Dallas Robertson has reached 202,464 total miles (Dec. 31, 2014)

Dallas Robertson
Iowa City, Iowa
DOB: 7-23-1956
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I am writing to update my career total running mileage. I never had a 7000 mile year before. I had 6664 miles in 2012 and 6832 miles in 2013. I ended up having 7310 miles in 2014. That made my total for logged miles, 202,464 miles run from January 1, 1980 through December 31, 2014. I was fortunate to stay healthy and motivated.
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I am sending an updated career mileage total. I now have 190,043 miles logged from January 1, 1980 through the end of the day April 4, 2013. The weekly average for that time frame is 109.5 miles/week. That does not include the 20,000 – 25,000 miles I ran from April 25, 1975 through December 31, 1979. In 2011, I had 6484 miles and in 2012 I had 6664 miles. Provided I stay healthy, I should hit 200,000 miles logged by November 1, 2014. Men like Dave Beardall and Herbert Fred inspire the rest of us to reassess our goals and strive to go further than we ever thought possible. Before I was 10 years old, there was a family owned, corner grocery store that had fishbowls filled with penny candy. It was a little less than a mile from where I lived, but from a child’s perspective, it seemed like it was at the edge of the earth, too far to travel on foot. During my running career, my marathon taper weeks were 100 miles. I had no idea of what I was capable of. Looking back, I think I could have done even more.


PREVIOUSLY: JUNE 10, 2009
From Dallas Robertson: I started running April 25, 1975 to lose weight. I was about 175 pounds. The first night, I ran 2.25 miles. The next morning, I was 1 pound lighter. At that time, I wondered if I lost 1 pound doing 2.25 miles, how much would I lose by doing 7 miles. I ran 7 miles per day for 7 days and then ran 14 or more miles per day for 100 straight days. I weighed 145 pounds at that point. I had given up beer, pop, and McDonalds. I started eating canned fruit, loose fried hamburger with fried onions mixed in, and LOTS of cauliflower. I enlisted in the US Navy and left for boot camp in October, 1975. I continued to run as consistently as I could. I was assigned to the USS Raleigh which had a helicopter flight deck. It was 11 laps/mile. When we were at sea, I tried to run 11 miles (121 laps) over lunch and another 11 miles after work. I got tendonitis in my knees so bad, I could hardly climb steps. After some time off while overseas, we returned to Norfolk, Virginia, our home port. After work each day, I ran 20 miles, alternating days with a 2 ½ pound leather ankle weight on each leg.

I was discharged in April, 1979 and returned to Iowa City. I was running 80 to 100 miles per week, but never kept track. On January 1, 1980, I started keeping track of my mileage on my grandmother’s wall calendar, 1980 – 5581 miles. In the fall of 1997, I went over 100,000 miles. From January 1, 1980 through June 10, 2009, I have 165,737 logged miles. My lowest year was over 4500 in 2005 due to missing several months from knee surgery (my first time off due to a running injury since 1981). My highest year was 6650 in the early 1980’s. Last year (2008), I ran over 6000 miles. I have only driven my own vehicle to work 2 times since 1975.