Still Running (weakly). Issue 103

PAST – inspiration – “He was beautiful to watch.  He only trained once or twice a week.  He said he didn’t need to do any more, but the truth is he didn’t feel like training a lot of days because of the night before.”

So said Thelma, divorced wife of Fait Elkins, who set a US decathlon record in a scorching hot, single day event in 1928 (decathlon is normally over two days), and was talented enough to have professional American football, baseball and basketball teams offering him contracts!  Only a torn tendon kept him off the US Olympic decathlon team.

You may have heard of Billy Mills (Sioux, Olympic 10,000 gold 1964), Jim Thorpe (Sac and Fox, Olympic decathlon and pentathlon golds 1912, later disqualified), Tarzan Brown (Narragansett, Boston Marathon champ 1936, 1939), and even Deerfoot (Seneca, world distance records in the 1860s – great book by Rob Hadgraft), but Elkins (a half-blood Caddo Native American) was perhaps the most extravagantly gifted of them all.

But the only reliable thing about Elkins was his unreliability, as he let down his teams and his family with a predictable regularity.  He went to watch the Olympics in Amsterdam in 1928, assuring a pregnant Thelma he’d be straight home afterwards for the birth.  In fact, he made it back shortly before Christmas to meet his three-month-old daughter.

Later, he thought of joining the army after Pearl Harbor but admitted to his mother that he was unlikely to get in because he was, “purty fat.”  And anyway, he thought he’d be of far more value staying in Philadelphia, “taking care of all the lonesome wives.”

Despite all of this, Thelma bore him no grudge, to which the above quote attests.  Nor did his daughter, Cecile, who only saw him once in adulthood, when, “He made me feel like the most beautiful, sophisticated and loved daughter in the world.  I only have one real memory of him, of the one night when he was a great father.”

Here was a man who certainly lived life on his own terms – and perhaps had the charm – and the occasional honourability – to get away with it.

PRESENT – perspiration – “They seemed to move with the ground, kind of like a cloud or a fog moving across the mountains,” were words used to describe one of the most recent examples of Native American running prowess, this time by the Tarahumara or Raramuri from Copper Canyon, Mexico (Raramuri means, “those who run fast” – see Christopher McDougall’s book, Born to Run, for much more) in the 90s, perhaps most notably in the 1994 Leadville 100 miles.

It took Ann Trason, multiple world record holder (50 miles, 100km, 100 miles) and winner of numerous ultras (e.g. she was Western States 100 women’s winner an unbelievable 14 times, 1989-98 and 2000-2003), who was second, to separate Juan Herrera (first) and Martimano Cervantes (third.)

FUTURE – suggestion – Thank you to those of you who have shared your goals in response to my question of last week – what achievement could you reach for, that at present exceeds your grasp?

Malcolm is hoping to continue his 8-minute mile marathon form into a 50km this autumn, with the possibility of an age-group (60+) trophy as his reward.  Sue (64) is getting more disciplined in her speedwork to finally get back under 30 for parkrun.

Of those few of my readers who are below retirement age (!), Amber (25) is looking for a personal best marathon in Berlin, whilst Alexander (27) is going for a 5km under 19 and a sub-1:30 half, and Samantha (57) assures me that 2025 will see her first sub-40 parkrun and her first 10km..

And Bob (66) says, “I have come to realise that ageing is the biggest hurdle of all and no one can outrun it even though we try.  For me, 5k back in the 22mins, 10k in under 50mins and half marathon in under 1 hour 50.  Maybe I will never achieve it, but I do enjoy trying and occasionally get close ...  But that for me is the attraction of running/racing – we all do it for our own individual targets.”

Well said, Bob.