Running
Times magazine and in the past two years has written two
books: Bill Rodgers' Lifetime Running
Plan and
The Complete Idiots' Guide to Jogging and
Running. He lives in Sherborn, Mass., near Boston, with his second
wife, Gail, and their two daughters, Elise, 13, and Erika,
8. "People always ask me if the girls run,"
Rodgers says. "I say, 'Well, they run around a
lot.'"
As for his own running, he remains interested in victories
and records, but more than ever he puts in miles to stay
healthy. "I don't run as fast or as far," he
says. "There aren't many easy runs anymore. But I
could always rely on my running. It's the
closest thing to the fountain of youth,
really." —Mark
Beech
Issue date: August 24, 1998
Past Editions of Catching Up With...
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