Mar 15, 2000

Art Coolidge, a 2:23 marathoner in the early 1970s who now lives in Oregon, wants to know the whereabouts of Bob Deines. All I can say is that Bob lives in Willits, California.

It's too bad we've lost touch. Deines (pronounced "DYE-ness") was one of the most talented and unusual runners of his time. At 20 he almost made the Olympic marathon team for Mexico City. At 23 he set an American record for 50 miles.

Bob was known to train slowly. He's the only top athlete I could ever run with, and that pace put him in my first book, LSD.

Coolidge recalls, "Bob was renowned for his long slow distance approach. When we trained together before the 1968 Olympic Marathon Trials, we'd head west out of Alamosa [Colorado] at 7:30-per-mile pace and turn around about 7-1/2 miles west of town. The water tower in Alamosa, visible on the horizon almost as soon as we made our turn-around, seemed to mock our snail-like return.

"By the time that we were two or three miles out of town, on our return saga, my '6:00-per-mile' hips would be so sore from the 7:30 pace that I'd have to run ahead. Bob would place fourth in the Trials. Let's just say that I would do less well."

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