At 99
Years Old,
George
Etzweiler
Can’t Stop
Running
SIX OLD MEN gather for a run in the mountains
outside of State College, Pennsylvania. “Old,” of
course, is a relative term. If you’re 25, 60 seems
ancient. If you’re 55, 60 is the new 50. But by
any measure, these runners shuff ling down the
mountain in the morning mist qualify as old.
They are gray-haired, hunched over a bit, creaky
in the knees, a little hard of hearing—everything
you’d expect from people who came of age when
the Beatles crossed Abbey Road.
They are “The Old Men of the Mountains.”
But you’d be wrong to call them elderly. They’re
runners, after all, members of a 50-mile relay
team that’s famous in these parts of the Allegh-
eny Mountains in Centre County. The youngest
runner, “the kid,” recently turned 67. The eldest,
George Etzweiler, is 99 years old. Ninety-nine!
He was born in 1920. That’s the same year Charlie
Chaplin’s silent movie The Kid made its debut.
Short in stature, and breathing like a strug-
gling freight train, George leads his team around
mountain switchbacks and gravel roads on this
cool June morning for a training run. The boys
are preparing for the annual Tussey Mountain-
back 50-miler. Since 2007, George has coaxed
and cajoled other old runners out of their easy
chairs for the event.
A black Chevrolet Avalanche speeds up the
gravel road as the men pause for a rest stop.
“Car!” yells John Knepley, a four-time Old Man
of the Mountain. Everyone makes their way to
the side, except for George, who, even with his
RadioShack hearing aid, doesn’t acknowledge
the warning.
“CAR COMING, GEORGE!”
“Oh,” George says, caught off guard. “Good
grief.” E
BY ANDREW DAWSON
PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRETT CARLSENRUNNERSWORLD.COM 83