In It for the Long Haul
My first ultra was a while ago. On Nov. 16, 1974, I placed second in 8:30:28 to future Hall-of-Famer Park Barner in the C&O Canal 100K. The point-to-point course ran along the Potomac River from the Washington Monument to a spot opposite Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
At the time, I was certainly not wondering what I might be doing in five years, or 40 years,
for that matter. Nonetheless, the ultra distances quickly became the main focus of my own running. However, back then, ultras were in their infancy. There were only 11 such races held in the U.S. that year, and the total finishers (225) of the JFK 50 was more than twice the number of total finishers in all the others combined.
It was also a realm almost entirely made up of young men in their 20’s and 30’s. Women were welcome, but there were only a few female pioneers who ventured into this exotic area, such as Californian’s Eileen Waters, who set a world record of 6:55:27 for 50 miles in 1974, and Natalie Cullimore, who ran 16:11:00 for 100 miles in 1971.
As for older runners who went further than the marathon, they were a scarce breed. Runners in their 50’s were few and far between, and men older than that were true rarities. In 1974, the most elderly guy to do a 50-miler was the irrepressible 66-year-old Walt Stack, who ran JFK in 9:48:16. Stack was a beloved and legendary character from San Francisco, a barrel-chested Communist manual laborer famous for his cheerfully boisterous, salty language.
After becoming head of the New York Road Runners Club, Corbitt kicked off our modern era by putting on a 30-mile race in the Bronx on March 8, 1959, which he himself won in 3:04:13.
If there was anyone who could be considered the “Grand Old Man” of ultras at the time, it was Ted Corbitt.
