Memories of St Modan’s as I crossed finish line
Mike Ryan arrived in Mexico City six weeks before the 1968 Olympic marathon and at first struggled to cope with the altitude.
Looking back on his first training experience before the big race, Mike told the New Zealand Herald:“I intended to go for a light run of about an hour-and-a-quarter when I realised I could barely run 45 minutes.”
He gradually became more accustomed to the high altitude only to sprain his ankle just four days before his Olympic marathon and so went into the race with few expectations.
The race began at 3pm in temperatures of around 230 Centigrade and took a toll of the field with no fewer than 18 failing to finish.
A tough race was made even harder when a cameraman raced across the road with an electrical lead and the group in which Mike was in had to jump over it.
“It was hard enough to run 26 miles in high altitude and heat without having to also hurdle in the middle of the race,” added Mike.
His other clear memory came four miles from the end when he passed three athletes – Tim Johnston of Great Britain, Belgian Gaston Roelants, the 1964 Olympic steeplechase champion, and Kenyan Naftali Temu, who a week earlier had landed Olympic 10,000m gold. All were bent over double on the side of the road struggling to cope with the high altitude.
Mike found himself in a battle for silver with Kenji Kimihara but he fell behind the Japanese runner following a bout of stomach cramps and as he neared the finish he vividly recalled the smells of the tortilla and spices from street vendors and “a feeling” that Turkish runner Ismail Akcay was closing.
He entered the stadium in third to huge roars but, the cheering, as he was to later to discover, wasn’t for him.
“It was for Dick Fosbury, the American high jumper, because it was the first time the public become aware of the Fosbury Flop,”he says.
He crossed the line in 2:23:45 - just 14 seconds behind Kimihara with MamoWolde (2:20:26) claiming gold.
Akcay came home fourth just over a minute-and-a-half adrift of Ryan.
Mike added:“As I crossed the finish line, I had a flood of memories of people who helped me along the way including my English teacher at St Modan’s High school , Joe McGhee.”