24 Hours Around the Track
I don’t remember whose idea it was initially, but at one of the all-comer meets put on by the Atlanta Track Club it was decided that the ATC Men’s competitive team should run the 24-hour relay in August.
There were two motives for this endeavor. The first was to raise money through pledges to send Gayle Barron, the club’s top female marathoner, to the first Women’s World Marathon Championships in Germany.
The second motive was to go for a world 24 hr. relay record. The first step was to put together a team. Bob Varsha, who had finished 6th at the 1976 Olympic Trials Marathon in 2:15:50, and his roommate Karl Desantos were the prime movers in persuading the rest of us to run. It was one of those “if you get him to run, I’ll run” deals. Eventually, they convinced a solid block of the ATC men’s team to commit.
They also convinced TGI Fridays, where they waited tables while going to grad school, to pledge enough money to get Gayle to Germany if we broke a record.
At the time these relay events were highly competitive. Teams around the world had set records for 2 to 10-man teams, many of which are still on the books today.
The 10-man record was held by a South African team that had averaged well under 4:50 per mile; even in our wildest dreams, out of our reach. The 9-man record had been set by a team that had averaged just over 5:00 per mile and that was something that we could do, or so we thought.
If my memory serves me right, we started at 7:00 am to get a jump on the August heat. Our plan was to be a bit conservative at first. We were all sub-31 10K runners and thought it might be possible to average as low as 4:50 if we were careful.
Joel Majors, a Georgia Tech all-American, led off with a 4:46. Jeff Galloway, 1972 Olympian in the 10,000, eased through a 4:53. I was up next and also ran a warmup effort of 4:54. Dave Bishop, a gutty school teacher, took his turn with a quicker 4:47. Scott Eden, an All- American from Duke, eased out with a 4:52. Randy Stroud, a true road racer who had never run in college, went for the first round lead with a 4:42. Greg Camp, a navy man home on leave, was more relaxed with his 4:53. Team captain Bob Varsha relaxed through a 4:50 and Kito (our nickname for Karl Desantos) ended the first round with a 4:51.
It looked like this was going to be easy. We had averaged under 4:50 for the first complete round and were just warming up. Things continued to seem easy for the next 7 hours. We had 38+ minutes to recover from our run, plenty of time to shower, eat a little and get off our feet.
I ate popcorn and drank iced tea for the most part.
Things began to get harder around 2:30 pm when Greg ran the first 5:00 mile. On the next leg Jeff and Randy also ran 5:00. Randy never hit sub 5:00 again and though he would continue on 8 more legs, he was our first casualty.
We learned, after he ran his final mile, that he had not been drinking because he was afraid he would get stomach cramps.
Bob and I worked to take up the slack, racing each other into the low 4:30’s before we cautiously eased off to the mid-4:40’s.
Three legs after Randy left, Scott had a very bad mile due to knee pain. We tried having him run in the opposite direction around the track to ease the stress, but he was out a little after midnight. Jeff followed on the next leg, tired, depressed, and feeling our record chance was gone.
As the night slipped away there was a general feeling of depression. Bob at one point sat in his chair weeping with fatigue and despair.
With less time to recover, the others decided to take some rest miles above 5:00. Afraid to risk changing rhythm I kept trying for 4:50-4:55 miles. I chose correctly, my teammates could never regain their rhythm and never broke 5:00 again.
Dave Bishop, though tired himself, acted as a cheerleader trying to keep us going as our average slowly slipped. We responded as it began to get light in the east, knowing our ordeal would soon end.
As we came to the end of the 36th round, I was chosen to run the last full mile. If I didn’t cramp, we would average sub-5 and Dave would take my hand-off for the final fragment of time.
I kicked in a 4:47 and passed to Dave whose 686 yards before time ran out was at 4:42 pace.
As we stood around crying together in fatigue and joy in the early morning sun, I doubt we really understood what we had done. It was an experience we would never share again. As far as I know, the record stands today. Looking back, it was the turning point in my career. I moved from regional class to national class in my next marathon.
(click for a larger version)
Back row: Jeff Galloway, Scott Eden, Greg Camp, and Karl DeSantos
Middle row: Joel Majors and Benji Durden
Front row: Bob Varsha, Randy Stroud, Dave Bishop, and Sig Lee (team support)
(click for a larger version)
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