↑ George and
Mary were
inseparable for
the entirety of
their 68-year
marriage.
→ Thirty-three
people, includ-
ing three
women, have
been able to
call themselves
“Old Men of the
Mountains.”E The men assist George to the slanted edge of
the road as the Chevy pulls past slowly, then stops.
The driver rolls down the window and points at
George in his orange jacket. “Hey, that’s the guy,
right?” she says. “The old guy who runs.”
The old guy who runs is well-known not only in
Centre County, but at many other race venues in
the Northeast, such as New Hampshire’s famed
Mount Washington Road Race, for which George
is a hall-of-famer. He has run that one 14 times
and is gearing up for a 15th next June. Otherwise,
George sticks to two local races—a local 5K and
Tussey—annually.
“Yep, that’s him all right,” Knepley replies.
“That’s George.”
George waves to the driver and f lashes a smile.
“I’m a freak, you know,” he says. “Someone
called me a freak of nature once for what I do. Idon’t know if it’s true or not, but there aren’t many
people who are 99 and still living, and not many
running a mile, I guess.”
That’s no stretch. We see elderly runners every
so often on courses from local races to the Boston
Marathon, but only a handful. In fact, only 4 per-
cent of road racers in the United States are over
the age of 65, according to Running USA’s 2019
annual report, and that number dwindles with
each additional decade.
Though many hang up their running shoes as
they get up there in years, George has other plans
for down-and-out old-timers who still have some
pep in their step.••THE OLD-TIMER WHISPERERGeorge follows today’s workout with a postrun
nap and then sits down for lunch. The microwave-
hot bowl of pinto beans, rice, and vegetables cools
as he sifts through a stack of lined graph papers,
his running log, dating back to 1969. The graph
paper was an obvious choice when he was an
electrical engineering professor at Pennsylvania
State University. And even in retirement, he keeps
it up to date, logging almost every run.
After noting the day’s mile splits—with an 11:49,
his fastest so far this year—and mileage, he pulls
another folder of sheets. These go back only a
decade at their oldest, but they are the record of
The Old Men of the Mountains races.
Here, George has listed every person he has
charmed into joining his team. He does his own
scouting, scouring race results, consulting current
members, and cold-calling potential racers. This
has been his method since the group formed in
2007 out of a spontaneous interaction the morn-
ing of the 2006 Tussey 50-Miler. George, an avid
fixture in the local running scene at a spry 87
years old then, was suited up in an orange vest as a
volunteer for the morning shift, directing cars. As
he did, the race director crossed his path and said
in passing: “Man, couldn’t someone get together84 RUNNERSWORLD.COM