What do you say to the guy who has run more marathons than anyone else in the world?

’m sitting with Horst Preisler inside the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, October 2008. We’re on a bench waiting for the start of the Niagara Falls Marathon. Looking out the large windows and glass door beside us, we see the trees and branches being swirled around by the strong, cool wind, the fall-colored leaves being blown all over. It feels good to be inside. We runners have been given the privilege to look around the art gallery as we wait for the marathon. In the main hallway to our right are dozens of people sitting on the floor, stretching out, relaxing, chatting, and keeping warm. Horst sits beside me with his layers on and with notebook, pen, and

aq A Horst Preisler: Each run is a story—1,645 marathons and beyond as of August 2009.

camera in hand. Waiting for a marathon to start is not unusual for him; he has been doing it most weekends since 1974. Sitting with the world record holder for the most marathons ever run before the start of the marathon, though, is a new

experience for me. This is the third time we’ve met. Each time, I have felt quite privileged to be talking to this very special man. He talks to me in his broken English, and I keep thinking that I wish I knew some German.

The day before, at the Niagara Falls Marathon expo, Horst had been on a panel with four other runners who, collectively, had clocked a few thousand marathons among them over the years; when I saw him, he gave me a big smile and an

embrace. Meeting and renewing contacts and friendships is central to everything that motivates Horst to run marathons.

doing research on a book and running in the Elbe River Tunnel Marathon, organized by the German 100 Marathon Club. I had wanted to interview Horst for my book, which is about runners who have run more than 100 marathons. Juergen Kuhlmey, the vice president of the German club, picked me up at the Hamburg airport, and we swung around to get Horst from his home on what was a gray and rainy afternoon. I had just arrived on a red-eye flight from Canada, but I was instantly wide awake upon meeting Juergen and then Horst. We went for dessert at a restaurant in a mall on the outskirts of Hamburg not far from where Horst lives (about 18 kilometers from downtown Hamburg). Germans quite like doing the dessert thing, I found out. We talked about running and everything else for a couple of hours.

Appreciating the physical side of Horst

No one else in the mall would have had any idea that Horst was a world record holder, and why would they, since he looks just like you and me? On this occasion, he is also looking quite distinguished, wearing a brown jacket and open shirt. Horst is humble, modest, proud, private, and unassuming all wrapped into one. At 73 years of age, he stands about 5 feet, 10 inches tall, is lean, and looks very fit and healthy. I wonder why?

His world record is almost beyond comprehension. Over dessert, he matterof-factly talks about some of his experiences running 1,535 marathons, including ultras. (When I met him again a few months later at Niagara Falls, his total had climbed to 1,592, including the Biel/Schweiz 100K in June 2008, which he completed in 14:39.) Even if he never runs another marathon, I would need to run a marathon every weekend for almost 30 years to equal Horst’s number— one marathon, every weekend, for 30 years. It’s worth repeating because it’s an astounding figure.

Our restaurant is open plan, situated in the middle of the mall with shoppers going by. I’ve ordered crepes because they are the only thing I recognize on the menu. The coffee is good, although I suspect that having had no sleep on the red-eye has something to do with it. There are smiles all around as we chat, and it’s not just because the desserts taste great. There is a universal, almost-instant, friendship among long-distance runners regardless of nationality, and this is no exception. Horst and Juergen are very kindly speaking English for me. Juergen is tall, thin, and in his late 60s. He is no couch potato either, having run over 300 marathons around the world. I could easily spend an afternoon talking about his experiences, but we save that for another time.

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<@ Portland Marathon: Each run is an encounter with a landscape and its people.

Horst’s English is not as good as he would like and he apologizes, but Juergen’s English is very good, and at times he takes ona part-time job interpreting for Horst and me. English is the only language other than German that Horst knows, and he learned that in school decades ago. Horst is flicking through a large binder that details all his running records—races, locations, countries, and times—and giving me some thoughts on his running career and on marathons in general.

No one else in Horst’s family— siblings or parents—was a runner. Running simply wasn’t something he did when he was young or even saw in the activities of others close to him. Horst said he started running only when his wife, Christa, told him one day that he was “putting on too much weight around the waist.” And so, in 1974, at age 39, he decided to enter his first race—the Unna/Westfalen 100K event—finishing that in a time of 15:48.

Three weeks later he ran his first marathon (Nordholz/Niedersachsen) and managed a time of 4:33. In the following year, he ran just nine distance races (five marathons and four ultras), with a best time of 3:42 for the marathon (at the same Nordholz/Niedersachsen event he had first run in the previous year). Somewhere in the first few runs, he got the bug. Nine races in one year probably sounded like a lot to begin with, and to many of us now it still does, but it paled in comparison to the years that followed.

The number of races just escalated

In 1976, he ran 10 long-distance races, and from 1977 to 1979 he averaged 13 races each year. The average number of long-distance races each year increased to 22 in the 1980s. It was in the 1990s, however, that his numbers rose to a new

plateau, with an average of 64 long-distance races each year between 1990 and 1999. Horst has shown no signs of slowing, with an average of 75 races each year between 2000 and 2007.

His best time for a marathon is 2:54, which he achieved in the Kandel/Pfalz

3:30. Horst has completed a staggering 615 marathons under four hours. He has been under five hours 1,100 times. His best time in 2007, at 72 years of age, was 4:11.

Of his 1,645 runs completed as of August 2009, 366 were ultras and the rest marathons. His best time over the 100K distance is 8:15, which he ran in the Rodenbach/Hanau Ultra in April 1986. The following year, in the Biel/Schweiz event, he recorded his best 24-hour race distance of 214.7K. He has run the Spartathlon and several multiday races as well, including a 661K six-day race in France in 1980.

Horst also keeps a record of all his training runs. Combined with his races, as of August 2009, he had run more than 206,000 kilometers, which is roughly the equivalent of running from New York to Los Angeles and back about 25 times.

I’m having trouble with my crepes, not because they’re bad—they’re actually quite good— but because I’m more focused on the magnitude of what Horst has accomplished and the humble way in which he talks about his running. I’m amazed and impressed at all those runners who have run over 100 marathons, a significant feat in itself, but Horst has run the equivalent of more than a marathon every day for about four years.

And these marathons are not just around the same route at his home; these have been run around the world. Horst has run in 50 countries, with most races being in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, France, Finland, and Sweden. He has run 14 races in the United States and three in Canada, one of which, in Quebec, was named after him. In 2008, he ran the Niagara Falls Marathon, a race he has wanted to run for a long time.

Even more amazing is that Horst doesn’t drive. When he and Christa, his wife of 50 years, first started talking about raising a family, they felt that they had to choose between having a family or having a car. They chose a family. So his entire running career has been based on public transportation or through rides with family, friends, and other runners.

Horst says the most important race he has ever run was the International Peace Race in Japan in August 1995. He was invited to participate in the event, which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Runners had to run from one city to the next (430K) in the same number of days between the dropping of the first bomb on Hiroshima (August 6) and the second bomb on Nagasaki (August 9). Unfortunately, he had to pull out after 330 kilometers because of stomach cramps.

But for the most part, he has been relatively injury free since he started running at age 39. His lengthiest time away from running marathons was in 1989 when he had an operation on his knee, which prevented him from running for four weeks.

Keeping running simple

Horst is not into gadgets, preferring to run simply with a watch and nothing else, opening all his senses to the world around him as he runs the distances. In essence, he is passionate about the simplicity of it all and all the benefits that running provides.

One of his favorite runs is the personal run he completed in 1980, where he ran from northern Germany to southern Germany, a distance of about 1,000 kilometers. He used a route map developed by a police officer he knew who had designed the route with safety in mind. His youngest son cycled behind him for the entire distance with the requisite supplies.

In some ways, he seems like a machine. It’s difficult to put his numbers into context. Since 1990 he has run, on average, more than a marathon every weekend. It must be a combination of passion and addiction when you factor in travel time, running in 50 different countries, and speaking only German and some broken English. He is relentless, seemingly unstoppable. He will likely have run over 1,650 marathons by the time you read this article.

In most ways, however, he is very human and has a simple, underlying philosophy to his running—he enjoys it! Every marathon, Horst says, is a special event. He enjoys meeting people, making new friends, and keeping in touch with the countless friends he has made over the years.

Why does he run marathons? The answer to that question is perhaps best summarized in a phrase on his personal business card, one of which he gave me at the end of our dessert session. It’s in German, of course, but it translates into the following:

Each run is a story! Each run is an encounter with a landscape and its people! Each run is a meeting of friends!

What motivates Horst to run, he says, is the quality of life that it provides. If you run, he explains, you’re healthier than if you don’t. “Quality of life” is a broader concept than physical health. He loves the new experiences that each marathon offers and the new places he visits. Horst firmly believes that running with others helps to break down barriers between nations and cultures, to build relationships, and to build friendships. The big picture is that the world would be a better place if we all took the time to meet and learn from one another. He is

passionate when he talks about this with Juergen and me over dessert and equally passionate when talking as one of the panelists at the Niagara Falls expo.

The expanded family

Horst is away most weekends and has been for many years now, which, he admits, often leaves his wife alone. But Christa is also very active, is a gymnast in their local sports club in their neighborhood in Berne, Hamburg, and has other hobbies which, he says, give her fulfillment. He and Christa have raised three children, two boys and a girl. They now have five grandchildren, including an adopted boy from Africa who is 8 years old. Horst has donated hundreds of running shirts that are now being worn in parts of Africa.

Although now retired, he worked for 27 years as human resources manager for hospitals in Hamburg, including the Trauma Hospital of Boberg. He was able to fit his running into his work, or perhaps his work into his running. As Horst said, he “had a really good boss,” who allowed him to make up time if he had been training or away at races.

Training? Does someone running marathons as continuously as Horst for 30-plus years need to train? We may need to redefine what we mean by “train.” He tries to get out for a run about five times a week around

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different routes in Berne. He focuses solely on staying power and is not concerned about pace or time. Horst thinks that focusing on pace and time would mess up his running.

Is running an addiction for Horst? Well, at almost 1,650 marathons, there must be a new name for it. But nothing is readily identifiable or different about Horst. He does not have a special diet, and he tries to lead a normal life in all respects, which includes volunteer work with a social services organization and

<4 Niagara Falls Marathon: Each run is a meeting of friends.

spending time with his wife, children, grandchildren, and friends. It just so happens that he is able to weave into this social fabric the running of a thousand-plus marathons. As he says, while he is away running, the rest of his family is busy doing other things.

Horst says he will continue running for as long as he enjoys it and for as long as he can. Healthwise, he is still going strong. There doesn’t appear to be anything that will stop him from running at this point; his doctor seldom sees him and has even contacted Horst to ask why he hasn’t come in for a visit. But there will come a day, he knows, when he will no longer be able to run marathons. “If I cannot do it anymore, then I will accept it,” he says.

His advice to those who are just embarking on marathon running is to relax and enjoy it. Don’t be myopic and live only to run, but rather take advantage of everything it provides so you can improve the quality of your life.

Keeping running in its place

It seems that Horst has somehow been able to integrate a massive running career into what appears in other respects to be anormal life. And that’s the secret, perhaps. Isn’t that what we all aspire to—not to be a slave to running, but for running to enhance our lives while we make the most of opportunities and find the balance that gives us the quality we want with our own lives and families?