100 mile runners over age 70
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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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March 2025 introductory comments
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(notes since the May 2024 update)
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by Nick Marshall
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Camp Hill, Pa.
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Congratulations to Phuang Kerdmoh and Phichai Yongyeongphan!
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What, those names don’t ring a bell? Well, until this month, I’d never known about Phuang or Phichai. But then they both joined our gang, when their names showed up in the results from a long race in Thailand.
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The Khaoyai 100 Miles Ultra Road Marathon on Feb. 7th was an unusually large event for such a distance, with 485 finishers, including 86 women. It must have been a tough course, because it had a longer-than-usual 39-hour cutoff. The winning time was a modest 18:04:46, only 21 men broke 24 hours, and 64 people finished in the final hour before the time limit expired.
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Ahead of the stragglers were Kerdmoh and Yongyeongphan. At 35:28 and 37:40, they became the first over-70 runners from Thailand to ever complete a 100-miler. Welcome to the club, guys!
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Their feat increases the number of countries represented on the accompanying chart to 31. Since most nations use the metric system, there is a dearth of races at 100 miles on the international scene. Thus, it is always nice to see the addition of such events elsewhere, causing these stats to become slightly less America-centric than they’ve been in the past.
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Thanks to opportunities to go this far via fixed-time events of 24 or 48-hours in Europe, there has always been a bunch of older runners from Germany, France and the U.K. who have gone at least 160.934 kilometers in competition. Now Asia is joining that trend. There are now nine Japanese (and possibly others I’ve missed) on the list of septuagenarians who’ve gone 100 miles at least once. Most recently, one of these guys turned in a tremendous performance in a road 24-hour on March 8th. Two weeks after his 75th birthday, Hideaki Tamamoto covered 112.9 miles in a day’s time.
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We don’t have a split for him at 100, but interpolating a time from his final total suggests he was 21:15 or faster at the interim point. It was the fifth occasion on which Tamamoto has gone that far in his 70s, but it was over five hours better than his previous over-70 PR. The huge improvement enabled him to beat two-thirds of the 105 runners in the field, and makes him the 3rd fastest man in history in the 75-&-over group. The only guys ahead of him are a couple British athletes. Geoff Oliver ran 20:43:49 way back in 2009. That stood as the age-group record for 12 years, till it was surpassed by a 20:33:29 by John Fanshawe in 2021.
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On Sept. 14th, four Frenchman all got past 100 miles during a road 24-hour named in honor of Bernard Gaudin (a famed French ultrarunner of the 1970s and 1980s, who once ran 6:23 for 100Ks). Yves Thenin (71), Jean-Marc Lenne (71), Yves Dugas (72), and Eric Thursch (71) comprised a speedy quartet, recording interpolated splits at 100 of 20:24; 21:35; 22:38; and 23:29. Unfortunately, their 78-year-old compatriot Roland Vuillemenot ran out of time, and settled for 92.3 miles at the 24-hour cutoff. Roland is always notable, because of his long career as one of the world’s greatest 100-K runners in the 1980s and 1990s (a world champ, with a 6:30:35 PR and 22 sub-7 hour performances). He’s continued at a high level in his older years, with an 18:55:04 for 100 miles at age 70, the third best time ever logged by a septuagenarian. Still, even for the best of us, there comes a time (like eight years later) when 24 hours isn’t a long enough period to go that far anymore.
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Hence, the blessings of the 48-hour. While Vuillemenot came up a bit short at meeting a 24-hour cutoff, happily the growth of contests lasting two days has given the over-75 cohort a viable alternative for covering 100 miles. This proved very helpful for three runners in Oct. on a 934-meter loop at Brugg, Switzerland. Sandra Brown (75) came from the U.K. to get her second sub-28 hour of the year with a 27:44:44; husband Richard Brown (77) logged a 33:07:17; and Germany’s Wolfgang Roether (79) came in between them at 32:24:48.
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Sandra Brown did her first ultra when she was 33, so she’s been at it for 42 years. Gunhild Swanson is another long-enduring veteran, of only slightly shorter duration. Swanson was 43 when she made her debut in the sport. Now 80, she passed 100 miles in 42:07:16 at the latest Across The Years festival in Arizona. That was 14+ hours longrt than what she did for the distance when she was 70, yet it was still quick enough to make Gunhild the 2nd fastest octogenarian woman ever.
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Almost simultaneously, Sharlet Gilbert (74) was doing a 25:12:19 for 100 at the New Years One-Day in San Jose, Cal. This event was slightly mis-named, in that 8 of its 10 finishers took more than one day each to conquer the distance. In any case, Gilbert’s performance vaulted her into the #4 spot on the all-time list of over-70 women 100-milers. (Sandra Brown is ranked #2 all-time, and Gunhild Swanson holds the #5 position.)
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Although most 100s don’t have any finishers in the over-70 category, Tunnel Hill in Illinois on Nov. 8 had a relative crowd. Six old guys went the distance, led by Marlin Weekley (72) at 24:36:11. Nick Bassett (79) from Wyoming was the most senior, in a strong 27:45:48 that was his third straight sub-28 there.
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When it comes to the year’s most prolific 100-milers, two men were hyperactive. However, the resumes of Ed Peters (73) and Gary Dudney (72) presented “A Tale of Two Tempos.” A racer and a pacer. That is, Dudney was a strong enough racer to regularly enter 100s with time limits that are too challenging for most age-groupers of his vintage. Gary did a total of ten of them in 2024, after chalking up seven the previous year. His slowest was a 31:09:52 at Rocky Raccoon near the start of the year, but then his next nine were all sub-30 hours. By contrast, Peters was the pacer, choosing to log his 100s in fixed-time events which allowed him to take a more leisurely approach. Ed did that 14 times during the year with his fastest a 39:48:49.
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Among women, Letha Cruthirds (71) was the most prolific in 2024, doing six 100s during the year, capping it off at the Snowdrop 55-hour over New Years in Texas. She hit 100 there in 29:14:21, just nine days after turning in a 29:59:20 at the Ancient Oaks 100 in Florida. Letha did her first 100 in 2001, and has gone that far over 50 times by now, with a lifetime PR of 20:29:04, done at Rocky Raccoon when Cruthirds was 48. Until moving to Florida about three years ago, she lived on a wooded rural property outside Biloxi, Miss., on which she designed her own 3.5-mile running trail. (Ah, that’s the secret!)
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The past two years, Nevada’s Jackpot 100 had led the way in establishing new standards for 100-miling by the over-80 group. In 2023, an unprecedented four octogenarians (David Blaylock, Ed Rousseau, Ian Maddieson, and Denis Trafecanty) finished, with Blaylock scoring a hotly-contested duel for victory, by 29:47:29 vs. 30:09:08. Remarkably, in 2024 the over-80 category swelled to six finishers. At 31:14:14, Wally Hesseltine led the group, followed by Martin Fritzhand, David Blaylock, Ian Maddieson, Jim Barnes (the oldest, at 85) and Todd Leigh (while Ed Rousseau bowed out at 80 miles in 28:13).
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Alas, this year’s race on Feb. 14th saw a downturn in the fortunes of its eldest entrants. Only David Blaylock (37:42:28) and Todd Leigh (45:59:26) were able to finish it again, while Ed Rousseau (84) and Jim Barnes (86) both called it a day-plus after 27 hours, reaching 74 and 73 miles, respectively.
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In a separate 100-mile race on a different layout, a couple younger (relatively speaking) athletes had an interesting connection. Rick Hoopes (70) ran a great 23:12:11 in his over-70 debut, while Scott Mills (73) did 25:13:57. Their connection is that they live half-a-mile apart in Oceanside, California. Their neighborhood appears to be an unusual “hot spot” for old guys going super-long distances. Afterward, Rick wrote: “Scotty has always been a better runner than me, especially on trails, but with the accelerating rate of decline with advancing age, my three-year-younger advantage is starting to equalize our abilities. As I expected, Scotty did not care for the short loop course format, while my more extensive road-marathon experience made it much easier for me to embrace. . . . I like to think I could have a shot at sub-22 hours for the 100M. But as we know, what sounds easy in the planning phase stops being easy somewhere after mile 50.” (That’s true — better do it sooner than later!)
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Meanwhile, the Across The Years 72-hour had featured someone even older than all the Jackpot men. Joe Dana, 88, used the 72-hour event to get his 100, in 58:30:24. Joe’s the second oldest man to ever go the distance, and commented, “As long as I stay healthy I'll probably attempt 100 next year. I really want to do it in two years when I'm 90.”
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Since there are now multiple guys still active after turning 85, I told Joe I’d be adding a little chart for that age group from now on, with a time limit of 80 hours (48:00/mi.). That will let Dana slow down by 21 hours in the next two years, and he agreed this is a reasonable standard: “80 hours is a good idea, otherwise someone could enter a six-day and qualify by only doing 17 miles a day!” 100 miles in 80 hours is very slow going, yet it’s still 30 miles per day, so it maintains an ultramarathoning minimum.
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So far, the oldest gentleman of all to get that far in an ultra race has been Don Jans from Florida. He’s our “Eldest Statesman.” He did a 61:19 when he was 86, and followed that up with times of 72:44, 68:35, and 62:06 when he was 87-88-89; and culminating in a 72:10:43 at ARFTA in 2022 when Jans was 90. Since then, Don has taken five more shots at going 100 miles, but has fallen short three times, and did less than a mile an hour (102:15 and 128:44) in the other two attempts.
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Breaking 80 will be a great challenge for any nonagenarian. It takes a lot of courage to even try. (As for women, Canada’s 84-year-old Erlinda Biondic has been the most senior to finish a hundred, with a 72:32:42 split at Three Days At The Fair last May in New Jersey.)
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Sadly, while Don Jans has remained active at an extraordinary age, most runners will never even get to their 90s. (Darn, that ultimate cutoff keeps creeping closer for all us aging folks!)
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Nobody goes on forever, and at the 2025 Jackpot races last month, the most notable absence was Ian Maddieson, who’d died on Feb. 2nd, at age 82. Maddieson had an ultra career spanning 43.7 years. In his earlier years, he’d broken 24 hours at Western States ten times. He remained devoted to the sport the rest of his life, including reaching 100 miles seven times after turning 80. The 6th time had been at last year’s Jackpot, which took him 37:45:24. His health failed badly after that, yet it was clear Ian wanted to keep on plugging away as long as possible.
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So ten months later, his last hurrah came at Across The Years. It was 2024 when Ian started the 6-day there, and the clock crossed into 2025 before he successfully reached 100 miles in 127:45:56. That’s a full 90 hours slower than his previous performance, but I suspect it gave him great satisfaction nonetheless, a month before his death. (Maddieson was an impressive individual. He had an important enough academic life to merit a page on Wikipedia, and to see a biography of his professional achievements, the Univ. of New Mexico has a webpage devoted to that at: https://www.unm.edu/~ianm/bio.html .)
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Remember him with the deepest respect. And perhaps try to emulate him, staying active into your 80s, as well.
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Ian Maddieson at the Vermont 100 in 2011
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[The prior commentary]
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World & U.S. rankings — 100-mile runners over age 70
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Introductory comments to May, 2024 update
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The year since my last update of these compilations has seen another sizable increase in the numbers of runners (or runner/walkers) worldwide who have completed 100 miles or more in an ultradistance race sometime after their 70th birthday. Internationally, there are now 290 men and 32 women of this vintage who have gone that far in 40 hours or less. That’s 30 more than last time. 205 of these veteran athletes have achieved this distinction in under 30 hours; and 75 (including three women) under 24 hours.
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At the pinnacle, there have been 8 men in history who have broken 20 hours after age 70. Peter Huser just joined this most elite group, by virtue of a 19:05:41 split at the Sri Chinmoy 24-Hour in Basel, Switzerland. The late Max Jones of England still continues as the all-time recordholder, however, with the Englishman having run 18:16:19 in 1997, over a quarter-century ago. The Swiss runner became only the fourth man to have ever gotten within an hour of Jones’ time. (The other three were all Frenchmen, in 1997, 2016 and 2021.) Oddly, while lots of fresh septuagenarians are joining the ranks 100-mile finishers nowadays, the women’s record (20:39:17 by Australia’s Shirley Young) has also stood for over two decades.
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While a majority of runners on these overall lists hail from the U.S., our country is heavily outnumbered in the upper reaches of them—although 54.3% of them who have broken 40 hours are Americans, only 17.3% of all the sub-24 hour performers represent the U.S.
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Not surprisingly most of the members of the “100-mile/over-70” club achieve their fastest time at these ages in the years right after reaching that age. To date, it takes a 26:27 to make it into the Top 100, and all but 8 of these over-70 PRs have been done by runners in the 70-74 age group. This is a combination of the understandable, and often severe, slowdown which comes with age, plus the simple factor of people retiring entirely at this advanced age.
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When looking at the other two age-groups presented in these lists, it’s interesting to contemplate how exceptional are the “survivors” who stay active at this extreme distances as the years mount up. I don’t have statistics for the exact number of ultramarathoners in each age group, but examined a much larger body of age group marathoners, whose retirement patterns as endurance athletes should roughly mimic those who do even longer events. Last year, the World Marathon Majors championships were based on results from over 400 marathons around the world. They featured a total of 9,461 different men and women who competed in the 65-69 age group. By comparison, there was a 62.8% dropoff in participation in the 70-74 group. In the 75-79 group, there was an additional 76.6% falloff, and for all the marathoners still going between 75-79, the number of finishers after age 80 plummeted 79.7% more. It meant that for every 21 marathoners in the 70-74 group, there was only a single one still going above age 80.
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With that in mind, the standout performances since last time were turned in by octogenarians — one from the U.S., and then a record-shattering mark by a Swede.
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On Nov. 11th at the Tunnel Hill 100 in Illinois, a few months after turning 80, Wally Hesseltine of Lafayette, Cal., became the second fastest runner of that age at 100 miles, blazing a 26:22:26. This left him more than two hours behind Englishman Geoff Oliver’s unprecedented world record of 24:01:17 in 2014, but more than two hours ahead of the next best age-group time ever.
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However, Wally was bumped down to the third fastest in history five months later, when Oliver’s longstanding record fell, on an 821-meter road loop at Vaxio, Sweden. In a 24-hour by Lake Trummen, in view of the Teleborg castle, 80-year-old Bo Pelander hit the 100-mile length in 23:50:11, with fewer than ten minutes remaining on the clock. In the process, he beat 50 of the 83 other runners in the race, and accomplished that by turning in fairly even 50-mile splits of 11:13:31-12:36:40. For such a long event, that’s not much of a second-half slowdown.
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Pelander did his first ultra (a 10:24:53 for 100Ks) in 1996. He was already 53 when he got started, yet by now he’s been at it for 28 years. He broke 24 hours for 100 miles when he was 61 and 62, but although Pelander had competed frequently since then, it was 18 more years before Bo could crack that barrier again. And ascend to heights no one else of his age has ever achieved.
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In fact, Pelander’s and Hesseltine’s triumphs made them only the sixth and seventh 80+ runners to ever break 30 hours for the distance. The group includes one stellar woman, in 5th place. Germany’s Ursula Dinges ran a 29:15:24 in 2021, and is still going strong. In Sept., now 83, she passed 100 miles in 37:13:05 during a 48-hour at Brugg, Switzerland, in which she wound up with 122.47 total miles.
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Unfortunately, Ursula’s exploits are ones I’d missed for a long time. (Mea culpa! . .) Dinges began doing ultras at the start of this century, at age 60, competing in an annual trail 80-K, or 49.7 miles, throughout the decade of her sixties, with a 100k PR of 10:46:49 when she was 69. For the longer stuff, though, Ursula waited till she was 76 before graduating to her inaugural 100-mile, in 29:58:25. She’s in a class of her own, as no other woman over 80 has ever even broken 40 hours for 100 miles, let alone matched her recent 37 hours, or 29 hours.
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Ursula is an exemplar of the fact that, for both the aging men and women of the ultramarathoning world, our horizons continue to expand.