A Historical Perspective of Hingham's First July 4th Road Race

By Thomas E. Belyea, GHS
From the Hingham Journal, Posted Jan 18, 2006

They called it the Hingham Marathon. It was the only race of its kind. It predated the Falmouth Road Race by 14 years. No precedent had been set on what to call it. The mile was considered a long distance race, even though the four minute mark had been broken five years earlier. High school athletics had no organized long distance running program beyond the mile. There was no cross-country team, nor 2-mile event in track. That would come in the mid-60s. Metric measured running distances had not arrived yet. 5K or l0K meant the number of strikeouts by a Red Sox pitcher. The thinking of the day was, if the Boston Marathon was 26+ miles long, a 4-mile road race must be a marathon also.

On July 4, 1959, Hingham's first road race was run at 12 noon on a hot, humid day. A reluctant parade committee had given the go ahead, as long as it was run after the parade traffic had subsided, at the persistence of a determined Frank Everton, chairman of the marathon that day. It was started at Queen Anne's Comer and ended on Pleasant Street at the 4-mile mark in front of the flagpole at Hingham High School. One running stopwatch logged the time of the first four runners, and the time was announced as they crossed the finish line. There were safety concerns for the 12 runners to share Route 228 with Nantasket Beach and Paragon Park traffic, so a police escort was provided. The inexperienced runners were unfamiliar with a 4-mile footrace, so Max Ricketts, a high school miler, "took an early lead in the first annual marathon ...and was never headed," winning in 24:35.

No women ran that day. That barrier would be broken 14 years later in 1972, when Charlotte Lettis and her sister Paula, a Hingham High junior, would be the first females recorded to finish. Marathon chairman Paul Hickey would record their times in a field of 32 entrants. The following year, 1973, Wendy Anderson would be presented with a corsage for her 31:43 winning time. In 1977, the 19th year, 18 women would finish in a field of 141 entrants. The Lettis sisters, would run again. In 1982, the 24th running, Paula Lettis-Meyer would win the overall women's, along with her husband, Greg Meyer, who would win the overall men's (in 1983, Greg Meyer would win the Boston Marathon). The infusion of women into the road race would continue to rise as footwear and running gear for women were introduced by the sports industry, and running and exercise became a national pastime.

Physically challenged entries would be recorded in later years. In 1983, the 25th year, "in a remarkable show of courage and strength" Hingham's Adam Linsky would complete the race on crutches. His determination would be warmly acknowledged at the finish line. He would repeat the effort again in 1984, and for years to come. In 1996, he would lead the entire road race, wearing the number 1. 1984 would also be the year that Boston Marathoner Bob Hall, and in later years, Hingham's Mike Leonard, would introduce us to the custom-built racing rig, and a new way to see a world without obstacles.

During the early years, the July 4th Road Race was open only to residents of the town. The spirit of this exclusion was to keep it an amateur event as an encouragement for residents of all abilities to participate. In 1959, on that first day, Norman Fairhurst, an African-American, finished in the middle of a field of 12. In 1961, Hingham's third running, 10-year-old Carlo Casale would win the hearts of an approving crowd with a last-place (sixth) sprint to the finish line. In 1970, Hingham's 12th running, Jim Patterson's first-place in the 16-25 age group would be disallowed because he was no longer a Hingham resident. Instead, first place would be awarded to Richard Murphy, who reportedly ran with a hairline fracture. In 1976, the 18th running, in a display of the best in competition and sportsmanship of the day, Scott MacKenzie and Bruce MacLean, both previous winners, would run a "Dead Heat" (tie) in 21:42 (4.3 miles), in a field of 81 runners.

The starting and finish lines, race course and distance would change many times. In 1964, the sixth year, the starting line would be moved from Queen Anne's corner to Route 228 between the middle school (then called the new South Junior High) and Resurrection Parish, and would end with a lap around the high school track at Michaelson Field. In 1974, the 16th running, the finish line would be changed to Loring Hall underneath the flag (today the flag cable is attached to Hingham Institution for Savings). The Hingham Jaycees' Field Day at Michaelson Field would grow to more than 150 entries, and conditions would become unsafe for road-race runners to complete the final lap around the track. The numbers of road race entrants would grow also, from 81 in 1973 to 141 in 1974. As a result of "...brutal , hot weather conditions" in 1974, and repeated accounts of heat sickness over previous years, the 16-year practice of a 12 noon start time would be changed to 8 a.m. in 1975. Today the start time is at 7 a.m.

The terms "fun run" and "personal best" did not exist on that first day. Nor were winning categories by age and sex. Nor electronic timekeeping. The popularity of running would continue to rise, and more people would run longer distances. In 1979, Hingham's "Marathon" would become an obsolete name, and a new era would come. A new group of volunteers, runners themselves, would pour new life into the event, and would want their own identity. In 1980, the 22nd year, the race was under the auspices of the Hingham Striders, who would invite the outside world to run with us. Everyone, professional and amateur, resident and nonresident, young and old, could run and be recognized within their own age and sex grouping. In the coming years, they would bring it in step with the times, and take it to the next level, and turn it into the major, inclusive event it is today. They would obtain business sponsorships, sell T-shirts, and charge entry fees, turning it into a fund-raising event for the benefit of town recreation, and use the funds to buy band uniforms, exercise equipment and provide scholarships. Throughout the '70s the number of entrants would continue to rise upward, from 37 in 1970, to 348 in 1979. The Striders would produce 532 runners in 1980, and raise entries to a record 856 in 1993. In 1994 they would turn a finely tuned stewardship over to the Recreation Commission, and to Jill Drohan, director of Recreation.

The Striders would be the first volunteer organization to oversee the July 4th Road Race, and their intervention would be timely. With 174 entrants in 1978, and 348 entrants in 1979, and a growing number of unregistered "walk-ons," the road race would outgrow individual stewardship and an organization would be needed to manage the size of this event. It was no longer a stepchild of the town-funded July 4th Parade Committee, which would be faced with the challenge of seeking private funding sources to pay for entries in the parade. Prior to 1980, individual members of the volunteer July 4th Parade Committee would be "Chairmen of the Marathon" who would organize and run the event. They also would write the road-race results for the Parade Committee in the early Hingham Journal articles. The succession of stewardship, or overseeing administrative management of the footrace, would occur as follows: Frank Everton (founder), 1959-1960; James Kersey, 1961-1967; Paul Hickey, 1968-1978; Jean Gilbert, 1979; Hingham Striders, 1980-1993; Hingham Recreation, 1994-Present.

This year (2006) will mark the 48th continuous year this race has been run. Records in The Hingham Journal, Hingham Mirror and Hingham Mariner verify each year it has taken place. There are two years that it was in jeopardy of cancellation. In 1964, the sixth running, there were only three runners. 1978, the 20th year, was another matter. Due to a "heavy nor'east downpour," the July 4th Parade and other festivities were postponed to the following Sunday. Everything got rained out - except "the annual Marathon ...which went on as scheduled" with 174 entrants.

There is more to be written about the history of the July 4th Road Race. The first runners from the 1959 race are now in their 60s. The answer to how we should remember them is found in how we want to be remembered. Some information - dates, times, distances and names - can be obtained from newspaper records. However, there is much more that can come from an oral history, which is buttoned up in the memory of those who ran or observed the day they were there. Eyewitness accounts, anecdotes, artifacts and documentation, including from some of you reading this article, can attest to the authenticity of the July 4th Road Race. So please come forward and share your story. Help this town leave a legacy of a full, rich and complete history of one of the oldest run footraces. Records are available for public viewing at the Hingham Library. Write to the Hingham Journal, or contact Tom Belyea at email: tbelyea@aol.com.

Frank Everton's Hingham Journal article dated Thursday, July 9, 1959, reads: "Although originally there were 20 entries in this first running of an event which it is hoped will be a permanent feature of the July 4th celebration, 12 boys, ranging in age from 15 to 25, toed the mark and all finished the race." In 2004 there would be an estimated 1,800 entrants fitting into 22 categories, including one for Ian Menzies, for ages 80-98.

This article was written in loving tribute to my brother, David A. Belyea, who on July 4, 1960, ran into history and became a champion, winning Hingham's second Road Race. It is dedicated to the many who have run, whether for guts, glory or just for fun.

Tom Belyea resides on Sycamore Lane in Bradley Woods (not Bradley Paahk). Although not a native, he has called Hingham his hometown for the last 52 of his 57 years.

Copyright 2008 The Hingham Journal. Some rights reserved

Read more: A historical perspective of Hingham's first July 4th Road Race - Hingham, Massachusetts - The Hingham Journal

COMMENTARY: First Hingham Road Race: July 4, 1959

By Max Ricketts
GateHouse News Service
Posted May 29, 2008 @ 01:43 PM Reprinted with permission from the Hingham Journal Copyright by Thomas E. Belyea (2008) Hingham —
Max Rickets was the winner of the first Hingham Road Race.

Courtesy Photo: Max Ricketts holding the Hingham Road Race trophy.  

It was 12 noon at Queen Ann’s Corner on July 4, 1959, starting point for the first annual Hingham “Marathon.”

Our misnamed “marathon” was actually a 4-mile road race. None of us had raced competitively that far before. That day, the 4 miles would feel like 10.

Big or small, no race is without its adrenaline-fed nervous excitement at the starting line. The 12 of us runners had arrived early and exchanged friendly, sportsmanlike greetings, shaking hands all around. All being from Hingham, most of us knew one another. We had received our instructions from “Marathon Chairman” Frank Everton and were anxiously on the mark set to go.

Suddenly, we were off and running, not initially intimidated by the weather conditions. It was very hot and humid with crystal clear skies and little breeze. [For that day, South Weymouth NAS weather observatory reported an 84-degree high. It seemed hotter in Hingham.]
No one had conceded the race to me. Most had practiced for it. Several of the runners were from our Hingham High School (HHS) track team. I took off briskly, going out at about what I had expected to be a 5:10 pace, though the intense heat that day surely affected my sense of pace.

My plan that morning had been to press the field by going out with speed and then ease up, though that day, I ran hard the entire course and don’t recall ever looking back. We enjoyed a lot of smiling town residents along the way, encouraging us on.

There were no water stations back then. A high-school-classmate, riding his bike along the route, gave me water twice. My 10-year-old kid brother, Ron, was on his bicycle and would be happily cheering for me around the final mile. My brother was a pal of another young bicycling spectator that day — then 10-year-old Tom Belyea, whose older brother, David, won the second race in 1960.

It was to be my most emotional run ever. I was leaving dear friends and a hometown like no other. I didn’t know where life would take me. I only knew I wanted to run that day in good form, finish with my head up and gracefully say goodbye to Hingham before leaving for the Naval Academy at Annapolis the following day.

What was going through my mind that day as we 12 ran on America’s longest Main Street?

We were running along streets in front of homes where I’d shoveled snow off driveways and sidewalks for $5 each during the winter — along streets I’d jogged so many times with leaves underfoot in the fall and snow and ice in the wintertime.
As the yards turned into miles and bystanders indicated I had a considerable lead, my thoughts wandered nostalgically to the experiences of the past two years — watching Hingham High’s remarkable two-year undefeated football team and its terrific hockey team, playing basketball and running track. I recalled the school dances, taking Saturday night dates to Hugo’s for mocha milk shakes and clam rolls, hair cuts at the Center Hingham barber shop and double dating in my folk’s ’52 Dodge at the drive-in theater – two joy-filled years projected through the cinema of my mind while we were striding relentlessly toward the High School.

We were quite an entourage for that era, with a pace-car convertible in front of me, and two police officers on motorcycles, with lights flashing, bringing up the rear.

Throughout the course, the pavement radiated sizzling heat. Early on the pace-car convertible escort was a bit too close with its exhaust. I kept trying to run laterally to avoid the noxious fumes. Finally, the convertible pulled ahead.

The right-angle turn on Main Street at Cold Corner signaled that the climactic end at Hingham High was not far off. I happened to cross the finish line first that sticky summer day to the shouts of an enthusiastic crowd of well-wishers. There, I was awarded a large bronze trophy on a mahogony base, engraved “Winner, 1st Annual Marathon, Hingham Mass. July 4, 1959.” I later added my name, the 4-mile distance and 24:35 time at the bottom of the plate.

The winners were everyone who finished – and we all did – each mastering himself, the course and the scorching elements. In order of finish, we were: Max Ricketts (24:35), Lance Arnold (27:40), Ken Murray (28:16), Bob Smith, Gordon O’Reilly, Robert Carr, Norman Fairhurst, LeRoy Murphy, Peter Bliss, Tom Healey Jr., Brad Blaser, and Paul Dilger.

In his thoughtful and meticulously accurate 2006 historical perspective of the Hingham Road race, Tom Belyea wrote of those who run for “guts, glory or just for fun.” Each of us was eagerly running that day for all three reasons.

I hope to return from San Diego to Hingham this year and traverse the course on July 4, 2008, the 50th time the road race will be run. This time, I won’t be pressing the pace. I won’t be running to win or even place in my age group. I won’t be running for “guts or glory,” though it should surely be “fun” to relive the joy of that unforgettable day so long gone by and yet still so vivid in my memory.

I’ll be participating to say “thank you” to the finest hometown in America and the hospitable coaches, teachers, teammates, schoolmates, neighbors, and other townspeople who always made me so very welcome – and for those who have chronicled and continued the noble tradition of the Hingham Road Race, begun by the 12 of us who toed the starting line at noon on July 4, 1959. God bless you one and all and God bless America!

Max Ricketts was the senior class president of the Hingham High School Class of 1959 and undefeated in dual and tri-meet mile competions in 1958 and 1959 (setting a Hingham High School record of 4:35 for the mile run). He graduated in 1963 from the U.S. Naval Academy and served four years in the U.S. Navy and two years with the U.S. State Department. He is married to Edith Naldo Ricketts. They live in San Diego, California where they own and operate Naldo-Ricketts Reatly.


Read more: COMMENTARY: First Hingham Road Race: July 4, 1959 - Hingham, Massachusetts - The Hingham Journal

First Women of the race

By Thomas E. Belyea
Copyright by Thomas E. Belyea 2009.
GateHouse News Service
Posted Jul 02, 2009 @ 12:25 PM
Reprinted with permission from the Hingham Journal

When Hingham Marathon Chairman Paul Hickey reported that “Two Girls” had crossed the finish line in 1972, it was a first, and history in the making for Hingham’s fourteen year old July 4th Road Race. Hickey carefully recorded,” A field of 34 runners, including two girls, went to the line under ideal conditions.

Two sisters, running for the first time in Age group II were Charlotte Lettis, a UMass student, and New England Intercollegiate Cross Country Titlist, crossing the line in 24:17(4.3 miles), and her sister Paula, a Hingham High junior, checking in at 30:38.” Hickey knew this was a first, since he had been “Marathon” Chairman since 1968, and had helped prior Chairman, James Kersey, run the event. Other than this brief acknowledgement, these “Two Girls” were never honored as the first women to break new ground for this achievement. Gender categories by age groupings had not yet been established. 

                  
The entry of the first women in Hingham’ road race coincided with the establishment of the Hingham High girls track program, and nationally with the emergence of American women in distance racing. The Boston Marathon officially recognized women in a separate, competitive gender category in 1972. However, it was Bobbi Gibb (1966, 1967) and then Karen Switzer (1967) who disguised their gender and broke the barrier by beating men before Boston seriously considered women as competitors.

The Lettis sisters’ first of firsts was an introduction for what was to come, and any perceptions that yesteryear’s women in Hingham’s road race were not quality runners would be put to rest. The Lettis sisters came back separately in later years to win the Women’s Overall decisively and receive full recognition as champions. Charlotte’s remarkable 26:25 win at Hingham in 1977 was on the same course as today’s race, but was four tenths of a mile longer than today’s 4.6 mile distance. Her time remains as one of the best ever for the event. Moreover, it was a warmup for her second place showing that August in the five year old, 7 mile, Falmouth Road Race, besting an aspiring Olympic Gold Medalist and Boston Marathon winner, Joan Benoit, but behind the winner of the day, Kim Merritt. All three top women runners that year set a new course record at Falmouth, which even then was a reality test for the best in competitive running. Although her sizzling times at Hingham and Falmouth were breathtaking, Charlotte Lettis drew national attention just two weeks before her 1972 win at Hingham, becoming the first woman ever to win the prestigious and grueling Mount Washington Road Race.

Charlotte’s sister Paula came back to win the Women’s Overall ten years later in 1982, the 24th year, as Paula Lettis-Meyer. Her husband, Greg Meyer, won the Men’s Overall that year also, making them the first husband-wife duo on record to take home such an honor. Greg Meyer went on to win the Boston Marathon in 1983, becoming the last American to win the nation’s most prestigious race.
The phenomenon of women runners as athletes was emerging slowly at the local level. The Lettis sisters’ presence at the finish line gave the go ahead for more women to enter Hingham’s Road Race. Searching for the right way to properly recognize women as competitive runners was further demonstrated when Wendy Anderson, a Hingham High senior and product of the girls’ track program, was given a corsage for her 31:43 victory in 1973, in a field of 32 male and female entrants. In 1974 she placed second behind Nina Lamborghini, a high school athletic standout. In 1975, in the best of sportsmanship of the day, Wendy and her sister Allyson tied in a 33:10 “Dead Heat”, reminding us that victory has more than one meaning. No women were recorded in 1976 as having entered or completed the race.
By 1977, the 19th year, women runners were a regular feature in Hingham’s Road Race with 18 female entrants, and the first separate women’s category was established. This same year the all time champion with the most wins ever was about to surface. Leila Staunton Walden came in second in 1977, but went on to win the Women’s Overall in ’78, ’79, and ’80. Her record of three Overall Wins and nine wins in the 30-39, 40-49, and 50-59 age group categories, spanning a 24 year period and ending in 2002, remains unmatched today, in both male and female categories.

The event has showcased notable Hingham female athletes who went on to become key figures in women’s intercollegiate sports. In 1985, Nina Lamborghini (1974 winner), field hockey and lacrosse coach at Tufts University, coached her lacrosse team to become the ECAC No. 2 team in the nation. She also served as coach in the U.S. Olympic Field hockey Development Camps for a number of years.
The 1998 Women’s Overall winner, triathlete Kelly Amonte, is lacrosse coach at No.1 Northwestern.

Charlotte Lettis became a national caliber runner in women’s distance racing in the seventies. In 1975 she placed 5th in the National Cross Country Championships, and won the inaugural all women’s L’Eggs Minimarathon in New York city.
Ranking nationally in the mile and 1500, she made the 1976 Olympic trials.

Today Charlotte Lettis Richardson coaches women of all ages in distance running. Her experiences in breaking the gender barrier led her to become a filmmaker. Her 2005 documentary, “Run Like A Girl” is about three generations of women distance runners, covering the fifties to present day. She resides in Portland, Oregon.

The last Women’s Overall Winner from Hingham was Christina Seremetis(2005). Her 26:57 time is third best behind Linda Shesky(25:37-1988) and Charlotte Lettis(26:25-1977). In 2003, Hingham’s own Jennifer Fay won in 29:03. Her best time(28:15) came in a 2004 heartbreaker, and was not enough to edge Scituate’s Holly Madden(28:10), who repeated the Women’s Overall crown in 2008 with an ironic 28:20. High school standout Allison Donovan had back to back victories in 1999(30:23) and 2000(28:39).

These were the first women of Hingham’s Road Race. The above information was retrieved from microfilm copies of original Hingham Journal accounts written shortly after events occurred. Additional information also came from: The Hingham Journal’s “Yesterdays” column, Falmouth Road Race records, public domain and other sources, including Hingham High School yearbooks.

Copyright 2009 The Hingham Journal. Some rights reserved


 

Hingham's July 4th Road Race: Best Winning Times

4.6 Miles

Men's Overall

21:49 (4:45) Ed Sheehan 1992

21:55 George Rose 1985

21:56 Grant Whitney 1991

22:01 John Duggan 1987

22:04 Greg Meyer 1982

22:05 Don Reardon 1990

22:07 Thomas Vorderer 1986

22:18 John Furey 1985

22:23 George Rose 1993

22:25 John Furey 1982

22:31 Scott Peeler 1983

22:37 Jon Waldron* 1988 

Women's Overall

25:15 (5:29) Romalda Clark 1992

25:37 (5:34) Linda Shesky* 1988

25:42 Sabina Horne 1983

26:13 Pam Sears-Butler 1986

26:25 Charlotte Lettis* 1977**

26:28 Mary Ann Maloney 1985

26:28 Sheila Barry 1989

26:34 Yvonne Swartz 1991

26:34 Katie Meehan 1994

26:42 Jill Gatenby 1995 

*Asterisk denotes "Hingham's Own"

** 1977 race was 5.0 miles, and first year women's separate category.

Charlotte Lettis was the first woman ever to complete the race in 1972

Researched and compiled by Tomas E. Belyea, Historian, July 4th Road Race 

Hingham's July 4th Road Race Champions 1959 - Present