"When I crossed the finish line, it was just overwhelming. When I turned to go back to give Geoff a hug, he was gone. I said, Where did he go? They said, Oh, they took him up to medical. Everybody thinks I collapsed after I crossed the finish line. I didn't collapse. I laid myself down. It was my first marathon, and I'd never felt that kind of physical stress before. It didn't stop me from going to Studio 54 that night."
"I couldn't really see Geoff until we got into Central Park. He was following the blue line in the middle of the road. The ideal, when you're running curves, is to run the tangents. You save distance. I realized that by cutting three or four yards per corner, I was going to save myself 20 seconds. I wasn't running any faster, but I started to gain on him."
Rod Dixon won the 1983 New York City Marathon by closing a late gap on Geoff Smith in Central Park after using tangents to save distance. Geoff Smith led most of the race and staggered across the finish line, then laid himself down and was taken to medical from extreme physical stress. Dixon described overwhelming emotion at the finish and looked for Smith to offer a hug. Dixon calculated that cutting three or four yards per corner saved about 20 seconds, allowing him to catch and pass Smith near the end.
Read at www.nytimes.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]