I think I saw Bill Rodgers riding a bike down near the river during my run this weekend. Could it really have been Boston Billy? Why would Bill Rodgers American runner, Olympian and once American record holder in the marathon be riding a bike on River Road in Woodstock, VT? Why not…
Could it simply have been a highway mirage? I should have brought some Gatorade. Electrolytes must have been off. However, the conditions were right as it was a sunny day and I was running on hot pavement. Well, mostly dirt roads but that doesn’t work with this blog post so asphalt it was. I didn’t see him just the once, but I saw him twice. Hair length, check. Facial features, check. Body size, check. I think he was the right size to be Bill Rodgers, but he was riding a bike so just an educated guesstimate. Check. He breezed by me a mile into my run and as luck would have it, he reappeared and passed me a second time as I rounded out the final mile of my longer run. Long run is a stretch so we will stand pat with “longer.” Was he doing the same 5-mile route?
Each time I saw him I was so certain it was BR that I nearly called out his name. But like any good mirage if I had indulged my optical illusion and called out his name the running legend would have evaporated and what fun would that have been?
“Run in the morning … before your brain figures out what your body is doing!” – Anonymous
