Heart of America Marathon
Labor Day Columbia, Missouri

1973 Report

72 degrees all the way - gentle rain most of the way ¬quite hard after three hours or so. The rain was most welcome coming right on the heels of three weeks of 90+ weather and hot sun. The only problem was on the six mile stretch of gravel and dirt; some of this was really treacherous and, no doubt, cost most runners several minutes.

Tim Hendricks won his fourth out of the last five marathons and Alex Ratelle won his sixth straight over-40 title. The only thing new about this year's edition was the closeness of Hendricks' victory. His habit is to go a sensible even pace with a second half faster than the first. So it went this time except that when he went by Dan Kaprowicz after Easley Hill and Karl Naylor after fifteen miles, he thought he had the lead. He was somewhat dismayed to learn that Roberto Rosales was over three and a half minutes ahead of him. Hendricks gradually closed the gap, although he didn't catch sight of Rosales until he approached the hill at 24 miles. From that point on Hendricks zeroed in on Rosales, finally catching him on College Ave, not far from Broadway with about a half mile to go. The winning margin of nineteen seconds made this the closest finish ever.

Dick Hessler headed the CTC contingent turning in the best time ever for this course for a CTC member. Ben Londeree, Tom Kilburn, Joe Duncan, Dave Leuthod and Leonard Busen also got personal bests. Dean Neal and Rex Frazer were in their first marathons as was Charles Geiss. Augie Hirt is, no doubt one of the few people anywhere who has run a marathon in less than three hours (last year, here) and walked one in less than four hours (this year). Dave Schulte had a computer printout of the results (including halfway times and pace per mile) for those finishing under four hours. This was available a mere twenty minutes after the four-hour mark.