{"id":796,"date":"2017-10-22T09:02:00","date_gmt":"2017-10-22T09:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drmirkin.com\/2017\/10\/22\/ted-corbitt-the-father-of-long-distance-running\/"},"modified":"2019-10-09T21:58:14","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T21:58:14","slug":"ted-corbitt-the-father-of-long-distance-running","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/?p=796","title":{"rendered":"Ted Corbitt, the Father of Long Distance Running"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\"tedTed Corbitt ran more miles in training, often up to 200 miles a week, than any runner I ever heard of, yet his fastest time in a marathon was a mediocre 2 hours 26 minutes 44 seconds, almost 24 minutes slower than the present world record for that distance.\u00a0Top marathon runners today run far fewer miles, usually 100 to 130 miles per week, but they do training runs that are much faster. To compete successfully today, you have to run very fast and the best way to prepare yourself for fast running is to do interval training: repeat very fast runs at shorter distances, at a very fast pace, with slower jogs between each, two or three times a week.<\/div>\n
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Corbitt competed in 199 marathons and ultra-marathons and was good enough to make the 1952 United States Olympic marathon team. He held American records in the marathon, the 100-mile run and the 25-, 40- and 50-kilometer races and continued to be an elite runner into his late fifties.\u00a0 Corbitt ran a few of his marathons with a mediocre marathoner, me (a personal friend), and we were both elected to the Road Runners’ Club of American’s Hall of Fame.\u00a0 At age 81, he walked 240 miles in a six-day race, and at age 82, he improved his distance to 303 miles.\u00a0 He died at age 88 of colon cancer.<\/div>\n
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A Life in Running<\/strong><\/div>\n
He was the grandson of slaves and started running as a child on his father\u2019s cotton farm in South Carolina and continued to run for all of his 88 years.\u00a0 His family moved to Cincinnati where he ran competitively in high school and at the University of Cincinnati.\u00a0 \u00a0He was in the army during World War II and then moved to New York, where, in 1950,\u00a0 he earned a master\u2019s degree in physical therapy at New York University.\u00a0 In 1951, he ran his first Boston Marathon. He raced almost every week and ran prodigious amounts of miles each week.\u00a0 In 1957, he helped start the Road Runners Club of America.\u00a0 In 1958, he was a co-founder of the New York Road Runners Club and its first president.\u00a0 \u00a0He was active in administering long distance running in the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States and helped start masters’ races for men over 40 years of age.\u00a0 He was the prime mover in establishing rules for measuring long distance road race courses.<\/div>\n
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