Sioux Falls, SD was so excited to have Beards running his first post Boston race in its town. Dick ran the Pepsi 10K because he wanted to come to Sioux Falls to see Karen and I and then go on to Bonesteel to visit with Mary's family. So, why not run a race? After the race Dick came down to Athletic Attic and hung out all afternoon visiting with runners and signing autographs - just because Neil Graff asked him if he would (and I worked there). Tons of people stopped in to see Beards! Neil was so grateful he wanted Dick to help himself to anything he wanted in the store. Dick was very appreciative and said that New Balance really gave him everything he need running-wise, but he wouldn't mind getting a pair of shoes for his mother-in-law,who lived in Bonesteel, SD. Neil told him to pick out any pair he wanted for her. The local Pepsi distributor and his wife, took Beards/Mary, Karen/I for dinner at the Minnehaha Country Club that night. I can't imagine what this would cost a race/sponsor/store appearance today!!??
Beards hanging out in our apartment reading the Argus Leader the day before the race. Joel Brown, sports writer and all-around nice guy was coming over to interview Beards.
Here's the article Joel filed.
Can you imagine Sioux Falls closing the Bridge over the Big Sioux River on East 12th St for a race today? Beards, Paul Mausling, Rob Kinnunen, me, Steve Moe, Virgil Tjeerdsma and Randy Fisher are about to find out what it's like to come up against a world class runner.
Ok, I had to throw this in. Right before the start I'm trying to stretch. Not very effectively.
It was fun to say I was ahead of Beards for a few seconds.
The 8 mile road race in June of 1979 was a chance for Beards and Mary to come visit us and then go on to Bonesteel to see Mary's family. My old college room-mate/team-mate Randy Fisher and I were in great shape and Beards had just won the Howard Wood 10 mile road race a few weeks earlier. We all met up in Rock Rapids for the race. They bussed us out 8 miles north of Rock Rapids and dropped us off in the middle of nowhere. We were actually in Minnesota! The starter fired his gun, started a stopwatch, jumped back on the bus and headed back to the finish in Rock Rapids. The three of us took the race out pretty hard in the first mile to see if anyone would go with us. When we looked back after a mile, we couldn't see anyone! We decided to cruise in and finish together. We were all such good friends it made it hard to race each other. We still got in a good hard run 42 minutes, 16 seconds (5:17/mile).
After Beard's 2:08 marathon, the little newspaper in Rock Rapids, Iowa, remembered that he had run in their local road race back in 1979, and ran the following article. So like "George Washington slept here" - " Dick Beardsley ran here."
I found it was hard to run without using your arms coming into the finish!!!
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