Duel in the Sun | Runner's World & Running Times:
Neither man broke, and neither, in any meaningful sense, lost. The
race merely came to a thrilling, shattering end, leaving both runners,
in separate and ultimately phyrric ways, the winner. The drama unfolded
in the sport's most storied venue, at the peak of the first running
boom, when the United States produced world-class marathoners in the
profusion that Kenya does today.
"An Epic Duel"; "The Greatest Boston Marathon"; "A Display of
Single-Minded Determination and Indefatigable Spirit"; read the next
day's headlines. Since Beardsley was just 26 and Salazar 23, everyone
assumed that this would be the start of a long and glorious rivalry, one
that would galvanize the public and seal American dominance in the
marathon through the 1984 Olympics and beyond.
But rather than a beginning, Boston '82 represented a climax.