Former Boston Marathon winner reminisces about ‘Duel in the Sun’
during visit to South Valley
Morgan Hill – When April rolls around, it will be 25 years since the infamous “Duel to the Sun.”
Dick Beardsley still admits to getting goosebumps every time he watches the 1982 Boston Marathon. Of course, he watches and thinks maybe the result will be different this time.
“I think maybe this is the time I will beat him,” the affable Beardsley said, a smile creasing his lean face. “It has happened yet.”
Today, Beardsley is nearing 51 years of age. He is still a strong distance runner, although his marathon times are now in the 2:40s rather than 2:08 that stirring hot spring day in April like in 1982.
Beardsley spent Tuesday in the South Valley, addressing the Gavilan College faculty during Staff Development Day in the morning and then meeting with two dozen runners at the Morgan Hill home of Steve Kinsella, Gavilan College’s president and an avid distance runner.
Beardsley, who resides in Detroit Lakes, Minn., does a lot of motivational speaking when he’s not busy putting in up to 90 miles a week in training. He remembers 1982 like it was yesterday.
“I was watching the local news at 10pm the Thursday before the marathon,” Beardsley said. “They’re making a big deal about Alberto Salazar, who lived in Boston at the time, arriving at Logan Airport. They ask why he decided to run Boston. He said he looked at the field and decided ‘there is nobody who can run with me.’ There was steam coming out of my head. I couldn’t sleep that night.”
Salazar learned different that following Monday. It was Beardsley who set a torrid pace on a day when temperatures were already over 70 degrees at the start of the race. Salazar was two strides behind as they raced up Heartbreak Hill. Beardsley occasionally surged, trying to shake Salazar. It never happened. It was Salazar who surged in the last mile as Beardsley cramped up. And yet Salazar could never shake Beardsley. Salazar won in 2:08.51, two seconds better than Beardsley.
They were rivals then. They are friends now, as Salazar proved a few years ago when he showed up at a half marathon in Beardsley’s hometown.
“Dick, you’re going to beat him this time,” several townspeople said encouragingly. By this time, they weren’t nearly as competitive.
“Back then, we were racing at a high level,” Beardsley said. “Now, we’ve mellowed out a lot. He (Salazar) is living in Portland, Ore., training runners. We keep in touch by e-mail.”
Beardsley blew out his Achilles tendon in 1983 and suffered various injuries during the next several years. He didn’t run Boston again until 2002. A two-time Olympic Trials Marathon qualifier, his running resumes includes course records at Grandma’s Marathon and the Napa Valley Marathon, as well as a win at London.
There were running injuries as well as a serious farm injury that led to a well-documented addiction to pain medication in the 1990s that is included on his Web site.
Today, Beardsley is running and speaking and enjoying life. The “Duel to the Sun” is one of running’s inspirational stories and one Beardsley never tires of telling.
“It was my best marathon,” Beardsley said. “Even though I didn’t win, I still enjoy watching it. And I still enjoy the long runs and training as much as ever. It’s just that I’m one minute a miler slower.”
That’s still a swift pace for a fiftysomething.
