I don’t have any reminiscences, except that no matter how hard you run, it still takes an hour. No other foot race is like that. - Don Kardong
The event really got my attention when Jos Hermens broke the 13-Mile barrier on May 1, 1976. The Dutchman covered 20.944 kilometers in just sixty minutes.
I cannot find any record of my single one-hour race. Must be in the missing diary. Which would make the year 1977. Salem, Oregon. McCulloch Stadium in Bush’s Pasture Park. Guessing Chuck Bowles was in charge, ably assisted by Ron Cross.
Remember hitting ten miles in 58:43 and thinking I could maybe make it around one more time before somebody hollered “STOP!!!”
Like to think I did.
Claiming 10M 450y. At least until that diary reappears.
Jon Anderson
I looked at my diary. I ran a one hour run once. February 26, 1977. Hayward Field. Runner-up to Rudy Chapa. I covered 12 miles 618 yards. Rudy was nine yards ahead of me. It was part of the Oregon TC “Jog-a-Thon.” Those were fundraisers, as I recall. Don’t recall who else might have run competitively.
A while back I was cruising web sites and found under Track & Field News site a list that had this as the fourth fastest by an American. What? Rodgers, Tuttle, and Chapa listed 1, 2, and 3. This clearly indicates that no one has run the one-hour run competitively in decades! Bill Clark is listed 5th (from 1971) Here’s a copy/paste from the site.
| ONE HOUR | ||
| 20,547m | 12.76M | Bill Rodgers (Greater Boston TC) | 8/09/77 |
| 20,223m | 12.56M | ————Rodgers | 2/21/79 |
| 20,053m | 12.46M | Gary Tuttle (Beverly Hills Striders) | 7/26/75 |
| 20,040m | 12.45M | ————Tuttle (IT) | 7/01/79 |
| 19,885m | 12.35M | Rudy Chapa (Oregon) | 2/26/77 |
| **5 performances by 3 performers** | ||
| 19,876m | 12.35M | Jon Anderson (Oregon TC) | 2/26/77 |
| 19,794m | 12.29M | Bill Clark (West Valley TC) | 8/07/71 |
Maybe someone will resurrect the one hour run; if that happens, I suspect I’d be lucky to end up in the top 100.
Jacqueline Hansen
Not sure I have any stories of any use on the hour run. This whole exercise of researching today raised more questions than answers for me.
First, I looked in my book, but I barely even mentioned ever running those (track) races. I listed my best performances in the appendix under “races other than marathons.” But details are lacking.
Next, I looked in a box of medals, to pull out the championship medals, to find the hour run. I just further confused matters. I found one for second place in 1973 and one for first place in 1978.
Back to my book, for the list of races….
In 1975, I ran it twice, one week apart, because I recall wanting to break through ten miles so much. Sure, I broke ten miles on my first attempt, but Christa Vahlensieck of Germany did too, further than me, so I tried again, went further, but not by enough to outdistance her.
We had an LDR Chairman, John Brennand, in Santa Barbara, who was extraordinary. John hosted the One Hour Run at least once, often times twice, a year in the summer and held it on the UCSB track.
To start the race, runners were divided in two groups, and the track was split in half for those who ran the inner lanes and those who ran the outer lanes.
Imagine marking the track for every conceivable distance covered in an hour’s time. Also, every runner had a lap counter. When John fired the gun for a two-minute warning of the finish, your counter jogged alongside the track following you, so he or she could mark your last footstep at the one-hour mark (another gunshot fired).
If he had big numbers of entries, he staged another race the following weekend. We were a big district with a large population, so we usually needed a second staging.
The only summary I can offer you is this –
1973 National 2nd place, distance n/a.
1974 National rank n/a, 9 miles 1320 yards.
1975 July 19, 10 miles 112 yards
1975 July 26, 10 miles 243 yards
1978 National 1st place, distance n/a.
To clarify, those national “places” were assigned after all results from all over the country were submitted. No, we were not racing head-to-head on the same track. Think of it as a postal competition. So, you might be first place on the day, in your district, but national rankings came out at the conclusion of the year. World records were decided by the international governing body of statisticians.
Needless to say, I loved this distance. It was absolutely my cup of tea. Some would argue otherwise.
After all, it is the one race that no matter how hard you sprint, the finish line doesn’t get any closer any sooner.
Jim Pearson
I enjoyed doing John Brennand’s postal hour runs on the track. They were long enough to give me a better chance of doing well. I placed 21st in 1974 and 20th in ’75. I have always been pleased with how I ran in the ’75 race. I had run 141.5 miles in the preceding five days, so it took me a while to get going, but that was probably a good thing.
This is from my running diary for that run:
Saturday, 28 June (1) This morning at Woodway High I ran two miles on the cinder track in the light rain. I felt half way decent, and my legs didn’t hurt, but I really didn’t want to race. I had only decided at the last moment last night to make the trip. I took off slower than I ever have (83 first lap and 5:25 first mile) and found myself running easily, though well behind. I was eighth at the mile and seventh at two in 10:47.
I was talking to Evan Smith and mentioned that I really didn’t care. I actually considered his advice when he said I should pack it in and try another day. I did want to beat McCann but realized I wouldn’t be able to go over 11 miles. I thought about how my runners would try to win, and suddenly I was moving. I burst by the pack at 2½ miles and momentarily tucked in behind Mike Shaw and Norm Patenaude, the leaders. After trailing Shaw by ten seconds at one mile and 11 seconds at two, I had a two-second lead at three miles. Then I began to move. It scared me, but I kept pushing it. I realized I was hitting 78’s, and the ease surprised me. I was really fouled up in my distance. I thought Carole, my lap counter, had made a mistake, since my times were so fast and, thus, not consistent with what I thought the laps should be. I wasn’t really paying attention.
I picked up my best ever six mile and ten mile as well as running a PR 11 miles, 844 yards to win the race. I lapped Shaw and Patenaude with 7½ minutes to go and eased up. With a lap to go, I had 65 seconds to break the 880 mark but could muster up only the equivalent of a 69-second lap. I wish I had realized earlier. I could have held the pace for quite a bit longer. I wasn’t tired despite the 5:14 pace. I think I’m ready for a sub 2:20 marathon. 15.0 miles.
The last six full miles were 20 seconds faster than my 6 mile PR.
Most of my PR’s from the mile on up were done in a state of fatigue and even during longer races, but I have no regrets. It helped me in the longer races. Of course, if my US 50-mile record ever comes up, a newcomer to the group invariably asks, “What’s your mile time?”
Hal Higdon
Back in the 1950s (don’t press me for an exact date) I was looking through an AAU handbook that contained all of the existing American records (among other items). One of the records was for the 1 Hour Run, set by a Finnish runner living in the US, Albin Stenroos, who won the marathon at the 1924 Olympic Games. But the record was “soft,” 11 miles 220 yards or thereabouts. I figured I could easily run that fast, so I organized a 1-Hour Run on the University of Chicago’s Stagg Field, probably in the summer of 1958, a week or so after I returned from the National AAU T&F Championships where I placed 5th or 6th in the 10,000 and/or 3000 steeplechase.
I certainly was fatigued from those events, but too dumb to know it. If my flawed memory is close to correct, I broke the record by several dozen yards, an achievement that was broadcast loud and clearly on Browning Ross’s Log. That motivated other runners, who were more talented than I (Browning one of them) to hack away at the record, pushing it upward beyond 12 miles. If I’m not mistaken Bill Rodgers took the record up that high. The event became popular for a while and even was added to the list of legitimate AAU championships and I believe I later won an AAU title in the event both as an open runner and as a master runner.
Still hanging on to my fame and fitness, I believe I set an American masters record at one point in 11 miles 880 yards or thereabouts. But after a while our sport moved in different directions (away from track). The most talented runners moved their acts offstage. (Prize money.)
I think I used this joke in On the Run from Dogs and People. Someone learns I once set a record in the I Hour Run. Innocently, he asks, “What was your time?” Straight-faced, I reply, “One hour.”
All of the above may or may not be true. Just an old man’s memory. [Hal is 92.]
Bill Rodgers
Of course, in the ’60s and ’70s, I think the hour run on the track – even some 24-hour runs – were pretty big. Ron Hill I recall racing the one hour run. It’s not raced too much these days, unfortunately. Most likely, because the shoe companies haven’t thrown any support behind it, but it’s a brilliant event.
I’m looking at my running log book from 1977 August 7th when I set the American record for the hour run. I think I ran 43:40 for 15K, 46:35 for 10 mile, 58:15 for 20K. I don’t know how many miles it is totally 12 miles something [1351 yards]. Anyway I ended six days before a 152-mile week. I didn’t cut back the two days before the race too much. I did 14 miles each day on the Sunday and the Monday. I ran the race on the Tuesday at night at 7:00 p.m. at Boston University.
I remember doing that race with some of my Greater Boston teammates. I think my friend Tom Fleming ran with me for a while. Randy Thomas, too. Coach Squires was the one who set it all up.
Tommy Leonard saw the whole thing. This is what he told Kenny Moore:
“You should have seen the shrug act,” the bartender says. “Breaking four records in one race in August, and every lap, hearing the time, he would give an amused shrug. His golden hair was flowing in a rose sunset…he was even lapping his pacers, for God’s sake. It was beautiful. A mist came over my eyes. It was my most poignant experience in running.”
Sports Illustrated 10/24/1977
I ran 19 miles the day after. I had sore calves and a few blisters.
Benji Durden
I have memories of running the hour run twice. The 1st time was Sunday, March 13th, 1977. I had invited Lee Fidler, Barry Brown, Russ Pate, and others that I can’t currently remember (nor can I find results other than mine) to join in an effort to run a fast hour. We had a pasta party the night before. Then in the afternoon we set off. I started wearing spikes, but around 30:00 I realized that was a mistake and quickly changed into flats. I managed to win anyway with a total distance of 11 miles, 1062 yards. Barbara (my ex) made a ceramic trophy for the winner (see the attached picture)
Then August 28, 2005, for my 54th birthday, we ran another hour run here in Boulder. This time I covered 15,797.5 meters or approximately 9 miles, 1436.yards. My training buddy Steve Sellars (who was 46) beat me by 320.2 meters.
Susan (Rossiter) Henderson
The Hour Runs I ran so far back in the day were always quite the experience. They were unique and weird enough that you just had to do them and embrace them, use them to work on your pace and keep an eye on the competition, and use the people ahead of you as a goal no matter what pace they were running. These races often attracted the absolute diehards of running, people who loved running so much that they very much looked forward to getting on a track and running laps as hard as they could for an hour. Obviously that didn’t appeal to everyone, as you can imagine. But I remember how popular these Hour Runs eventually became across the country. They had their day, though, and I think only lasted 4-5 years.
I ran a few Hour Runs early in my running days, nothing too spectacular for sure but I always loved them. Women did show up for these. In the mid-1970s, more women were beginning to run. Locally, one woman was Marilyn Paul from Portland. She was a strong runner who would show up at occasional road races. often winning. She ran a 2:49 in 1976 at the Vancouver, B.C. marathon, so she had talent. I found some Hour Run race results where she competed. At the Duniway Park track in Portland (oh, the best track ever to race and do intervals), Marilyn ran 9 miles, 1124 yards and was first woman. I lagged back by over a mile. She was impressive to me.
In 1975, there were some really good distances run by women in the Hour Run. Many of these were postal runs, where local results were sent in to regional AAU offices and compiled with a final list of U.S results being published. Names like “Nadia Garcia”, 10 miles, 667 yards); Carol Cook, 10 miles, 205 yards; and “Jacki” Hansen (Jacqueline Hansen), 10 miles, 246 yards, were among the fastest that year. Really good distances.
A couple of years later, I was a bit faster. My husband and I exchanged homes with a family member for a month. She lived on Oahu, we lived in Browns Point, near Tacoma, WA. While we were there, the Mid-Pacific Road Runners Club in Honolulu put on an AAU sanctioned One Hour Run on July 24, 1977. Mike Tymn won it in 11 miles, 110 yards. Among the 55 entrants, there were seven women. The fastest woman that day was Cindy Dalrymple, a very talented runner who was a prolific competitor at every distance. She went 9 miles, 1044 yards that steamy day. Later in her career, she went on to to win the 1981 L.A. Marathon in 2:39:32, winning $25,000! For myself on that hot and humid day (definitely not my kind of running conditions) I covered 9 miles 247 yards for 2nd.
There were so many more AAU One Hour Runs all over the Pacific Northwest. Some were just “fun” events, put on by local running clubs. They were small, like the One Hour event at Sprinker Field in Spanaway, WA. Sixteen people showed up, two of them women, myself and Jean Beyette. As the published run results stated, “Because of the inclement weather, we did not go out on the track at Sprinker Field to measure the final yardage. We hope this is close enough.” Apparently there was a lot of wind and rain that day. And who really cared about the final yardage, anyway?
And what were some of the best memories of Hour Runs? Teaming up with the legendary Mr. Jim Pearson (“Pearson”), getting into a little car with a lot of runners (often I was the only female) and heading to Portland, all excited to race in circles for an hour. As I’ve mentioned before, Pearson always showed up with Spudnuts, ALWAYS. Every kind they made, sometimes Bismarcks with gooey filling. Because he had a Spudnut franchise – and thus could do what he wanted – he personally pumped an excessive amount of extra filling into each Bismarck in the box, ultimately resulting in a brief hiatus from Spudnuts for a while while most of us recovered. But certainly, who wouldn’t want to eat pumped-up Spudnuts before a race, especially an Hour Run on the track, where there’s no hiding.
In one meet in Tacoma, my husband wasn’t running, so he and my son Raoul were sitting in the stands watching. Raoul was maybe 7 or 8, and he yelled out, “Hurry up, Mom, they’re catching you.” It was a little confusing out there if you weren’t paying attention, for racers and for kids.
Good runners from Eugene might show up, causing some great excitement. But when Pearson showed up, there were murmurs of “Pearson is here, Pearson is here.” Not exaggerating. This distance-on-the-track thing was right up Pearson’s alley. He could be formidable.
It was all so fun and so easygoing, sometimes serious, but mostly fun. I have only the best memories of those days and especially the Hour Runs. I wonder what it would be like now, at age 76, to try one … yikes! Maybe that’s where my “deadly face plant” happens … there are worse ways to go.
I can almost imagine another OTC Jogathon.
Imagine everybody shows up at Modern Hayward Field’s superfast track wearing their super-shoes, tracking the wave lights and attacking the Top 100.
Maybe pop a few energy gels along the way.
Get some of those superannuated AARP members off the list.
While the one-hour record may be viewed by some as one of the more unorthodox world records, it holds a rich history spanning more than a century and boasts an outstanding cast of athletes to have had a claim on the mark, including endurance icons Paavo Nurmi, Emil Zatopek, Ron Clarke and more latterly Gebrselassie, the two-time Olympic gold medalist.
First record dates back to 1904
The genesis of the record can be traced back to 1904 when Alfred Shrubb became the event’s first official world record holder. The diminutive Englishman was the finest distance runner of his generation, posting 28 world records over distances from 2000m to the one hour.
Yet one of his finest achievements came in November 1904 at Ibrox Park in Glasgow when – while competing in “a violent breeze and sodden track” – he posted the first official one-hour record of 18,742m and en route also set world records for six, seven, eight, nine, 10 and 11 miles.
The mark was to survive for nine years until 1912 Olympic 5000m silver medallist Jean Bouin plundered the record for France. Competing in Stockholm, Bouin covered 19,021m in 60 minutes, although the following year his life came to an premature end when he was tragically killed in action during the First World War.
Nurmi and Zatopek turn their turns
Bouin’s world record was to remain intact for 15 years until one of the greatest distance runners in history, Paavo Nurmi, secured the record in Berlin in 1928. Just two months earlier, the ‘Flying Finn’ had snared his ninth and final Olympic gold medal over 10,000m at the Amsterdam Games and he followed this up by pushing the world one-hour record out to 19,210m in the German capital.
Nurmi was succeeded as the record holder by fellow Finn Viljo Heino. In 1945 Heino, the world record-holder for the 10,000m, added the one-hour record to his collection, covering 19,339m in Turku.
The ownership of the record was to fall to another of the all-time legends in 1951 when four-time Olympic champion Emil Zatopek set two world one-hour records in 14 days.
The ‘Czech Locomotive’, who had won 10,000m gold at the 1948 Olympic Games, first covered 19,558m in Prague. Not content with the mark – two weeks later he racked up a distance of 20,052m in Stara Boleslav to become the first man in history to smash through the event’s 20,000m barrier.
The Czech legend, who in 1952 became the only man in history to win 5000m, 10,000m and marathon gold at the same Olympics, proudly held the mark for 12 years until Bill Baillie of New Zealand became the first non-European to take the record.
Baillie and Clarke take the record to Oceania
Baillie, who went on to finish sixth in the 5000m at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, was part of a group of world-class Kiwis thriving under the pioneering coaching of Arthur Lydiard and achieved one of the greatest moments of his career by completing 20,190m in Auckland in one hour.
Two years later the record moved west across the Tasman Sea as Australian distance running legend Ron Clarke seized the mark. Clarke set a prodigious 17 world records in his career and added the one-hour mark to his dazzling array of global records, completing 20,232m in Geelong.
However, one year and one day later the record returned to Europe as 1964 Olympic steeplechase champion Gaston Roelants, added more than 400m on to the record.
The versatile Belgian, who was also a four-time winner of the International Cross Country Championship, covered an impressive 20,664m in his home city of Leuven.
Yet this was not the end of the Belgian great’s world one-hour journey. In 1972 and now 35, Roelants extended the world record mark to 20,784m with a memorable performance in Brussels.
Hermens and Born to Run
In 1975 it was the turn of rising Dutch distance runner Jos Hermens to target the record. Hermens had shown a rapid improvement since adopting the training model of Lydiard some three years earlier and in 1975 he was in the best form of his life.
Running a gruelling 200 miles a week – which sometimes entailed training four times a day – Baillie had obliterated his 10,000m PB by more than 30 seconds in London in August with a 27:46.52 run – a performance which gave him the belief he could attack the world one-hour record.
“Back then the world one-hour record was very popular in both athletics and cycling,” explains Hermens. “Gaston Roelants was a big example for me, he was the world record holder and as I was an athlete suited to running the longer distances I looked to the one-hour record. I knew to break the world record I needed to run two halves of 10km at something like 28:40 – which I knew was in range for me because my mileage was so high.”
Coming off the back of his breakthrough run in London, Hermens attempted the world one-hour record in Papendal – the only synthetic track in Holland at that time – in mid-September.
Hermens, the founder and director of Global Sport Communication, has long been considered as one of the sport’s great innovators and when attempting the record he sought a novel approach.
“In 1975 Bruce Springsteen released Born to Run,” says Hermens. “I was a big fan of rock music, so we set up our own sound system at the track and I put together a play list which began with easy, slow tunes and ended with Springsteen’s Born to Run.”
In this way the Dutchman could be inspired by the music and distracted from the pain of the record attempt.
Hermens missed out for a matter of metres on Roelants’ time but two weeks later returned to Papendal to claim the record with a distance of 20,907m. Later that year he was crowned Dutch Sportsman of the Year.
“To run around 52 laps on a track takes great concentration and focus,” said Hermens, who was paced to the record by fellow Dutchman Gerard Tebroke. “I think it is probably easier to run that distance on the road than the track. The first 45 minutes feels okay but that final 15 minutes is really tough.”
To aid his preparation for the 1976 Montreal Olympics, Hermens targeted the one-hour record once more in Papendal in May of that year.
Spending two months preparing by training in New Zealand and enlisting the help of exercise physiologist Jan Vos he once again employed an innovative approach.
To help his pacing he came up with the smart idea to place a police light at each 200m mark – which would flash every 34 seconds or so – on what was the precise world record pace.
“This would tell me during the race without having to worry about watches and time splits whether I was on schedule,” he explains. “I guess it was the first form of Wavelight technology.” Hermens came up with the Wavelight concept in which flashing lights are fitted to track rail to aid athlete pacing as seen at Diamond League meets in Oslo and Monaco this year.
Using the lights as a guide and listening once more to his motivational tunes, Hermens completed the distance in 20,944m to better his world record.
He had privately hoped to become the first person in history to run 21,000m in one-hour but a second world record was still a big boost on his journey to the Olympics later that year.
“It was nice to break the record and it showed I was continuing to improve,” he adds. “It was another step on my road to marathon running.”
While injury was to ruin his plans for marathon success – his world record would survive a further 15 years until Mexico’s Arturo Barrios took it down in 1991. The World 10,000m record holder was a tough-as-teak performer and in Le Fleche, France, he achieved a total distance of 21.101km.
Gebrselassie leaves his mark
In 2007 Ethiopian great and two-time Olympic 10,000m champion Haile Gebrselassie rolled back the years and become the 11th and most recent one-hour standard bearer.
Five years earlier, Gebrselassie had attempted the mark in Hengelo only for a calf injury to force him off the track 39 minutes into the run.
But in Ostrava’s Mestsky Stadium, in what was his second crack at the record, the 34-year-old comfortably delivered achieving a distance of 21,285m.
“I was a little bit worried about the wind and the temperature because it was very hot that day,” recalls Gebrselassie to World Athletics. “But the record was not super-fast, so I knew I was capable.”
Adding his 23rd and 24th world records of his career that day in Ostrava (he also took the 20km world record in 56:25.98) – the two marks remain Gebrselassie’s last remaining world records.
However, on Friday he fully expects his name to be erased as existing world one-hour record holder.
“The record, I think is not so difficult,” explains Gebrselassie. “I think Mo wants the record and he will get it.”
If the 37-year Briton does achieve his goal in Brussels, [Mo did] then he will add his name to a very distinguished list of athletes.
by Steve Landells for World Athletics
Mo & Sifan
(From Runner’s World) In a rarely contested event, Mo Farah and Sifan Hassan shattered the men’s and women’s world records in the one-hour run at the Diamond League Brussels meet at King Baudouin Stadium on Friday, September 4, 2020.
The four-time Olympic champion for Great Britain, running in his first race on the track since 2017, covered 21.330 kilometers (13.254 miles) in one hour.
Bashir Abdi, Farah’s training partner, finished second and covered 21.322 kilometers (13.249 miles) in the same amount of time.In the women’s race, Hassan ran away from marathon world record-holder Brigid Kosgei in the final minute to claim the world record. The 1500 and 10,000-meter world champion from the Netherlands covered 18.930 kilometers (11.763 miles) in 60 minutes on the track. Hassan completed the effort with an average pace of 5:06 per mile to smash the previous world record of 18.517 kilometers set by Dire Tune in 2008.
Molly Huddle
On November 1, 2020, in a COVID-adjusted meet near Boston, in cold and rainy conditions, Molly Huddle ran 17,930 meters (11.14 miles) in one hour on the track. She bettered the U.S. record set by Nancy Conz at the University of Massachusetts, where she ran 10 miles 1,290 yards in 1981. Almost four whole decades earlier.
Huddle also shattered American records in the 15,000-meter and 10-mile distances, which she covered in 50:07.82 and 53:50, respectively.
“Even though it wasn’t anything super blazing fast time-wise compared to what I normally run, it still was something I got up for, which I haven’t really done in a while,” Huddle said. “It was a positive experience.”Someone Please Break The Hour Run American Record
This post is really more of a plea or a hot tip than it is anything speculative. At present time there aren’t any high-profile hour runs set up at any major meets this outdoor season. But for the entrepreneurial runner, finding such an opportunity could prove lucrative.
You’d be setting an American Record, which even if it’s not an impressive one, still yields press.
Furthermore, you’d be breaking an American Record held by one of the heads on the Mount Rushmore of American road racing.
This last part is for meet directors.
If you have any interest in setting up an AR attempt for the hour run at your event, and it’s on a sanctioned track and you have the logistical end sorted out, let the Citius Mag Marketing Machine help you track down five to six fit and able-bodied 1:01-1:03 guys without sponsors, who could afford to cash in on some major face time.
– Paul Snyder
https://citiusmag.com/articles/american-record-one-hour-soft