a team of old guys to run that 50-mile relay?”
George got the hint. He took to the phone book
and started tracking down runners over 65. That
was the hard part. Yet George has a way with
people. His demeanor is relaxed. His humor is
legendary. His persuasiveness, a little abrasive
and abrupt, gets the job done.
Take Ed Keller. Joint problems had slowed him
down, but a decade ago, Keller did a 5K in his 70s.
Two days later, George called.
“Are you Ed Keller, the runner?” George said
on the phone.
“Well, it depends on how you define running,”
Keller replied. Keller was having a hard time
convincing himself he was still a runner. He was
marathoner who could no longer go the distance.
But George was persistent. He saw Keller’s time
and knew he had what it took to run a leg at
Tussey. Still, Keller resisted.
“I’m not sure I’m ready to run competitively,”
Keller said.
“Look, I’m going to be doing a training run up
Tussey Mountain,” George replied. “Why don’t
you stop over and pick me up and we’ll go to the
mountain?”
The two went up the mountain, and Keller has
since done 10 races with The Old Men.
That’s how many found their way onto the
team. George called, fed on their uncertainty, and
showed them that if he could do it, so could they.
Now 33 runners are now listed on this sheet
in front of George as he eats his lunch. A black
X marks the number of times each runner has
competed with the team. Only one row across
has each box marked, and of course that’s for
the 99-year-old slurping away at his vegan lunch.
•••A RUNNING LOVE STORY
George figures genetics or sheer stubbornness
has something to do with his running longevity.
But something else has played a defining role, a
romance that dates back to 1937. George was a
year out of high school at the time and working
at the Lewistown Electrical Company. A friend
introduced him to Mary Richard, who had a
light that needed fixing. George was more than
happy to oblige.
The light didn’t lead to a date, but two years
later Mary needed a ride to a campfire picnic
down at Penn Roosevelt State Park, just outside
of town. George, the proud new owner of a 1929
Model-A Ford pickup, offered to take her.
“She was just friendly and nice, compassionate
and very much concerned about the underdog,”
George says of Mary. “She was always cheering for
the underdog for both sports events
and the battle of life.”
Mary and George fed off of one
another’s passion for life. They marriedin 1942. After serving in the Navy, George earned an
electrical engineering degree from Penn State, and
eventually returned as a professor. Mary worked
part-time and volunteered, drove the car, and
cooked. George was a handyman, fixing everything
around the house. They were happy together and
they did everything together one way or another.
Even when George first started running in
1969, Mary initially joined him. George, then 49,
did his first mile at the urge of his fellow Penn
State professors. A creeping belly had plagued him
since his Navy days, so he ran, though he claims
it nearly killed him that first day. E“Someone called me a freak of nature
once for what I do. I don’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.”
RUNNERSWORLD.COM 85