Bob Wallace (June 21, 1951 – July 21, 2020) was a runner from

Croydon, Victoria Croydon is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 28 km east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Maroondah local government area. Croydon recorded a population of 28,608 at the 2021 census. History D ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. He was best known for running the marathon, with a PR of 2:13:14 in 1981.

Running career

Wallace went to the

University of Texas-El Paso The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas. It is a member of the University of Texas System. UTEP is the second-largest university in the United States to have a majority Mexican American stude ...

where he was a distance runner for the track team under coach Ted Banks,"Sullivan, Mark", Boston Marathon 1982 Bob Wallace’s True Story (And Other Lies), June 17, 2019 Running Insigh

/ref> and was the

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Champion in the 3 mile and

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in 1974. That same year he was an

NCAA All-American The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

in the 6 mile.Svoboda, Gary, Foreign Connection enters Lincoln Marathon May 4, 1980, Lincoln Journal Star, page 9

/ref> After college, he moved back to Australia. He continued his career, running second in the Australian Olympic marathon trials in 1976, was the Australian national marathon champion in 1977 (2:20:11), and Victorian Marathon Club champion in 1978 (2:21:17). He moved to

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in August 1978 with his wife, Gayle, who was to be a student there at the

University of Nebraska A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

School of Nursing. In Omaha, he worked as an accountant and computer programmer. In 1980, he won the White Rock Lake Marathon in Dallas (2:15:19) and the Lincoln Marathon (2:20:34).Back to Australia, Lincoln Journal Star 1 Aug 1982, page 38
/ref> In June 1981 he missed the

Boston Marathon The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon race hosted by several cities and towns in greater Boston in eastern Massachusetts, United States. It is traditionally held on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897, the event was i ...

due to injury but he finished third in the

Grandma's Marathon Grandma's Marathon is an annual road race held each June in Duluth, Minnesota, in the United States. The course runs point-to-point from the city of Two Harbors on Scenic Route 61 and continues along Lake Superior into the city of Duluth. The ...

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, Minnesota to

Dick Beardsley Dick Beardsley (born March 21, 1956) is an American long-distance runner best known for tying for first place with Inge Simonsen in the inaugural 1981 London Marathon and his close finish with Alberto Salazar in the 1982 Boston Marathon. Ru ...

and

Garry Bjorklund Garry Brian Bjorklund (born April 22, 1951) is an American middle- and long-distance runner. He represented the United States in the 1976 Summer Olympics in the 10,000 meters. As a high schooler, he set a Minnesota state record for the mile run wh ...

, where he ran his lifetime personal best of 2:13:14. In April 1982, Wallace came in ninth in the Boston Marathon (2:17:18), a race famously known as the Duel in the Sun. Later that year he moved back to Australia and in July he again won the Australian Marathon Championship (2:16:02) in

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, being the first Australian across the finish line although he finished second to Fumiaki Abe. In October of that year he came in 10th in the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

(2:15:24).Men Marathon, The Age (Melbourne, Australia) 9 Oct 1982, page 28
/ref> For much of his career he was sponsored by

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Later career

He later moved to Dallas, Texas, where he owned a running store, Run On. He also wrote a book, "Running Your Bucket List Marathon". He also later remarried, to Rebecca.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wallace, Bob 1951 births 2020 deaths Athletes (track and field) at the 1982 Commonwealth Games Australian male long-distance runners Australian male marathon runners Sportsmen from Victoria (state) UTEP Miners men's track and field athletes Commonwealth Games competitors for Australia People from Croydon, Victoria Athletes from Melbourne Australian emigrants to the United States