30 Years Ago- John Dimick (USA) won the Mardi Gras (LA/USA) Marathon with a wind-aided 2:11:53. John Gregorio (USA) and Ron Hill (ENG) went 2-3 with 2:15:29 and 2:15:46 respectively. Gayle Olinekova (CAN) won the women's race in 2:38:12 with Susan Parks (USA) 2nd at 2:46:46 and Karen MacKeachie (USA) 3rd at 2:48:40. This course was a last minute replacement for the traditional course, necessitated by a police strike. The course needed no traffic control as it was run almost entirely on the Lake Ponchartrain Bridge. Ted Corbitt was attending the RRCA convention held in New Orleans and was able to certify the course before the race.

As I recall the bridge is over 20 miles long, and a straight shot across the lake. This may have been the year everybody ran PR's, because the tailwind was titanic.

Runner's World ran a story about Gayle Olinek's legs.

The times for Sue Parks & Karen McKeachie remain among the top 20 all-time for MI runners. Sue's been a college coach since the mid-80s and is currently back at her alma mater of Eastern Mich Univ while McKeachie took a left turn into multisports and has been one of the best age group triathletes for many years. Sue's father Bob Parks, is the retired long-time ('67-'00) men's track coach at EMU. Bob was my coach at Eastern in the day.

That bridge is definitely 20+ miles long, and straight as an arrow.