In This Issue - Michigan Runner

idge reluctantly
agreed to partner with
this venture as long as
the other party would
as well. A preliminary
measurement of the
course was made.
However, a labor dispute
at the bridge was
followed by a Bridge
Authority statement
that the person who
had given approval to
use the bridge did not
have the power to do
so. This ended the
Ambassador Bridge’s
involvement with the
race. When this information
reached the
tunnel officials, they,
too, attempted to pull
out. However, during
a tense meeting, Neal
Shine successfully convinced
them to give the
race a chance for one
year.
With the loss of
the bridge, a completely
new route was
charted. The
marathon would now
start in Windsor on
Riverside Drive in the
shadow of the
Ambassador Bridge,
proceed to the tunnel
and into Detroit. The
route would head east
Photo by Detroit Free Press, courtesy of Ed Kozloff
on Jefferson Avenue
into the Grosse
Pointes, turn at Kerby,
and return to the finish
on Belle Isle.
Starting in Canada
presented an added concern – transporting
runners to the Windsor starting point.
Eventually, two dozen city buses took on the
job. An additional issue, faced by only one
other race in the country, concerned the
crossing of international borders. Excellent
cooperation between United States and
Canadian Immigration and Customs officials,
along with the government officials of both
Detroit and Windsor, made for many lengthy
but productive meetings.
Marathon Day was October 22, 1978.
The day before, a pre-race clinic was held at
the Radisson Cadillac Hotel on Washington
Boulevard from 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. A
spaghetti dinner for $3.00 was offered and
the evening included running films, exhibits,
a medical clinic, merchandise for sale, and
Dick Purtan who was the featured Master of
Ceremonies. Furthermore, the announcement
was to be made that the race had received
certification approval just the day before.
Despite the meticulous planning, however,
coordinators were met with two problems as
At the first Detroit Free Press Marathon in 1978 race winner Robert
McOmber is first through the Tunnel.
the doors were about to open. The hotel had
neglected to set up tables and chairs for the
spaghetti dinner! Everyone had assumed that
if a dinner was being served there would be a
place to sit and eat. A bad assumption!
Nevertheless, there were few complaints as
the crowd sat on the floor to dine. As the
multitudes packed the room, it became
warmer and warmer and more and more
uncomfortable. To get some fresh air, an
official began to open a six-foot window. As
he pushed on it, it broke free from its support
and crashed two floors down to the street!
(The Radisson was in its last days at the time
and was about to close its doors.) Nothing
ruined the evening, however, and the band
played on as everyone enjoyed the premarathon
evening.
On race day, the temperature was 57
degrees for the 9:00 a.m. start. The
marathon runners were lined up in Windsor,
but that was not the only event that day. On
Belle Isle, a thousand runners were entered in
a 10k and a mile which were to start at the
same time. The entry
fee for the marathon as
well as the 10k was
$5.00. There was no
charge for the mile.
The marathon
field – at 1,942 starters
– was over four times
larger than the previous
year, making it the
fifth largest in the
nation for that year.
At the starting line was
Bob McOmber, winner
of the last Motor City
Marathon. This was
now his fourth race at
this distance. In April,
he had finished 17th at
Boston. Was he still
fit? You bet he was!
He took the lead at a
quarter mile into the
race and never relinquished
it. His
2:17:37 at the finish
was over four minutes
ahead of Mike Heath,
who finished in
2:21:50. Mike’s father,
Larry, finished 20th
overall in 2:35:38.
Their combined time of
4:57:28 set a national
record for a father-son
combination in the
same race.
Erma Tranter,
of Chicago, was equally
impressive with a
women’s victory by
nearly five minutes in
2:55:51. Both winners
took a prize of an allexpense
trip to either
Boston or the
Marathon de Montreal.
The top youngest finisher was Keith
Hanson, 13, an eighth grader at Davis Junior
High in Sterling Heights. After sending a
detailed letter of his training, he had received
special permission to run. He finished in
3:20:0l.
As the runners crossed the finish line,
they were greeted by The University of
Michigan Marching Band. Their times and
places were recorded and this information
was fed into Burroughs Corporation computers,
which were considered to be the most
sophisticated means of scoring a race up to
that time. After this input, each runner’s
name, age, city, overall place, and category
place were printed out and posted.
Joe Falls, now with the rival Detroit
News, wrote a glowing report on the race –
often an unusual practice in the newspaper
business. The Detroit Free Press
International Marathon had arrived and
would be a distinguished event for years to
come. MR
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