Who Is Bill Marshall?

Next time you cross the finish line, give thanks for the guy who put it there. It's a labor of love for Bill Marshall, who sets up and takes down the clock, marks the course and picks up the cones when it's over, hauls the trailer and takes care of the equipment at his own house. He's been doing it for twelve years.

"George told me I'd get burnt out at it, but I love working the finish line and watching the faces as they come across," Bill says.

He first started running the quarter of a mile around his yard after he kicked a three-packs-a-day habit back in 1988. A few years later he saw a race in Naples and joined the running club. Since then he's completed 22 marathons and two ultras, and he's faster than he was twelve years ago. His wife, Carla, often goes along to cheer him on.

Bill recently ran the Brooksville 50K for the second year, where he finished second overall, first masters, and set an age-group record. He likes to run all his marathons twice: two Bostons, two Chicagos, two New Yorks, and you get the idea. The second one is always faster. This year he competed in the Jacksonville marathon for the third time and had his fastest time ever, 3:09.

His weekly training schedule includes a speed run, a tempo run, a long run, and a long easy run. He gets three days of rest. Now he is able to complete five marathons a year, much better than he did when running every day.

Bill says he's been chasing the same guy, Martin Seybold, for seven years. Others include Chuck Moseley, Craig Harrington, and Danny Ripka, most younger and all faster. At the Jacksonville marathon, Martin, Chuck and Craig finished ahead of Bill and then came out to run the last lap with him on the track at the finish line.

An exception to the second-is-faster rule was a disastrous Boston Marathon in 1999, which he and Martin trained for together. A few weeks after, Bill wrote about their experience. After running 20 miles of Marco's hills every Saturday for 17 weeks, they arrived in Boston in peak physical condition. Bill's goal was to break 3:19. He was sure that Martin would finish under three hours.

Just past 15 miles and moving well, Bill suddenly felt a sharp pain on the outside of his right knee and knew he had developed I.T. band syndrome. His pace slackened and the pain grew worse. Barely making it by mile twenty, he soon had a surprise, "Just ahead of me, walking as far to the right as he could, wearing the shirt I had last seen at 11:30 that morning, was Martin." Unknown to Bill, Martin was debilitated from food poisoning and barely able to continue. So they struggled up Heartbreak Hill and finished together. That was the day, Bill wrote, "I finally realized, it's not about the clock."

Married at age 15, he has three daughters and a son, and the same wife he started with. He has owned his own grading business for fifteen years. Running has changed his life, he says. Alcohol, anger, and the urge to fight are no longer problems. Best of all, his new lifestyle has led to a very close relationship with his 19-year-old son, Cody, now in the U.S. Marine Corps. Their separation has been traumatic for Bill.

Cody began by tagging along on some of Bill's runs, took to track and field in high school, and soon lapped his Dad. He often helped Bill set up the racecourse for the Gulf Coast Runners and enjoyed the local races. On leave from the Marines, he was at Brooksville to see Bill finish his 50K.

By luck, Bill stumbled across a book called Keeping the Faith, "A Father-Son Story About Love and the United States Marine Corps," by the father/son team of John and Frank Schaeffer. It closely mirrors his own experience and has been a source of inspiration since Cody left.

Bill has two goals. He wants to meet his brother in Washington this year and run the Marine Corps Marathon on his 47th birthday. The other, more elusive now that Cody is in the Marines, is simple. He wants to run a marathon with his son.

Emily Harris