Q&A with Joe Henderson

By Don McLean

Joe Henderson, 73, is a running journalist/author immortal. A prep track and cross country champion in Iowa, he continued on at Drake University as a runner, majoring in journalism. In 1967, he was a part-time employee at Runner's World, editor in chief from 1970 to 1977, and then contributor until 2004. He has written over 20 books, and 20 million words. Currently coach of half-marathoners and marathoners through the Eugene Running Company and instructor of running classes at the University of Oregon. A very popular and friendly fellow.

1. OK, Chapter one, verse one. How/when/why your obsession with running? 

You could say I inherited it. My father, his brothers and my mother’s brother were all track athletes (sprinters and jumpers, some at college level). I went to meets with them from pre-school years. So it was no surprise that I joined a team at earliest opportunity: freshman year, age 14, in 1958. Here my lack of size (I never topped 5-5) wasn’t wasn’t penalized as it had been in other sports.

2. You were an early and notable advocate of Long Slow Distance. How did that get popular? Any second thoughts as to its value, necessity for all competitors? 800 meter people, including some of the best (Nick Symmonds for one) complain if required to do much mileage.

This was self-preservation for myself and the other five runners profiled in that first book of mine. We each independently in reaction of the excessive speed training of the 1960s. It had broken me down, and the only way to continue was to slow down and go longer. I never said it was the BEST or RIGHT training for everyone; it was and is just another option among many. I make no apologies for LSD now, but could add what wasn’t spelled out clearly in the 1969 book: that frequent racing is the key to making it work. The races became the “speed training” that I stopped doing otherwise.

3. In 2006, you wrote (in This I Believe): "Don't be attracted too much to activities peripheral to running. These include stretching, weight training, form drills, and cross-training..." Most of the coaches in Eugene insist on form drills and strength training. Any second thoughts here?

I don’t speak against any of these practices, provided a runner has the time to spend on them. But when time is limited (as it is during my 50-minute UO classes), then it’s better spent on running than the add-ons. If I were a coach trying to squeeze the last bit of improvement out of a runner, I probably would employ most of all of the “peripherals.” I coach spare-time runners (and am one myself) who mainly want to run.

4. You get excellent reviews from your students at the University of Oregon. Are your running courses in the classroom, on the track and trails, or both? A brief description, please. And is there a textbook? A 10K final?

It’s an activity class, so the students spend nearly all their class time being active. They spend all day in classrooms, being lectured at and completing readings. I don’t lecture and don’t assign a textbook. Instead I plan a training schedule and ask students to follow it. They run long on one day and faster the other in these twice-a-week classes. Their tests (a term I prefer to races, since they’re mainly testing themselves) are a timed one-mile, 5K or 10K. The grading is pass/no-pass, and the only way not to pass is not to show up and try. 

5. Top 3 to 5 runners you know and admire? And why? 

Most of those I could name would be unknown to most of today’s runners. We know Kenny Moore because he lives here, and I admire him more for his writing than the running he once did. Same for Don Kardong, who would have been an Olympic medalist if not for the drug-cheat “winner,” and who became a world-class writer. Of the current crop, Meb Keflezighi tops my list — not just because he’s so fast (three-time Olympian and Boston/New York City Marathon winner), not just because he has lasted so long at the top (e ran in Rio at age 41) but also because he is a classy individual who understands and appreciates the efforts of the least of us.

6. Best coaches and why?

Those who influenced me the most in the early years were Arthur Lydiard, who assured me it was okay for a track runner to go longer (if not slower). Bill Bowerman’s greatest contribution to the sport in general, and me in particular, was the hard/easy training system. More recently I thank my good friend Jeff Galloway for giving permission to take walk breaks in long runs. (Those have become more plentiful through the years, to the point where I now take RUN breaks in my long walks.)

7. Proudest personal achievement in running?

That’s easy: continuing to run in some fashion from the 1950s through the 2010s. What I did in any of those years, or now do on any of the days, wouldn’t impress anyone. But the good results do accumulate over time. 

8. If 20 again, what would you do different to be even better, lasting longer?

Interesting you pick the age of 20. That’s when I ran my fastest mile (4:18). It would have been even faster if I hadn’t overtrained on speed and injured myself on the week when other teammates with similar PRs all improved to 4:10 to 4:15 at the Drake Relays that our school hosted. I’ve always wondered how fast a mile I left on the training track instead of tapering that week.

9. Your best book? Non JH books you recommend to runners?

The favorite one I’ve written is Did I Win?, a biography of George Sheehan. But that was really George’s book, as if he had dictated it to me from the great beyond. The book that best states what I like best about running and do most as a runner is Long Run Solution. As for the works of others, I put Kenny Moore’s Bowerman and the Men of Oregon at the top. 

10. Current running/walking/other exercises and activities? Wear/recommend activity trackers?

As noted earlier, I’m mainly a walker who does a bit of running. Twenty miles on a good week, with one long day that might account for half of that total. I last walked/ran a marathon in 2015 and hope to do another next year to celebrate 50 years as a marathoner. And as suggested earlier, I’m a “monoathlete” who doesn’t cross-train, unless you consider the walking as cross-training. I wear a low-end GPS watch but otherwise shun most gadgetry.