Wes Hildreth and Bill Ferlatte crossed the finish line at Stinson Beach within 90 seconds of each other at the end of the 1962 Dipsea Race, when the runners were in their prime. Now retired from competition — but not from running — they enter the Dipsea Hall of Fame together.

“What a generous and thoughtful move by the Dipsea Committee to remember a pair of veteran contenders who came close for many years but never quite won,” Hildreth said.

Hildreth and Ferlatte were joined by several former running mates from the Marin Athletic Club during Friday’s Dipsea Foundation Hall of Fame Dinner in Sausalito. The Sausalito City Council even passed a resolution honoring Hildreth’s accomplishments and contributions to the Dipsea community and beyond.

“Distance running is intrinsically egalitarian,” Hildreth said. “It brought us together as comrades from a wide range of social, ethnic, and family backgrounds.”

Peter McArdle won the 1962 Dipsea in 47 minutes, 30 seconds with no head start, followed by James Jacobs, Stuart Sparling and Bill Ranney. Hildreth, 24, running his seventh Dipsea, rounded out the top five with time of 53:20 (54:20 without the 1-minute handicap). Ferlatte, 21, crossed the finished line in seventh place soon after in 53:50 (with a 2-minute head start) for his highest finish to that point in six starts.

That was their closest finish, although the two often ran close together in the Dipsea.

“Eisenhower was president and I was a sophomore at Tam High when I discovered the Dipsea in 1954,” Hildreth recalled.

Hildreth ran track while at Tam, while rival Darryl Beardall was competing at Santa Rosa High. Hildreth went on to run cross country at Harvard, and as a junior in 1960 placed 29th in the Boston Marathon.

Hildreth placed fifth overall in three races (1957, 1960, 1962) and finished in the top 10 eight times in 12 races between 1955-1972, and never finished outside the top 25. His best actual time (49:39) came in 1971.

“Over those years, I had the benefit of training with no fewer than eight winners of the Dipsea race, from Ralph Perry in 1953, (Marin AC founder) Jim Imperiale, Bob Hope, the Beardall brothers, Carl Jensen,” Hildreth said. “I remember being totally astonished at the breakneck downhill speed of (Dipsea Hall of Famers) Don Makela and Ron Elijah, which clarified for me that my own Dipsea ambitions were passé.”

Ferlatte again showed he can run with the best of them in the 1963 edition of the Dipsea Race, when he challenged the legendary Beardall Family. Alan Beardall earned his only Dipsea victory in 1963 with an adjusted time of 46 minutes, 7 seconds after a 3-minute handicap. Ferlatte was just 20 seconds behind him in second place with an adjusted time of 46:27 after a 2-minute head start. Ferlatte’s actual time of 48:27 was in fact second-best to the 48:02 of Dipsea Hall of Famer Darryl Beardall, who finished fifth that year as a scratch runner.

“I did not see another runner until the last straight stretch before the finish line, when Alan turned his head to see where the next runner was behind him,” Ferlatte recalled at a Marin AC event. “I did not know he had won and I was second until after I finished the race. Alan (Beardall) was a good, strong runner, and even though I had gained 40 seconds on him since the start of the race, and even if I had known our respective places at the top of Cardiac, I don’t think any amount of first-place greed was going to let me catch him. He probably did not want to be caught anymore than I did.”

That second-place finish was Ferlatte’s best in 15 Dipsea races from 1957-1971. He also finished eighth in 1968, and had eight top 25 finishes. Ferlatte ran his Dipsea perhaps best with an actual time of 48:27 in 1963, then nearly equaled that mark in 1968, finishing 1 second slower, this time without a head start.

“Unlike some sports, we can admire, and even root for, our rivals on the track,” Hildreth said. “They provide incentive that spurs our own effort and improvement. Running faster than last year is uplifting irrespective of place. I recall my own satisfaction finally breaking 50 minutes after many, many, many close misses, and I owe that to our friendly rivalry.”