Legendary nine-time New York City Marathoner Champion Grete Waitz, 57, who died on Tuesday, April 19, in Oslo, Norway, should be counted among the very best athletes in New York’s pantheon of athletic greats.
Waitz died after a lengthy battle with cancer. She was a school teacher in Norway before she became a world-class athlete.
Four-time New York City Marathon Champion Bill Rodgers called her one of the great pioneers of the sport.
“You never saw effort on Grete Waitz’s face,” he said. “She ran and lived with a certain kind of grace that defined her.
Asbury Park 10K
I had the distinct honor of seeing her during an event the night before the Asbury Park 10K in the old Paramount Theater at the north end of the boardwalk. This was in 1985.
I had followed her career, watching whenever the New York City Marathon was televised. Every time Waitz was in the race, she was running from the lead, of course, and cruising to another legendary victory. She always inspired me to keep going in my own very, very modest road running and road racing career.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, I hadn’t punched through from 10K and five-mile distances very much at all. However, eventually, I started doing the Long Beach Island 18-miler, and then I did my first marathon in New York City in 1985. I went on to run four New York City Marathons, two New Jersey Waterfront Marathons, two Marine Corps Marathons, and one Jersey Shore Marathon. Later, when I switched to race walking, I walked on my own one 26-mile trek from Plainsboro to Lawrence Township and back, and two from Westfield to Madison and back.
Sure, I was also inspired by Bill Rogers, Frank Shorter, and Alberto Salazar. Oh, and I was also inspired by the three great Providence College runners: Irish-born Mick O’Shea who dominated New England cross country in the 1970s; English-born Geoff Smith, who won the Boston Marathon in 1984 and 1985, and was heartbreakingly passed at the finish line by Rod Dixon at the 1983 New York City Marathon; and Irish-born John Treacy, who in 1978 and 1979 won the won the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, and Limerick, Ireland, respectively, and, like Waitz, won the silver medal in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, Calif.
And among women of that time, there was Joan Benoit, of course, who looked a lot like the character, Juno, in the movie “Juno,” but could be as competitive in a race as Larry Bird or Wayne Gretzky with the championship on the line.
But then there was Waitz.
She was tall, slender and, as Rogers said, appeared the personification of stoicism.
She would run and run and run. From the Verrazano Bridge to Central Park, she’d be brilliant, throwing in surges when needed, and rarely showing if she was laboring, even during one race when she clearly was laboring from a digestive tract problem.
And time and time again, there she would be at the end, breaking the tape, winning another race, and building the legend.
Competitive Career
Between 1978 and 1988, she won the New York City Marathon nine times, a record reminiscent of Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak. It is unlikely that anyone else will win the race nine times, and even more unlikely they will win nine New York City Marathons in 11 years.
In the 1978 race, Waitz also took a full two minutes off of the women's world record. She broke the world record three years in a row. Before her competitive career was finished, she lowered the women's world record by nine minutes. The record time had been held by Christa Vahlensieck at 2:34:47. In the 1978 race, Waitz lowered that to 2:32:30. Then, she lowered that to, 2:27:33 in 1979, and 2:25:41 in 1980.
Waitz lowered that mark to 2:25:29 in the 1983 London Marathon. In 1986, she won the London Marathon for a second time, in a career best 2:24:54. She also won the 1988 Stockholm Marathon in 2:28:24, which remains the Stockholm course record for women.
Waitz won the 1983 World Championship Marathon in Helsinki. In the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, she won the silver medal, finishing behind Joan Benoit, who had stunned everyone by putting on a surge early in the race that TV analysts at the time said was highly risky. Los Angeles was hot and humidity that day. The analysts kept waiting for Benoit to fade and/or for the pack to eventually catch Benoit, but neither happened.
To this day, Benoit and Waitz remain probably the two most broadly recognizable names in women’s marathon history.
Waitz experienced success in shorter road races, as well.
In New York City, she won the L'eggs Mini-Marathon five times. She won the prestigious 10K Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta four times. In 1980, she won the Falmouth Road Race on Cape Cod, Mass., which at the time attracted both the nationally elite and the local best New England and northeast road runners.
During her career, Waitz held the world road records: at 8K distance; twice in the 10K; and at 10 miles.
In the world of cross-country, Waitz earned two bronze medals, in 1982 and 1984, at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships and won the gold medal five times, from 1978 to 1981 and in 1983. That’s an accomplishment that tied her with Doris Brown Heritage for the most wins in the history of women's International/World Cross Country Championships.
From Superstar To Legend
Perhaps the mark of the woman, however, the part of her career that elevated her from superstar to legend was the story of how she accompanied the late great New York Road Runners Club President and father of the modern New York City Marathon, Fred Labow, in 1992 on his first marathon.
He had been diagnosed with cancer, and after all those years of organizing the race, he decided it was about time he should run the race.
Ever an ambassador for the marathon and for the New York Marathon, and true to her good friend, Waitz said she would accompany Labow on his race.
They finished the race in 5:32:35, but for everyone who had been a part of the race, the finishing time wasn’t as important as finishing. That’s a mantra, by the way, repeated by a sizeable portion of the marathon runners, and certainly by runners like me: I finished. That's a victory.
My fastest time was about 4:15, but most of my marathons were closer to Labow’s time. And it never really mattered, then or now, when I go out in weekend 5Ks and five-milers.. What mattered then, and what matters now, was and is that I finished.
Waitz said that she felt more soreness after that five hour race than during her winning races. She said she had new respect for the folks who run the race at my pace.
Well, that solidified her legend in my mind. She felt what I always felt?
And she did it out of appreciation and love for her sport, for her signature race, and for her friend.
As Rogers said, it was a form of grace that defined Grete Waitz. She is a legend who should be included whenever people gather around and list those who are among the very best athletes in New York sport history.
For Essays And Editorials
Denis J. Kelly
April 21, 2011
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