Bruno and Emilio "Dave" Mazzeo of Rockland were among the best long distance runners in the nation during the late 1930s and 1940s. The two brothers ran stride for stride with some of the greatest names in running history: Johnny Kelley, Gerard Cote, and Les Pawson. Each took his turn winning Maine's biggest road race, the Portland Boys Club 5-Miler, in 1941 and 1942, respectively. And each also placed 7th in the Boston Marathon in 1944 and 1947, respectively. In addition, Dave, by virtue of his 4th place American finish at Boston in 1948, earned a spot as first alternate on the 1948 Olympic marathon team which competed in London.

The Mazzeo brothers’ parents, Carmella Emobalano and Domonic Mazzeo, grew up in Sicily where Carmella had been an excellent runner. They came to the United States around 1900 and raised a family of 10. When Bruno was 10 and Dave, 6, their father was working at a local quarry one day. He was standing on a ledge, pulled out a cigarette to light it, lost his balance and fell to his death.

Bruno, born on Feb. 19, 1916, and the third oldest in the family, followed the role of an older brother, Frank, who was a standout in several sports at Rockland High. Bruno made his name in track, however, and at the annual Knox-Lincoln track meet set a record of 4:42 in the mile that stood for 20 years.

On Patriots Day, 1930, Bruno, then 15 years old, was listening to the Boston Marathon on the radio with some friends, and when he heard that Clarence DeMar had won the race, he vowed, "If that old man can win it, so can I."

Following high school graduation in 1935, Bruno set his sights on Boston, making frequent hitch-hiking trips south to Massachusetts to enter all the races he could find. He met with great success, and in one annual race, the Revere 12-Miler, he won three straight years starting in 1936, even beating two-time Boston champ John A. Kelley in the 1937 race. On these hitch-hiking trips, Bruno would bed down for the night wherever he could. He spent one night in a firehouse in Framingham, and another time he slept on a park bench in Boston Common.

During these early years, handicap races were popular, and Bruno ran in many of them. His greatest honor ever, he said, was one year when he was designated as "scratch man" in one of these races. This meant that the race director considered him the man to beat.

Bruno ran the Boston Marathon six times, the first in 1936 when he dropped out at 16 miles. In 1937, he finished 49th after leading the race for eight miles. In 1942, he placed 12th among 145 runners in 2:47:19, with Joe Smith of the North Medford Club the winner in 2:25:51. Amazingly, the night before, Bruno had worked all night at a South Portland shipyard and had hitched a ride south on Sunday. It was this year, 1942, when the marathon was held on a Sunday. Bruno set his sights on running the 13th annual Portland Boys Club 5-Miler the next day. Incredibly, he won the Portland race in an excellent time of 26:51.

In 1943, Bruno, who was 5-foot-8 and 129 pounds, placed 11th at Boston in 2:46:59 in a field of 113. It would be his fastest career marathon, but his best-ever finish was yet to come. In 1944, he took 7th place in 2:49:06. Gerard Cote of Canada won in 2:31:50. Bruno finished 25th place in 1946, and he ran his last Boston Marathon in 1947, hobbling to the finish with blisters. His younger brother passed him at about 20 miles and went on to take 7th.

Bruno never had a coach and typically trained three or four times a week. Although he said that his best racing distance was 10 to 15 miles, he said that he was never properly trained to run the marathon. He'd often end up walking the final five miles to the finish. "I was never in shape to run the full distance."

The only shoes available to the common everyday runner in these times were basketball sneakers. Dave said that they would cut the tops off the high-cut sneakers to help keep the feet cool and make them lighter. But the still-bulky and heavy shoes literally became iron skillets when the pavement got hot, and on rainy days they'd soak up water like a sponge and slap on the pavement. No matter how favorable the conditions were on race day, it was always an uphill battle as far as shoes were concerned.

Bruno, who spent his working days as a pipefitter at a South Portland shipyard, fell off a scaffold late in his running career. He broke several bones in his ankle, and he was never able to run well in the years that followed. And when he discovered that his legs no longer had the zip they had a few years earlier, Bruno decided to retire from the sport. Since 1972, Bruno Mazzeo has lived in Jensen Beach, Florida.

Dave Mazzeo, born on March 15, 1920, was also a standout in track at Rockland High, winning the state championship Class B mile in 4:49 in 1940. One year at the Knox-Lincoln meet, he won five running events. Even while in high school he was able to beat the entire University of Maine J.V. cross country squad. Although just 5-foot-5 and 130 pounds, he played football and was the team's captain.

Dave graduated from high school in 1940, and enlisted in the Air Force in 1941, but not before winning the Portland Boys Club 5-Miler that year. Once in the military, it appeared that his running days were over. But while taking Army Ranger training he had to do some running, and the spark was lit once again. Just before getting out of the service in 1945, he won a pair of 10-milers, one in Hawaii where he was stationed, and another in Old Orchard Beach.

He accompanied his brother on a few of his trips to Massachusetts to take in some racing. One of Dave's favorite races was the North Medford Club's annual 20-Miler held in March. One year in that race, Dave and Charlie Robbins (3rd at Boston, 1944) of Connecticut were running together with two miles to go when they approached a railroad crossing as a commuter train came through. Robbins, an 11-time national champion, wrote in his book years later, "Dave got cramps from the climb up and down the stairs... Mazzeo and his brother Bruno were tough Maine boys."

According to Robbins, the Mazzeos were typical of the working man marathon runner of the day. "They all had hard jobs and most had families," he wrote in his book, Charlie Robbins' Scrapbooks. "They had to make ends meet and run in their spare time. John Kelley was a utilities worker and considered to have had one of the easier jobs as he worked 40 hours regularly. Most had hard laboring jobs and calloused palms to go with their running muscles. I really felt that I had found my place in the running world - long, hard races and men who worshipped the marathon and respected each other for what they did on the road."

Now Dave, too, set his sights on the Boston Marathon. That winter he would do something he'd never done before - run through the winter. In those days it was common for even serious runners not to train on the roads during winter. Most would start training for Boston about six to eight weeks before the race. But in the winter of 1945, Dave headed south to stay with his sister in Virginia and train where it was warmer. He trained 10 to 18 miles a day. Of the two brothers, Dave was the most dedicated to training, and consequently the most prepared for running the marathon.

Finally, Patriots Day, 1946, came. It was the 50th anniversary of the BAA Marathon. Dave managed 19th place in 2:57:07 for his first stab at Boston and finished six places ahead of Bruno.

The following year Dave would run his greatest race at Boston, and his greatest race ever. He was now 27 years old. This was the year that he passed his brother at 20 miles, ending up 7th in 2:38:03. Although Dave is listed in 8th place in Tom Derderian's book on the Boston Marathon, Dave is certain that he came in ahead of Koru of Turkey who was listed in 7th. "I'm sure I beat him," Dave said. Derderian may have gathered his results from a newspaper article which may have been incorrect. Regardless, Dave was the second American finisher behind Ted Vogel of the BAA who placed third in 2:30:10, and Dave had finished nearly three minutes ahead of the 1945 winner, John A. Kelley, who was the third American finisher. If this had been an Olympic year, Dave would have made the team. But it was not. That would come the next year. He entered the Yonkers Marathon that fall, but came up with severe cramps and did poorly. But there was still Boston.

In 1948, Dave ran to a 9th place finish in 2:43:15 at Boston. He was the fourth American to finish, and since this was the official trials for the Olympic marathon he earned a spot as first alternate.

If Dave had been able to pay his own way to London, he believes that he would have been able to take part in the Olympics. But he did not have that kind of money. The Olympic marathon was run under hot conditions that year, and ironically, Dave loved running in the heat.

But there was some consolation. Dave was invited to take part in an exhibition marathon in Los Angeles just before the Olympics, all expenses paid by the AAU. Although the smog just about did him in he managed fourth place among some of the best marathoners in the world. The race finished in the Los Angeles Coliseum in front of 100,000 cheering spectators.

For several years running had been Dave's top priority. Although he said that running "was like a vacation," even vacations can get old if they are long enough. He was ready to move on to other things, like raising a family and earning a living. He spent most of his working years running a spaghetti house at the end of Old County Road in Rockland. Through the years he kept in shape walking up to 10 miles a day with his dog.

Then, when he was in his early 70s, he had a heart operation. A vein taken from his right leg for the operation resulted in an infection, and his right leg had to be amputated. A few years later, circulation problems in his left foot resulted in the amputation of his lower left leg. He would spend his remaining years with artificial legs, an irony and a tragedy considering the great runner he had been. During his final days in the hospital he kept a picture of himself on a table just an arm’s length from the side of his bed. It was one of him taken in the North Medford Club 20-Miler. Dave Mazzeo died on April 8, 1997. He was 77.