Don Ritchie's 1977 100-mile World Record

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By Davy Crockett

During the early 1970s, the majority of the American ultramarathons were held in the eastern states, including 100-milers. But by the late ‘70s, a western migration was taking place and soon the state of California was holding the most ultras. Ultrarunners learned about races mostly by word-of-mouth from other runners who they would see before and after a race. That is how American, Frank Bozanich, a future ultrarunning hall of famer, received an invitation to run in a historic race, the 1977 24-hour Crystal Palace Track Race in England, where the Scot, Don Ritchie would make 100-mile history. Details of that race is told for the first time in this episode.

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Nick Marshall Starts Compiling 100-mile Finishes.

In 1976, future American ultrarunning hall of famer, Nick Marshall (1948-) of Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, published the world’s first newsletter dedicated purely to ultrarunning. This annual publication became known as the Ultradistance Summary. Marshall wrote, “There had always been a coverage-void for the fledgling sport, and I sort of filled it by default, simply because no one else was doing anything along these lines.” He explained, “No summary is perfect, but I think this one provides a fairly complete and quick summary touching of the major bases.”

Marshall tried to compile the top American 100-mile times in history. His attempt to compile the top 100-mile times was a Herculean effort given the lack of access to resources and newspapers. He found 20 Americans who had reached 100 miles in less than 20 hours by 1977. Some performances were of course missed. Also, if 100-milers were included for runners throughout the entire world before 1977, the sub-20-hour list exceeds 200 world-wide runs.

Marshall’s 1977 Ultradistance Summary stated that no formal 100-mile races took place in 1977, but actually a few were held worldwide along with a half-dozen 24-hour races. One significant 100-miler that was overlooked because it was not yet tied into the ultrarunning sport — the first Western States 100 from Squaw Valley to Auburn, California. While the Western States course was actually only 89 miles at the time, the 1977 race has an important place in 100-mile history. (see episode 71).

Don Ritchie – the Stubborn Scotsman

Donald A. Ritchie (1944-2018) was from Scotland and some people argue that he was the greatest ultrarunner in history on tracks and roads for ultra-distances of 100 miles or less. In his early teens he took part in school sports as a sprinter and usually finished in the top three. When he was sixteen years old, he participated in his first “walking race” which was popular at that time. The race was for seven miles and had 45 walkers. Ritchie finished “a tired fifth” and walked in his working clothes and shoes. He walked the race again the following year and was bothered that two girls beat him. He concluded that he probably needed to train.

Ritchie ran cross-country in school, and during the track season raced the 440 and 880 yard races. His coach advised him to concentrate on the 880. In 1963 at the age of 19, he started to run fifteen miles regularly with Alastair Wood (1933-2003), one of the great ultrarunners of the early 1970’s, who later won London to Brighton race in a record time. Ritchie eventually started to keep up with him on training runs.

Scottish Athletics required that runners be at least 21 years old in order to run in marathons. In 1965 Ritchie was old enough and entered a marathon with Alastair Wood. The furthest Ritchie had trained was 17 miles. He did great and was pleased with his finish time of 2:43. His mentor Wood, won the race in 2:24. When Ritchie finished, he didn’t say “never again,” he was excited to run more marathons. His personal best for a marathon would be 2:19 at the London Marathon.

Ritchie’s best running year of his life was in 1977, at the age of 32 when he was a schoolmaster. In April, he broke the world 50 km track record at Ewell, England, with a time of 2:51:38 taking more than four minutes off the previous world record. He beat the 100-mile world record holder, Cavin Woodward by about 23 minutes. He followed that up by winning London to Brighton that year, despite being ill. Just three weeks later, he would run perhaps the greatest race of his life at a 24-hour race at the Crystal Palace at London, England.

Frank Bozanich

Frank Anthony Bozanich (1944-), age 33, was a captain in the Marines, stationed at San Diego. He grew in Anacortes, Washington. His father was a commercial fisherman and as a boy Bozanich spent a lot of time in the outdoors and working with his dad on boats. He said, “As I grew older, I worked on fishing boats for other skippers which allowed me to attend college. I also had some tough coaches in high school who believed in hard work.” He was a sprinter and ran some cross-country in high school. After graduation, he joined the Marine Corps and attended officer candidate school, going through tough physical instruction.

In 1968, Bozanich headed to Vietnam and spent twelve months on the front lines. He said, “The things I saw and did, prepared me to adjust to many tough situations.” After returning home and stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, he discovered that he enjoyed longer runs. He ran his first marathon in January 1972, at the Duraleigh Marathon in North Carolina and finished 4th in 2:42. He eventually gravitated to the 50 km and 50 miles. His first ultra was the USA National 50 km Championship in his home state of Washington where he finished in third place with a time of 3:02, In 1976 he ran the classic Metropolitan 50 miler which that year’s National AAU Championships and he won with a time of 5:36:02 against some stiff competition. It was his first of three 50-mile national championships.

Bozanich was one of the early American ultrarunners who sought to complete against the top international competition. In 1977, he was given permission by the Marine Corp to go to England and compete in the 1977 London to Brighton (52 miles) won that year by Ritchie. Bozanich ran the race “cold turkey” without any course preview and was assisted by two marines. He recalled, “I went through ten miles in 56 minutes and was in tenth place. Around mile 30 we started getting into some of the hills and then the weather changed. It started to rain and the wind was howling and I started to suffer. I started to talk to myself and said that this would be my last ultra, I’m not running another one, I’m done.” He finished in 17^th place with an impressive time of 6:02:59.

While recovering in a roman bath, he was approached four or five guys. “They said, ‘We would like to invite you to run at the Crystal Palace 24-hour race in London in three weeks. We are limiting it to twelve runners. We would like you to be there.’ I said, “I’ll be there.” A half hour before I said I wouldn’t run another ultra.” He returned home to San Diego and successfully received orders from the Marines to return to England and run in the historic 1977 race at the Crystal Palace.

24 Hour Crystal Palace Track Race

In October 1977, Ritchie secured time off from his job, without pay, to go run the 24-hour Crystal Palace Track Race. It was run on an outdoor 400-meter tartan synthetic track where many historic races were held. Ritchie took the train there and first checked out unusual track surface that he had not run on before. He taped his feet and would run in racing shoes without socks. The weather was good but would warm up to 65 degrees in the afternoon.

Frank Bozanich also arrived with two marines to help him. He said, “I had never been in one of these things. I didn’t know what I had gotten myself into. We got to the stadium and I had a bag with Snickers Bars and Coke. That was going to be my main nourishment. As we got there, I could see people setting up tents and they had tons of stuff. I just had a small bag and a change of shoes. I thought, ‘what did I get myself into?’ I had never really gone beyond 50 miles.”

The Start

On October 15, 1977, Ritchie, Bozanich and ten others started out on the historic 24-hour race. Bozanich said, “When the gun went off, Don Ritchie was gone. I didn’t know any better so I hung with him. He was one determined guy and focused. He just put his head down and went.”

Ritchie indeed went out blazing fast. His first ten-mile split times were, 1:02, 1:03, and 1:02, reaching 50K in 3:15. At about mile 40, his feet and legs started to become sore. He speculated that it might have been due to the warm afternoon’s effect on the synthetic track surface. He took salt tablets and fueled on a special carbohydrate drink with vitamin C and potassium.

Bozanich also started to have issues. “I had gotten a blister on my toe and was trying to fix that. A young guy comes over who was the brother of Jan Knippenberg, a runner from Holland in the race. He was a doctor and asked, looking at the two marines without any crewing experience, ‘Is this who you have for your team?’ I said ‘Yes.’ Knippenberg the asked, “Would you like to come over and set up by us and we will help you out?” Bozanich was delighted to receive the kind help. “I went over there and they started taking care of me and helped me.”

Ritchie Breaks the 100-mile World Record

Ritchie hit the halfway point, 50 miles, in 5:15 and he reached the 100 km mark at 6:39. At 80 miles he was informed that he was on a world record pace for 100 miles. By mile 90, his feet were very sore, so he took a couple aspirin. His 150 km split broke an obscure world best of 10:37:47. He was determined to break Cavin Woodward’s 100-mile world record and pushed hard the rest of the way. His last ten miles were run in 1:18, and he indeed broke the 100-mile world record in 11:30:51. He only stopped once to use the bathroom the entire 100 miles and averaged 6:54-mile pace. Ritchie’s 100-mile track record would stand for 25 years until broken in 2002 by Russian, Oleg Kharitonov, who ran it in 11:28, also at the Crystal Palace.

Ritchie said, “I ran for 100.5 miles before stopping to have a massage and to look at my feet, which were hurting badly. I had two blisters on my left foot and my right had three blisters plus a cut. I changed my shoes and tried walking, but I could not make myself run again. The outside of my right foot was also painful from favoring the inside where the blisters were.” He decided to drop out of the 24-hour race but he broke the 12-hour world record with 100 miles, 727 yards. He couldn’t run again for four days because of his torn up feet.

The 24-hour Race Continues

Other runners continued. Bozanich said, “The hard part was just trying to keep going. I was used to running 50 miles where I could just drop the hammer and hang on but I came to find out that I had to do double that and more through the night. I never stopped to take a nap. I slowed down a lot.”

Bozanich reached 100 miles in 15:21:56 and Knippenberg retired after reaching 100 miles in 17:21:42. Only seven of the starting twelve reached 100 miles. Knippenberg’s crew kindly committed to crew Bozanich for the full 24 hours. From them, he learned the virtue of eating baby food for the first time during an ultra.

The end soon neared. Bozanich recalled, “It hurt just to jog. It was more of a pounding on the legs, the faster you go the lighter you land but I couldn’t go any faster anymore because I had never gone through anything like that. In the morning it got foggy and dark. You couldn’t even see across the infield at one point. I would run and walk, run and walk. A big masseuse guy would massage my legs and would grab my arms and pull me out of the chair, and then lead me to the track and give me a push to get going. Every few laps I would come in and he would work on me.” He finished with 128 miles. Tom Roden (1946-) of Great Britain reached the furthest with 156 miles, the third best 24-hour run in the world up to that point. He had reached 100 miles in 13:34:39.

Bozanich’s leg muscles were trashed. He said, “The hard part was, to get to the outside of the stadium, we had to climb up the steps and go down into the locker room area. They worked on me there for awhile and then the two marines had to carry me up the steps, out of the stadium, and took me back to the barracks,” He recovered there for a few days before flying home. Ritchie and Bozanich developed a strong friendship the next year in 1978 when Ritchie traveled to California to run in a Runner’s World event with Bozanich and others.

Jim Shapiro’s 1977 Article on the Ultramarathon

James E. Shapiro (1946-), of New York City, was a freelance writer who published in many magazines and newspapers during the 1970s, putting the public spotlight onto ultrarunning. He said, “As a schoolboy, I ran a fair bit because I enjoyed it, but I suffered my share of last-place finishes on a boarding-school track. Always, I had the feeling that if the distance was long enough, I would come into my own.”

He was a graduate of Harvard and served in the Peace Corps. “Quite by chance, in 1974, I saw the finish of the Boston Marathon. Then it became very simple: I had to run one too.” He started to train and soon was running marathons. He became a member of the Boston Athletic Association and visited physiotherapist, Jock Semple (1903-1088) at the Boston Garden for some treatment. Semple gained fame when he tried to tear off the bib number of Kathrine Switzer when she ran the Boston marathon in 1967.

Shapiro and Semple discussed ultramarathons and Max White’s impressive 1973 fourth place finish at the famed London To Brighton (52 miles) race. Semple remarked, “Why, for the love of Pete, does he want to run such things? That ultra stuff is for old men, fellas at the end of their running careers. There’s no future in it, none at all. Why it’s a disgrace how the Boston papers don’t even print a paragraph on it. Nobody cares about such stuff. He should run marathons, that’s where the glory is. Why run these things if you don’t get proper credit.”

Shapiro understood the personal attraction for running ultradistances. “I had some success in competition, which was rewarding, but my taste really veered more toward private solo run, the fifty-mile crunchers.”

He started to run further and further. In the age without Garmin watches, he would meticulously measure his runs in Manhattan with an expensive swiss-wheeled map reader along topographical maps pinned to the wall of his apartment so he could know how far he had run within a hundredth of a mile. He said, “The ultra-distances are so long that simply to cover them can be for some an achievement that matters much more than the speed with which it is done.”

In 1975 Shapiro went to Mexico to witness firsthand the culture of the Tarahumara and their legendary distance running abilities. He hoped to learn something about running from them. He came away very impressed and wrote, “In a way, I hope that the Tarahumara are left to practice their ultrarunning games among themselves, on their own terms.”

Shapario’s 1977 Article

In September 1977, Shapiro made a significant impact on public awareness of the ultrarunning sport when he wrote a magazine article that was published in Sunday newspapers across the country. It was entitled, “What Makes Them Run and Run and Run.” The article solidified the use of the term “ultramarathon” first coined by Ted Corbitt in the 1950s. He opened the article with, “One of the world’s most grueling athletic events is also one of its least-known. It’s the ultramarathon. Ask them why they take on such awesome feats of endurance and such rigorous training (often upward of 200 miles a week) and the answers, diverse as they may be, commonly cite a love for running and extreme challenges.”

The article went on to feature Ted Corbitt, Park Barner, Tom Osler, and Max White. Shapiro later taught that an ultramarathon at a minimum was a race of 50 miles or longer. He felt that “races that cover only 40 or 60 kilometers really have more of a character of a marathon than an ultra.”

While the 1977 article introduced the ultra to the country, it also painted a picture that it was an outlier, odd sport. “Reactions from other runners range from awe to incomprehension. A familiar comment is: ‘That’s crazy stuff.’” He continued to publish articles about ultrarunners. In Harvard Magazine, he used the term ultrarunners and described them as “the authentic crazies of the sport, the swept together cuttings who represent every kind of motivations and background. They are the mammoth distance specialist, inspired lunatics who yearn to accomplish mind-breaking feats”.

Shapiro went on to write many books including the classic 1980 book, Ultramarathon which is now a rare book. That year he also ran across America in 81 days. He went on to teach in high school. One of his students said, “He’s hands down the most amazing teacher I’ve ever had. He used to tell us about 100 mile runs, and it absolutely blew my mind. He’s one of the most generous, kindhearted people I’ve ever met.”

Washie 100 in South Africa

Other 100-mile races were held in 1977 besides the first Western States 100 (see episode 71). In July, the famed Washie 100-miler was held for the first time in South Africa. The idea for the race was hatched in a pub in 1976.

Lionel Whitfield came up with the idea for the road race that would be nearly twice the distance of Comrades Marathon (54 miles). He wanted to name the race after this father, Granville “Washie” Whitfield. The course selected was 100 miles between Port Alfred to East London with nearly 8,000 feet climbing along the way. Many were skeptical if any would even sign up for the tough race, thinking it would only attract lunatics.

Twenty runners did sign up. The 1977 Washie 100 started at night during the South African winter on July 1^st in very cold weather. The runners lined up outside the city wall on Oxford Street. The course included a 10 km section of gravel on a Coastal Road. There were 12 finishers in the inaugural race. Len Jenkins (1943-) of Germiston Callies, South Africa, won in 15:17:24. He had been running ultras since 1967. The Washie 100 has been held to the present day, the oldest 100-miler in South Africa.

Other 1977 100-mile and 24 hours races

On November 11, 1977 a 100-mile track race was held at Auckland, New Zealand. John Hughes (1933-) won in 12:59:24. Numerous 24-hour races were held in European countries. Four were held in Italy and two in Czechoslovakia, and the race at the Crystal Palace. Len Keating (1940-2016), originally from Scotland, ran 100 miles on a track in Zimbabwe, Africa in 16:21:31.

24-hour Relays

In the 1970s, a 24-hour relay craze took place at high schools, colleges and running clubs. Records were claimed, but hard to compare because the number of team members in the relays varied so much and record keeping was always suspect. These type of running relays took place as early as 1907. In 1930 at Montreal, a professional race of six two-man relay teams competed for 24 hours against each other and six teams of horses. The winning team reached 211 miles, 11 miles ahead of the first horse team.

In 1959, at Melbourne Australia’s Olympic Park, a large 24-hour relay race involving 20 clubs was held with teams of unlimited sizes, although each competitor had to run at least four miles. The road course was a one mile loop around the Park. The winning team reached 275 miles.

In late December 1964, teen-agers, from River Dell High School in New Jersey were perhaps the first high schoolers to attempt a 24-hour relay. Fifteen runners were involved. “Sheets of rain began to fall within five hours, and one-by-one worried parents dragged their sons home from the mud.

When the last of the parents had rescued their loved ones, only six were left in their leaking tent sipping hot chicken soup.” During the night, one boy fell in a creek and another doubled up with stomach cramps leaving only four by dawn. The team reached 157 miles and it was said to be a success. “Only about seven of the 15 runners got hurt.” One of the mothers said, “Will I let him run again? Please don’t talk to me about any more races.” It was reported, “Another mother who was at the finish line said she would try anything short of physical violence to bring her 16-year-old son’s running career to an end.”

In 1968, 37 members of the Simi Valley High School Pacer Club in California ran 257 miles in 24 hours in stiff “Santa Ana Winds.” The wind became so bad, that the boys started to run relay legs of only one lap. They believed that they had set a record.

In March 1970 at Corvallis High School track in Oregon, up to 125 students sought to break the 24-hour record which was believed to be 323 miles set by Franklin High track team of Portland, Oregon. The Corvallis team reached 343 miles and ran legs as short as 110 yards in the rain and to the tunes of Three Dog Night and Santana. “It seems that the neighbors didn’t enjoy the music and the PA had to be turned off, but the cop was conned into running a lap.” The baton was passed an estimated 5,500 times.

The 1970 relay craze was on. At an Olympic runner training camp held at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, A 10-man relay team of middle distance runners reached 295 miles, doing one-mile laps. They claimed that they broke a world record that was previously 258 miles. Also, at the camp at team of marathon runners reached 289 miles in front of 200 spectators.

This inspired many high school and college teams to also try to go after the record using the ten-man, one-mile leg format. Runners World Magazine published rules that stated if a man had to drop out, you had to continue with the original nine. Soon these efforts were also used to raise money for charity. In 1971, a Furman University team reached 277 miles, thought to be the third best distance up to that point. Others tried that year and reached between 250-255 miles. In Canada, a University of Victoria team accomplished the fourth best, of 271 miles. Runners World Magazine even sponsored a relay race at New Milford, New Jersey where a New Jersey Striders team also reached 271 miles. Some teams would reduce the number of runners and then claim a world record.

Formal relay races were established in 1972 composing of multiple teams. Lap counting was always a challenge. For one race held in Newark, New Jersey, a runner complained, “The records the officials kept of mileage each team had run were at best unfounded estimations. They never seemed to know how far any team had gone, yet they were always sure what place each team was in.”

In 1974, the world record was raised to 297 miles by the Edinburgh Athletic Club in Scotland. By 1976, so many annual 24-hour relay events were being conducted that yearly world rankings were even kept and published by Runners World Magazine. They listed 250 team accomplishments for 1975 and kept an all-time list too.

In 2021, the 24-hour world relay best for 10 runners was thought to be 302.2 miles set in 1994 by Puma Tyneside Running Club in Great Britain.

The parts of this 100-mile series:

Sources:

The Age (Melbourne, Australia), Apr 15, 20, 1959
The Record (Hackensack, New Jersey), Dec 29, 1964
The Van Nuys News (California), Feb 13, 1968
Corvallis Gazette-Times (Oregon), Mar 7, 13, 20, 1970
Longview Daily News (Washington), May 16 1970
Spokane Chronicle (Washington), Jul 21, 1970
The Sacramento Bee (California), Aug 14, 1970
The Greenville News (South Carolina), May 23, 1970
Times Colonist (Victoria, Canada), Aug 30, 1971
The Herald-News (Passaic, New Jersey), Aug 23, 1971
The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Washington), Jun 7, 1972
Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Texas), Jun 12, 1972
The News Journal (Wilmington, Delaware), Jul 1, 1972
The Los Angeles Times (California), Aug 8, 1937, Sep 24, 1978
The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia), Aug 1, 1937
San Diego Tribune (California), Nov 4, 1969
Sacramento Bee (California), Jan 20, 1977
Colorado Springs Gazette (Colorado), Nov 30, 1977
The Boston Globe (Massachusetts), Sep 18, 1977
The Honolulu Advertiser (Hawaii), May 24, 1979
James E. Shapiro, Ultramarathon
Don Ritchie, The Stubborn Scotsman
2021 Interview with Frank Bozanich
Frank Bozanich, “From Vietnam to National Champion”

72: The 100-miler: Part 19 (1977) Don Ritchie World Record

By Davy Crockett