Good Sports

by Budd Glassberg

Reprinted with permission from the Zionsville Times Sentinel on March 1, 2006

Endeavoring to Endure

“Sorrow and silence are strong, and patient endurance is godlike.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I hear it all the time. Strangers come up to me in the grocery store, knowing that I partake in the excessive and ask me if I have heard of Dean or Pam. Dean Karnazes is the poster boy of the media with a perfect muscled body. He has written a book, Ultra Marathon Man, Confessions of an All-Night Runner, and appeared on 60 Minutes and Letterman in his self-promotion as the world’s greatest endurance athlete. His book lays claim to his greatness having won the Badwater 135 mile desert run an amazing one time in 2004. Pam Reed also appearing on 60 minutes and a great number of talk shows disputes Dean’s self coronation, believing the title belongs to her. The two-time Badwater champion in 2002 and 2003 was not comfortable with his publicity. The two have been one-upping the other in distance running to determine who is better. While both runners are gifted endurance athletes, neither comes close to many endurance athletes who are flying under the media radar and quietly and humbly accomplishing amazing feats of endurance in relative obscurity, not for the publicity or money, but instead for their love of the challenge. I could devote a column to each of these people, but with space being at a premium, I will just give a synopsis of their accomplishments.

Jure Robic, a 40 year-old Slavic soldier who has won the last two Insight Race Across America (RAAM) ultracycling race finishing the 3,000 mile ride from San Diego to Atlantic City in nine days. Last year he won the Le Tour Direct, a 2,500 mile race on the Tour de France course (140,000 feet of climbing) in just under 8 days. He did this just six weeks after winning the RAAM. In 2004 he set a world record by riding 518.7 miles in twenty-four hours. Each year he rides 28,000 miles on his bike.

Yiannis Kouros, my favorite long distance runner is a 49 year old from Greece who holds every world time record from 100 miles to 1,000 miles and every world distance record from 1 day to 10 days. Less than two months ago he broke his own 72-hour record by 23 miles by running 323 miles in Arizona’s Across the Years competition. His nearest competitor finished more than 60 miles behind him. On his way to that record, he broke his own 48-hour record. He currently holds 113 world records including running 1,000 miles in just over ten days. Even his endurance over time has endured as he won his first six-day race in New York City in the 1980’s.

Chet Blanton, a 40 year-old part-time shoe salesman and tennis coach from Honolulu who does not win races. Instead Blanton completed 17 full Ironman Triathlon events in 1997 including the Deca (the equivalent of 10, back-to-back 2.4-mile swims, 112-mile bike rides and 26.2-mile runs). Last November he completed a Double Decca which covered the distance of 20 Ironmans. It took him 28 days to swim 11.8 miles in a 25-meter pool, cycle 2,234 miles around a 1.1-mile track and run 522 miles on the same track. Unlike his competitors who are out to win and sleep only two hours per night, Blanton sleeps six hours and most often finishes feeling great without injury or even blisters. He expects to complete 30 Ironmans in a twelve-month period this year.

Then there is Keith Boissiere, known in Baltimore, where he lives to this day, as the “Running Man”. A native of Trinidad, Boissiere does not enter races. He lives like a monk in a one room apartment with very few possessions. He does not race, but instead has a streak going like no one else. He has run at least 20 miles a day for the past ten years or so he claims. While he has no proof of this, the people of Baltimore who know him and see him run each day a witnesses to his obsession.

There are so many others who deserve acclaim more than the publicity seeking Dean and Pam. Scott Jurek, a 31-year old endurance phenom has won the most prestigious 100-mile race in North America seven straight years (he holds the record for this race through the Sierra Nevada Mountains with a time of 15:36:27). In 2005 he followed up his victory at the Western States by winning the Badwater 135 mile race in 115 degree heat (Dean and Pam’s claim to fame) just two weeks later, taking 33 minutes off the course record. Ann Trason has won the Western States 7 times and holds the women’s course record with a time of 17:37:51. She has been among the top of all ultra runners for more than twenty years.

The interesting thing about all of the above athletes (with the probable exception of Jure Robic, whom even his friends admit is quite mad) is that each one is considered to be a quality individual deserving praise as a human being without regard to his or her athletic achievements. My wish for them is that some day the media will discovers these amazing people and give them their due.

Budd Glassberg is a resident of Zionsville who is active in the local running community. Visit www.runz.com for reprints of all his columns. You can reach him by email at budd@runz.com.