(3 Times) Around The World In 80 (+16,398) Days

 

It took me a lot longer than Phileas Fogg did in the 1956 movie and the two most recent remakes of Jules Verne's classic 1873 novel. It was a loose goal of mine from undergraduate days while in a statistics class. I had figured the chances of making it 4 times around the world somewhat remote. And I am probably correct with that...

But 25,000 miles x 3 seemed realistic and worth running, jogging and now slogging toward. (Actually it's 24,902 x 3 = 74,706 miles.)  

There are some in our Universe with more, even if they never kept track (the sane among us!) In the lead is coach John Lucas with more than 160,000 miles.  If I am wrong, let me know.

So, the statistics for me:

• 75,001.25 miles in 16,478 days
• 4.55 miles per day since June 1975, when I started keeping track. There were probably 2,000 miles before that do not count.
• With 90.14% of days run, that's 5.05 miles per days run.
• Longest run in one day was 40 miles.  Longest continual run was 35 miles.
• Longest streak of days with at least one mile run is 2,022 days (5.6 years)
• Longest streak with no run is 42 days (fibular neck fracture)
• Best race (according to IAAF (World Athletics) points is 10 miles in 51:11 in 1977 with 1978 Johnston road 10K in 30:47 second, and 1980 PSU Track 10K in 30:54  third. (891 points, 889 points and 888 points)
  

These Guys Were Coach Groves' First Athletes

Phil Peterson sent me this pic of the 1968XC season.

• #1: Al Sheaffer
• #7: Phil Peterson
• between #1 and #7: Jeff Deardorff
• Glasses: Ray Smith
• far left: Steve Gentry
• Others in back: Art Knapp and Joe Witkowski

We need stories from this year from any of them.  The personality change in coaches from John Lucas to Harry Groves must have been something like a 7.0 Earthquake.  With Coach Groves' Army background, the turbulent late 60's with protests and anti-war sentiment must have been a volatile mix.

And don't forget to order your "Official" Alumni singlet or T-shirt

A Nittany Lion In The Very First Olympic Trials Marathon! 50th Anniversary

Amby Burfoot has written a remembrance of the event which has received a fair amount of acclaim, despite misreporting that Gatorade was invented at Florida State University!

Alamosa 1968: The Historic First U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials

The great blog Once upon a Time In the Vest has some of the participants commenting about the article and other things.

But our very own Joe Head actually ran in that marathon after having startied running at Penn State with Coach John Lucas as an inspiration.  His story is riveting, and probably unbelievable to anyone younger than we are!

My Road To Alamosa

 

Joe Head, left,  before the start.

1--George Young, 2:30:48, Casa Grande AZ

2--Kenny Moore, 2:31:47, Eugene OR

3--Ron Daws, 2:33:09, Minneapolis

4--Bob Deines, 2:34:13 (note: originally 2:33:14, almost surely wrong per athlete) Pasadena CA

5--Steve Matthews, 2:34:17 (note: originally 2:33:17), Denver

6. Ed Winrow, 2:34:51, NYAC

7. Nick Kitt, 2:35:09, Los Angeles

8. Doug Wiebe, 2:35:31, Pacific Coast Club

9. Bill Clark, 2:36:14, Quantico Marines

10. Jeffrey Reneau, 2:38:46, Laconia NH

11. Tom Hoffman, 2:41:54, Fort Atkinson WS

12. Ed Cadena, 2:42:25, Bakersfield CA

13. Bob Scharf, 2:42:49, Washington DC Sports Club

14. Tom Heinonen, 2:43:30, Minneapolis

15. Steve Gachupin, 2:43:54, Jemez Pueblo, NM

16. Gary Muhrcke, 2:44:56, Freeport NY

17. Wayne Van Dellen, 2:45:26, Woodlake CA

18. Art Coolidge, 2:45:44, Scotia NY

19. Don Lakin, 2:46:03, Pacific Coast Club

20. Jim McDonagh, 2:46:30, Bronx NY

21. Floyd Godwin, 2:49:21, Denver

22. Gar Williams, 2:49:56, Washington DC Sports Club

23. Darryl Beardall, 2:50:05, Santa Rosa CA

24. Jim Van Manen, 2:50:21, Ventura CA

25. Jose E. Dones, 2:52:43, Santa Barbara CA

26. William Blewitt, 2:53:46, Lawton OK

27. Gabe Petroni, 2:53:55, Santa Barbara CA

28. Jose Barela, 2:54:47, Barstow CA

29. Byron Lawry, 2:54:54, Lancaster CA

30. Charles Comefort, 2:55:24, Dunes TC IN

31: Kenneth Katzer, 2:56:31, Lincoln NE

32. Bill Gookin, 2:57:11, San Diego CA

33. Gerald Smith, 2:57:20, Minneapolis

34. Norbert Sander, 2:57:39, Millrose AA NY

35. Gary Pierson, 2:59:37, Denver

36. Richard Vafeades, 3:01:40, Denver

37. Ed Dodd, 3:02:30, Drexel Hill PA

38. Jim Mathews, 3:02:57, Denver

39. Ed Walkwitz, 3:04:23, Hadley MA

40. Tom Snyder, 3:04:37, Lincoln NE

41. Evan Smith, 3:06:02, Marysville WA

42. John Pagliano, 3:06:30, Pasadena CA

43. J. Peterson, 3:07:43, Lockport IL

44. Bruce Guthrie, 3:07:48, Alamosa CO

45. Peter Hanson, 3:09:22, Colfax CA

46. Robert Lowe, 3:11:25, Denver

47. George Husuark, 3:11:52, Montebello CA

48. Bill Anderson, 3:15:00, Santa Barbara CA

49. John Suarez, 3:16:26, Bisbee AZ

50. Russell Holt, 3:20:13, Springfield MA

51. Tom Findley, 3:21:11, Columbus OH

52. William Peck, 3:22:38, Wasco CA

53. Darwyn Batway, 3:32:34, Spokane WA

54. Bruce LaBudde, 3:37:49, Atlanta

55. Larry Boies, 3:38:22, Minneapolis

56. Jerry Laird, 3:41:54, Houston

57. Albert Sewell, 3:46:36, Fisk Univ, Nashville TN

58. Rick Vasquez, 3:49:18, Pico Rivera CA

59. Pete Mundle, 3:50:56, Santa Monica CA

60. Etwin Gookin, 3:52:05, San Diego CA

61. William Lamb, 3:55:29, Sepulveda CA

62. Alan Bass, 3:57:55, San Marino CA

63. E. Kirkpatrick, 3:58:54, UColo, Boulder CO

Joe Head, 4:40 , University Park PA 

Joe Head with Coach Joe Vigil at the 50th Celebration.

They Don't Make Em Like They Used To

A discussion  via the comments section of my previous blog post as inspired me to dig up an old paper I wrote for college.

It starts with the passing of Sir Chris Chataway on Monday at the age of 82. Best known for pacing Roger Bannister to the first ever mile faster than four minutes and setting a world record in the 5000 meters. Back when the gentleman amateur was the law of the land among British athletes, they adhered to the motto of "effortless superiority". Urban legend has it that Chataway would show up at the track smoking a cigar, place it on the inside rail, run a workout then pick up the still lit cigar.

The paper in mention was for Dr. John Lucas Olympic History class my senior year. I chose to write about the quest for the first sub 4 mile. Made sense since I had already ready two books on the subject. If anyone is interested in reading it, click here to download it*. Still had it saved on my computer. A reader of the blog under the name Truthbetold commented about writing a similar paper and I would be every interesting in hearing more. If it is still out there somewhere.

Pacing History



*I won't be offended by the lack of readers. I probably wouldn't bother to read someone else's term paper from college either.

Another Gem From the Past

Our William and Mary (and State College High!) connection Brian Mount sends us this great photo from the 1967 PSU Cross country Team just prior to the IC4A Meet.

Coach Lucas and the 1967 Squad.

Included in the photo is Jim Dixon (kneeling on the left) and Steve Gentry (kneeling on the right).  I especially like the Coach Lucas' Spy vs. Spy look!

Dolan Duels a Great Warm Up

Yesterday, the Nits started the XC season in fine style at Lock Haven at the Dolan Duels.  Our Tennessee connection Dick Geiger reminds me that Jim Dolan was the Freshman Coach at PSU when a "slow" skinny kid from near Reading made his way to Happy Valley.  Jim moved on to Lock Haven at some point and became the Legend that he is. The "slow" kid also made a name for himself despite Coach Groves admitting he would have never recruited him.  Head Coach John Lucas must have seen something others didn't!

Dick Geiger also reminds me that 1965 Spring Grove High School classmate David Mosebrook went on to star at Lock Haven. David also lives in Dover, where I am from. Dick, David and a few others had been the first team from York County to win the PIAA XC crown. I remember them because my dad was a track official back then.  Dave is a track official til this day.  I see him at numerous meets every year.

Yesterday, at the opening race of the season, the Women's team swept the first five places on the 4K course with Marta Klebe taking the overall crown.

Photo by Dave Beyerle.

Robbie Creese took the victory in the Men's 6K race with a Course Record 17:29.  Both teams came away with the team victory.

Photo by Dave Beyerle.

Dr. Lucas Olympic History Memorial Lecture

Dr. John Lucas

Late PSU Coach  and Olympic Historian John Lucas was honored at the first Lucas Memorial Lecture today at PSU.  Robert K. Barney gave his talk on the Olympic Games’ supreme ceremonial rite at the Paterno Library.

Errata: A Bunch of Stuff Cluttering My Desk I Need to Get Rid Of

1. A nice article about Coach Lucas. Missing his first Olympics since 1960.
2. This year's cauldron lighting was a big disappointment to me at least.  And I'm not alone.
3. Penn State Does not make the list of 7 Schools where Streaking is an Organized Sport!
4. Athletes are being expelled from the Olympics for less-than-best efforts.  (Although the 1500 M runner's appeal was granted after he tanked an 800 M prelim race.)  The badminton teams did not fare as well.  I'm most concerned by the glimpse of the equipment bags at the very end of the video.  Who knew that you need a tractor-trailer to haul your badminton equipment?
5. Bridget Franek answered 5 1/2 Questions for WomenTalk Sports.  I hope to get her to answer our usual 10 Questions for the blog at some point, but I won't bug her now.

 And some more!

1. A Geographer shows us how to negotiate Penn State's Library stacks.
2. Don't do the crime if you can't handle the food!  10 Revolting Foods Made in Prison.
3. 100 Simpson's Quotes in order of importance.

Thanks to everyone for your submissions!  Thank goodness my desk is cleared now.

John Lucas's Olympic Streak Ends

With the recent diagnosis of Alzheimer's Dementia, Dr. John Lucas has relocated to Missouri, near his son.  I'm glad we had the opportunity at the 2011 Reunion to honor Coach Lucas and hear his top Olympic moments.

Coach Lucas has been to every Olympics Games since 1960, and holds the Olympic Order as the North American Olympic Historian.  His archives are now hosted at PSU.

He also had the opportunity to run on every Olympic track since 1960, ending when the Chinese authorities said "No" four years ago.  He even recently received his authorization to attend this years London Olympics.  Sadly, he can't go.