Heart
of America Marathon
Labor Day 
Columbia, Missouri
63 degrees at the start, humidity 84%, clear skies, got up to low 70s by 9:00; not a good day for a marathon. As he has done so often in previous HOAs, Tim Hendricks ran a
relaxed first half, kept the pace to mile 21 or so, then began to overtake the leader. He did that in '69 when he passed Brian Harrington on the hill at 24 miles, in '71,
passing Don Todaro at 22 miles, in ' 72 when he took Jim McFadden going down Stadium, in '73 when he caught Bob Rosales on College Ave. and then this year he got Randy Cook,
a former runner for KSC, Pittsburg, KS, on Stadium shortly after 24 miles. In all these, Tim's last half was faster than the first. Last year he was hampered by a serious burn injury to his thigh and finished fifth. Now he was back with a vengeance, not only regaining his title, but getting a PB by five minutes, with the fourth fastest time ever; Cook
now has the fifth fastest (his PB of eleven prior marathons was a 2:39:16 tenth place finish in the 1973 NAIA Championship) and Dick Hessler the sixth best. Dick had a
great race - he thinks he might have got second had he made a move coming down Stadium. Can you imagine that just three years ago he was happy to pass Joe Duncan on the 24 mile hill
in his first marathon? Dick has come a long way since then, while Duncan is still coming up that hill. In its finest group effort, CTC had three in the top eight (Rick Katz and
Rich Todd were with Hendricks and Hessler most of the way) and six in the top 22. Whitney Hicks, Don Lewis and Don Carman had fine first marathons. Larry Young and Augie Hirt, race-walking, beat half the runners. CTC' s Cathy Russell
(West Plains branch) won the women's trophy in her first marathon. Lou Fritz had a PB in his eleventh straight HOA.; 22nd at six miles, eighth at half-way, he put on his usual rush, not moving into fourth until College Ave. Alex Ratelle has his second best HOA. He won six in a row age 40 titles, missed' 74 because of family illness and now has his first age 50 title. Fred Morgan, an MU Assistant Professor of Marketing, won the Dave Schulte Award for improved
peformance bettering his 4:35:35 of '74 by 13%
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