Elite road racing. The finest competitors peaking to win the bid for the United States Men's Olympic Marathon Team. This film by Ambrose Salmini features the 1984 race that starts over the Peace Bridge in Northern New York and is primarily raced on Canadian soil. Tony Reavis provides some of the race commentary for this production as you see the pack roll along conservatively at the beginning. Brief outtakes from other previous performances are shown such as Greg Meyer winning Boston in 1983 (the last American to do so), Bill Rodgers winning the 1979 Boston marathon (his third of his four Boston victories), and Alberto Salazar winning the New York City marathon in 2:09:41 in 1980 (first of three consecutive wins in New York). Race action shows the athletes break and you have to watch to see who sits back and waits and who attempts to real in those who make their move. Many interviews with the favored athletes blend well with the running action and over the last 300 meters individual pride is shown during the sprint for the finish line. Over a dozen runners are shown at the finish as they cross the line and confront their own expectations on this special day. Some quotes about racing strategy from the participants "I'll have to wait and see how the race evolves and I don't want to be the front runner and pace setter early in the race. I'd like to have some of the other runners do the work early and then hopefully later on, 20/22 miles, then as the pack has thinned out, at that point then make some kind of a move for one of the three spots on the team." (Ron Tabb); "I see it as a war to the finish. In my mind I'm geared towards running the full course as hard as I possibly can." (Greg Meyer); "I made a decision before I even started this race that this is the race where I was going to be aggressive." (Dave Gordon); "I don't really want to go out with the very fast people. I want to be behind them a ways, try to keep them in sight, and be able to watch them. I think that's the best way to run a marathon anyway." (Bill Rodgers); "I trained in New Zealand all winter and they have this concept of being right on the day. It doesn't matter how you do three weeks before or three week after it's that day of the competition and I just sorta let momentum of moving from the second pack to the first pack carry me..." (Pete Pfitzinger); "You either make the top three and you go on to the Olympics or you don't make it and its much more important then any other one race. And so there's a lot of stress and tension, and a lot of these guys, I think it's tough, they're not used to it. I've been in that situation so many time. All those races where you are sick to your stomach, the fear, and the tension, and stress that its all today; there is no tomorrow." (Alberto Salazar). The Los Angeles Olympic Marathon was competed on August 12, 1984, a hot day with the following results: 37 year old Carlos Lopes, representing Portugal, wins the gold medal by running 2:09:21. John Treacy, Ireland, second in 2:09:56 and Charles Spedding of Great Britain ran 2:09:58 for the bronze. Peter Pfitzinger ran 2:13:53 for eleventh (he finished in fourteenth in the 1988 games in Seoul). Alberto Salazar placed fifteenth in 2:14:19. John Tuttle ended his race after 30K in these games, one of 30 athletes to not finish.
