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I recently had an opportunity to talk with Canada's master legend Bob Moore about some of the interesting races he's encountered over the 1,450 he has run over the past 42 years. As an elite runner in the 1960's and 70's Moore of course had many opportunities to race abroad. One of those memorable races was at the famous San Silvestre New year's eve run, held annual since 1925 in Sao Paolo Brazil. Here's Bob's account of that "awesome adventure" |
"It was in December, 1969. I had recently returned from competing in Japan at the Fukuoka Marathon where I had run 2.16.53." "A week after the marathon I won the Harold Webster Boxing Day 10 mile race in Hamilton, when I got a call from Lynn Davies, the chief honcho of the Canadian Track and Field Association who asked if I was interested in going to the San Silvestre New Year's eve road in Sao Paolo Brazil". "Of course I agreed and soon found myself flying off to Brazil."
"The first stop on the journey was New York, where a raging snow blizzard had the flight delayed for 6 hours". " In those days, it seems runners were obsessive about not missing any workouts, so I found a section of the airport under renovation and proceeded to do an hour run, going back and forth in the construction area". "After my workout, I ran into another runner - a PhD Mathematician named Eamon O'Reilly who was also heading to Brazil for the race." O'Reilly would place second in Boston the following year".
"After the delay we were soon off for Brazil on Varig Airlines. It was quite the flight as we found ourselves sharing the ride with live chickens in the cabin! " Due to the flight delay, O'Reilly and I had missed our flight from Rio De Janeiro" We ended being put on a military plane for the flight to Sao Paolo, along with a handful of other citizens, separated from the solders by a wire curtain. Never did figure out the reason for having the mesh?"
" We finally arrived in Sao Paolo with no one to greet us at the airport. We did know the local newspaper was the host for the race, so we took a taxi to the newspaper. From there we got directions to one of the local hotels where the athletes were staying. " "Since we had a few days before our race, we wanted to go out for a training run in the streets near the hotel but were advised by other athletes that we shouldn't train in the streets, as it was too dangerous"
Subsequently, I phoned the Canadian embassy for advice on transportation to train at a private club as the other foreign athletes ha done to their representatives. The word of advice from the diplomat were that he would not help and to stay out trouble. "However, the French embassy staff helped for they told me that, after all Quebec was French. I was able to train on a dirt track protected by barbed wire from the citizens."
"Soon it was race time. They seeded the elite runners in the first row, in front of the locals who comprised the balance of the field."
"The 8.5 km race started at 11.40.m. on December 31st. I was quite surprised to see one of the locals trying to knock the shoe of the foot of the Italian runner Cindolo, just before the gun. A picture in the local newspaper, clearly showed this. Apparently there is quite a bit of gambling on the outcome of this race. No one bet on me, fortunately, so I was left alone"
"We soon found ourselves racing along winding cobblestone streets strewn with confetti that made the footing treacherous when rounding the street corners. Street lighting along the course varied from pockets of semi darkness to lighted areas illuminating the thousands of spectators lined up along the route around the city center. All this amidst fireworks and gunfire overhead!" It was quite an experience.
J. Martinez of Mexico won the race in 24.04, breaking the course record established the year before by the great Belgium runner Gaston Roelants. Mike Tagg of Great Britain placed second in 24.09. Eamonn O'Reilly placed fourth in 24.28. I had a good go in the race finishing in tenth place in 25.20. However, I had an altercation over the last kilometer with another runner. I was working my way up through the field when a runner came up to me and started hitting me with his elbows. At that point I had it and decided if he wanted it that badly let him have it, so I eased up a bit.". "I found out afterwards the guy was future Olympian Victor Mora from Columbia" (who would subsequently win this race three times).
"Afterward the race the Norwegians invited O'Reilly and myself to a party in a night club, where we had a good time, not leaving until 4:00 a.m. when we walked back to the hotel."
"The following day we took a two hour drive to the Atlantic Ocean, so we could train along the beach and relax. As we were training, a crowd started to gather and watch us train. The crowd got progressively larger, leaving us to wonder why? Well it turns out they hadn't seen people with such white skin. They wondered if we had just got released from prison!"
"All of the invited runners were staying around for a few days after the race, so the host newspaper lined up a small track meet to take advantage of the runners. So I part in the 10,000 metres. As fate would have it, Victor Mora was in the same race and as we were running side by side, he started this nonsense of hitting me with his elbows again. I couldn't believe it. But this time I had it with him and started punching him back. There we were going down the track
pummelling each other. I eventually finished in 31.05, one spot behind Mora again. After the race the Mora tried to have me disqualified. The Japanese officials there came to my rescue and took my side to have Mora disqualified. I received a special prize from the local Japanese community. I thanked them in Japanese and they invited me to a geisha house for a party.
By this time O'Reilly and I had enough and wanted to go home. We had our fun, raced hard and topped it off with some shopping. However, our host sponsor was insisting that we stay and compete in another race in Buenos Aires and we would have to, because he held our passports. In those days, athletes often surrendered their passports to the race host. Luckily we hadn't surrendered them and were able to decline his offer and leave. In those days, the sponsors covered basic cost of transportation, meals and hotel.
Part of the lore of racing in foreign places in those days, aside from the opportunity to compete against the best, was the unpredictability of what you encounter abroad. I did get invited back the following year but declined.
Author Note:
The San Silvestre Sao Paolo race dates back to 1925. It has taken place every year, although the race distance has varied over the years. Since 1991, the distance has been set at 15km.
submitted
by Tim Uuksulainen lifesport@efni.com