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Two Types of Able-Bodied Runners Make The News

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The Mature Runner

By David Summerfield

The following two stories have to do with runners depicted as “disabled” or “challenged” in one way or another. Ha! These runners are hardly; their training makes them head-and-shoulders above us more normal runners.

First, there’s Makenna Myler, an Asics sponsored runner, who has been paving the way for women to keep running all through their pregnancies. I will relay the facts as I have found them, and let you make your own conclusions! I found the article at “yahoo!life,” written by Korin Miller. The title caught my eye: “Don’t be afraid to challenge reality.” Makenna ran a 5:17 mile while 9 months pregnant (a few weeks before her due date). Here is the picture that came with the article.

Nine months pregnant, no problem – photo courtesy of Makenna Myler herself.

As a professional runner, Makenna ran the 10,000 meters at the 2020 Olympic Trials in Eugene, OR, and came in 14th. Her PR is 32:03 at that distance. She also has a 4:42.40 mile to her credit (as well as a 15:31 5km PR). She decided in 2020 to run a mile within a week of her due date. It turns out she loves running timed miles on the track to celebrate important events – like running a mile on her wedding day (she would become a “Myler” – her husband’s last name – so it seemed appropriate!). She had the blessing of her obstetrician, and kept training right up until the delivery. She had a bet with her husband, who said she couldn’t run a sub-8 minute mile under those conditions. So, she ran a 5:25 on a $100 bet. Then, three years later, and being 3 weeks before the due date (this time it was February 21st – and due on March 15th), she ran a 5:17 mile! I found a Runner’s World interview written on March 13th, by Kells McPhillips (and taken from an NPR interview) with these quotes from Makenna: “It’s kind of funny. The weight almost just catches up to you in a sense. Like, all of a sudden, it hits your body that, like, you’re carrying this much weight. You need to slow down, even though you can kind of start out at a similar cadence.”

She added that while her midsection wasn’t shaking too much, her hips, quads, and lower back had to work overtime to propel her from one step to the next. She knew from her first timed mile (the 5:25 in 2020 before her first birth) she would get a lot of criticism for doing this; being irresponsible, endangering the life of a newborn, etc.

“There’s so many people who think I’m an absolute idiot,” she said. “And this time around, it’s just been quite a laugh with what people have to say. The comments are just absolutely ridiculous. The best is, ‘if men could run while pregnant, they would be running a four-minute mile, so this isn’t impressive.’”

And this leads me into one more story for April where an elite marathon runner saw a handicapped runner fumble trying to get a drink at the 10km table and helped him hydrate, and then ran with him 28 more kilometers, to make sure he had the water he needed. The report I read stated that Jacqueline Nyetipei Kiplimo ran beside the unknown Chinese runner for 28km, and left him with 5km to go. She raced ahead trying to catch the front pack, which she did! The Chinese runner was listed as an elite runner, but in the “disabled” category.

Jacqueline Nyetipei Kiplimo races alongside a Chinese runner and helps him along the course. (Photo from Skeptics.StackExchange.com)

Doing a little research, I found out that the Kenyan runner (Kiplimo) actually did finish this race in 2nd place, earning $6,000. The winner took home $15,000. They were 68 seconds apart at the finish (winner Chepkemoi, also a Kenyan, came in at 2:36:54). This all took place at the International Zheng-Kai Marathon in China on March 28th, 2010. There was some controversy with the veracity of the news article, but apparently it was thoroughly researched and everything checked out fine.

According to the story, Kiplimo came upon the “disabled” Chinese runner at a water stop and noticed he was having trouble handling the water cup. So, Kiplimo helped him out, and they ran side-by-side until the 38km mark, at which Kiplimo put on the afterburners, and caught back-up to the women’s front pack, almost pulling off the win. Of course there’s a lot of online comments about this incident, but the picture above is all I need.

These two articles inspired me to not take anyone’s (especially my) apparent difficulties in running as normal and then do something about it, like change the reality one is looking at. I would never call myself a “disabled” runner, though I often feel like one. Looking at the Chinese runner holding down somewhere around a 2:40 marathon pace, he certainly wasn’t laboring under any reality that said he shouldn’t be there in an “elite” category.

Hmmm, that gives me an idea; why not create my own category; I’m in the “Over 75 Beartooth Foothills Super Category.” So what if the vast majority of those I pass on the trails are all deer? Yes, they look a bit askance at me, and often scatter as I approach, but mainly they just stand there and stare. They must know they’re witnessing a miracle happening, right in front of their eyes!

These are my spectator deer, witnessing the miracle of my accomplishments!

My New Marathon Hero, Ed Whitlock

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The Mature Runner

By David Summerfield

Due to Stacy and my trip to Canada this October, I had to find out about Canadian runners. We were mostly in Nova Scotia, which has its share of great runners, but I then realized Ed Whitlock (born in London) had emigrated to Quebec and then Milton, Ontario, and further research revealed what a wonderful person he was. He died in 2017, but reading some interviews with him, he instantly became my overall hero. He was known for his gentlemanly demeanor, gracious smile, and flowing white hair. But what got me hooked was his total lack of ego in the face of recording world records over the course of several decades.

(20 year old shoes work perfectly well! “perfectbodybywil.blogspot.com”)

In his youth he did compete a lot (shorter distances) and I couldn’t help but notice his height/weight (something I’ve become a little bit too obsessed with lately). He only weighed 112 pounds at 5’7”. Those statistics seem to be the preferred ones for fast times (see previous articles concerning record-breaking Kenyan and Ethiopian runners). As is the case with the normal lot, he put aside “serious” running for his professional career as an engineer, graduating from the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College. He landed in Ontario when he was 41, and only started marathon running when his youngest son had been training to run a marathon himself (his son had run everyday for over a year as his training). He talked his dad into running with him – Ed had tried to dissuade him – but surprised everyone by running a 2:31:23 marathon as a 48 year-old. Yikes. Yes, he enjoyed running fast times on the track throughout his life, but he got really serious about running when he retired. His stated goal was to be the 1st person over 70 to run a marathon under 3 hours. Ed made sure he could do that by running the Columbus (Ohio) Marathon way under 3 hours for the 1996-2000 years. He got his goal when he was 73 at the Scotiabank Toronto Riverbank Marathon by running a 2:54:48. And in Rotterdam the next year “…some of the world’s best marathon runners, Kenyans in their 20s and 30s, could not fathom why a person my age would be running a marathon and certainly not in that time. I did 2:58:40 that day and it blew their minds,” Whitlock wrote in a story for iRun magazine. “This needs to change,” he said. “Because if they can’t imagine themselves doing the same thing, it will never happen. Why don’t they think they can do the same thing?” I like this guy more and more!

(Ed Whitlock’s record “canadarunningseries.com” at age 85).

Here are some of my favorite quips from the National Post interview (Mar 13th, 2017):

“What do you think about when you’re running?” he was once asked. “When will this be over?” he replied. Another one: What makes a good marathon runner? Whitlock’s response: “Shine a light through their ear. If light comes out on the other side, odds are they’re up to the task.” Ed doesn’t use a GPS watch, and his training regimen was doing laps in the local Milton Evergreen Cemetery. He would just do laps until 3 hours were up, and that’s all he needed to do. Alan Brookes (Toronto Marathon race director) said most world record holders would be wearing free shoes from their sponsors. Not so for Ed. Alan noticed Ed’s shoes, and swore they must be 20 year-old shoes. He obviously was running for the pure joy of running, though he did admit to enjoying all the attention he got – but it stopped there. As he “slowed” down (sub 4 hour marathons in his mid-80’s), he adjusted his cemetery loops to just loops around a gravestone. “I like running in the cemetery,” Whitlock reasoned. “Compared to everyone else there, no matter how you look when you’re running, you look pretty good.”

(I’m looking pretty good…in comparison! (The Age of Simplicity “www.runnersworld.com”)

How to describe my new hero? Just don’t make a big fuss about what you do. Just do it, and be consistent about it all. When asked about what he eats, he just shrugged it off as not important. This implies there are no “Whitlock secrets” to running amazingly fast times for an octogenarian. From what I learned, he was obviously born with a good, sound body (I do believe we all are, to some extent). He trained in the rather “normal” way – doing faster-than-normal repeats in his 40’s (this was before he retreated to safe gravestones), some hill work (though all the pictures of him running in the cemetery show nothing but flat, grassy plots), and honing his pace (his engineering background came in handy – floating endless numbers in his head to keep that pace steady). He also chose marathons with very little to no elevation gain (hence Cleveland, Ohio, Rotterdam, and Toronto). But “google” him and see his age-group world records in all distances, from 800 meters and up.

Then I found an article (Ed Whitlock and the Age of Simplicity) written by Scott Douglas forRunners World (Feb 15, 2010). It’s a wonderfully revealing article about the real Ed Whitlock! Here are my favorite parts:

“Whitlock lives two and a half blocks from the cemetery, and does all of his training there. Speed work, daily maintenance runs, long runs of up to 3 hours, everything, meted out in loops that take no more than 5 minutes. He leaves his house with his day’s assignment decided and runs loops until his time is up. He doesn’t count loops or time them. He does look at his watch frequently and think, ‘What is taking so damn long?’ The day’s loop varies occasionally, sometimes dictated by the presence of grounds crew or gravediggers. He never runs the full perimeter loop. The last little section on the southwestern side of the cemetery would add another minute or so, but it includes a rise, perhaps 50 yards long, with the steepness of a handicap-accessibility ramp. ‘I choose not to tackle this hill,’ Whitlock explains. ‘I don’t like hills.’”

“When at the height of marathon training, Whitlock does cemetery loops for 3 hours a day, every day. He doesn’t do pick-ups or progression runs or marathon-pace work. He doesn’t even stop for water. Just 3 hours a day of what he calls ‘plodding’ or ‘jogging.’ ‘I run to race,’ he says. ‘I don’t do it primarily for my health or anything else.’”

“Living in Quebec in the ‘70’s, Brenda was at a school sports day when a teenager told her the running club was looking for a coach. ‘My wife said, “My husband used to run. He knows all about running,” Whitlock says with a laugh. ‘A, I don’t know anything about running. B, I have no ambition to be a coach. I’m too selfish. But I had been committed. When I went to practice, nobody showed any interest in me. I would just lean against the fence. I thought I might as well do some jogging around the track. This was quite a sight, because old men of 40 didn’t run in those days. I kept showing up and jogging around and ended up racing again because of that. It just kind of happened.’”

“Less than six months shy of his 70th birthday, Whitlock ran 2:54 at the 2000 Columbus Marathon. ‘I thought, “We’re okay now,” he says. “Maybe foolishly, I decided to try for sub-3 once I was 70 in London, Ontario. There were only about 300 people in the race, and I got hung out to run by myself the last half of the race.” Whitlock missed the mark with an agonizingly close 3:00:23. The 2- and 3-hour runs built on each other, and at the 2003 Toronto Marathon, at age 72, Whitlock met his goal with a 2:59:09. The following year, with several months of plodding buoying him, he returned to Toronto and ran 2:54:48. About that race, Whitlock, who is not given to rhapsody about life‘s endeavors, says, ‘That was a good day. It was never a struggle.’”

“Whitlock, who says, ‘I stay away from doctors, they’re bad people,’ last had a physical exam when he was 40. His uncle Arthur was Britain’s oldest man when he died in 2000 at age 108. Whitlock last took an aspirin during World War II.”

“‘Running should be a pastime,’ he says. ‘All sports should be a pastime. There shouldn’t be all this professional stuff. I believe that Paula Radcliffe is drug-free, but I do think she pushes the envelope of being a professional runner to the extreme. I don’t mean to single her out, but she’s living an artificial existence. She’s always away from home or sleeping in an altitude chamber. She has this entourage of people constantly around her poking and prodding. That’s so far away from what I do and how I would want to live. Monomania leads to terrible things.’”

(Famous World Record old shoes “timenote.info”)

All I can say at this point is….are there realistically any world records left to be achieved? It’s hard to come up with any for me. Darn. Maybe if I just keep on “doing my thing”, one will present itself, and I’ll get back to hone my body to do the impossible. And I hope I can find a handy cemetery nearby. I like the idea of just getting out there, no counting of miles, loops, or hours. Just jogging along. And I’ve accumulated enough “not worn-out enough Hokas” to last me several more decades. I’m all set. Don’t count me out, okay?

The Mature Runner: What World Record Fell This Month?

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By David Summerfield

At the Eugene, Oregon World T&F Championships, Sydney McLaughlin (USA) ran a 50.68 in the women’s 400m hurdles – and was just 1:57 behind the winning 400m, without hurdles! And Noah Lyles just lowered the American 200 meter dash time to 19:31. Great…these quick short, little runs were well shy of going 26.2 miles.

Anything else? Well, the fact that I eeeked out one more marathon this year, yes – that’s a Summerfield 2022 Record. Ha! Must I bore you with the details, obviously! Since ending my “real running exploits a few years ago, I only jog downhills anymore. Now all I do is pick a course that gets measured accurately (I used to be a certified USA T&F course measurer, and I would “sanction” races, really). Then I build up to it, and pull it off. I used to do this using Frank Newman’s marathon course going to Livingston (yes, walking the whole way). Moving to Nye, Montana – I found a great course, measured it, and did it last year, with Stacy’s help who did the last 16 mile with me (if you ever need a new marathon course, just get to Absarokee, park near the intersection of the only blinking light going through town, and take off going toward Red Lodge.

(the Absarokee blinking light starting line “everipedia.org”)

After 2.8 miles, turn West onto the Nye Road, and go the 24 miles to the Cathedral Mountain Ranch gate…exactly 26.3 miles. You have the thrill of seeing the snowcapped Beartooth Mountains as a backdrop – just like seeing the Absarokas going over to Livingston).

(CMR Gate Finish Line, “cmra.us/photo/cabins/gagte1a.jpg”)

Back to this year’s 2022 marathon. Instead of the traditional FNM on Memorial Day weekend (we were in France then), we kept waiting for decent weather – not hot, not on a weekend. Too many days in the 90’s, so I got impatient, and decided to start at 2:30am, on the coolest day (only 85°) for weeks.

The next challenge was to find the perfect cache sites for my smorgasbord every 5 miles or so. This year, I discovered that all those metal guardrails along highways always have little curved endings, with hollowed-out cupboards behind, perfect for storing food and drink, and a flat spot on top to sit on while dining along the roadway. Suddenly, “doing a marathon” turned into a stroll along the road in style. What’s in the cache? The obligatory 14oz, 30g Premier Protein drink à la Franklin Coles, a used Coke bottle with Gatorade refill, a banana, a GU packet, a Kirkland chewy granola bar, and a little crisp apple. The last 3 caches had a wonderfully honeyed (moist soaked-through) peanut butter/honey sandwich. I discovered that much food is great for a much longer distance! At the end of the walk, I found out I weighed a pound heavier at the end than at the beginning! That’s something new. (Perhaps I’m putting out too much food.) Oh, I also carry a Scott Jurek inspired waist belt which holds 3 pouches – one for the ibuprofen and HammerNutrition ecaps, the others for the nasty GU packets.

If you’ve gotten this far in the article, my apologies. Here are some of the highlights: at 2:30am July 19th, the moon was high in the SW over my shoulder, with Neptune right beside it. This picture doesn’t do justice to the sight. It was like a huge flashlight.

(Moon with Jupiter “www.theweathernetwork.com”)

I could easily see the white lines telling me where the asphalt ended. The Pleiades rose further to the West around 3:30am. There was NO traffic. I was in my own personal paradise. I wore a headlamp, but only used it to find the various mileage markers so I could compute my pace. My 1st cache was across the street from the Fishtail General Store, next to a perfectly flat sitting rock. 6 minutes later, off I went into the night.

Fishtail General Store “www.whereiscookie.com”)

Around 5:30am, the 1st of 6 big white buses roared by – taking the daytime shift workers to the Stillwater Mine, located just 2 miles down from my finish line. That’s when the traffic started to grow. It wasn’t until past my 2nd cache (mile 11) that I entered the 1st direct sunlight. With a good headwind, I was kept quite cool as I got to the 1⁄2 way point, where Stacy and Morgan (daughter) joined me for the last 1⁄2 of the route! The 3rd cache was by the “Fishtail Creek End-of-the-metal-guardrail Smorgasbord station. I was too full to take much, realizing I wasn’t burning as many calories as I imagined. Up and over the pass, there’s a 5 mile long winding downhill with gorgeous views of the Beartooths. Yes, getting hot, but that headwind was a Godsend. Realizing we were going to go faster than the year before (8 hrs 47 min) we pressed on with blistering soles yelling away. We finished at our car parked next to the Cathedral Mountain Ranch gate in 8 hrs, 28 min. A wonderful walk on a beautiful day, and whew – the 2022 marathon is history – and I’m consciously wondering why I have to do this every single year. Yes, the streak is unbroken since my 1st marathon in 1980. (digression: the 1st marathon was the “Marathon de Martigny”, Switzerland – run entirely on narrow cobblestone, gravel paths through their vineyards…done in 2:59:36…yes, I was trying to get under 3 hours!) Back to streaks, they are made to be broken….just like world records? We’ll see. Frankly, making it a huge production is sorta fun, and with a willing family to put up with this kind of stuff, we’ll keep it going 🙂