The Old and the New

By mitchpa on May 5, 2019 • ( 1 )

by Freddi Carlip

I’m sitting at the computer on this rainy Sunday trying to figure out what I want to write. It’s been a tough year for RG. I apologize to our RG family as times get tougher for print publications. Saying that, the support from our RG family has been wonderful. I realized, going through this, that people love “America’s Oldest Running Newspaper.” RG now has a new website where we can update calendar, add races and features almost as soon as we receive them. It has been wonderful working with Clay Shaw and Karen Mitchell on RG’s website. Karen and I, two tech novices, got the new site up and running.

I’ve received supportive emails from long-time subscribers who are very understanding and wish us well on this new adventure. It’s been fun and new readers are getting to know RG through our website and also Facebook.

Readers feel a strong connection with RG. It warms my heart to read the emails, posts on our Facebook page, and even the occasional actual letter. I posted an RG cover from May 1979 on our Facebook page on “Throwback Thursday.” It sparked comments reached a lot of people. The banner headline read: Bill Rodgers, 2:09:27, and in smaller type, Boston Marathon starts on page 13.

Other race results were listed under the Boston headline and included: The Sunbury 10K, Gil Gaul wins Pulitzer Prize (Gil wrote the “Running Dog” column for many years), Ultras for Nick Marshall, and “Eachus Runs Second Fastest Caesar Rodney.”

This was the heyday of what we old-timers call real running. No frills races, no frills running clothes, no fancy equipment, no headphones, no destination races costing scads of money, reasonable entry fees, and running for ourselves; not for “swag bags.”

That heyday was the heart the Runner’s Gazette, following in the footsteps of Browning Ross’s Long Distance Log.

Although I’m still on the roads (thankfully), I rarely race. Entry fees are too expensive and most races are just too crowded. I know I sound like an old fogey. And there are many of us. These are the people who love RG. Our writers have been with us for a very long time. Sadly, some have died as have many running legends. It’s a fact of life as we get older and as RG gets older (43 years in September).

Speaking of running legends, the late Browning Ross, Olympian, founder of the Road Runners Club of America, was inducted into the Belmont Plateau XC Hall of Fame in Philadelphia on August 25. I’m thrilled that Browning received this honor. As a Hall of Fame Committee member, I’m doubly happy. And thank you to Dave Thomas who is the man behind the Hall of Fame and for all of his work on behalf of historic Belmont Plateau in Fairmount Park in my hometown.