The Other Bill Rodgers

April 2012

Bill Rodgers has run the Cherry Creek Sneak every year since its inception in 1982, and he will be running it again Sunday to celebrate its 30th anniversary. But before we get to what keeps him coming back, we had better make it clear he's not the guy who won the Boston Marathon four times and the New York City Marathon four times.

This Bill Rodgers works at Children's Hospital Colorado and loves helping kids. This one gets Facebook requests intended for the other Bill Rodgers from all over the world. He gets autograph requests from Kenya. In 1979 he met the other Bill Rodgers at a Denver running store.

"Bill told me a long time ago, 'If they ask you for the autograph, just give it to them,' " Rodgers said.

The other Bill Rodgers fueled the first running boom. This Bill Rodgers epitomizes it.

He took up running in 1979 and ran his first road race, a 2-miler, that spring. A month later he ran the first Bolder Boulder. That summer he ran the third Garden of the Gods 10-miler in Manitou Springs and the first Georgetown-to-Idaho Springs Half Marathon. That fall he ran his first marathon.

He's still at it. And he still loves the Cherry Creek Sneak.

"It was a very small Denver race, neighborhood race, where you could just roll out of bed, get up, put your shoes on and be running with guys like Steve Cram, Ric Rojas," Rodgers said. "It was, 'Let's see what we can do to get ready for (Bolder) Boulder a month away. Five miles, let's see what kind of shape you're in.' "

The Sneak isn't the first race of the year on the Denver running scene, but it long ago came to mark the unofficial beginning of the road racing season.

"You get to see people you don't see all the time," said Rodgers, 54. "Just like (the Bolder) Boulder, you might not see somebody for a year or two, you run into them in Section 101 in the stadium. Or you run into them at the Burger King (at the Sneak). It was people coming together. We had more fun. It was a tradition that started, and it just kept growing and growing."

To make the 30th anniversary a little more special, race organizers have added a 10-mile race this year. Rodgers opted for that because he's doing the Colfax Half Marathon next month.

"The passion for running is (from) all the people I've met, all the people I've trained with, having my health and where we live," Rodgers said. "Tuesday nights I'm on the track with Phidippides, Wednesday I'm running with the Runner's Roost club, the weekends I have long runs or races. I love to race. I probably race too much."

I caught up with Rodgers last week at the Colorado Running Hall of Fame induction. Both of us were deeply moved by the fellowship in that room, and the irony that for such a seemingly solitary sport, the friendships runners build are really, really special.

"You come here and it's like a family reunion," Rodgers said. "I've met so many great people."