has haile gebrassalassie ran more total miles than any human in history?

Sorry.

Confused Covert with Connover (?)

The only person I can think who might have run more miles than Gordon Pirie is another Brit, Ron Hill. Some say he was first to run sub 2:10 (in 1970) and he has run every day since

December 1964 and he is now in his seventies.

Ed Whitlock is another good shout.

Ed Whitlock was a good runner as a kid, then took a couple decades off before resuming running in his forties. Gordon Pirie and Ron Hill are probably decent bets.

Hugh wrote:

The only person I can think who might have run more miles than Gordon Pirie is another Brit, Ron Hill. Some say he was first to run sub 2:10 (in 1970) and he has run every day since

December 1964 and he is now in his seventies.

Ed Whitlock is another good shout.

I guess my coaches were lying to me when they told me that no one gets an award for the best training diary?

Kouros is nearly 60 and is still going but, if I recall correctly, he doesn't run year round.

I think the kind of person we're looking for is someone who started running seriously at an early age, had a career as a very high mileage elite runner, and has continued to run consistently after retirement. The best candidate I know of for that is Frank Shorter. Shorter started running to and from school when he was 11 years old, became a very good high school and collegiate runner, then went on to have one of the most consistent high mileage elite careers ever. As far as I know his running has also been consistent since retirement, although reduced. According to an interview I read he still gets in an hour a day at the age of 65. That's 54 years of consistent running and it's still going on. I read that Shorter failed to make the qualifying time for the '84 Olympics so I'm assuming he was still going serious at least to that time. That makes for right around 20 years of serious high mileage running, plus his running as a kid, plus his post-retirement running which, by all accounts, has stayed pretty consistent.

Geb won the 5 and 10 at World Juniors in '92. Someone who's read his book can probably correct this but I'm just going to assume his serious running started then. It seems his training is still going on so that makes for a high mileage career of 20 years, probably more. He most likely started his running to and from school at an earlier age than Shorter so I think that he's probably ahead of Shorter for that age(39). But I kind of doubt that Haile is going to keep up his running into his 60s like Shorter has. He seems to be very busy with his business career and it's just not the cultural norm in Ethiopia for people to run for anything other than competition.

My vote goes to Shorter.

luivj wrote:

He seems to be very busy with his business career and it's just not the cultural norm in Ethiopia for people to run for anything other than competition.

My vote goes to Shorter.

Hasn't Geb said in interviews that he would keep running after retirement, just because he likes running?

They probably have more miles than any of us care to count.

Was I lied to?! wrote:

luivj wrote:

He seems to be very busy with his business career and it's just not the cultural norm in Ethiopia for people to run for anything other than competition.

My vote goes to Shorter.

Hasn't Geb said in interviews that he would keep running after retirement, just because he likes running?

I've heard that and I think he will. But in Ethiopia he would be going against the grain, whereas Shorter lives in recreational runner heaven. Can he keep that up for decades like Shorter has?

Yannis Kuros would be the only Ultra guy I'd count in this perspective.

I thought Shorter started biking mainly over 20 years ago.

Rodgers was running 130-150 mile weeks for 10 years in the 1970's. Then 85-120 a week in the 80's. Then probably 60-90 most of the 1990's. And still ran since then but I don't know how much 40-50 miles a week?

Geb will have to keep running for a long time to put the miles a 64 year old Bill Rodgers has.

Ron Hill claimed 151,000 lifetime miles a few years ago.

Gordon Pirie died at age 60, so his listed lifetime total is somewhat dubious. His public training records are not consistent with the mileage claimed.

Darryl Beardall claims 280,000 lifetime miles.

Dr. Herb Fred claimed just about 240,000 miles.

Paul Ladniak claims 201,000 in just over 50 years.

ime miles.

Can't find a good number for Corbitt. He apparently stopped running as much after getting asthma in the 1970s.

I believe Ron Hill claimed 155,916 through the end of 2011.Many of Beardall's miles have to be hill running in training for the Dipsea race each year, so if his number is right, that is impressive.

Mr. Obvious wrote:

Ron Hill claimed 151,000 lifetime miles a few years ago.

Gordon Pirie died at age 60, so his listed lifetime total is somewhat dubious. His public training records are not consistent with the mileage claimed.

Darryl Beardall claims 280,000 lifetime miles.

Dr. Herb Fred claimed just about 240,000 miles.

Paul Ladniak claims 201,000 in just over 50 years.

ime miles.

Can't find a good number for Corbitt. He apparently stopped running as much after getting asthma in the 1970s.

I think I remember reading an interview with Ed Whitlock where he stated he didn't really start running again until late in his 40's.

He has "only" been running marathons relatively recently. Didn't run much after college until his 40's, and was a miler for at least ten years.

old as dirt wrote:

Ed Witlock

Old as the hills, 80+

Still runs marathons. Got everybody beat

I think Ted Corbitt---200,000 lifetime.

Rip

Ted Corbitt's training logs from the 1940's onward have yet to be totaled. My estimate is he's near 200k miles either slightly above or below.

I've posted 38 Ted Corbitt Milestones on Facebook. "like" Ted Corbitt - Pioneer and learn more about life.

Here's Milestone #1:

Ted Corbitt

Milestone #1

Most Training Miles Run in 7 Days

312.5 Miles (44.6 miles per day average)

September 1 – 7, 1966

On four occasions Ted Corbitt completed 300 mile training weeks. The other instances were in September 1964 (303.5 miles), September 1965 (310 miles) and August/September 1969 (302 miles).

History Themes:

*The runners of this era were true amateur athletes with full-time jobs and families.

*This record training was done on a four day work week taking advantage of the three day Labor Day weekend.

*Ted’s Manhattan Island (31 mile) runs became legendary. On Labor Day weekend he would run twice around Manhattan totaling 62 miles on three consecutive days.

*Based on my research this is the highest weekly training mileage ever documented in long distance running.

Well gee whiz. That's more miles than I have on my car. You runners are crazy.

geb is not even close. over the ~200,000 years of human history, at least 100,000 of which we were persistence hunters, you don't think someone ran more? haile, like many of us, probably descended from this natural phenomenon of genetic improbability.

lsd= long slow dumbos wrote:

also, when he dies early, what will it say to the world about how "healthy" distance running is?

The "Juiceman" of infomercial fame only did HIIT and he's 172 years old. Little known fact.