by Larry Eder
Mariano Haro, Ian Stewart, Bill Rodgers, photo by Racing.Past.com
On March 16, 1975, Bill Rodgers, a 2:19 marathoner, ran the race of his life. On the multi lap 12k course on a royal horse track in Rabat, Morocco, Rodgers went out with the leaders, pushing the pace with miler John Walker and Olympic 5000m bronze medalist Ian Stewart. Rodgers, in the shape of his life, pushed the pace, and broke away with Walker and Stewart and super master Mariano Haro. Rodgers had trained all winter under the eyes of Coach Bill Squires, one of America’s finest coaches and a man of some eccentricity.
Bill Rodgers with 1975 World XC bronze, photo by Bill Rodgers
Bill Rodgers held onto third, in 35:27.4, with Mariano Haro in silver in 35:21, and Ian Stewart, taking the gold in 35:20. Stewart would go onto win the European Indoor 3000m title less than ten days later. US teams won the men’s juniors, senior women’s and took 4th in the senior men’s. New Zealand won the senior mens, with New Zealand, England and Belgium in the top 3 teams.
Less than five weeks later on 21 April 1975, Bill Rodgers won the 1975 Boston Marathon in 2:09.55, a new American record.
To read the whole fabulous story, by Jeff Benjamin for RunBlogRun in 2015, https://www.runblogrun.com/2015/03/the-real-breakthrough-race-of-boston-billys-career-the-1975-iaaf-world-championships-march-16-1975-b.html.
