Marjorie Tennyson

“If the opportunity’s not there, make it!”

Marjorie Tennyson grew up in a time when opportunities for women to compete in sports were limited, a time when there was no such thing as women’s track or cross country.

Yet running, as a means of winter training for another sport she loved, cycling, changed the course of her athletic life. In time, a very short time, she evolved into one of the best long distance runners in the country. This woman, who would set the course record at the Casco Bay Marathon and run a 35:48 10K, would end up being ranked in the top 100 female runners worldwide by one major running magazine. And last, but not least, Tennyson would take time late in her running career to give her time freely so that young runners would have opportunities to compete, something which she did not have as a youngster.

Tennyson was born in Youngstown, Ohio, in 1953, and attended school in Philadelphia at the Philadelphia High School for Girls. She played varsity field hockey all four years. Her team was the Philadelphia City Champions three years. She also competed in swimming and diving four years as her team won two city championships, while she collected individual honors in diving. She also played lacrosse three years and softball her freshman year.

She went on to Penn State where she earned her bachelor’s degree in 1974. She received her master’s in counselor education in 1977 and then her BSN in 1989 from USM. Finally, in 1981, she earned her M.S. in exercise physiology from the University of Pittsburgh. At Penn State she was on the cycling team and took 2nd place in the road championship in 1976 and 2nd in track sprint in Pennsylvania. She was also 14th in the 1976 USCF National Championship (43 miles) in Louisville. As a member of the Raleigh Racing Team, she was one of just two women among the men in the Century Road Club of America.

She first started running in the winter of 1976-77. "I read that the top male cyclists were running up to ten miles per day in the winter. I thought that women should train as hard as men if they wanted to be as good, although, at that time, women were not expected to do as much and were discouraged from training ‘too hard.’ I suffered a stress fracture within four weeks of beginning to run – probably because I was fit but not from a weight-bearing sport. I worked with Charlie Maguire, NCAA 10,000 meter champ in 1973, in grad school and he, told me I'd never be any good…so I tried harder to prove to him women could run okay!" she recalled.

'The major excitement of my running career was that when I started no one knew what women were capable of. There were no teams to run on in high school or college and any sport participation was with men and only one or two other women at most. The men were wonderfully supportive of women's efforts on the roads but society and most non-athletic women were always discouraging female runners. There was no Olympic distance to try for in running or cycling so everyone questioned whey I did it.,” she stated, adding, "New England was far ahead of the rest of the country (except for California) in opportunities for female competition with Liberty AC nurturing runners like Joan Benoit and Lynn Jennings early on.”

"Knowing nothing, my first race was the February, 1977, Nittany Track Club Marathon where I qualified for my second race, the Boston Marathon. At that time there were roughly two women from each state in the U.S. running. There wasn't anyone who knew anything about women and marathons so we learned by trial and error (mostly errors)!

What a thrill to participate in the Bonne Bell series and then the Avon series. Finally, we got to meet each other instead of winning our ‘division’ with hardly any women in local races. In the 1982 NYC Marathon, I had my first experience of running in a women's ‘pack’ of about 15 that formed in the first few miles and lasted at least halfway. We all knew each other," Tennyson said.

Among her best running performances was a course record run at the Casco Bay Marathon in Portland in 1981, clocking 2:49:36. She was RRCA Southern Region Champion. She ran 2:47:36 at the Rocket City Marathon in 1981. But her greatest moment in running came in the fall of 1980 when she decided to run in the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington.

"November, 1980, was to be my last marathon because I had given up on ever breaking three hours after five tries. I had three lists of splits for ‘Okay,’ ‘Good,’ or a ‘Great’ performance written on my arm. At 10-K I was so far ahead of my ‘Great’ split list that I decided just to stay behind a woman with a long braid who was running (and chatting) with two men. By 13.1 I had passed the ‘women’s pack’ and had never even heard or considered the split I heard. I began to hyperventilate and had to calm down. At 23 miles I passed Sue Peterson of California who was the pre-race favorite. A huge Marine met me at the finish line and pinned a heavy medal on my singlet and I was led to stand on the 3rd place awards podium. I had been following Laura DeWald (woman with long braid) who ran 2:35 at the 1981 Boston Marathon and competed on many USA teams." Tennyson beat Peterson by nearly three minutes in her 3rd place finish of 2:46:28.

Another of her top three career races was the 1981 Avon 20-K in Washington when she ran with Lorraine Moller of New Zealand and beat Laura DeWald and Nancy Meiszzak, both 2:30 marathoners. Her performance won her a trip to the Avon International Marathon, the first all women’s marathon. And finally, there is Tennyson's run in the 1981 Bonne Bell 10-K where she recorded her career best 35:48.

Her career PRs include: Mile, 5: 13; 1500 meters, 4:55; 5-K, 17:09; 5 miles, 28:32; 10-K, 35:48; 10 miles, 59:53; 13.1 miles, 1:18:36; marathon, 2:46:28. She also ran 1:16:37 for 20-K and 8:32 for 50 miles.

In the Mt. Washington race in 1981, she placed 2nd among women. She qualified and ran in the first ever marathon championship for women, the Avon International Marathon in 1981. Tennyson was 5-foot-5 1/2 in. and weighed 112 to 124 pounds in her running prime.

Looking back, she believes that opportunities to run earlier in high school might have changed things somewhat. "I probably would have been best at the mile if I had the opportunity in high school." Clear evidence of her potential on the track are her only performances on the track, which were done without any track training whatsoever. In 1982, she took 3rd in the BAA Invitational mile in 5:13, and in 1983, she won the 1500 in 4:55 at the Derner's Track Classic at Bates.

Over the years she has belonged to the Nittany Valley Track Club, the Allegheny Nike Club, Moving Comfort Racing Team, and the Harpswell Harriers, which she founded. Among the special honors she has received was being named to the top 100 female road racers (international) in 1983 by The Runner magazine.

Tennyson and her husband Steve, who moved to Maine in 1981 when he took a job in Saco, gave something back to their sport when, from 1992 through 1995, they managed Team Maine for Maine USATF. "Marj handled the women's team and Steve the men's," said John LeRoy, who nominated Tennyson to the Maine Running Hall of Fame. "I remember this as a great period for Maine's elite women…The Team Maine women won the national team title at Freihofers in the 5-K at least two consecutive years. Marj was instrumental in obtaining sponsorship from Poland Springs.”

Besides that, Tennyson had given much of her time to young local runners. She took one group of 11- and 12-year-olds to the nationals in Junior Olympics in 1998 and took 2nd place.

Tennyson, who currently teaches high school, has spent her professional career in life and health sciences as an exercise physiologist, APRN and counselor/psychotherapist. In her free time she has served as Maine correspondent for New England Runner Magazine.