That means the 2:38:35 of Bekele Tesfaye, when he won the 1997 marathon, likely will not be threatened.

Nor will the 2:40:51 that Glidden and Hill clocked in 1984 be challenged.

“He could have won it,” Glidden said of Hill.

“I didn’t know that he had won that many times,” Hill said of Glidden, who was the 1980 and 1982 marathon winner and one of only two three-time champions.

“Al had trained hard and wanted to break the record and asked me to pace him. I said: ‘Yah, it would be a good training run, but I really hadn’t thought about running,’ ” Hill said.

Glidden started out way too quickly for Hill, but said Glidden consistently hit his targeted times at various aid stations along the course.

“Starla (Glidden, Al’s wife) was providing us with water, which helped a lot.”

As the two neared the finish line, Hill said he had intended to drop out.

“It was Al’s race and he made me finish with him,” Hill, one of the premier runners from the Klamath Basin, said. “That was a tough (time) on that course.

“You have to be a really good downhill runner and he held on. It was really great how we finished the race,” Hill said.

Glidden was happy to have Hill alongside him.

“He could have won it,” Glidden said of Hill. “It was a spontaneous thing at the finish. We grabbed hands as we approached the finish line and put them in the air.”

“That was special.

“I’m not in Leonard’s class and it was gracious of him to help me. He’s the ultimate gentleman,” Glidden said of Hill, who won the 13-mile race in 1978 and 1990, and 6.7-mile event in 1987 and 1997.

“It seems like the race always at the time when we’re on vacation,” Hill said of the Rim Runs and Marathon. “I’ve missed a lot of them because of that.

“I missed more than I wanted to. It’s such a beautiful place to run.

“I had some real enjoyable races there and all three races are completely different,” Hill said. “The 6.7-mile race is actually kind of fast and the half-marathon is tough and difficult.

“The marathon just tops it all off. It’s a dandy.”

Not too long after Hill and Glidden had their patented finish, the course was altered and the finish now takes place at Lost Creek Camp, which, at slightly less than 6,000 feet above sea level, is the lowest point of the marathon.

“It’s real torture, to go by so close to the finish line and you don’t get to finish,” Hill said. “It’s mental torture. You really have to be mentally tough on the course.

“If you think the uphills and the altitude are tough, the downhills will get you. There’s a misperception about the downhills. They’re not easy.”

That was the key to the 1984 race.

Glidden, Hill said, was strong on the long, steady declines along the course.

“It doesn’t seem like it’s been 21 years since we ran that race,” Hill said.

Glidden agreed.

While Hill still runs many competitive races, and has dominated the Lake of the Woods Run in June, Glidden still works the Crater Lake Rim Runs and Marathon.

“I’m sort of in charge of the medical coverage,” Glidden said, “but I can’t be present this year. I’ll be in the ER, kind of stuck there, but I recruited the doctors who will be there this year.”

In addition to Glidden, the only other three-time marathon winner is Martin Balding of Susanville, Calif., who will wear race No. 27 to mark his 27th appearance in the long race.

“Martin never gets injured,” Glidden said. “He runs mostly on dirt and trails. Unfortunately, man was not meant to run on asphalt. Lee (Juillerat) and I run on asphalt.”

Bob Shorrock of Lake Oswego is the only other multiple-winner of the men’s marathon, while Hill is one of four double winners of the 13-mile race.

Hill also is one of five runners to win the short race at least twice.

There are 10 women who have won the three races at least twice, and two, Merrill’s Linda Hartman and Roseburg’s Hillary Simmons have won at two different events.

“The Rim Runs are something we did together,” Glidden said of the Linkville Lopers running club in Klamath Falls. “It’s the getting together doing it.

“Of course, Bob (Freirich) did 90 percent of the work, but it’s still fun getting together. There are a lot of good memories.”

Hill, too, gives Freirich and his wife, Bev, credit for the event.

“It’s amazing what he does,” Hill said. “Bob does one heck of a job with all the volunteers (usually between 120 and 140 each year) and running all three races together.

“It’s a phenomenal job that he and the volunteers do,” Hill said.

And that is the start of a lot of memories.

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