Rapid rise to marathon fame

Press, 29 April 1981, Page 26

Rapid rise to marathon fame

The telephone conversation would go something like this: ‘ Hello. Allison?" When the answer was a yes. the caller would be identified and then came, “Congratulations." Quickly, the respnse would be. "This is Ellison, not Allison. She’s ‘A’, I'm ‘E’.

“We had one call last night from a guy with a radio station," said Ellison Goodall at the house on Framar Road in Wellesley. “He wanted to interview Allison. I said it wasn’t Allison. It was Ellison. He started to explain what he wanted to talk about.”

But these were just about the only cases of mistaken identity in the wake of a record women’s run by Allison Roe of New Zealand in the 85th Boston marathon. Remember, just a year ago, the countless numbers of people who “identified" Rosie Ruiz on the course she never ran? What could be identified instead was the enormous talent of Allison Roe, an engaging personality from New Zealand who shattered the Boston Marathon dreams of the local favourite, Patti Catalano, and raced to a stunning victory in the second fastest, time (2:26:45) in the history of women's marathoning. She had spent the long week-end as a house guest in Wellesley, Boston, and Goodall, who was the leader through the first 19km of the 1980 Boston Marathon, was one of the residents, the one who answered the telephone. Roe has since left for New Zealand.

For the first time since the women’s race was officially added to the Boston Marathon in 1972, both titles are worn by runners from outside the United States. Toshihiko Seko reinforced his position as the world’s top marathoner with a record 2:09:26 Boston win. Roe, a secretary in an architectural firm in Auckland and whose husband is a chiropractor, first ran with her father along the beach near the family home in nearby Milford to stay in shape for tennis. She participated in. track running in school and once focused on the high jump. “I had been a tennis player since I was nine,” said Roe. ‘‘One year, I broke the school record in the high jump, which led me to visit the track. It got to the state where I hadn’t improved. I used to see the runners and I said, ‘lt looks more exciting.”

So Roe started to run and became good enough to make it to the world crosscountry championships in Dusseldorf. Bothered by the flu and incurring a subsequent heel injury, she took some time off.

“I didn’t have a goal or a motivation,” she said, “and I thought I was lazy.” “I realised all of the best athletes are consistent with their training. I’d been injured in the track season before. Over the last year and a half, I’ve been more consistent with my training. I decided to train hard and I know now that I was very lazy.” “I'd had a stress fracture, and T was just getting back into it. I decided to run in a marathon and see if I liked it. Just have a look and see what I thought. I entered with the idea of pulling out. at 20km. By 10km, I was very, very tired, people urged me on saying. ‘lf you win this, you win a trip to Oregon.’ It was good bait." That was the first marathon, in February 1980,

in Auckland. Joan Benoit won and set an American record of 2:31:23. Roe was second in 2:51. but, as the first. New Zealand finisher, she earned that trip to the Nike-OTC Marathon in Eugene on September 7. There she was third in 2:34:29 and the rest is marathoning history. After Eugene, Roe ran a marathon in Tokyo (2:42) and won the Auckland marathon (2:36:18) without competition on February 8. The tip-off that Allison Roe would be a legitimate threat in Boston came on March 1 when she set a world record of 1:29:57 for 20km in Miyazaki, Japan. “When I came,” said Roe, “I was a little apprehensive, I felt I had neglected the endurance side. I'd particpated in a lot of 10km races. 1 almost didn’t come. But, I’d had some solid training and people said, ‘You should go.’ f made up my mind at. the last, minute and packed my bags. “I knew I was in with a good chance. At 29km I saw Pattie Catalano at the bot-

tom of a hill. I had lost contact with her. I.was tired and I eased off the pace. I came back with a really good rush. People were saying, ‘You’re 30 seconds off the pace ... 25 seconds ... 20 seconds.

“I don’t consider myself a great, hill runner, but I was inching up on her. She was still in front by Bill Rodgers’ store (in Cleveland Circle) but instinctively I knew I was going to get her. When I decided to pass, I could see her strides were choppy, a bit uneven, I just went by. I felt quite good. I was confident she wasn’t going to go with me. I think she gave it away when I went by. “Secretly I was trying for a sub-2:30. I couldn’t believe it when I looked at the clock. You can't believe how honoured I feel to win Boston. Every marathoner or any person who does any dis-

lance running would love to win Boston. 1 was in another world. 1 didn't even feel excited. Its as if everyone was around me and I was somewhere else. I was overwhelmed."

So the phone started ringing early in the house on Framar road in Wellesley. Fourteen months after she had entered her first marathon with the intention of “pulling out after 20km,” Allison Roe, at 24, had been thrust into the bright glare of the world marathoning spotlight.

She will go back to her home and her job in Auckland, start to do some endurance training and focus on the late summer marathon with a distant eye toward New York and Norway's Grete Waitz. the only woman in the world who has run a faster marathon.—NZPA.