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Lead Stories: Friday, August 29, 2008

Dick Beardsley: Running Icon

Posted February 14th, 2008 at 3:49 PM by Stephanie Lowe

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Motivation, Success Stories, Special Features, Interviews

Eleven years since an addiction to narcotic pain killers could have ended his life, Dick Beardsley is now a motivational speaker, coach and – once again – a competitive runner.

Beardsley, 51, grew up in Minnesota, but recently moved to Austin, Texas, where he and his wife, Jill, started the Dick Beardsley Foundation. The Foundation raises money for people with chemical dependencies and educates children and young adults about their health. Beardsley travels to schools to speak about his experiences with a drug addiction.

“I was really close to going to sleep one night and not waking up,” he said. Beardsley was regularly taking 80-90 pills every day by the time he was caught forging his prescription. “You do things you would never think about doing. All that mattered to me at the time was to get the drugs.”
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Marathon Comes to Big Screen, But For Only One Night

Posted January 7th, 2008 at 10:07 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Motivation, Movies

In an unusual arrangement, a full-length feature documentary film on marathon running will be shown in USA theaters, but only for one night: Thursday, January 24.

The film, “Spirit of the Marathon,” presents the stories of six runners who competed in the 2005 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, from from first timers to elite runners like Deena Kastor and Daniel Njenga. The film explores how recreational runners use the marathon as a device to confront other issues in their lives –like divorce– and how elite runners are in it for equal amounts of glory and cash.

“The normal person, they want to make their body slim,” Njenga says over shots of him warming up before the race. “But for us, we want to make money. This is like a job and I love my job.”

Filmed on four continents, the two-hour movie chronicles the training of these athletes, interspersed with interviews from well-known marathon runners and experts, like Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, Amby Burfoot, Dick Beardsley, Joe Henderson, Roger Robinson, and Kathrine Switzer. Shot in hi-def video, the footage of the Chicago Marathon is both varied and majestic; the producers had a crew of 62 on the scene and used 15 camera operators. There is also a rousing score.
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McGlynn and Wallace hope for U.S. Olympic Trials Qualifiers at Napa Valley Marathon

Posted February 27th, 2007 at 10:00 AM by Hariz Siddiqui

Section: News & Results, Marathons

Tom McGlynn of Burlingame, C.A., and his training partner, Mike Wallace of Menlo Park, C.A., hope to score a fast time at the 29th Annual Kaiser Permanente Napa Valley Marathon on Sunday, March 4, that will qualify them for the U.S. Men’s Olympic Marathon Trials on November 3, 2007, in New York City. The Trials race will select the U.S. men’s team that will compete in the 2008 Olympic Games men’s marathon in Beijing, China next year.

To qualify for the men’s 2008 Trials, U.S. men must run 2:22:00 or faster. Coincidentally, 20 years ago at the 1987 Napa Valley Marathon, Dick Beardsley set the men’s course record of 2:16:20 on NVM’s certified course in a successful outing to qualify for the 1988 U.S. Men’s Olympic Marathon Trials.
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