Stu Mittleman began his ultra career inauspiciously in 1978, running a modest 6:11 for 50 miles in the Metropolitan 50 Mile in Central Park, New York City. Within two years he had notched his first national-class ultra performance, running 3:52 for 60k. A few months later he stunned a stellar field by winning the New York Road Runners Club’s 100 mile with the second fastest time ever by an American, 13:04:09.
In 1981 he won the Lake Waramaug 50 Mile in 5:14:05, becoming #5 on the all-time U.S. list. Then, only a month later, he returned to successfully defend his title at the NYRR 100 mile (now designated as the U.S. National Championship), lowering his time to 13:00:11 in oppressively hot and humid conditions. In 1982 he again successfully defended at both venues, this time taking the longer distance option at Lake Waramaug, winning the 100k there in 6:57:49 (again, the #5 all-time U.S. performance at that distance) and dropping his winning National 100 Mile time by another 4 minutes with a 12:56:34. The story of that race has been written and revisited more than almost any other American ultra. It was a classic 2-man duel in a driving rainstorm, with 1/4 of the 1-mile course a gooey, muddy bog, that never let up until Mittleman broke the finish tape. He had started at what observers considered a reckless pace, clocking 5:45 for the first 50 miles. Through the second half Lion Caldwell closed steadily on the now-fading leader. Every lap of Mittleman’s second 50 miles was slower than the preceding one, but he clung tenaciously to the lead. For the final hour his arms and head drooped, and it seemed there was no way he could finish, that Caldwell would win his first national title. Mittleman somehow remained upright long enough to cross the finish line, but would never again return to that race, that distance, or anything shorter.
The revival of multi-day racing in the early 1980’s breathed a second competitive life into Stu Mittleman. He entered the inaugural New York 6-Day race in 1983 and finished second to multi-day legend Siefried Bauer of New Zealand, racking up 488 miles to Bauer’s 511 and becoming the top American at this newly revived event. The following year he exploded onto the world-class multi-day scene, finishing second to 24-Hour World Record hold Jean-Gilles Boussiquet of France in the LaRochelle 6-Day Race in Boussiquet’s home country. Mittleman had immersed himself in the esoterica of multi-day racing, including nutritional research, racewalking technique, and sleep-deprivation. It all paid off with daily mileage totals of 105, 90, 95, 86, 103, & 92 for a 6-day total of 571 miles, 1164 yards. It was a U.S. 6-day best by over 16 miles. The following year he covered 577 miles, 1320 yards in a 6-day race in Boulder, Colorado. For that, Mittleman won the “performance of the year” designation by Ultrarunning Magazine for the second time (the first had been for his 12:56 100 Mile win).
But his crowning achievement was yet to come the following year: a head-to-head match with Bauer at the Sri Chinmoy 1,000 Mile Race in Queens, New York to attack Bauer’s World Record of 12 days, 12 hours. Bauer took control of the race early and established a substantial lead by halfway. And then Mittleman’s training and meticulous race planning kicked in. He actually surged in both pace and time in motion more than halfway through the race. He wound up putting together back-to-back 6-day splits of 500+ miles each, the second faster than the first. It was a virtually flawless footracing fortnight tour de force. He decisively defeated Bauer and crushed the Kiwi’s world record by 16 hours, setting a new world mark of 11 days, 20 hours, 36 minutes, 50 seconds. It would take none other than Yiannis Kouros to break it many years later.
Stu Mittleman appeared to have retired shortly after that race, but after an 8-year absence from serious racing he re-emerged in 1994 to win the LaRochelle 6-day with 536.26 miles. In year 2000 he completed a charity fundraising run across the USA, averaging 52 miles per day.
No other American ultrarunner, male for female, has exhibited national class excellence at such a wide range of racing distances. None other than Ted Corbitt, inaugural Ultra Hall of Fame inductee and “The Father of American Ultrarunning,” once offered the opinion that Mittleman was the best-ever all-around American ultrarunner.