A surprising book! Surprised to learn more about runners I competed against. Surprised to learn more about races I was in. No surprise - this is a book for runners by a runner who can really write.

Alberto Salazar

If you didn't know from whence the inspiration for the growth and popularity of running came, you will after reading, "When Running Was Young and So Were We." Stories to motivate and entertain while keeping all of us young.

Joan Benoit



Reading When Running Was Young And So Were We brought back not just good memories of that Golden Age of road racing, and the stunning excitement of what felt like a new sport beginning here in the USA, but also the friendship of so many of the runners highlighted here, and the great spirit of comraderie that existed then. Perhaps those days were the launchpad for the Running Boom. I still love to run, and always will, thanks in part to writers like Jack D. Welch who worked so hard to reveal all aspects of running!

Bill Rodgers,

Four-time winner of NY City Marathon, four-time winner Boston Marathon

I don’t think many runners today realize America even had a Golden Age of Running. But it did. It was a time when it seemed just about everyone you knew was running 80 miles a week, and those were just the dilettantes. If you were in the low 30s for 10K, you had plenty of company, even in local races. Jack Welch was right in the middle of it all, as a darned competitive runner and an even better writer, and he brings it all back to life in this wonderfully nostalgic collection.

John L. Parker, Jr.,

Author, ‘Once a Runner’

Jack D. Welch writes like a sports reporter, a news journalist, an author, and all is written with his unparalleled quick wit.

As well, he has a unique perspective as a competitive runner. Jack is the perfect author to accompany today’s runner through a retrospective visit to the Golden Age of running with his keen observations on the day’s elite runners, and their physical and mental attributes from start to finish line.

Jacqueline Hansen

1973 Boston Marathon winner, twice marathon World Record holder

When U.S. distance running was younger than it is now, and smaller, it was also faster. The mid-1970s and the decade beyond was a golden age for road racers. Never before (or, alas, since) have so many Americans run so well: almost annual victories at the Boston and New York City Marathons by Bill Rodgers and then Alberto Salazar… world records for Salazar and Joan Benoit… Benoit’s Olympic gold medal. Jack Welch saw it all, and from many angles: runner, magazine publisher, shoe-company executive and writer. You couldn’t ask for a better tour guide of those golden years than the author of this book.

Joe Henderson,

Former longtime editor of Runner’s World

[‘Remembering Pre’] is one of the best, most powerful pieces of writing I have ever read. Your short declarative sentences hit like hammers. You wrote as Pre ran. I can imagine no other writer who could have told his story as well. Runners everywhere probably wish you had written more. I certainly do.”

Jeff Johnson, Nike’s first employee

If you were running in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s this book should bring back pleasant memories of days gone by. For the rest, it is a good starting place to learn about the roots of American distance running.

Benji Durden, 1980 Olympian