Boston marathon
When the sector of 112 runners needed to take care of the starting line of the Boston Marathon in 1926, one among them stood out of their habit that it was unmistakably crazy even in a very different era of distance.
It was neither Clarence Demar, Boston's (then) 4 -time champion, nor Albin Stenroos from Finland, gold medalist on the Olympic Games in Paris 1924. The author John J. Hallahan discussed extensively concerning the favorites (including Demar and Stenroos), but was impressed by a special picture.
“The most surprising matter of early preparation was the unusual sight of Clovis Bourdelais from the Oko Club of Brockton, who smoked a cigar.” wrote A confused Hallahan. “He started with the weeds in his mouth, stayed away and had smoked it before he reached Ashland about three miles away.
“After the race, he said that he smoked two cigars and wanted another,” added Hallahan, “but this unusual athlete, who had received honors in World War II, was in the race for 27th place.”
Bourdelai's' finishing position on the field was comparatively inconspicuous (muddy, since the end of a marathon can ever be considered unobtrusive), but his inimitable cigar haben made him an inevitable figure in Hallahan summary. It was a microcosm of the almost half -year connection of the Canadian native connection to Boston's legendary race. He would never be crowned with the wreath of a winner on the finish line, but in his own idiosyncratic way, Bourdelais left an indelible brand for the event.
In a way, Bourdelais is one of the earliest examples of a timelessly recognizable component of the annual marathon in Boston. He celebrated the curiosities, the resistance and the naturally exhausting requirements of the event and did this with style.
In short, Clovis Bourdelais was one of the original characters of the Boston Marathon, a coat, the generations of bandits and die -hard distance runners since then. He ran in the Boston marathon in five different decades and set an early benchmark in what was possible as a long-term marathon.
His story never cited the report of the event, and his name only appears in the official Boston Athletic Association Records at times. But like the nature of Bourdelais – like all marathon characters – its legacy can be found between the lines of regular headlines and statistics.
“I am very happy to be back.”
Bourdelais was born in Canada in 1890 and moved with his family to Marlboro, Massachusetts in the early 20th century. His name began to pull interest as a runner in 1911 when he Set a record in the Saco port of Saco Portland Road Race.
He was mentioned At the beginning of the year as a training for the Boston Marathon, but the time was “unmistakedAccording to a Globe account from 1925. 1912, he improved and managed the 20th place.
Whatever he may have become as a runner or not when a runner in his heyday, Bourdelais' life – like millions of his generation – was irrevocably changed by the beginning of the First World War. I.
As a native Canadian, he fell earlier than most of his US colleagues and wrote home to England until 1915. In a Globe account in July 1915, it was found that he had won a “”Quality level as a shooterAlthough he still had to be used on the western front.
Connected to the Canadian field artillery 6. BrigadeBourdelais was finally sent to Belgium. By his Post -war accountBourdelais fought in the first and second battles of Ypres and was finally captured by the Germans. Although originally in as “listed”miss”In June 1916 the Red Cross later confirmed that he was alive and was captured within the prisoner of the war camp.
Bourdelais could only be freed until the top of the war in 1918. According to reports reportedly received a private quote from King George V. for his service, although experience clearly had a traumatic influence on him.
“We were worked with little food fairly often day and night, and if we refused to follow orders, we received serious punishment,” he said in 1919 after returning home to The Globe. “I’m very glad to be back.”
“I cut trees to maintain my limbs in shape.”
Until 1920, Bourdelais was ready for another shot in the marathon. Interestingly, the BAA did not list him as an official finisher in 1920, but the recording for some of the later times during this time was imperfect.
Bourdelais was found in both Pre-Race list of the field (consisting of only 74 runners) and also the official results of the globe (where he was Reports to reach the 20th place).
Until 1925 he was already on the way to an annual game.
“Almost every afternoon, this well -built young man may be seen how he drives through traffic in Main Street or accelerates along the country roads outside town.” A globe story said by Bourdelais' training regiment. He has now been listed as a resident in Brockton. The highest he had accommodated in the marathon was the 18th place in 1921.
However, what really made him striking was not his place in the overall ranking. Nothing embodied more than his 1926 performance in Boston after smoking the cigars to start the event of now 26.2 miles.
It became an annual habit to first see Bourdelais' name among the early Boston applicants. Since it was an era in which the runners -BIB numbers were occasionally listed in the order of the application instead of the previous year's template, Bourdelais made number 1 several times.
“Instead of an impressive star or marathon, a virtual unknown will likely be wearing the coveted number '1'” explained the Star Weekly in 1933.
But the Bourdelais based in Brockton was already a well -known amount for regular marathon observers. The Globus columnist Jerry Nason gave him an extended mention in his 1934 pieces concerning the characters of the event.
“The Brocktonian can have received the award ceremony of the 12 months in its historical letter,” Nason wrote. “” I'm fine, “writes Clovis, and hope it’s also about. I cut trees to maintain my limbs in shape.”
Nason paid attention to Bourdelais for his service and found that he was a “veteran of the best kind”.
“You probably saw Clovis on the BAA course in April 14,” said Nason and added a reference to Bourdelais' medium -sized form.
“You saw several times how he crossed this white line in the exeter street [where the marathon used to finish] In Twilight or earlier, “wrote Nason.
“The number with which he is known to thousands of marathon fans.”
By the end of the 1930s, Bourdelais was regularly “described”One of the first entries that have been preserved for years“In front of the Boston Marathon or as”striking name. “”
He was firmly anchored as an annual character of the event and began to use an even more idiosyncratic (but suitable) tradition. When the title for BIB No. 1 became more competitive, Bourdelais switched to No. 13 every year. Although it was considered an unfortunate number, he mocked over the superstition and deliberately chose whenever possible.
“Everything is the same for me,” he said later in one 1952 interview. “Nobody wanted [No. 13]So I took it. “A later Associated Press account described Bourdelais wears 13 as “the number he is known to thousands of marathon fans.”
Although he was never a real rival of Demar (who won the seven marathons in Boston), he was a friend and peer of the legendary runner. The two were found that every year before the race, and Demar even joked in 1944 that Bourdelais was “annoyed because I had no time to come to his home in Brockton and try part of his wife's apple pie.”
Both Demar and Bourdelais were among the longest Merten marathons in Boston at this time and were tied together as senior numbers in the 1950s.
Bourdelais was of course still unique. The cigar smoking remained a habit until the 1960s.
“Clovis smoked a stogy when the doctors examined him” Tom Fitzgerald wrote down for the Globus in 1952. “He was fit like a violin, and although he was not worried, the leaders, Bourdelais didn't look much worse for wear and tear than he pulled over the finish line around 4:30.”
Referred to as Baa “Slaughterhouse“The 35-time marathon participant was finally denied in 1954 before the start. He was”disqualified After not passing the medical examination ”as a 62-year-old.
Bourdelais, a protracted -time city of Brockton who married 4 children and had 4 children, was still within the Boston Marathon in later years. His last marathon mention got here in 1959 when he was listed In the Hopkinton fitness studio, talk to runners before the race.
Bourdelais died later this year at the age of 69 (no cause of death was planned). Be AP obituaryIn newspapers in both the USA and Canada, he listed a record for his time over the years in 35 Boston marathons. It was closed with a line, which, onwards, was a suitable description for Bourdelais and all one-time marathon runners who came to Boston in the following decades.
“He never won the marathon, but he's all the time finished.”
image credit : www.boston.com