Episode 100 - Bill Rodgers
For the 100th episode, we had to go out and bring you all a legend. Please welcome Olympian, Bill Rodgers to D3 Glory Days. One of the best American Marathoners graduated from Wesleyan. He takes us through his success at Boston and New York as well as diving into his Olympic experience.
From the early days, Rodgers enjoyed running with his friend and brother as it was a fun activity to do with a group. As he progressed through his high school days, he saw his potential to get better. The idea of going to a big state school was overwhelming and he went 15 miles down the road to Wesleyan College. His teammate and mentor Amby Burfoot played a big role in Bill’s motivation to move to the marathon after college. Amby won the Boston Marathon in 1968 while he was a student at Wesleyan.
Rodgers took time away from running after college as the Vietnam War made things feel insignificant. After living on the Boston Marathon course and seeing the race, Bill got the spark he needed to get back to training.
In 1973, he ran his first Boston Marathon but dropped out at mile 20 and walked home. By 1975, Rodgers figured out it out and won the Boston Marathon in 2:09:55 - which was an American Record at the time. Rodgers would go on to win Boston and New York 4 times each, competed in the 1976 Olympic games and competed in 60 marathons.
Rodgers also played a vital role in brining professionalism to the sport of running. He worked with other athletes to fight for the pay they deserved.
Learn more about Bill or buy his book on his website.
100 Episodes
This is our 100th episode! Thank you for listening to 1 or 100 episodes, truly been a blast. If you enjoyed any episode please consider making a $1 donation in light of the special occasion! D3 Glory Days Venmo.
Rate or Review D3 Glory Days!
As always, we really appreciate your support of this podcast. If you’d like to help spread the word, share the podcast with a friend, or leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or leave a rating on Spotify!
Follow D3 Glory Days
If you want to rep D3 Glory Days on your next run, head to our Merch Store. And finally, follow us on social media! We’re on Instagram, Twitter and Strava.
D3 Glory Days Patreon
We launched a Patreon! As we said, we will never go behind a paywall - so any support is greatly appreciated.
We enjoy bringing you this content and we realized we could do so much more with a little bit of backing. We want to ensure D3 gets the coverage it deserves and keeping this website paywall free! If you have enjoyed this podcast and the articles we have put, please consider becoming a Patron of D3 Glory Days. In full disclosure, the money will go directly into the show: equipment, subscriptions we need, and most importantly, money to our writers. If you are able, we would appreciate your support.