The Finnish Line

Some wore long Johns and sucked oranges for energy. Others, bundled in sweaters, jumped up and down to keep warm in the 38DEG chill. There were high school students and grandfathers; there was an obstetrician from Newton, Mass., and a psychiatrist from Manhattan. But most of the 166 runners who started last week's annual Boston Marathon could be counted on to drop out soon after the 26-mile, 385-yd. grind began, and Boston wags suggested that the Exeter Street finish line should be rechristened the Finnish line. Finnish runners had won the B.A.A. Marathon four times in the past seven years, and 1959 Winner Eino Oksanen. a hawk-nosed Helsinki detective, was back as a heavy favorite. Slim U.S. hopes were pinned to familiar Veteran John J. Kelley, 30, a Groton, Conn., schoolteacher who won in 1957 but has a habit of running a strong second.

Kelley and Oksanen quickly shook off early challengers, only to pick up a stubborn new competitor--a flop-eared black dog that stayed with them for 14 miles, intermittently skittered across the road, nipped at the racers' heels, and stubbornly eluded state troopers who tried to lure him off the course. At the 16-mile mark, the mongrel charged at Oksanen, who swerved suddenly and caused Kelley to trip and fall. Sprawled on the road with a skinned elbow and knee, a bleeding hand and a grit-stained face, Kelley got a helping hand from Fellow Runner Fred Norris, 39, a British coal miner turned student at McNeese State College in Lake Charles, La. Said Kelley: "That was a great show of sportsmanship." Said Norris. who never managed to get back in the race: "Somebody should have shot that blasted dog.''

Kelley quickly regained the lead, but he could not shake the dogged Finn. Through the tortuous Newton hills, Detective Oksanen shadowed his man, hanging a half-stride behind Kelley's right shoulder, using him as a windbreak. Kelley tried to keep Oksanen from passing by skirting close to the crowds of spectators who lined the road, but at an intersection eight-tenths of a mile from the finish line, the road broadened momentarily and Oksanen broke into a sprint that got him by. When he crossed the line in 2 hrs. 23 min. 29 sec., Oksanen was 125 yds. and 25 sec. ahead of Kelley--one of the narrowest margins in the Boston Marathon's 65-year history. "You can get just so much out of yourself," said exhausted John Kelley. "I couldn't get any more." Winner Oksanen wandered off to bathe his blistered feet and explain his victory. "In Finland," he said, "we don't ride around in automobiles like you do over here. There, everybody runs."

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