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(use tabs at bottom to access the 5 statistical lists)
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World & U.S. rankings — 100-mile runners over age 70
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Introductory comments to March, 2023 update
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by Nick Marshall
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Camp Hill, Pa.
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Our horizons continue to expand.
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In the 15 months since the last update of these compilations, 43 new names have been added to the international list of runners who have gone 100 miles in under 40 hours during ultramarathons after reaching the age of 70. There are now at least 287 individuals of this vintage who have achieved this status. Forming the elite in this group, 66 of these athletes have covered 100 miles in under 24 hours, and 7 have broken 20 hours for the distance.
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However, the most significant developments came in the most extreme age category, as the number of men over age 80 who have broken 30 hours doubled in size, from two to four. When I began keeping track of these statistics, only four men this old had broken 40 hours. Now, that number has taken a big jump, to 14.
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Sadly, though, on Dec. 23, England’s Geoff Oliver died, at age 89, after having been ill for some time. Geoff has held the over-80 record for 100 miles since 2014, when he ran 24:01:17 for the distance . . . which is more than FIVE hours faster than any other octogenarian has ever done! (He barely missed doing a full 100 in a single day, having reached 99.88 miles when the clock hit 24 hours.)
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Oliver’s first ultra hadn’t come until he was 50, when he did an 8:29:45 for 100 kms. His subsequent ultradistance career lasted 34 years during which he was a premiere age-group performer in every ultra he ran. After turning 70, Geoff went 100 miles seven times, with all of them under 23 hours. The swiftest of these was a 20:43:49 in Oct. 2009, at age 76. This time stood for 12 years as the world’s best over-75 performance. After this, he ran 22:54:55 when he was 78; and 22:39:44 when he was 79. And although his final 100-miler came at age 81, he remained active at shorter distances for four more years, including running a 2:12:28 half-marathon when he was 84!
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With Geoff Oliver’s passing, the top living 100-milers of such advanced ages are a group of Americans. In Oct. 2020, Jim Barnes from Alabama became only the 2nd runner over 80 to break 30 hours, with a 29:27:13. Jim lost his runnerup status last March when Maurice Robinson, 80, clocked in at 29:03:21 at the Prairie Spirit race in Kansas. Then on March 3 of this year, Utah’s David Blaylock became the 4th over-80 man to conquer this barrier, with a 29:47:29 at the Jackpot 100-mile in Nevada.
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In doing so, Blaylock was the victor in the greatest field of old men in history in a 100-mile contest. By coincidence, there was a small wave of four guys who recently attained that age after all having done strong 100s while in their late 70s, plus Ed Rousseau from Minnesota, 83, who’d come excruciatingly close to breaking 30 hours when he ran a 30:07:25 at Jackpot three years ago.
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The 2023 Jackpot turned out to be a tight duel. On a 1.17-mile loop, Rousseau went through 50 miles at around 13:43, with Blaylock in 2nd at 14:37, while Ian Maddieson, Denis Trafecanty and Todd Leigh trailed the leaders by over two hours.
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Whereas Rousseau mixes running with walking, Blaylock is strictly a walker nowadays, but a strong and efficient one who has loads of 100s to his credit. Over the second half of the race, David gradually ate into Ed’s margin, finally overtaking his older rival at 93 miles. At 96.5, his lead over Ed was a scant 95 seconds, but then David outlegged Ed over the last 3 laps by 2 minutes, 2 minutes, and then 14 minutes as Rousseau faltered in the final mile. While Blaylock broke the 30-hour barrier by 12 minutes, Ed wound up again barely missing it, with a 30:09:08 this time. It demonstrates how tough the closing stage of such a long challenge can become, when one has lost nearly all their strength, and the legs don’t respond to what the mind wants them to do. Behind these two superlative men, Maddieson came in at 37:15:39 and Trafecanty did 37:59:42, while Leigh called it a day (or, a day-and-a-half) at 93 miles in 36:30.
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Although Blaylock paused sometimes at the aid station, he stayed on his feet the whole time, so his success was a great example of fulfilling the old notion of “relentless forward progress.” Afterward, to a Washington Post reporter, the winner said of his competition, “I love these guys. They’re tough old men, and we’ve all got problems, but we just keep coming back.”
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Although Jim Barnes missed this summit of 80+’ers, he also remains active. Now 84, he went over 100 miles twice last season, during a 48-hour event over a scorching Labor Day weekend in Hainesport, N.J., and then at The Endless Mile contest in Alabama the following month.
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Among the youthful and more numerous septuagenarian set, the top over-75 athlete was Jeff Hagen of Yakima, Wash. He logged a pair of excellent 100s en route during 48-hour races. At the “Dome” ultras in Milwaukee in June, Jeff had a split of 25:43:00 on the way to 150 miles for the two days. Ten weeks later, Hagen conquered the brutal heat at Hainesport, going slightly slower through 100 miles in 26:25:15, but powering on through the second day to set a U.S. over-75 record of 167 miles for the 48 hours.
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Worldwide, 10 men broke the coveted 24-hour barrier, six of them for the first time. It increased the all-time total to 66 runners (including 3 women) who have ever achieved this feat after reaching age 70. Although U.S. citizens dominate the senior numbers when the cutoffs are set at 30 hours, or 36 or 40 or 48 hours, that’s not the case in the upper range of the rankings — of those 66 sub-24 hour performers, only 13 are Americans. Instead, it consists mostly of Europeans who have had strong 100-mile splits during 24-hour races.
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Because the 100-mile distance is vastly more popular here due to its having developed such a rich history in this country; and because 160.934 kms. doesn’t carry much special significance for runners in most of the world which uses the metric system, the U.S. scores high in terms of quantity, but Europe dominates in terms of quality. (Meanwhile, there are now 28 countries represented on the main list, as runners from Taiwan, Austria and Sweden have joined the group since the last roundup.)
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Of the 10 men to beat the 24-hour mark in 2022, five were from France. At the head of this parade by almost two hours was one of those Frenchmen. In 2021, Michel Morel had run the 2nd best 100-miles ever while on his way to a world’s over-70 record of 127.9 miles in one day’s time. In 2022, he ran another great 24-hour of 126.8 miles, which translates to a 100-mile pace of 18:45:20. That put him almost 90 minutes ahead of the next closest time of the year, while the order of the top 8 guys in history remained unchanged. At 20:30:09, Denis Dupoirieux moved into the #9 spot, and Germany’s Hans-Dieter Jancker (20:32:34) became the #11 man, all-time. Gilles Letessier (France - 21:38), Greg Wilson (Australia - 22:40) and Yves Dugas (France - 23:08) also joined the Top 50.
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The other two men who broke 24 hours for the first time were a pair Christians. That is, Christian Perchoc of France (23:30) and Christian Marti of Switzerland (23:44). Perchoc’s time came in a 24-hour in December. Two months earlier, his wife Francoise had also hit triple digits in an ultra, when she trekked 114.5 miles in a 48-hour. Remarkably, they are the third married couple in which the husband and wife have both run or walked 100 miles in under 48 hours while each was in their 8th decade, the others being Sandra and Richard Brown of the U.K., and Marion and Don Landry of Canada. Moreover, two other pairs (Joyce and Norm Yarger of the U.S., and Marie and Andrew Boyd—Australia/U.S.) have done dual 100s in multi-days, but outside of that 48-hour window. Maybe it’s a mutual recipe for staying young! Or examples of two tough old birds, being tenacious together.
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Although the men didn’t have a shakeup at the top in their standings, there were even fewer changes in the women’s historical rankings, as the order of the leading 18 women stayed the same. The year’s fastest time was a 32:34:18 by Janice O’Grady at Jackpot in February. Six months later, O’Grady was a scant six seconds slower, with a 32:34:24 at Lean Horse in South Dakota. Not far off that was a 33:03:41 split by Sandra Brown of the U.K. at a September race in Hungary. Brown owns the #2 time ever, back in 2019, but had a good excuse for a slower 100 in her latest event, because it came as the front end of a 6-day in which she logged 379 miles in all.
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Of newcomers to this age cohort, Maryland’s Penny Williams had the top time, landing at the 19th place on the historical rankings with a 34:32:58 at the Badger Trail Races in July in Wisconsin.
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Another female freshly turned 70 had a special claim to fame. When Utah’s Laurie Staton hit 100 at Across The Years in Arizona on Dec. 30th, it was 43.2 years since the first time she went that far. In the distant past of Sept., 1980, the pioneering Staton had been one of only two finishers in the first Wasatch Front trail 100-mile.
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While that initial effort had been a run through mountainous terrain, this latest trek was a walk on a flat 1,844-yard dirt loop. However, almost continuous rain made it a slog through sloppy mud and puddles which took 42:26:05 to complete. It wasn’t a lot of fun, with Staton calculating at 80 miles that she was covering only 10 miles every four hours, and thinking, “Holy hell, is it really going to me take that long?” Nonetheless, she was determined and kept on truckin’ till she’d reached her goal: “Then, just like that, it was over. I wasn’t too much of a wreck but . . . I was more than ready to get out of the rain.” In doing so, Laurie extended her status as the woman who’s had the longest 100-miling career in history. When she was 27 and finished Wasatch, Staton wasn’t thinking about what she’d be doing when she was 70. Over 43 years later, she’s still at it, and counting.
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Her attitude echoed that of David Blaylock. The people on these lists are tough old birds. They’ve all had their problems. But they’ve persisted long past when almost all their contemporaries have retired. And even though they may have slowed down tremendously, and do more walking than jogging in these extreme endurance tests, they continue to wage a spirited battle against Father Time.
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