Blast From The Past: Bill Rodgers and The 1977 Boston Marathon

If you like distance running, appreciate our sport’s history, and love the Boston Marathon as much as I do, here’s 20 minutes of awesomeness to brighten your day. Granted I was still a few years in the making when this was produced in 1977, the scene and people felt familiar to me and so much about it made me smile, especially Bill Squires’ accent and Bill Rodgers’ honest post-race interview. “There was no sense in me continuing any further,” Rodgers explains after dropping out of the race. “I’m sure I could have finished 200th, 300th, but that doesn’t inspire me. I want to run well or else—maybe some people will look on that poorly but that’s the way I am.”

RELATED: The Washington Post’s coverage of the 1977 race. “The maple syrup had turned to vinegar,” Barry Lorge wrote at the time. “Every stride looked torturous. Rodgers eventually dropped out on the hills, leaving Drayton unchallenged. It became a one-man race.”