Part Ten - The Boston Marathon

Narrator: As the 100th running of the Boston Marathon approaches, it seems everyone wants a piece of Jean Driscoll. Every appearance makes Driscoll a better product. And every victory means more appearances. Driscoll recently hired an agent to handle all the requests and to help her acquire sponsorships.

Jean Driscoll: Now that I have somebody who is promoting Jean Driscoll um, I'm a little more easy about talking with people because I hate to deal with the money part of things. I like to race and I like to win, but I don't want to deal with any of these other side dealings. I feel like it takes my attention and my focus away from what I really am good at.

Maryanna Young: How do I sell Jean Driscoll? That happens by, putting together a really good professional marketing material, just as you would market any product. But this is a multidimensional product that people can see, feel, touch, experience and be motivated by.

Marty Morse: Honestly, I'm very concerned about how distracted she's been this week. We've won six Bostons and she hasn't done 50 interviews. This year she's done 50 interviews and she's run all over town. She sounds tired. And so I'm very concerned about that.

Narrator: In 1987, Candace Cable won the Women's Division at Boston despite tipping her chair at the start. She was caught in a multi-chair pileup that caused several racers to give up their dreams of making it to the finish at Bolyston Street.

Candace Cable: That hill is so fast. I mean, you're holding yourself back from the start and as soon as you let go, you're going 30 miles an hour. And when you're in a pack of say 50 maybe 60, people have the adrenaline flowing at the start of the race. There's a lot of zigging and zagging going on. Someone goes down, everyone's trying to avoid this person, and that's when everybody starts to get in trouble. One of the things that came out of that was that a lot of people thought that , "Well, maybe wheelchairs shouldn't be in road races." And a lot of wheelchair racers said, "Hey, you know wheelchair racing is like anything. It's a sport. People crash. People go down. People get hurt."

Narrator: Candace retired from racing in 1992. Since then, she has been a competitive cross-country skier. Like Jean, she has won this race six times. Now, Candace is back, trying to win her number seven.

Marty Morse: Louise Sauvage at Gasparilla, and, you know, once again, she beat Jean in the sprint on a very fast course. Louise is the best sprinter in the world.

Narrator: Louise Sauvage of Perth, Australia would like to win her first Boston.

Marathon in 1996. This will be her fourth time on the course and she doesn't want it to be the fourth time she looses to Jean Driscoll. Previously she hasn't lost by much. In 1994 louise finished Boston just 23 seconds behind Jean.

Louise Sauvage: You've got no friends out there kind of thing. You know it's you or them. So, what do you want? You can't really be nice and all. "Hey you go through." It's like you're friends off the course and on the course, you're competitors . And that's the end of that. Most of the racers that I compete with, they usually come down to a sprint finish or something like that. So I think I just have to hang with her. I don't think I'll be out to make a break or anything like that, but we'll have to see what happens tomorrow. I think it's just gonna be whatever happens on the day.

Narrator: The wheelers push off fifteen minutes before the start of the running race. An extra cautionary pace vehicle holds the division to a very slow start. Then strong headwinds make it a slow race overall. For the first 11 miles, Jean hangs in fourth place while Heinz Frei of Switzerland bursts ahead to take the lead for the men. Louise Sauvage holds the number one position for the women until mile 17. Then, just as she's done in the past six years, Jean Driscoll takes the wind.

Jean Driscoll: Once I get away from the other athletes, you know, every once and I, while I have to keep looking back too see how close they are, because I always feel like they're breathing down my neck even if I can't see them, and I'm actually more at ease when I've created such a distance that I can't see them any more.

Jean Driscoll: I was in fourth place until mile 11. That's never happened before. I was really worried. But, I thank God for Newton. I'm so glad those hills are there.