Thread by @SteelTownRunner

the indefatigable ultra historian strikes again on the #UltraList
A complete historical ranking of 100 mile finishers over age 70.
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…
@MountainOutpost @UltraRunnerPod @ambyburf

@MountainOutpost @UltraRunnerPod @ambyburf Until this year, only 2 women had ever broken 24 hrs for 100 miles after turning 70 — American Helen Klein (23:29:34) in 1993, and Australian Shirley Young’s incredible 20:39:17 on April 8, 2000 (which came in a 24-hour in which she ended up with 109.86 miles.

Nick noted in Dec 2017, “looming on the horizon is a Britisher who seems likely to end the long drought 16 months from now, when Sandra Brown turns 70.”

Her 70th bday was April 1, 2019. 13 days later, she registered a 22:31:06 split for 100 miles during a 24-hour (finishing with 105.2 miles for the full 24) at Crawley, England. Despite conditions featuring sleet and bitterly cold winds, that made her the #2 woman, all-time.

Just 10 weeks later, Sandra eclipsed that by more than 75 min. In a 24-hour at Belfast, she split 21:15:33 for 100 miles, enroute to a total of 113 miles.

On a 1.027-mile loop, she strode through the first 50.3 miles in 10:11:52. Brown had only two miles slower than 15-minute pace the entire 24 hours, with the slowest being an 18-minute mile when she paused for a quick clothes change at 79 miles, during the middle of the night.

It was the first time any woman has even approached Shirley Young’s fantastic record. Brown’s credentials, though, are unparalleled in the realm of 100-milers, as she’s run or walked the distance more often than anyone — male or female — ever.

The Englishwoman is one of those individuals blessed with a resilient, seemingly indestructible constitution, but is also helped greatly in her pursuits by being a world-class long-distance racewalker.

She did her first ultra in 1983, and while a majority of her 100s have come in events limited to walkers, Brown used to be an excellent runner, with a PB of 452 miles for 6 days.

In 1991, she ran 55 miles in 8:36:21 (a 9:23 pace) the only time she tried the famed London-to-Brighton road race. Nowadays she’s strictly a walker, but can speed along at a steady clip far past the point where most older runners are forced to have to walk slowly.

It’s a skill that is much less stressful on the legs, and which allowed Brown to complete 100 miles or further 11 times last year, and at least 8 more times so far in 2019.

[Note that these rankings do not recognize result from events organized strictly as walks — in which competitors are not allowed to run — but both the Crawley and Belfast contests were running events, and thus qualify for inclusion...

The 24-hour in Northern Ireland had 225 entrants, with the winner running 146 miles, yet a 70-year-old woman finished 24th in the overall standing, beating 89% of the field, while doing nothing but speed-walking!

Sandra averaged a mind-boggling 12:46 per mile through the 100-mile mark, without running a step! No runner over 70 except for Shirley Young has been able to go that fast for that long.]

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In 2018, Radi Milev of Bulgaria had the fastest time of anyone during last year, with a 21:24:18 at Oslo, Norway. So far in 2019, that honor belongs to an American....

Three months after clocking a 25:32:08 at the Rocky Raccoon race in Texas, Gene Dykes from Pennsylvania did a 21:04:34 on the track at the Dawn-to-Dusk-to-Dawn events on May 11. In doing so, he broke Ray Piva’s national record of 21:30:25, which had stood for 16 years.

Dykes’ new U.S. best is still almost three hours behind the spectacular world record (18:16:19), which was set by Max Jones of England 22 years ago, but it put Gene in 12th place on the all-time global list.

That the record came as no surprise is due to the fact that Dykes has excelled at distances from 1500 meters on up in recent years, collecting loads of national age group championships, and establishing himself as the fastest over-70 marathoner in history.

He’s 1 of only 2 guys to ever break 3 hrs in the marathon after reaching age 70. The late Canadian great Ed Whitlock (1931-2017) ran 2:59:10; 2:58:40; & 2:54:49 for 26.2 miles b/t 2003-2005; but last year Dykes ran marathons of 2:57:43; 2:55:18; and 2:54:28 in a span of 8 months.

He has also mixed up those road marathons and many shorter races with a variety of trail ultras, including four 200-milers.

Of his record-setting 100 at D3, Gene wrote the next day: “These track thingies are definitely not my bag! Hard to believe that lots of folks do them over and over for the fun of it. It’ll be a long while before I try one again.”

So far this year, the next fastest over-70s at 100 miles have been Pertti Kalliola of Finland (22:35:54), and Roy Pirrung from Wisconsin, who ran 22:46:35 at the Jackpot 100 in Nevada in February.

At Jackpot, Jeff Hagen from Washington did a 25:53:09 and followed that up with a 24:38:59 split at 100 miles at the Dome 48-hour in Milwaukee at the end of August.

Those times were well off the 21:54:13 that Jeff ran in 2017, but the currently active triumvirate of Dykes-Hagen-Pirrung now rank 1-3-7 on the list of the fastest over-70 Americans ever. We have a wealth of talent in this category.

A Pennsylvanian is also this year’s national leader on the women’s side. On Sept. 9th, Udon Beidler completed the Pine Creek Challenge, a 100-miler on the rail-trail through Pa.’s “Little Grand Canyon” in 27:57:27.

It was her 6th finish at Pine Creek, with the last three coming after her 70th birthday. This year was the quickest, after Udon had done 28:01:28 and 29:18:45 in 2017-18.

Beidler ranks as the 6th fastest internationally in history. And while only 10 women of this advanced age have ever broken 30 hours for the distance, she’s a perfect three for three in this regard.

In a note after the race, Udon said she benefited from perfect weather, and having some nice pacers for much of a long night on the trail through the woods: “I would attribute my success to those young lady runners.”

(But will they be inspired enough by Beidler’s example to still be running when they’re her age, a mere 40 or 50 years from now?)

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As usual, the overall lists are dominated by Americans, simply because the 100-mile distance carries an almost-magical numerical significance for US runners, and the longer ultradistances (over 100 kilometers) became widely established here earlier than in the rest of the globe.

The main roster here shows 206 individuals worldwide over age-70 who have covered 100 miles in under 40 hrs (requiring a modest 2.5 mph pace to beat this cutoff); & 108 of them hail from the US, while France & Germany are the #2-3 nations, w/ 24 & 22 representatives on the list.

The other lists here have much more liberal standards, reflecting in part how drastically the slowdown is in times for older runners as they pass the age landmarks of 75 and 80 years.

While 188 men and 18 women have run sub-40 after reaching 70 years old, only 33 men and 4 women have managed that after turning 75 years old. And a scant 7 men have ever achieved that feat after age 80.

So far this year, there have been two women over age 75 who’ve done 100 miles in under 40 hours — Germany’s Edda Bauer (a 33:04:45 split during a 48-hour in the Czech Republic, two weeks after turning 75) and Gunhild Swanson from Washington (a 39:16:46 split at ARFTA).

Among the over-80s, Sylvia Quinn set a new world record of 46:03:32 (also a split time at ARFTA, and 8 hours quicker than her time there last year), beating the old mark of 47:21:12 set by Barbara Macklow in 2016.

Meanwhile, a couple U.S. men over 80 ran outstanding 100-mile splits in timed-length events. Don Winkley from Texas did 33:21:12 in a race in Hungary and Doyle Carpenter from Tennessee ran a 34:47:47 at the Dome events in Milwaukee.

Along with Bill Dodson and Jim Barnes, Americans now hold down four of the top 6 spots in history in the over-80 standings. (Does this mean we age well?)

When it comes to the oldest guy to ever do 100 miles, though, Don Jans of FL retained that distinction w/ a 72:44:05 split at ARFTA, at age 87. That’s 11 hours slower than the time he logged last year when he was 86, but it's nonetheless something no one else has ever done. ***

The end of August and Labor Day weekend brought the biggest explosion of participation by older runners in such long races, due to a pair of multidays which attracted a relative herd of veterans over 70.

At the trio of ultras (24-hour/48-hour/six days) at the “Six Days in the Dome” extravaganza, the fields included 14 runners of this vintage who got at least 100 miles apiece.

Remarkably, Doyle Carpenter was in the 6-day division, and achieved an unusual double. After hitting his 100 in 34:47, he added 79 more miles before leaving the venue in Wisconsin while that race was still in progress, . . . .

. . . so he could make the start of A Race For The Ages (ARFTA) in Tennessee, since the two separate multidays overlapped on the calendar. Newton Baker, 77, did the same trick, logging 132 miles in Milwaukee before getting an additional 100 at ARFTA.

Since the Dome 6-Day clock would still be ticking for a couple more days when these guys started running in Tennessee, they were technically competing simultaneously in two different races, over 600 miles apart! Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?

For a veteran crowd, though, no ultra in the world can compare to Gary Cantrell’s aforementioned “A Race for the Ages,” with its unique format of runners starting times being assigned according to their ages.

Now in its fifth year, there were 42 starters coming from 22 different states who were 70 or older, as well as dozens of additional entrants in their 60s.

By the end, 26 men & 7 women > 70 got at least 100 miles apiece, despite broiling southern heat during many of the daytime hours. 74-yr-old Bob Becker from Florida was the star, going through his 100 in a swift 31:26:23 and adding 130 more miles in the next 42 hrs to win overall.

And a group of women from the opposite corner of the country—Spokane, Washington—put in a great team effort. The stellar performances by Sylvia Quinn (82) and Gunhild Swanson (75) have already been mentioned, . . .

. . . but they were joined in the 100-mile-plus club by 76-year-old Sharon Carroll. (There was even a 4th Spokane gal, Mary Ann Clute, who hit 100 in 44:34:58, but at a youthful 66, she’s a veritable kid compared to the others from her area.) They grow ‘em tough in the Northwest!

(Their totals in the overall race were: Swanson, 170 miles; Quinn, 153 miles; and Carroll and Clute, 136 miles each. No point in settling for a mere 100, I guess.)
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What we’re seeing here is becoming a demographic trend. Since most older runners have slowed too much to make cutoffs in the typical 100-miler, they are turning to fixed-time events of a longer duration which allows them a much better chance of covering this extreme distance.

A good example of this phenomenon is The Endless Mile events coming up in Alabama on Oct. 18th. The organizers are offering the choice of four fixed-time divisions.

Currently there are a total of 53 runners entered in either the 6-hour, 12-hour, or 24-hour contests, and only one of them is older than 61. By contrast, the 48-hour has 17 entrants, and the median age is 65, with three men in their 80s.

Over half the field is old enough to qualify for Medicare.

Presumably, most of these old-timers are hoping to be able to go at least 100 miles. And since they realize they no longer have a shot of making that distance in under 24 hours, tackling a 48-hour thus becomes an attractive alternative.

Publishing the accomplishments of these ancient athletes also encourages others to join in. A year ago, a British distance walker, Kathy Crilley (71), became aware of these lists, and wrote that she was inspired to get her name into the rankings.

I’m pleased to report that she made it. In May, she went to the 6-day in Hungary, and passed 100 miles in 51:00:20, en route to doing 251.4 miles for the full six days.

This was the same event where our Don Winkley did his fast 100 at age 82. Early on Day 2 of the race, Mike Dobies from Michigan (an expert multiday handler and 6-day coach/strategist) emailed me to report on Don’s progress, while adding, . . . .

“Hope to send you another email tomorrow morning when Kathy Crilley from the UK joins your over 70 list. She mentioned your list to me when we met—she wants to join it!”

Hearing that bit of trivia led England’s Andy Milroy (who has been the world’s leading authority on ultra history and statistics for over 40 years) to observe wryly: “When a Brit and an American are discussing your lists in Hungary. . . .”

Andy related that back in 1979, he saw Jim Shapiro of the U.S. walking around the track near the end of a 24-hour in London, while holding a copy of Milroy’s 24-hour rankings.

Shapiro was checking the numbers to see how far up the list he could climb before time ran out, and Andy comments, “I realized how important a statistical framework is to a sport. It defines it, sets targets, and celebrates achievements.”

Check out the accompanying lists linked in the first tweet, and celebrate the extraordinary efforts of a bunch of fine old athletes from around the world.

The #UltraGeezer 100 mile ranking and this commentary thread was compiled and written by ultra historian Nick Marshall of Camp Hill, PA.

happy running.

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See complete #UltraGeezer #UltraList #UltraLongevity 100 mile thread here:
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