Selection to the World Championships 100K team is not without its politics. Normally, you would have to run the National 100K Championships in March to make the September trip, but the selection process is flexible enough that when a proven talent like Dan comes along, everyone is happy he’s ready to make the trip. He was added to the World 100K team based on that one 50-miler, and he went to The Netherlands in September 2000 for that event.

He describes the start of a 100K: “The gun goes off, and you start running six-minute pace. You really have to hold back the whole time. It requires more patience than a marathon. It’s not until about 80K that you can start to think about racing it in.”

Unaccustomed to the pit stops that go hand in hand with running a race that takes over six hours, Dan didn’t stop at all during the first 50K (split in 3:11), and unlike some of his competitors, he never changed shoes. “Every athlete has it set up a little different. That guy [U.S. 100K runner], Jim Garcia, has got all his breaks set up like an Indy 500 pit stop: one person to help change his shoes, another to get him food and water. I think they must rehearse the whole operation.” Dan remained in the lead pack for the first 30K. Uncomfortable with the pace, he dropped back. He was smart to avoid all the back-and-forth pacing going on.

He figured a split of 3:10 would allow him to follow with a 3:20 and

bring him to the finish in around 6:30. He got to see some of the people from that lead pack again as he moved from about 10th to 4th over the final 30K.

Usually running a come-frombehind race, where you pass a lot of runners in the final miles, is uplifting, but the only thought he had during that time, and in the finish line chute, was “never again.”

Soon enough, he changed his mind. “T probably will do another,” he wrote in an e-mail two weeks later. The 2001 World Championship 100K is already on his calendar, along with a 50-mile trail run in the Seattle area this July. No wonder he wants to continue with the ultras, as he’s damn good at them. In 2000, he received the USATF Ted Corbitt Award, given annually to the nation’s best ultrarunner.

A 50K IN APRIL

Dan and another new American ultrarunner, Dave Dunham, plan on going after the American road record for SOK of 3:00:00, set by Jeff Wall in 1982. Ahandful of Americans, including Barney Klecker, Don Paul, Bruce Mortenson, and Tom Fleming, have actually run faster for the distance, but for some reason the official AR remains at that three-hour mark. The race is called the Chicago Lakefront 50K [see Marathon & Beyond, March/ April 2001, pp. 109-117], and by the time you read this, we’ll know the results.

Dave Dunham is known as one of the more prolific runners in New

ON THE ROAD WITH JOE LEMAY @ 17

England. He works full-time as a financial assistant for the IRS and lives in Bradford, Massachusetts. He ran 9:10 for two miles and 4:28 for the mile in high school. He attended the University of Massachusetts/Lowell, where he ran 29:17 for 10,000 and 14:03 for 5,000. His best marathon time is 2:19:28. He’s 36 and wears his hair in a thin ponytail (not unlike American marathoner Jerry Lawson’s ponytail). He races all the time, never doing any speedwork when he trains but rather racing himself into shape. “T’ve run 12 races in eight weeks this year,” he told me at the end of March.

HE’LL RUN ANYTHING

Dave Dunham will run almost any race that comes along. He was National Snowshoe Champion this year (championships were held in Plattsburgh, New York). He’s also a three-time Mt. Washington Road Race winner. The famous 7.6-mile all-uphill run to the top is his favorite race, and he makes a point of running it every year. He doesn’t do any hill training to get ready for it. He says you just have to be in good condition, as you would for any other type of distance race.

Lest you think Dan Held gets up early, Dave goes to bed at 7:30 p.m. and gets up at 4:30 a.m. for his morning run of four to five miles; this allows him to get to work at 6:00. This schedule is part of a three-times-aday program that has him doing about

110 miles a week right now, which is an increase from 1999 and 2000, when he was sidelined by an ankle injury incurred during a mountain race.

For his first ultra, Dave ran the Chancellor Challenge 100K in Boston in October 2000. This course is composed of ten 10K loops on the flat surface of Boston’s well-known esplanade. (If you ever go to Boston to run the marathon and stay in a hotel in town, this is where you’ ll end up doing your morning runs.) The only obstacle, other than the distance itself, is the wind, which can get pretty strong on the Charles River. Dave decided to train for and run this race only amonth before the race date, and he ended up running a steady comefrom-behind race to win, with acourse record of 6:46:39. The race is only in its second year, and the prize money is exceptional for an ultra ($3,000 for the win should attract a lot of talent), so that record will probably be challenged soon enough.

Dave hopes to go through the marathon in the 2:27 to 2:28 range to hold on for the AR at 5OK. “My guess is I’ll set the American record, but Il get second,” he said of his upcoming 50K, referring to the presence of Dan Held in the field.

Postscript: Dave Dunham won the Chicago Lakefront SOK in 2:57:29, setting a new American record for 50K. Dan Held dropped out at 21 miles, vowing to go after Dave’s record this November in the fall version of the same race.

Two Exciting Events. One A Classic. The Other A Legend.

Disney’s 10K Classic

October 7, 2001

Discover the World over the Columbus Day Weekend with a race course that features a scenic run around the World Showcase at

Epcot®, a stroll through a seaside village at WALT DISNEY WORLD®

Disney’s Boardwalk Resort, and an Marathon & Half Marathon exhilarating finish at Disney’s Wide World of January 6, 2002

Sports™ Complex. Back for its third running, Back for its ninth year, the WALT DISNEY Disney’s 10K Classic is a popular destination WORLD® Marathon Weekend promises to be 10K for runner’s from all over the country. For better than ever in 2002, featuring FamilyFun more information or to request a brochure, call Magazine’s Family Fun Run 5K, Disney’s

(407) 938-3398. Health & Fitness Expo, the Sth Anniversary of

the Half Marathon, and the weekend’s signature event, the Marathon.

To book a travel package, call Disney Sports Travel at (407) 939-7810 or your local travel agent

Register on-line for either event at disneyworldsports.com

© Disney

Songs of the Open Road

A Dream of Reviving the Old Bunion Derby Only Too Quickly Became Reality.

BY BARRY LEWIS

UNTINGTON BEACH,

California, June 20, 1992— The surf crashed somewhere off in the distance, well within earshot, but in the predawn darkness the coast was too far away for anyone to see. An air of expectancy hung over the parking lot. You could feel it. After a year of planning, hundreds of hours of dedicated training, and weeks of anticipation, the representatives of 7 countries and 13 states were more than ready. They were primed to begin the first open-invitation running race across the United States in more than 63 years—a journey after which, as one participant put it, “Life will never, ever, be the same.”

One last announcement, and the race was under way. No profound words, no celebrities; no flock of doves or earsplitting blast. Just Jesse Riley, bellowing for the first time in his life: “On your marks. Ready! Let’s go!”

20 HM MARATHON & BEYOND

Michael Kenney and Jesse Riley decided to “just do it” and began the Trans America Footrace, with little more than a shared passion for distance running and the romance of the road.

‘© BARRY LEWIS

With a roar of excitement, the athletes started out from the beach, exulting in the scattered applause as they passed beneath the red, white, and blue banner with the freshly inscribed words, Runner’s World Trans America Footrace. They wound their way around the corner, spreading out rapidly, like a long, twisting serpent in a splendid Oriental parade. The race had come a long way, but the real work had only begun. Amid the chaos, New York City seemed light years away.

PURSUIT OF THE DREAM

“Tt is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes up short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at best, knows the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.”

—Theodore Roosevelt

.It had started with a letter to the editors of Ultrarunning magazine the previous winter.

“Spring is just around the corner,” wrote Michael Kenney, from his home in Eugene, Oregon, “and with it comes that familiar longing for the open road. For many of us, this manifests itself in the hope that we will see an ad in this month’s Ultrarunning for the ultimate open road experience—a transcontinental stage race. … Maybe the time has come to take matters into our own hands. In the tradition of other great ultra~-endurance events, maybe we should get things started by just setting a date, picking a course, and, as the Nike ads say, ‘just do it.’”

Printed in April 1991, the heartfelt appeal touched a chord deep within many of the magazine’s followers. The instant Jesse Riley, a dishwasher from Key West, Florida, finished reading the words, he scrambled for the phone to call Kenney. Ninety minutes later, he hung up, feeling somewhat taller than his 6’2″ frame. Although they had never met and lived at opposite ends of the country, he and Kenney had reached an agreement: they would do everything in their power to organize a race from one end of the country to the other.

Kenney’s notion was to stage a transcontinental race of the runners, by the runners, and for the runners. Fed up with the business end, he felt he knew what would be needed to survive the ordeal of the road. That and not money, said the

Barry Lewis SONGS OF THE OPEN ROAD @ 21