Dennis Durbin reached 100,000 miles on July 21, 2020

Dennis Durbin

Martinez, CA

Birth: September 1951

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My running career began in high school when I joined the track team at St Vincent de Paul High School in Mt Vernon, Ohio. Prior to its closure in 1968, our team consisted of three members: my brother Ben (middle distance), Jon Snyder (sprints, long jump), and me (two-mile). Our coach, Joel Krocker, prepared us well and we beat some teams that had two or three members for each event. Those were the good old days that solidified my interest in running.

After high school, I walked on as a member of the Ashland College (now University) cross-country team in Ashland, Ohio, which was coached by Meade Burnett, who had been a standout sprinter at Ohio State. Prior to the start of indoor track, Coach Burnett suggested that team members keep a log of each workout. So I started logging my miles in November 1969 and now have 50-plus yearly logbooks. 

My running career at Ashland produced most of my PRs: mile (4:35), 2-mile (9:38), 3-mile (14:56), 6-mile (31:21), and 10-mile (55:11). Nothing spectacular, but I placed well enough in our meets, including cross country, to earn varsity level over four years. My best week was 120 miles, month 428 miles, and year 3722 miles.

After graduation from Ashland, I continued running and entered a number of road races from four miles to marathons. My first marathon was Boston in 1971 (2:55:35) and my best marathon was First Tennessee Bank in Chattanooga in 1977 (2:37:38 – 4 th place). My most difficult marathon was the 1977 Equinox Marathon in Fairbanks, Alaska, which covered some very rocky and steep ski trails. I ended up third with a time of 3:01:14.

Over the years, I concentrated more on getting miles, including 3-a-day workouts, instead of racing. I was able to string together a couple of 500 running day streaks, but realized I needed some rest time.

Most of my miles were logged in California, Ohio, and Alaska. While working on the Alaska Pipeline, I was the first one to run across the Yukon River Bridge. I also had a couple of black bear encounters that prompted me to have someone drive along while I ran.

I reached the 100,000-mile mark on July 21, 2020 at Lake Tahoe, which is one of my favorite places to run. For the days that I ran (12,850), my average has been 7.75 miles, which includes a number of two- a-days. Hopefully, I can continue this pace into my 70’s.

Stefan Fekner has run 256,695 kilometers (about 160,000 miles) on Feb. 1, 2020

Stefan Fekner

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

DOB: June 6, 1952

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As a runner and ultrarunner, I am a late bloomer. Growing up,

Toronto 100K, 1986

no one in my community ran more than a few miles or on a track. I was introduced to ‘jogging’ by my first planning director in 1980. I was 30 years old and immediately took to running increasing distances, with my lanky frame (long legs, short torso).

A serendipitous meeting, during a long Sunday run, with David LaPierre and Roy Sadgrove, two local ultrarunners resulted in my first ultra, two weeks later in the Vermilion 50 mile run (1984). The rest is history.

I found my niche in the 100 km as track was too much work and the marathon distance was not going to get me into the Olympics. I was a ‘lazy’ 10 km runner and preferred the 100 mile plus weekly training runs on the roads and shared use paths. I have tried some trail and cross country running but I prefer to just “get in a grove” and fly timelessly down the road. This is the essence of running, letting the body do the work while the mind wonders to other interests.

My marathon times were respectable, five under 2 hours, 30 minutes, but it was my 100 km times that earned me invitations and trips to nine IAU (International Association of Ultrarunners) World 100 km Championships; with 11 sub 7 hour performances; 3 Canadian National Championships; and a third place finish in the 1990 World Championships (only Canadian to date to place in these Championships). In 1988, I was Ultrarunning Magazine’s North American Male Ultrarunner of the Year. I have been fortunate in venturing into a seminal sport and being a Canadian ultrarunning pioneer.

Records are intended to be eclipsed. My inspiration comes “being in the arena” (President Theodore Roosevelt), with some of the finest ultrarunners (and human beings); experiencing moments of history (first Canadian 100 km team; first World 100 km Championships); and developing long friendships and warm memories of these races. I still run and compete in races for the ambiance and the fellowship. Running and (now) cycling athletes share a vital sense of ‘community’ throughout the world. My goal has always been to continue to enjoy the pursuit of physical movement and to learn new lessons as I age.

I will end with a quote from Dan Brannen (Running Times): “The longer we run, the more dimensions we add to an activity as maddingly complex as it is simple.” I just like to go out and run.

Thomas C. Bennett reached 160,000 kilometers on Nov. 30, 2019

Thomas C. Bennett

Auburn, Maine

Age 62

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I started running in May, 1981, after relocating to Maine from California, and that month notched a 49:14 10K. My first bout with serious training began in late 1983/early 1984, when my sister Kelly and I prepared for the original Maine Coast Marathon, which we ran in May, 1984. I have run around 40 marathons, with a PR of 2:43 at San Francisco in 1985. In recent years, I’ve returned to racing 5Ks and half marathons, and have done a number of trail and mountain races, including the Pineland 25K, Loon Mountain, and Cranmore Mountain Race, but continue to train almost exclusively on the roads.

My non-marathon road PRs are all from 1989: 8K 25:50, 10K 33:12, 10 mile 54:53,  half marathon 1:14:14. I reached 50,000 miles of running after 12.5 years, while the second 50,000 miles took twice as long. I got married in 1995, and have helped raise beautiful twin daughters while enjoying a fulfilling profession as a public librarian and historian. I value the benefits of snowshoeing, my canoe and Concept2 rower, hiking, shoveling the plentiful Maine snow, stacking, and hauling on average six cord of wood annually, trying new running events, and long, slow distance with good training partners. I serve on the board of the Maine Running Hall of Fame and as MRHOF archivist.

Jerry Kotsovos has run 127,000 miles (April 15, 2019)

Jerry Kotsovos
Camas, WA
D.O.B.:  May, 1946
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I was overweight during the latter portion of my childhood and during my college years.  However, wanting to lose weight, on July 19,1975 I started counting the number of miles I ran each day in order to motivate myself in my attempt to lose weight.  Since July 19, 1975, I have run more than 127,000 miles (a number of miles more than equal to half-way to the moon and more than equal to five times the circumference of the Earth.)  I try to run everyday and my longest streak of unmissed days occurred during my late 60's and early 70's when I ran on each of 1,943 consecutive days (a period of time lasting more than five years). It was a streak of runs which included runs in, in successive years, Canada, Panama, Egypt, Costa Rica, and Spain as well as runs in the United States. (When I am not running in my hometown, and, therefore, running an unmarked course, I calculate mileage run by adding several minutes to my typical minutes per mile so that I can be sure that I am not overcounting my mileage.)

I have been recording my number of miles run each day since 1975.  Indeed, my number of miles run since 1989 have been recorded on Runner's World annual calendars.  When I started running at 29-years-of-age, I would not have believed that  I would be running for more than forty years or running marathons.  However, several months after I started running, former Olympic marathoner Kenny Moore, like myself a graduate of the University of Oregon, won Coos Bay, Oregon's annual 18 miles race titled "Circle-the-Bay" and, after the race, told me that if I can run 18 miles then I can run a marathon.  I ran my first marathon several months after my conversation with Kenny Moore and have continued running marathons to the extent I have run marathons in six decades of my life.  (My best marathon time was the 2:56:12 I ran in the 1978 Boston Marathon.)

Norm Spitzig has reached 100,000 miles (March 27, 2019)

Norm Spitzig
Mount Dora, Florida
DOB: January, 1950
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On March 27th , 2019, I “officially” reached 100,000 running miles. Woohoo! Actually, I almost surely surpassed this lofty number a couple of years ago due to my longtime conservative
mileage-recording practice of “rounding down to whole numbers” when logging my miles. For example, a 9.3-mile run is counted as simply 9 miles. (Hey, that’s just who I am!)

It is my special honor to now become part of such an accomplished group of laser-focused high achievers, given that, by comparison, I am a relative slow-poke. My best time in the marathon is 2:51:30, recorded at the 1982 America’s Marathon in Chicago. Other notable” personal bests (at least from my perspective!) are:

* my 1982 Fort Wayne 50-mile run in 6:49:04,
* my 35:50 in the 1982 Cincinnati Home Loan 10K,
* my fifty-five minutes flat in the 1981 Cincinnati “Mini-Marathon” (15 kilometers), and
* my 1:21:02 in the 1981 Covington (Kentucky) Wade YMCA Half Marathon.

Truth be told, I remember my 1:56.43 in the 2018 Mount Dora (Florida) Half Marathon as one of my tougher races, even if was a full 35:41 slower than what I ran over the same distance in Kentucky all those years ago. Alas, tempus fugit. My highest weekly mileage is right at 100 miles,  a feat that I accomplished exactly once. (And that was enough!)

I am also a dedicated “streak runner”, but not the kind that most people conjure up when they first hear this term. (And no, Ray Stevens, I’ve never run in the nude–at least as an adult!) My particular idea of streak running is to reach at least 2,000 miles in any given calendar year, something that I have accomplished 46 times during my time on earth. This particular approach to streak running allows me to have a “bad” week, or even a “bad” month and still attain my annual goal. (Plus, this approach has kept me relatively injury free for over five decades of running by allowing me to rest my weary body when and as needed!) My 2,000-miles-in-a-year streak was last broken in 1996, when I “only” ran 1,927 miles, but I haven’t missed attaining this magical number since that time. We’ll learn soon enough how many more years I can keep this current streak alive.

On a personal note, my wonderful wife Cody Pollock Spitzig and I have been married for thirty-seven awesome years. We have three marvelous adult children (none of whom resides in our basement and all of whom have grown up to become caring, responsible and, perhaps most importantly, genuinely likable adults with razor-sharp senses of humor). We are currently doing our best to thoroughly spoil our four super-huggable grandchildren, all with an uncanny physical and intellectual resemblance to Grampa Norm. I spent my professional life working in the world of private clubs, early on as a general manager and, for the past two decades, as Principal and
Senior Partner in Master Club Advisors, where I continue to focus my efforts on executive search, leadership workshops for boards of directors, strategic planning facilitation, and speaking to assorted club associations and groups literally around the world. All four of my private-club-centered novels (Private Clubs in America and around the World; Murder and Mayhem at Old Bunbury; How Now, Norm’s Tao;, and Soul on Nice) continue to sell reasonably well because, well, most everyone agrees that they are pretty darn funny. (Book details are available at ww.CliveEndiveOgiveIV.com and www.NormSpitzig.com)