Treadmill Trivia

What Ho running peeps!

OK. I’ll come clean. I’m not on the dreadmill. I wouldn’t be able to type anything while running. I’m on the exercise bike cross training. So for a bit of fun while I turn over the pedals. Here’s some running trivia for you. We all love trivia don’t we?

Which Lake Bemidji innkeeper and fishing guide has won Grandmas Marathon twice, and the London Marathon?

Dick Beardsley.

He’s a running legend. The only person to have run 13 consecutive marathon personal bests. Think about that a moment. Running a PB thirteen times in a row. That fact alone should boggle the mind. 

His finish time of 2:09:37 at the 1981 Grandmas Marathon stood as the course record for 33 years. 

But he is probably best known for his 1981 London Marathon finish with Norwegian Inge Simonsen. I can vividly remember watching the inaugural London Marathon back home in the UK as an impressionable youth. It was a huge thing with live TV coverage every step of the way.

It raised the profile of Marathon running in the UK and inspired many people take up marathon running. (Not me, that was still over 20 years away). But I do remember thinking as the two runners finished, that this was something pretty special. A unique runner's bond. It’s not stretching things too far to state that the Beardsley/Simonsen finish helped set the reputation of the London Marathon as one of the world’s great marathons. It was exactly the finish the race needed. It was so “British” in a way. If this race had been in America, the public would have wanted the US runner to power away to a resounding solo victory.  This was a result for the greater good of the sport.

Here’s some highlights of the event. If you don’t know the history of this race or had forgotten it, you’ll do well to take a look at this BBC footage from the time. It contains priceless interview footage with ordinary runners. If you aren’t inspired by Scots woman Madge Sharples then you are a cold, lifeless, human being. It’s also worth listening to Dick at the end of the race. I don’t think any professional marathon runner would do what he did today. 

Grandmas Marathon runners hear Dick’s voice at the start and finish line as he commentates with another Minnesota running legend Carrie Tollefson.

When Dick is not traveling the world being an in demand motivational speaker you can find him running a Bed and Breakfast up nort’ in Bemidji MN. If you’re a fisherman you can also have this Minnesota Running legend be your fishing guide on Lake Bemidji.