Tracking it down over the distance

The American masters running records Ross Bolding challenged Tuesday were laid down 30 years ago by Gary Rech, then 68, in Rochester, N.Y.

A member of the Greater Rochester Track Club, Rech put his name beside the best times clocked for men ages 65-69 at 15K, 10 miles, 20K, 25K, 30K, 20 miles and for the most meters covered in two hours.

Milton Williams, head coach of the running program at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, explains that such records are just a few of hundreds of age group standards on the USA Track & Field books: “In distance running they’ve got one for every odd distance you could think of.”

They pale beside the brilliant speed achieved by the world’s sharpest (young) athletes, but they have meaning: They document an almost heroic human quest never to quit trying to improve ourselves.

Bill Quinlisk, president of USA Track & Field’s Niagara Association, looked around Rochester last week for someone who might still know Rech, who if alive is 96 or 97. Quinlisk is also vice president and championships coordinator for USATF Masters Long Distance Running. Among old newsletters, he found an article announcing plans for the 50K track run held Nov. 5, 1983, at the University of Rochester.

“The purpose will be to set new single-age group records as recognized by the National Running Data Association of Tucson, Ariz.,” the article states. It continues, “This run is an invitational: 10 to 15 runners will be invited. Only one of each single age who appears will have a shot at breaking their existing record.”

Signed by Don McNelly, the announcement described the plan: “Runners will be responsible for their own lap timer-counters. To have your record accepted it will be necessary for you to record the total elapsed time at the end of each individual lap; there will be 125 of them to be recorded. … A special T-shirt is being commissioned and a 4-by-6 plaque will be awarded to everyone who finishes the 50K. Entry fee is $17.50 to cover these two items. …

“Arrange for your own refreshment station: such as a card table set up at a spot along the inside of the track, containing water, erg [snacks], towels, fresh T-shirts, rain gear, etc. Whatever you feel you will need. Keep in mind that it will be early November and you should come prepared for heat, cold, rain or snow.”

Quinlisk did not know if McNelly is still alive.

In 2010, McNelly was featured in an Associated Press story about elderly marathoners (at the time, McNelly had done 745 marathons).He was also the subject of a book, The Madman, the Marathoner: The Life of Marathoner Donald P. McNelly. On Wednesday, biographer Juanita Tischendorf supplied McNelly’s phone number, and the 92-year-old answered the phone himself.

He remembers Rech as “smaller than usual, lightweight, shorter. He was foreign, but I wouldn’t emphasize that. I think he was German or something. A good guy, a tiny bit different, but a good guy, gentleman, a good friend. He was a strong runner, very competitive - very competitive.

“I used to organize races … I used to run all those and so did Gary. We’d compete with one another. But he would beat me. Better than I was.”

Some time ago, he lost track of Rech. “I do not think that he’s still alive. Looking in the phone book, his name is not listed,” but that isn’t definitive, he noted. (The Social Security Death Index lists a Gary Rech of Penfield, N.Y., as dying at age 96 in 2012, but Web searches also turn up other Gary Rechs in the United States.)

“A lot of people don’t put their names in the book, so they avoid all sorts of funny calls,” McNelly said. Otherwise, he joked, he might spend his evenings making all kinds of funny calls.

Told that Quinlisk hadn’t known how to reach him, McNelly protested, “I’m in the book! Tell him I’m in the phone book.”

ActiveStyle, Pages 28 on 04/01/2013

Upcoming Events