PROFILE--Frank Handelman has been running for 57 years

Frank Handelman, a criminal defense attorney with a competitive edge, is a lifelong runner. He uses the same winning techniques competing on the road and track and in the courtroom, and has had great success at both. Handelman was also a member of the legendary New York Pioneer Club and trained with Ed Levy and Joe Yancey, its founders.

Started running/years running? I have been running for 57 years. I began in the fall of 1961, my junior year in high school in Cleveland, Ohio.

Why did you start running? I knew I was fast running on Little League teams. Believe me, it was my only baseball skill. In my junior year I went out for the cross country team. After a few weeks of training, I began to move up from the back of the pack and by the end of the season was second on the team.  I found I loved

PROFILE--Woody Harrell has been running for 50+ years

Blessing of the Athletes,
pre-Boston 2014

(10-18) Woody Harrell fell in love with running during summers on the beaches of North Carolina’s Outer Banks. However, a general lack of natural speed meant no coach, high school or college, would ever look at him as any sort of track prospect.  They should have. In 1975, he ran a 2:36:27 at Boston at age 28. Harrell identifies himself as a runner before anything else. He lives in Corinth, MS.

Started running: June 1, 1964. I’m 71 (DOB 7-47) 

Why did you start running?  My running career started the day I read an article in the June 1, 1964, issue of Sports Illustrated about American expatriate Buddy Edelen, who had run the first- and third-fastest marathons of all time, and had just returned from England to win the US Olympic marathon trial at Yonkers, New York, by over 20 minutes.

I was fascinated! I was amazed. I was inspired! So much so, I put on my tennis shoes and headed out the door to run five miles for the first time in my life. In fact, to run further than a mile for the first time ever…

When I made the half-way turn-around at the extreme edge of my hometown, both the excitement and the adrenaline were long gone; and by the time I got back home, I was dehydrated, physically spent, and had two feet resembling raw meat, with blisters on top of blisters. I collapsed into bed and didn’t try to crawl out again until it was time to go back to school on Monday. But in spite of the experience, the running bug had bitten…

In grad school (sandwiched around a stint in the army), I encountered a group of ex-collegian runners looking to extend their running careers in pursuit of the ’72 Olympic marathon trials. Encouraged by their support, and more importantly

PROFILE--Dave McGillivray has been running for 52 years

 

It's hard to imagine anyone Boston stronger
or more resilient than McGillivray.

(10-18) Friday morning, Boston Marathon race-director and uber-endurance and charity runner Dave McGillivray will undergo open-heart surgery. Please join us in wishing him well. We fully expect to see him back to his usual tricks in Hopkinton and Boston next April.

McGillivray is widely known for his stamina, compassion, and organizational skills, but we believe his most admirable trait is his candor. Dave doesn't duck questions; he answers fully and truthfully. This has become particularly clear in recent years as he has discussed his personal health challenges.

Career/profession? I am the founder and owner of DMSE Sports, Inc. (38 years - event management company and have directed or consulted on over 1,100 events), and I am the Race Director of the BAA Boston Marathon (have been with the BAA for over 31 years).

When did you start running and WHY? Like most active young boys, I always “ran around” but started to “run” seriously and competitively at age 12. Why? Because I was

RESEARCH--A New Look At Age Graded Performances

Ed Whitlock ran a 2:54 marathon at age 73,
and a 3:56 at 85.

Many Lifetime Runners are accustomed to evaluating their race times with the widely-used and excellent World Masters Association age-graded system. There are many versions of this calculator around the web, and they are sometimes included in computerized road-race results.

There is another less-well-known system, created by Ray Fair, a retired Yale University economist who has run 39 of 41 New Haven 20K road races, missing the event only when ill or injured.  Fair, 75, recently updated his system--an update covered by the New York Times.  An abstract of his new paper, published by The Review of Economics and Statistics,  is available here.

The Fair system differs little from the WMA calculator--it’s just a matter of how deep

PROFILE--Debbie Zockoll has finished 42 St. George Marathons in a row

(10-18) Debbie Zockoll, 62, holds the unofficial world record for consecutive finishes in the same annual marathon. She has completed the St. George (Utah) Marathon 42 times in a row, the most recent three days ago when she finished in 4:17:24. "Oh, what a day! It was filled with so much happiness and emotion," she emailed LifetimeRunning. "I have so much to be thankful for, and I am already looking forward to next year."

A wife, mother, grandmother, former teacher, current hiking guide, and 278-time marathon finisher, Zockoll had her third cancer surgery just six weeks before this year's St. George Marathon. [The following interview was conducted prior to her most-recent St. George finish.]

Career-profession? I taught first grade for 30 years. I currently work as a hike guide for a fitness spa 5 days a week. I usually get up at 3:30 a.m. for a

PROFILE--Mary Harada has been running for 50 years

(10-18) Mary Harada grew up in Newton, MA and was always physically active. She played sports in high school, field hockey, basketball and softball. Running was not on her radar.  All that changed when she turned 33 and started to run. Harada, now 83, holds world records in the indoor and outdoor mile (W70), several American records (W70 and W75) in the 3000 and 5000 meter, and is a member of the US Track and Field Masters Hall of Fame.  Her running has taken her around the globe to places such as Finland, Australia, and Spain.  She lives in West Newbury, MA.

She graduated from Boston University Sargent College as a physical therapy major and went on to get her PhD in European History. Post-college, there were no sports available so she played field hockey for Boston Field Hockey - teams were made up mostly of graduates of the seven sisters colleges. “I had limited opportunity for sports until after I finished

PROFILE--Bart Yasso has been running for 44 years

1981 Long Island Marathon

(10-18) Bart Yasso, the retired Chief Running Officer at Runner’s World, has traveled to races around the world from Pennsylvania to Africa, and into the hearts of countless runners he met at race expos and running lectures.  He is one of a few people to have completed races on all seven continents, including the Mount Kilimanjaro marathon. But more importantly to Bart, “It's not the details of the races I recall, it's the people I met.”  To thousands of runners, he is their mayor of running, their guru, their go-to person for advice or simply to say, “Thank you for the encouragement to get out and run.” In his years at Runner’s World, he’s received marriage proposals and many more interesting emails. Now retired, he is still in demand as a speaker but is trying to carve out some time to relax at home in Bethlehem, PA, a rare moment for the Mayor of Running.

Started running: December, 1977. I’m 62 and feel great.

Why did you start running? I was 22 at the time and needed a lifestyle change to get in shape. I was leading a kind of risky life, smoking, drinking and other