Heart
of America Marathon
Labor Day 
Columbia, Missouri
Frank Curotto won his third Heart of America Marathon, his second straight win and third in four years (he did not run in 1985). For the first time since 1984, the race was
run on the official course, unimpeded by the floods that intervened in '85 and '86. Although Curotto has not run the course as many times as Lou Fritz, he is becoming a legend of
his own, having now run in ten HOAs since his first in 1975. Fritz made his 23rd appearance, finishing 5th overall in 2:55:32. Fritz was in pursuit of another HOA veteran, Bill
Fox, at the end, but Fox held on to lead Fritz by 38 seconds.
Richard Montano was the first Columbian to finish, placing third in 2:53:43 in his first HOA.
Lisa Harrison, a senior art major at MU ran the race as a
lark and won the women's division in 3:32:42. According to
local newspaper accounts, Harrison avoided telling her
parents and boyfriend that she was running the marathon,
knowing they would disapprove.
Roger Turnbough won the Dave Schulte Award for Improved Performance, running 3:06:44 this year compared to his '86 time of 3:52:19, an improvement of 19.6%.
39 degrees at the start, the coolest it has ever been, up to 60 four hours later, no cloud cover, winds from the south 8-9 MPH,
humidity 93 at the start, down to 58 at four hours.
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