Jacqueline Dixon (left), Nina Kuscsik, and original 1972 "Crazylegs" t-shirt.
Close. They were Playboy bunnies, imported by the race sponsor, a new leg-shaving gel for women. Two hundred yards later, the rabbit-bunnies were gone. That left Dixon on her own, in oxygen debt, with 5.8 miles to go. No matter. She won by 50 seconds in 37:02, with Charlotte Lettis (who would win in 1975) second, and marathon pioneers Nina Kuscsik and Kathrine Switzer, third and sixth, respectively. "I was just hanging on the last five miles," Dixon told the New York Times.
Dixon, now 59, is no longer running. In her early 30s, she was diagnosed with a dangerous cardiomyopathy, and she has been through a couple of pacemakers. Jewelry is her latest passion. She makes fantastic beadwork--check out her neck in the accompanying photo, or go here--and retains the energy and positive outlook that led to athletic stardom 40 years ago. "If you keep an open mind, the universe leads you where you need to go," she says.
Dixon began running in junior high school, and quickly excelled. When several PE teachers put together a fastest-girl vs. fastest-boy race over 800 meters, she won. "The poor boy was practically heckled to death," she says. "He tried to tell me that he had let me win."
She had no use for cheerleading, dances, or makeup. She just wanted to run. In high school, she often ran 3 to 6 miles on her own before school, and that much or more after school at team practices of the San Jose Cindergals. "It was all about sprinting and scoring points for the team," she says. "I did the high jump, long jump, hurdles, whatever might help. Just once, in 1971, I broke 5:00 in the mile. I was a slug."
Start of 1972 Crazylegs 6-mile. Dixon in center (5), Switzer (angled, to Dixon's right), Kuscsik (1) Lettis (3, right side of photo).
Dixon's track coach let her run road races on weekends, when there was no serious competition (i.e, a track meet). The longer distances were just for training, to build her endurance. By the time she was 13, she was running road events as long as 8 miles. The races were open only to men, and required that everyone sign a registration form, so she and teammate Francie Larrieu, who would ultimately become a five-time U.S. Olympian, often signed their forms "Jack Dixon" and "Frank Larrieu." That done, no one hassled them.
By the early 70s, women like Switzer, Kuscsik and others were making their mark in the Boston and New York City Marathons. Dixon realized the 26-miler might be her best distance. Some Sundays, she covered 32 miles in training--16 in the morning with Larrieu, 16 in the afternoon with other Cindergals. "I did the training, I could have covered the distance, but my coach wouldn't let me," she says. "I wish I had stood up for myself and what I wanted to do. Fortunately, I learned my lesson. I've done that ever since."
In the early 1980s, after the IOC approved the first women's Olympic Marathon (1984), Dixon decided to see if she could qualify for the U.S. Marathon Trials. She increased her training to 70 miles a week, and set her sights on the hilly Summit Marathon (Los Gatos, Calif.). A week before the race, she came down with the flu. She ran the marathon anyway, and finished, greatly disappointed, in 3:12:56. Shortly thereafter, she learned about her cardiomyopathy.
Since then, Dixon has followed the path that presented itself, and currently lives outside Salt Lake City. She can tell you all about Cheryl Bridges, the great woman runner who beat her at the 1972 Bay to Breakers race several weeks before the Crazylegs event. But she had never heard of Bridges's daughter, Shalane Flanagan, bronze medalist in the Beijing Olympic 10,000 meters, and already a U.S. Olympic marathoner for the 2012 Games in London.
Dixon breaks (very large) tape, 1972 Crazylegs Mini in Central Park.
Kuscsik and Switzer are expected to participate in tomorrow's 40Jacqueline Dixon was just 17, but she came to New York to compete in Central Park. Dixon (now Marsh) will not. But she will remember the day in 1972 when she ran away from the fastest women in the country, bunnies included.
