Education
After moving to Georgia, he attended the University of Georgia, in Athens (UGA), where he ran the mile in 4:15 as a freshman. He graduated from UGA in 1973.
After moving to Georgia, he attended the University of Georgia, in Athens (UGA), where he ran the mile in 4:15 as a freshman. He graduated from UGA in 1973.
With a personal record of 2:09:57, Durden recorded 25 sub-2:20 marathons in less than a decade. He ranked among the top ten United States marathoners six straight years, reaching seventh in the world in 1982. Durden ran track in Sacramento, California as a youth, aspiring to become a miler.
After college, Durden moved to Stone Mountain, becoming a fixture on the Atlanta-area running scene while working at Jeff Galloway’s Phidippides running shop.
In 1980, on a course running from Buffalo, New York, to Niagara Falls, Ontario, Durden finished second in the symbolic United States Olympic Trials (the boycott had already been announced by the time the Trials were held in May) against one of the deepest field of American marathoners ever assembled. Durden surged into the lead at the 19 mile mark and built up a ten second advantage over the lead runners until Anthony Sandoval caught him in the 23rd mile.
Durden finished second in a time of 2:10:40.3, a personal best by over three minutes. The race was intended to determine the United States Olympic team for the marathon at that summer"s Summer Olympics in Moscow, Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics. However, President Carter had ordered the team to sit out the Olympics, and therefore the race amounted to a quest for nothing, as there was no prize for the runners, as would be the case in the quadrennial special race.
Durden"s marathon career debuted at the 1974 Peach Bowl Marathon.
After he dropped out, he told friends, "Anyone who runs a marathon is sick."
In 1975, Durden returned to the Peach Bowl Marathon, seeking to break 2:23, the Olympic trials qualifying mark for the 1976 Summer Olympics. He finished in 2:36, well off the qualifying standard.
But at the 1976 Amateur Athletic Union National Marathon Championship Rice Festival Marathon in Lafayette, Louisiana, he finished second in 2:20:23. Durden lowered his personal bests with impressive races at the 1979 Nike/Over-the-counter marathon (2:13:47) and the New York City Marathon (2:13:49), before having his big breakthrough in the 1980 "Olympic Trials" (which was not for the Olympic team) race.
Durden continues to run, returning to Huntsville, Alabama (where he had finished his last marathon fourteen years earlier), where he competed in his first marathon as a Grand Masters (50 and older) runner in 2005, finishing in 3:08:34.
In December, 2006, he returned to Sacramento where he recorded a time of 3:01:03 at the California International Marathon.
Durden was a member of the titular 1980 Summer Olympics United States marathon team, placing second against what to that point was perhaps the deepest field of American marathoners ever assembled.