Bill Rodgers

American runner who dominated the American road racing scene as the record holder for best Marathon time from 1975. During the 1978 season, he ran 22 races sans defeat. In 1998, Rodgers ran 29 races, setting records for his 50-54 age group in 26 of them. His entire career saw him run more than 750 races, including nearly 60 marathons. Rodgers running career began when he won the first of his four Boston Marathon titles in 1975. He and his friend, Frank Shorter, were credited with starting the running boom of the '70s. His life off the track, however, has not been rosy. While enduring a variety of injuries, Rodgers went through a divorce in 1981 and the collapse of a sportswear business bearing his name in 1988. He remarried in 1983 and had two daughters, Elise and Erika. Rodgers also started his own running center, along with his brother Charlie, in Boston. He wrote two books on the sport of running: "Bill Rodgers' Lifetime Running Plan," 1998 and "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Jogging and Running," 1998. In 4/1999, Rodgers attempted to set a record in the 50-54 age group while running the Boston Marathon, but failed. He was forced to drop out at the halfway point due to excessively warm temperatures and dehydration. Link to Wikipedia biography