It was a unique act of sportsmanship that helped define the spirit of what was to become a world-renowned athletic event: Instead of sprinting against each other, US distance runner Dick Beardsley and his Norwegian rival Inge Simonsen decided to join hands and cross the finishing line of the first ever London Marathon together.

Now, on the eve of the 45th iteration of the famous race, MailOnline can reveal that the pair, whose spontaneous gesture in 1981 became legendary, are still close friends.

The two rival athletes remain in regular contact and Dick, now 69, has told of his hopes that they can be reunited soon – and could even run the race together one last time.

He told MailOnline: ‘If we could both do it together again – wouldn’t that be something?’

Reliving his memory of that first event in 1981, Dick described how, as the pair reached the final stretches of the 26.2 mile race they had shaken off the rest of the field but neither was able to break clear of the other.

Describing the final moments Dick said: ‘I turned to Inge and I said ‘What are we going to do here?’ He turned back to me and spoke in broken English or Norwegian which I didn’t understand.

‘The neat thing was that just before the finish my left hand came down, and his right hand came down.

‘We weren’t even looking at each other. We just grabbed hands and we ran across that finish line together.

Instead of sprinting against each other, US distance runner Dick Beardsley and his Norwegian rival Inge Simonsen decided to join hands and cross the finishing line of the first ever London Marathon together back in 1981

Beardsley (left) and Simonsen (right) have become firm friends and the US runner says the memory of their joint finish is a ‘great memory for both of us’

Mr Beardsley said: ‘It felt like the right thing to do at that time. It was just one of those things and something I’ll never forget’ Pictured: the two athletes exhausted at the finish line

The winners of the inaugural London Marathon celebrate their victories. (l-r) American Dick Beardsley (joint men’s winner), Great Britain’s Joyce Smith (women’s winner) and Norwegian Inge Simonsen (joint men’s winner)

‘It felt like the right thing to do at that time. It was just one of those things and something I’ll never forget.’

He insisted he had no regrets adding: ‘I have nothing but great memories of that race. I’m glad it turned out like it did.

‘Not everyone appreciates it. People still post a lot of pictures and videos of that race.

‘You get some people, not many, who say ‘They should have both been disqualified’ and ‘They were both afraid to lose’.

‘I think people nowadays – with the state of what’s happening in the world – we need more of that.

‘When you see two young athletes from two different countries holding arms and then we cross the finish line and we give each other a big hug. I think that’s pretty cool.

‘Inge and I have become such great friends. We’ve talked about it many times and they are great memories for both of us that’s for sure.’

But recently Dick has been suffering a series of devastating setbacks which have left him, at times, barely able to walk.

Speaking from his home in Minnesota the American told MailOnline: ‘I’d like to do it one more time. If I’m still upright and alive and can still run a little bit, the thought of running it – that would be pretty cool.

‘It might take me five or six hours but it would be quite neat to do.’

It would be another remarkable achievement. In recent months Dick has undergone more than 20 operations to help rebuild his left leg following complications after his knee was replaced for the third time.

Yet he remains determined to make a comeback and sees it as just another inconvenient hurdle after a life of what some would see as remarkable misfortune.

After his heroics in the 1981 London Marathon, the following year Dick finished seconds behind then world-record holder Alberto Salazar in a legendary photo-finish in the Boston Marathon.

That race, described as ‘America’s greatest marathon’, became known as the ‘Duel in the Sun’ after being the subject of a critically-acclaimed book.

But Dick’s running career was cut short by injury and a series of near fatal accidents led to his life spiralling out of control.

His troubles began in 1989 when he returned to Minnesota to milk cows and work as a fishing guide.

He said: ‘I got in a hurry one day and got wrapped up in a piece of farm machinery and almost died. My left leg was just about torn off and twice the doctors were going to have to amputate that.’

Marathon runner Dick Beardsley beams for the camera alongside his wife Jill 

Dick’s running career was cut short by injury and a series of near fatal accidents led to his life spiralling out of control

Dick eventually went back to work and had started to run again when he was involved in an horrific car smash as he returned home from a race.

He suffered spinal and shoulder injuries when his car was rammed into a ravine by a motorist who had gone through a stop sign.

Six months later, Dick went for a run in the snow and was struck from behind by a hit-and-run truck driver.

He spent 16 days in hospital then suffered more injuries three weeks later when, wracked with pain, he passed out and fell down 15 stairs.

The pain did not stop, and neither did the accidents. Just a month later, Dick lost control of his car in a blizzard.

He had to be cut out of the wreckage after his vehicle flipped over several times before landing on its roof.

Dick suffered fractured vertebrae and head injuries. He also later fell off a cliff while hiking.

After 19 operations, with rods and screws holding his back together and with running out of the question, he grew ever more dependent on painkillers.

His addiction nearly landed him in jail after, in desperation, he began forging his own prescriptions for up to 3,000 pills a month.

In 1996 he was arrested after being caught out by a pharmacist and was sentenced to five years probation and 240 hours of community service.

He cleaned himself up but continued to be plagued by his painful injuries and was left battling a serious knee infection that was resistant to antibiotics.

Dick told MailOnline: ‘I had to have my first knee replacement on that side in 2010 then it got an infection in it and they had to replace it in 2018.

‘Then about a year and three quarters ago, I bumped it against my trailer and it opened back up.

‘Since then I have had about 20 surgeries on that left leg and finally in November they put a third knee replacement in but the knee was so infected they had to cut away a lot of bone to get to the good bone.

‘They got that done and got it healed up but the knee had been operated on so many times the skin was like tissue paper, It opened back up and they could not get it to close.’

Dick Beardsley and Inge Simonsen cross the finish line holding hands to become joint winners of the inaugural London Marathon

An archive shot shows the duo crossing the line simultaneously – their final time was two hours, 11 minutes and 48 seconds

Dick, who was declared bankrupt in 2010 and now runs a lakeside B&B with second wife Jill, was left incapacitated and was also unable to run his fishing guide services.

Facing mounting medical debts, his friends rallied round and launched a GoFundMe page which has raised nearly $54,000 (£40,500) towards a target of $60,000 (£45,000).

Dick said: ‘It’s been quite the ordeal and the medical expenses… I’m old enough to get Medicare but it doesn’t cover everything and then I couldn’t do my guide business from mid August all the way through the winter time so we had no income coming in.

‘My best friend set up the fund and the outpouring from people was unbelievable. I was so blown away by people’s generosity, people I didn’t even know, and it’s just been absolutely amazing.’

Dick is determined to battle back and insisted that his woes paled into insignificance compared with the pain he endured after his Iraqi war veteran son Andy, 31, took his own life after suffering post-traumatic stress disorder.

Dick said: ‘That makes anything else in my life that happened, as bad as some of those things were, seem like a walk in the park compared to losing my son.

‘He was supposed to bury me, not me bury him.

‘It would have been easy just to kind of roll up in a corner and never come out again but, as difficult as it was, that is the last thing Andy would have wanted me to do.’

Dick’s experiences have continued to drive him on to face new challenges and he is setting his sights on a return to London for the marathon’s 50th anniversary.

He said: ‘I’ve had three skin grafts and finally now it looks like it’s healing.

‘I go back to the plastic surgeon on May 7. I send them a picture each week and they say it’s progressing like they hoped it would.

‘I’m hoping I’ll be good to go now.

‘Right now I’m not running but I walk four miles every day, a brisk walk.

‘There’s no pain in my leg but they put that new knee in it and when I walk it’s got this ‘ker-clunk, ker-clunk’.

‘The doctors think that will go away as my left leg gets stronger and stronger.

‘It seems to have gotten better and I’m hoping to be able to get back and run a few miles fairly soon.

‘I’m thinking seriously about doing another marathon and, if I’m still here, I think it would be so cool for the 50th to try and run in London and finish it again.’

Inge too has had health issues, Dick revealed: ‘He quit running a number of years ago. He doesn’t run anymore but maybe he would think about it [for a final reunion run].’

In 2020, they were scheduled to meet up at the London Marathon then Dick was due to spend a week in Norway after being invited over by Inge.

But fate intervened after the Covid pandemic led to the race being postponed and travel restrictions were put in place.

He can’t help dreaming of a final reunion with Inge: ‘It would be great if we could do it all again.’