24-hour relay records - state

Dhing wrote:

I ran one right before my soph season in high school. I had no idea what I was getting into. I ended up running/racing 23 miles at 5:27 pace (my 1600 pr at the time was 4:47) and I had not broke 18:00 for 5k yet.

Talking about a upset high school coach. He was upset with the guys that asked me to go run, he knew I had no idea what I was about to do.

Dhing

So, what did you run for cross that year - betcha broke 18.

Yeah... I broke 18:00 that year. Damn near broke 16 the next year (16:03) on the same course. Ran a 2:05 PR from my freshman year to Soph year. I wouldn't contribute the 24 hour relay as much as maturing though. From 8th grade track to 10th grade track I went from 4'11" to 5'6".

Malmo,

Point well taken. The workouts and mileage is important, but sometimes I believe the attitude/confidence you pick up from doing those types of things propel you as an athlete to another level. I came back sore as hell and couldn't run worth a crap for about 3 days, but I knew I had done something everyone else was going tell I was crazy for. I already had an advantage then...

I forgot to mention I had just returned from my first running camp. I had never run more than 30 miles in a week and I had run 45 miles at camp, then went straight to this 24 hour relay. I ended up running 70 miles that week. I never topped that week again until 3 weeks out from my first year in college. My senior year I avg 26 miles a week in cross and ran 15:12 at Footlocker. In track I averaged about 19 - 21 miles a week and ran 9:20 for 3200 that year as well.

I do believe in mileage, but I think do to being a little undertrained in high school, I can't handle much over 100 to this day. It made it tough to adjust to mileage in college.

What High school did/do you coach at? The team I ran for high school (out of VA), our 5th man ran 16:49.

Don't coach, in the literal sense of the word. DuVal HS. State record has held for over 30 years. Every summer I'd pick a week (usually a couple weeks before the 24-hour relay) and go for it, and see how much I could do. Did 131 one summer, then 151 after that. My HS coach knew nothing about running, yet he knew everything there was to know about coaching and motivating athletes. We ran more than the other schools because we enjoyed it. We won more than the other schools because we enjoyed that too.

The way I see it, someone, some team is going to put in the work required to win. Someone, some team will end up winning all of the races. It might as well be you and your team.

A team from Western Mich. Univ. set the Michigan state record in 1983 or 1984 at one of these events held at West Bloomfield High School. I don't recall how far. High 200s.

I was on a Novi Track Club team that had a lot of drop outs and we suffered greatly in the pre-dawn hours and resorted to drinking beer, and eating Oreo cookies to pass the time between miles that originally were sub-5 (for the first 20) but after despair set in, were in the mid-6:30s and higher.

I recall a couple of ultra runners who ran the 24 hours as single entrants. One guy was pissing on himself to save time from having to get off the track and go to the bathroom.

A platoon(?) of Marines were also running, but they were each toting a big-ass Marine flag around the track and chanting something stupid.

It was a freaking circus with maybe 20 teams, but a great time and I'd do one again in a heartbeat just for fun.

A team from PA did it in two hours.

There should be a new event: the 24-hour relay, but with each mile being a beer mile.

no one wrote:

we had a 'all star' group, mostly our college team (including babiraki .. malmo; u ran vs him didn't ya?) . run high 280s in '70-71 (think maybe even '72 (jan-feb). we started in am - not sure, 7:00 I think - i got the stuff somewhere. Halludcinations in early am - yep. I think we had 5-6-7 guys ave low - mid 4:40 + plus the ones who missed the exchanges.

Ah, my friend, events like this elicit fond memories, I'm sure.

From the Guide to Distance Running, 1971, the largest total is 295 miles, 269 yards set by the 'Olympic Camp Red' team. The Oly Camp Blue team covered 289 miles, 1512 yards. An accompanying article lists a lot of names but it's tough to make out who's on which team.

yep - one of our teammates had gone to that camp (Olympic Development) - in Montana (Missoula?), but don't think he ran/participated. He did watch. The only guy I remember participating in it - as he recounted - was Gerry Lindgren - I saw a pic of him wrapped up in a blanket or sleeping bag. Raining as I recall. I don't remember other details of his camp thing - but that's where we got the idea. I ran a lot of very hard workouts but that was one of the more difficult (workouts?). Certainly in top 5-10 most memorable.

We had a 2:17 marathoner and a soon to be 2:15 guy (our 200m week guy), neither of whom ran - plus another 2 or so who were money. I'm quite sure we would have been over 290 if they had joined in. That was the goal. I think a team from England was top dog then. I know I hit Alice in Wonderland in the early mrning hours - slowed to 5:teens+. I averaged about 4:3(7-8-9) up through 20 or so - then Ken Kesey, Any Warhol and the merry pranksters all invited me into their world. I had no choice. Pretty helpless feeling. It was a few months after the CSUF v EMU 2nd year (for me) thing. good memories. pretty hammered bodies for a few days.

Any idea how you found out what the state record was before you broke it?

t, here are some of the names (you already have Gerry): Bob Bertelsen, Phil Camp, Dennis Bayham, Chuck Ceronsky, Mark Hiefield, Tom Fleming, Jerry Jobski, Tom Hoffman, Steve Kelley, Herb Lorenz. Vic Nelson, Mark Scobey, Jay Dirksen, Don Timm, Peter Stipe, Mark Covert, Bill Ripple. Scobey averaged 4:42 for 30 legs!

Scott - pretty good group - I'll have to ask Mark if he actually ran it (he does peek in here every once in a while)- at the Oly camp. Does it say he actually ran - or ws just a camp participant? These are questions I must know.(?) Inquiring minds

My recollection was that he hadn't. There were about 4 of us that ave 4:43/4/5/6 - Mark having lowest ave.

I do remember I ran one in low 20s and a few other high- prob why I went south in the early morn hours. The deceptive thing (for me anyway) - was that it felt soooooo easy the first 15m or so; really had to hold back.

We had an amazing "team manager" - not a runner at all - just interested in the sport I guess, who stayed there the whole time and recorded every (mile) split. Went everywhere with us and was an amazing support - which we didn't fully appreciate then.

Bill S was pretty interested, I was told, in what we had done - and I think ran another. One was enough for me.

Mark Scobey AKA "MAD DOG SCOBEY"- One bad ass. Our Team (Minnesota Footpounders)set the Minnesota and Wisconsin record (we were all from Minnesota but ran the relay in Eau Claire Wisc.) in 1972. We ran a total of 277 miles and 200 yards. Carter Holmes(U of M) was our # 1 man his ave. was 5:00 per mile. I was the the 3rd man with a 5:06 ave. The rest of the team was:

Carter Holmes, Gordon Benfield, John Cramer, Dave Phillips

Bill Ebertz, Don Hudon, Jim Moes, Tim O'Donnell,

Kurt Karwosky and Randy Ohman.

We were told that our diatnce was the furthest (USA) that year and the 5th furthest in the world at that time.

I plan on hosting a 24 hr. relay next summer in Evansville Indiana.

no one wrote:

Scott - pretty good group - I'll have to ask Mark if he actually ran it (he does peek in here every once in a while)- at the Oly camp. Does it say he actually ran - or ws just a camp participant? These are questions I must know.(?) Inquiring minds

My recollection was that he hadn't. There were about 4 of us that ave 4:43/4/5/6 - Mark having lowest ave.

t,From that same Guide to Distance Running: 'Hiefield streaks his 23rd mile in 4:33.7 and Mark Covert points out, "That just shows how screwed up he is." Covert then does 4:49.9 and the effervescent Fleming yells, "Covert, you make me want to throw up." Covert's next mile is 5:27.'

I'm off to northern MI, Mackinac Island and the UP for a spell. I'm not hurrying back.

Benfield409 ... 'Mark Scobey' aka "Mad Dog" = 'Bill' Scobey. Unless he had a dif 'real' first name - but 99.9% sure not - but no big dif. He ran at or near the upper echelons on/off for some years. A So Cal mainstay. Part of the Pierce JC 'dynasty' in 60s and .... well mostly 60s. Quite the hair! Still has it I think.

I remember driving with one of his friends (I think a running ('agent' type big wig - if there was such a thing then. Nike was in its infancy - maybe one of those guys) - driving in the back of a VW Bus beside him as he ran the Culver City Marathon (now LA?) - with the radio blastin "Gimme Shelter" for him: over and over. Pretty sure he won.

He and Gary Tuttle used to (fairly recently anyway) have a summer running camp; both Humboldt State grads. Not sure if they still do. Mean motor scooter and a bad go getter - both.

no one, you are right it was Bill not Mark. That just shows you how good the drugs were in the 70's and I had my share. Tuttle is now living in Atlanta last time I saw him and teaching school. Peace out!!!!!!!

Hi Bum,

Yes, I can help you. I was on that high school team that set the record back in 1980. We were running for The Athlete's Foot Track Club and broke the record that was set by Jim Drews among others. I remember this relay vividly. What do you want to know?

Actually, I was wondering if there was any list of state by state 24 hour records for comparison, but since you asked, can you remember everyone on that team (I remember Turriff, and that's about it) and how far you guys went. I was very impressed with the last hour - everyone was really gutting it out. I was from GB Southwest by the way.

You wouldn't happen to be the "DP" #1 runner from Ashwaubenon High School would you? If so, we ran side by side at several meets and used to chat a fair bit after races.

Wow! Talk about tweaking my interest. You are bringing me down memory lane and it feels great. First of all, I can't help you with the state by state records. I've been searching myself. We went 273 3/4 miles. Not bad for a bunch of high school kids hah? The old record that Jim Drews set was 269 miles however, there's a letter in this forum from a guy who says he broke the state record back in 1972 when they did 277 miles. I always thought it was our record, now I'm not totally sure. The fact that Jim Drews WAS there when we ran those last few miles makes me think we did indeed break the record. I ran a total of 27 miles and averaged 5:11. I was 3rd out of the 10. The hard part was, as time went on, guys were dropping out. When we finished there were only 6 or 7 guys left. So instead of running your mile every 50 minutes you were running every 30 to 35 minutes. That sucked! You're absolutely right when you say we were really gutting it out in the end. Sounds like you were there? Were you? Yes I am the DP you ran with. Are you HF? Here are the other runners: Kevin Novak, Ken Bauer, Rick Turriff, John Chase, James & Pat Boyd, Dave Bergum, Jeff Scott, and Jon McDonough.