On The Run Bill Rodgers

It's taken me a few days to process "On The Run With Bill Rodgers" the Wednesday before last, which for me was truly a life-long dream realized. Bill Rodgers has been my greatest hero in the sport of distance running since around 2003 when I was 15 years old. How often do you get a chance to literally work with your greatest childhood sports hero? It just doesn't happen.

Until it does!

It's funny, so many stories I've read about Rodgers focus on funny anecdotes of the man himself, and after spending a couple days with him I can see why. The moment he strode up at the Detroit airport, I realized that something was quite wrong with his eye. It was all black and puffy. I didn't mention anything, as I figured it was something to do with a bit advanced age-blood pressure, etc-and anyhow, I figured that anyone with something like that going on very quickly tires of people asking what happened.

We drove to Toledo, talking running the whole way of course. I did most the talking, but only because Rodgers kept asking question after question about my own coaching with genuine interest.

Arriving in Toledo, we pulled up to Tony Packo's-the most famous restaurant in the city. I'd planned on taking him to Packo's for months, but forgot all about their long standing tradition of having celebrities sign hotdog buns until my Mom had mentioned something the night before. That's right-everyone from Jimmy Carter to Don Shula to Alice Cooper has signed hotdog buns that are encased in glass and line wall after wall across the restaurant.

I had tried calling the night before, but wasn't actually able to get through to Packo's until a couple hours before we'd arrive...

"I just happened to be bringing someone world famous by around 12:30; "4x Boston and New York City Marathon Champion Bill Rodgers."

"Sure! We'll bring out a bun for him to sign!"

As we walked up to the door, I was looking forward to this incredible photo-op and some world-famous chili-dogs, when I turned and looked at Bill. He now literally had blood beading up in the corner of his eye!

"Bill, What's wrong with your eye?!"

"Oh, I actually hit myself with my luggage when it popped out of the overhead bin on the plane!"

"You mean that JUST happened? You'd better take a look at your eye! Let me know what we need to do..."

"It doesn't hurt at all..."

As Rodgers went to the bathroom to inspect his eye, I marveled, then almost chuckled at the thought. Here was a guy that was about to embark on an entire day's worth of very public facing interviews, speaking, and autograph signing, in which he would be the center of all attention. He'd literally just been clocked in the eye to the point that he was bleeding, and yet he quite literally didn't bat an eye over it! I'd heard he was laid back, but goodness golly...

A short while later Rodgers emerged with his eye looking a little better, and the day began. Lunch was an absolute blast, as Rodgers regaled a couple of my friends that had joined us and I with tales of races of yore. Midway through, the manager emerged with a hotdog bun and sharpie, and Rodgers signed with his signature slogan "See you on the roads!" as another employee snapped pictures.

From there, it was a privilege to watch the master at work. In planning this event, Bill could not have been more laid back about the schedule, itinerary, or any other detail. However, one thing that he brought up repeatedly was that we ensure that there would be enough time for him to talk to and sign autographs for everyone. We changed up the schedule to give him an extra hour in the beginning, and changed up on the fly during the event to utilize the school that was hosting for an additional hour afterwards. With seemingly limitless energy, he powered through the day, talking and signing, talking and signing. He was of course the consistent center of attention all evening, but somehow found time for virtually each and every person.

At this I truly marveled. For as great of an athlete as he was, in my opinion Rodgers has been an even greater ambassador of the sport-helping to spread the joy of running and fitness to runners of all levels everywhere. This above all else is why Bill has always been my greatest hero. In everything I've done in the sport in fact, I've tried to emulate Bill. And yet, on this evening it was as clear as ever that while some may try to be like Bill, NONE of us could ever BE Bill Rodgers... If I've won the Glass City Marathon, he's won Boston and New York, and more times each. If I've been an ambassador of the sport in Northwest Ohio, he's been one the world over. If I've talked to thousands of runners, he's talked to millions...

On a relatively small scale, however, I know firsthand what it takes. It's funny, I once read of someone describing Rodgers as "the laziest man he'd ever met." I remember reading this, and shaking my head in wild wonder and smirking in a bit of knowing commiseration. To that person I'd say, "Try running 170 miles a week-let alone anything else Rodgers has done-and get back to me on that..." During my 20's I consistently dealt with burnout issues, and even as the evening progressed I felt pulled in a million different directions, distracted, and nervous even as the magic of evening unfolded. I reached out to a few individuals afterwards to express my apologies for being distracted and not giving them my full attention when talking with them, and later thought it funny... NO ONE was even there to see me! Each and every person there was pining all evening for just a moment of Bill's time, and yet he glided through it all completely relaxed and at ease, somehow finding time for virtually every single person, and never once appearing the slightest bit agitated or distracted. A couple of times when we got in the car to go from place to place, Bill turned to me and asked. "How are you doing?" I laughed and quipped back in reverence and awe, "How are YOU doing? You're the one that's pushing 80!"

It was a question to which I should have already known the answer.

After the run was finished, as the crowd swirled around Rodgers and the sky grew completely dark; lights came on and phone cameras flashed on and on. The skyline of the great city of Toledo glowed almost supernaturally large in the background, and there was true magic in the air. A quote from Bill's old coach-the legendary Bill Squires-popped into my mind.

"We're just little nerds that are kicking the crap out of the world here!"

Indeed, us runners by nature are admittedly a bit of an odd breed, but in that moment it did truly feel like we ruled the world...

After a bit we somehow managed to find our way back across the street to the school, where Bill continued to talk and churn out autograph after autograph for nearly another hour. We had the building until 10:00 p.m, and at around 9:55, Bill finally signed a poster for the last in line. As we hurriedly packed up and rolled out the door, everyone looked exhausted. Everyone except the 77 year old Rodgers, that is. He stood outside the locked doors, talking animatedly to a couple for several minutes before they departed. Finally he headed for the vehicles-the last man standing on the evening.

Truly the master...

The next morning Bill was right back at it at 4:30 a.m. All the way up to the Detroit Airport he signed print after print of an excellent photo of his legendary 1979 Boston marathon win to give as gifts to the event organizers of the Toledo Roadrunners, to which we both owe this event. As we pulled up to the airport and past a sign for the McNamara Terminal, one of us made a comment on the name. I said, "I can't remember if it's Robert McNamara, I don't think it is, but maybe. I can't remember if he has ties to Michigan..." (He did in fact, serving as VP of Operations and briefly president of the Ford Motor Company in the years following World War II, however, the terminal is actually named for former Wayne County Executive Ed McNamara, which we discovered upon spotting another sign.) Any which way, the mention of President Johnson's Secretary of Defense got us chatting for a few minutes on the Vietnam era. I thought long and deeply on that later. While McNamara and other historical figures of that era are long gone, Rodgers endures, buoyed by fame that came early as a result of the youth of athletics. There is no doubt that his enduring and indefatigable legacy is irrevocably rooted in the fact that Rodgers truly IS American history. I myself first learned of him before I knew anything else of running at all; reading about him in an American history textbook clear back in grade school in the 1990's.

For an entire generation, Rodgers is a beacon harkening back to a time that was rife with its own chaos, and yet paradoxically seems less so. A simpler time; a time when the world actually made sense at least occasionally, a time when there may have been some actual adults in the room, a time when the good guys actually won once in a while.

Good guys like Bill Rodgers.

For all his greatness as an athlete, Rodgers possesses a rare quality; the ability to make anyone feel like a million bucks simply by talking with them. It's a quality that I once described of my own Dad; that he's the kind of guy that could be literally dousing someone's house in gasoline to burn it down, but as long as he was making small talk, they'd walk away saying, "MAN what a great guy..."

As I drove away from that airport, I mused that for Rodgers I might even buy the matches...