Bill Richardson runs marathons all over

By Greg Gulas

Vindicator Correspondent

BOARDMAN

As one of just 230 marathon runners worldwide afforded membership into the exclusive “Seven Continent Club,” Bill Richardson might just qualify as the area’s best kept running secret.

The Youngstown native (he is a 1956 graduate of South High) called baseball his sport during his formative years, but said running was always a way for him to keep in shape.

Speaking to the Curbstone Coaches during Monday’s weekly luncheon at the Blue Wolf Banquet Center, Richardson said gaining entrance into the Seven Continent Club was his greatest athletic accomplishment.

“I couldn’t begin to even guess how many miles I’ve logged over the years, but when I was in training I would jog an average of 35-40 miles a week, cutting that back to 20-25 miles when just trying to stay in shape.

“That was a regimen of mine for nearly 40 years,” he said.

Richardson has run 13 marathons and in addition to running a marathon on all seven continents, has also run marathons in Chicago, Philadelphia, Wichita, Columbus, Detroit, Niagara Falls and Toronto.

He started his career in triathlon competitions, accepting the challenge of swimming, biking and running in the early 1980’s before moving over to marathons at age 50.

Training for competitions is a process in and of itself.

“You must absolutely pay attention to every little detail. You must have the correct shoes to clothing combination and realize that there will be hard training days and also rest days.

Eating right is also a big key,” he added.

He has run in Asia in Kathmandu, Nepal, noting that the heat and combination of cows, people, trucks, mopeds and car traffic on the route was something for which he wasn’t fully prepared.

“In Australia, the marathon was held at Gold Coast, just South of Brisbane and it was a high class event. It’s called Gold Coast for a reason,” he said.

His European marathon took place at one of the main summits in the Bernese Alps in Jungfrau, Switzerland; all but a couple kilometers an uphill battle while in South America at Easter Island, which is a 5 1/2 hour flight from Santiago, Chile, and located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, it was a huge hill up the side of a volcano.

“In Antarctica, we were simply asked to run a figure eight loop twice with plenty of tough terrain.

“It was on March 2 and that is the beginning of their fall. While the glaciers melted back a few hundred yards off of the Antarctica Ocean, running in the mud, which could be sticky and hard at the same time, everyone had to really concentrate,” he said.

His African marathon might easily have been his most dangerous.

“In Africa, we ran on the Serengeti Plains in the Rift Valley and you see your share of wildebeests. The altitude was 5,800 and we were right at the equator.

“We were forewarned that we probably wouldn’t see any leopards or lions, but they cautioned everyone to be aware of the rhinoceros and hippopotamus population.”