Trivia: How many titles did Finnish great Lasse Viren win in the 1972 and 1976 Summer Olympic Games?
RECENT HISTORY. The way the sport was 25 years ago, when I started writing here, deserves a look.

"The Olympic Marathon" (Martin & Gynn) of February 1982 noted this development: "At the Executive Board meeting of the IOC held in Los Angeles, in the list of major decisions taken, approval was simply stated: Women's marathon to be included on the Olympic programme for the Games of the XXIIIrd Olympiad in LA but not at the same time as the men's event."

This momentous accord was the result of years of persistent lobbying on many fronts, including by Dr. Ernst Van Aaken, the Avon International running circuit and the International Runners Committee. After having been denied by archaic rules and the staid men who enforced them for too long, the floodgates of opportunity were opened in the early '70s, and by decade's end women filled roads around the globe. This development is easily the most important I've witnessed in the sport and rates among the top three historically.

The winner of the that first women's Olympic marathon, Joan Benoit Samuelson, continues 22 years later to be an ideal role model and strong competitor, while 1984 silver medalist and early trailblazer Grete Waitz also remains a sport icon.

Another significant development in the early '80s was a push by the Association of Road Racing Athletes for legal acceptance of prize money in the sport. It took a few years to get the details sorted out, but by the mid-'80s the Boston Marathon was the last of the major amateur races.

The Athletics Congress was the U.S. governing body whose charge it was to adopt and administer the new prize-money rules. Its predecessor, the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), had served multiple sports including running/track and field from 1887 to 1979. TAC was renamed USA Track & Field in '92 to increase recognition for the sport.

Today maybe one runner in 100 is a USATF member. Unless one runs in a USATF-sanctioned race with attendant insurance or runs on a USATF-certified course, membership benefits are few. USATF best serves the needs of elite athletes.

At the start of the '80s, there were four national running magazines: The Runner, Running Times, Running and Runner's World.

RW is oldest at 40, with the first 20 years a mix of race stories, results, run information and opinion pieces that presented and mirrored the quickly-evolving sport. In the last 20 years the magazine has shifted to articles that, for the most part, seem geared to "sell" the sport.

The Runner had an exceptional run from 1978 to '87, with a terrific stable of contributors regularly turning out the best in expository writing. In '87, TR merged with RW.

Every issue of Running had an eclectic mix of articles; it ceased publication in the mid-'80s. Running Times has been around since 1977 with consistent editorial policy. It now reads like a grown-up version of RW of the mid-'70s: smart, in tune with all that's vital in running.

I'd be remiss not to mention the Long Distance Log, published by Browning Ross. It was results-oriented and served the sport from the late '50s, before it was "cool," until giving way to RW in the mid-'70s. TF& N has been around since 1948 and continues to provide news about the best and brightest in the sport.

Among college athletic institutions, the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women was formed in 1972. The AIAW sponsored national championships in 20 sports when it was disbanded after the 1981-82 school year. The National Collegiate Athletic Association started sponsoring women's sports in 1981 and former AIAW member schools joined in fall '82.

Some high schools and colleges were quicker than others to offer women's sports following passage of Title IX in 1972. But virtually all were in compliance by the end of the '70s.

Plenty has been said about the U.S.-led boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow and the Russian-led boycott of the '84 LA Olympics. The boycotts were worst-case scenarios of malfeasance by politicians: kidnapping sports to serve an unwinnable cause. Flexing their formidable distance strength first in 1960, African countries boycotted the '76 and '80 Games, grounding their winged feet from sport's great stage for a dozen years. Road racing was most popular in New England before the "running boom" in the mid-'70s. Race distances were in even miles or simply how far it was between starting and ending points.

Awards were given to only the top runners before age-group competition gained popularity in the mid-'70s. National masters track championships first pushed age divisions in the late '60s. Age grouping continues to be seen as the "great equalizer," recognizing athletes competing against their own.

Until the mid-'60s, tracks were made of dirt, crushed bricks, grass or more commonly, cinders. Rubberized tracks with their higher prices, lower maintenance costs and varying degrees of softness gradually replaced the natural surfaces. Conversion of imperial, or yard tracks to metric required trimming one turn to shave off about two meters to go from 440 yards to 400 meters. All new tracks by the late '70s were laid out metrically. While the Nike name is probably among the top five consumer brands recognized worldwide, the company founded in 1971 didn't come out on top of the running shoe scene until 1980. The number of running-shoe companies, their products and technology mirrored the growing number of new runners in the early '80s, perhaps 100-fold more than ran in 1970.

Except for scattered storefronts around the country, most runners got their shoes via mail order through the '70s. By the end of that decade, specialty running stores started popping up in small and large cities. Many of those pioneer operations continue to serve their customers and communities well.

Watches and clothing choices have improved mightily since the mid- '70s. Plain old wristwatches and cotton apparel gave way to chronographs and fibers like nylon that weren't sponge-like. By the early '80s, moisture-wicking fibers like polypropylene, first popular in Europe, started showing up in apparel. You have to pay a couple times more for the comfort of wicking fabrics, but you'll quickly and gratefully forget the price after your first use.

Early chronographs were expensive, but as the price came down the number of features rose. The evolution has led to heart-rate monitors and units that track speed, distance and more. Other changes/improvements:

1) Aid stations at one-mile intervals. Old rules said every 5K.

2) Computerized results, making life easier for everybody after the mid- '80s.

3) Treadmills. Never ceases to amaze me how many people do all or the bulk of their running on them.

4) No shortage of books to peruse on running, from how-to to autobiographies, fiction, inspirational and anecdotal.

5) Sports medicine and podiatry. Instead of automatically recommending to take time off or give up running, today's docs work magic to keep us on the road.

6) Replenishment drinks and food. In labs in the late '60s, researchers found water can be improved on to boost performance; Gatorade was born and others have joined the picture. Nutritionally easy to use and quickly-digestible foods prove useful on empty stomachs or after an hour of exercise.

7) In 1970, first mention of a qualifying standard appeared on Boston Marathon applications. "A runner must submit certification that he (no women allowed, yet) has trained sufficiently to finish the course in less than four hours." Age-group time standards were put into effect, then refined to reflect a slowing trend. Qualifying standards were meant to curb numbers, but have had the marvelous effect of attracting runners like bears to honey.

8) In 1976 the New York City Marathon left Central Park to pass through all five boroughs. Other major cities used this as their model.

9) Running for a cause. Opportunities to run for something bigger than ourselves are many, with the two biggest charities being the Race for the Cure (of breast cancer) and leukemia's Team in Training.

10) Average age of runners is 40. Not so long ago, 40 was regarded as too old to be an athlete; the few who were were viewed as outliers and sources of inspiration. Now what's inspirational is that so many are doing themselves so much good. Age 40 is now just another number. A lot took place from 1965 to '85 to transform the shape and face of the sport. Those 20 years were an evolution revolution and paved the way for progress since.

Answer: Viren won the 5,000 and 10,000 meter races both years. MR