Erik Schlimmer tells the story of how he learned to fastpack the Adirondacks, a grueling 110 miles and 19,000 vertical feet of climbing, in five days with only 11 pounds on his back.
When this issue hits the gyms and stores, the story that inspired this column will be old news, but I’m writing about it anyway because I think it raises some really important issues in the active community.
New York City is not exactly where you’d expect to find an
Ultrarunning scene. With small
parks and crowded streets, finding a place to get in a 10K run is difficult
enough, but a 50K or 100 miles or more would seem impossible. Surprisingly, the
ultrarunning trend in the U.S. owes a lot to NYC roots. Here’s a very selective
history of how ultrarunning began in New York.
It all started with Ted Corbitt, considered by many to be
the father of ultrarunning in the U.S.
Ted was an Olympic marathoner, and held multiple American records at
distances 50 miles and longer. He finished the famous London to Brighton ultra
in second place three times. No other American has finished as well as that.
The Broadway Ultra Society was started in 1978 by Richie
Innamorata. I suspect that the name for the group came from runs Richie and Jim
Shapiro would do from Columbus Circle up Broadway. I met them one November
around that time as they were passing through Inwood on a run to Peekskill,
which was, at the time, a shocking
distance. Jim Shapiro ran solo across the country in 1980 starting in
California and ending in New York City. He wrote “Meditations from the
Breakdown Lane” about that journey. Marv Skaggerberg made that same trip only
he raced Malcolm Campbell to raise money for ALS. Skaggerberg won that race by a mere 15 minutes, finishing at
the NYC Marathon finish line.
Local women have done equally as well in setting milestones
for ultra distances with Marcy Schwarm leading the way as the first woman to
break 6 hours for 50 miles, setting a world record. To put that accomplishment
into perspective, that’s a 7:12 pace.
Donna Hudson, a Millrose team member, set the World 100 mile
record in 1983. She covered the distance in 15 hours 31 minutes. Following in the footsteps of Schwarm
and Hudson was local world class and U.S. team member Ellen McCurtin. McCurtin
was on multiple U.S. and World 100K teams, she also was overall winner of the
tough Sybil Ludington 50K race in Westchester, N.Y. My friend Ralph Balsamo, who introduced me to ultrarunning,
was first man across the finish line at that race, but was second overall to
Ellen. (Ralph was also the person who convinced Ellen to put a number on and
race.)
In 1979, then NYRR President Fred Lebow put on a world class
100 mile race in Flushing Meadow Park. British runner Don Ritchie set a world
record covering the 100 miles in 11 hours and 51 minutes, a 7:06 pace.
Probably the best ultrarunner in the world is Yiannis
Kouros. The Greek athlete was the top ultrarunner for longer distances (beyond
100 miles, including 24 hours and longer). His breakthrough race was in 1984,
on Randall’s Island’s 400-meter track. Kouros ran for six days and broke a world
record that had stood for close to 100 years. At the same event, local runner Stu Mittleman set the
American record for that same distance.
The Knickerbocker 60K (when it was six loops of Central
Park) has seen some world- class performances, notably by Charlie Trayer, a
runner from Pennsylvania who ran a 6:49:36 in the Philly to Atlantic City 100K
race in 1989.
Local Central Park Track Club runner Fritz Mueller went 5:15
for 50 miles in the park. New Yorker Allan Kirik covered the same course in
5:14 and non-New Yorker Don Paul sped to a 5:09 50 miler (6:10 pace)—all of
these performances were at the Metro 50 Mile Championship, a race still held in
Central Park.
The borough of Queens has been home to many of New York’s
ultra records. The late Shri Chinmoy put on one of the world’s longest races in
our very own backyard. The 3,100 mile race is held each year in Queens around a
1-mile loop equivalent to running around the block. In the Forest Park
40-Miler, Bill DeVoe ran an amazing 3:56 on a sub 10-degree day. In the Joe
Kleinerman 12-hour run in Crocheron Park, New Yorker Chrisiane Avin beat Frank
Deleo in a 12-hour race. Deleo, at the time, was one of the N.Y. Metro area’s
top ultrrunners. Avin ran 88 miles to Deleo’s 79+ miles. While women’s times are
closer to men’s in ultra distances than in shorter races, that performance
still stands as the best 12-hour performance on American soil. So if you’re
just getting warmed up at the end of a marathon, New York has proven that it’s
the place to be to keep on running.
Local Ultraruns
More info at www.newyorkultrarunning.org.
• Sybil Ludington 50K (April event)
• Long Island Greenbelt Trail 50K and 25K, May 10
• Unisphere 100K, June 14
• Joe Kleinerman 12-hour run , Aug 2
• Staten Island 6-hour Run, Sept. 20
• Ted Corbitt 12-hour run, date TBA
• 6-Hour 60th Birthday Run, Oct. 19
