Mr. Marathon

Who’s the greatest marathon runner in history? That’s quite a hard question for we have a lot of great runners including Bill Rodgers, Alberto Salazar, Frank Shorter, Abebe Bikila and Haile Gebrselasie.  But Clarence DeMar could also be one of the greatest.  Known as Mr. Marathon, DeMar ran 100 marathons in his lifetime and has won the Boston Marathon a record, seven times.  In his 25 starts in Boston, he completed every race and finished among the top ten 15 times.  In his first Boston Marathon, he finished second, losing by less than a minute.  DeMar was warned by his doctor that he had a heart murmur and should stop running but his motto must be “patay kung patay” and won the 1911 edition, setting a new Boston record of 2:21:39( the distance then was 24.7 not 26.1 miles) after finishing a disappointing 12th in the 1912 Olympics in Stockhom, Sweden, De Mar did not run another marathon for five years.  In 1922, DeMar won his second title and won again the following year. In 1924, he won his third straight Boston and went to the Paris Olympics where he won a bronze.   In 1926 and 1927, he won an incredible five straight marathon ending with a fifth Boston title and won again in 1928.  In 1930, 19 years after winning his first marathon, the 42-year old DeMar won Boston for the seventh time and continued to run until age 66.  He died in 1958.

Congratulations!

My nephew-in-law Wence Federer husband of my niece  Julia and nephew of tennis great Roger is still in Cloud Nine after his uncle won a record eighth title in Wimbledon. Roger thus became the oldest men’s champion at 36.   Ashe was then the oldest at 32 when he won in 1975.  It was also his 19th career grand slam title and 102nd over-all match.  Congratulations also to my “kababayan” Julius Sermona of Negros Occidental for winning the Milo Half Marathon qualifying run in Urdaneta, City, Pangasinan.  Sermona is a former Sea Games champion who started in my Nike Pharmaton 10k Circuit.  Another Sea Games champion Cristabel  Martes, won in the distaff side.

Did you know?

John McDermott won the first two marathons held in the United States.  The first was in 1896 when he won a marathon that started in Connecticut while ending in New York City.  The following year, he won the first Boston Marathon held in April 1897.  Fifteen runners started the race with only eight finishing.  Despite a leg cramp, Mc Dermott completed the 24.7 mile (the current distance is 26.1 miles or 42.195km) course  from Ashland to downtown Boston .  Mc Dermott broke Olympic Marathon Champion Spiridon Louis’ record by 3 and 1/2 minutes. 

Tarzan Brown

In 1935, Ellison “Tarzan” Brown ran the Boston Marathon in a racing tunic fashioned from tatters of her mother’s dress who died two days before the race. The demise of her mother affected the Tarzan’s performance but another tragedy happened.  Brown’s shoes fell apart after  20 miles forcing him to run barefoot for the last six.  The following year, Brown was leading the 1936 Boston Marathon when defending champion John A. Kelly, another  Boston icon caught up to him at the 21-mile mark and patted  Brown’s bottom and laughing while saying “Nice going Tarzan”.  That revived Brown who roared back and easily won the race.