"Senior Men of the Mountains" to Run 50-mile Relay
By: Sarah Swistak
Updated: October 19, 2011
Hundreds of runners will be taking
Back when these men went to school, they had to walk uphill both ways, now they're just running it.
"Alright, See you at the top," said one runner.
They are the "Senior Men of the Mountains", an elite 8-man running group with some pretty strict membership requirements.
"We decided that you had to be 65 to be a member of our team," said George Etzweiler, the founder and Captain of the team.
But most of them have left that benchmark in the dust.
"I'm Tom Huntley and I'm 80. I'll be 81 next month. I'm sort of one of the middle-aged guys of the group," said Huntley.
"Jerry McCullough. I will be 72 in November," said McCullough.
"I'm Ed Keller and I'm 79 years old," said Keller.
"I'm Bob Dvorsky. I'm 68 years old. I'm like the young guy in this group," he said.
"I'm Jim Vogelson. I'm 80," he said.
And the Grand Poobah of them all, the Captain of this team, George Etzweiler.
"I'm closing in on 92," said Etzweiler.
"Well, you don't look a day over 90," said Sarah.
George is the mastermind behind this running group.
"So, I just decided, 'Hey, I bet we could do this.' So I looked up the last two race records around here, looking for people over 65 and started calling them," said Etzweiler.
"It's a short list," said Sarah.
"And I started calling them and got a team of 8 together," said Etzweiler.
"It's been a long time since someone recruited me for my athletic ability," said McCullough.
"When I heard George was 90 years old, and I thought 'Wow.' So he's my hero, my role model, you know? If I can be doing that when I'm 90, life is good," said Dvorsky.
"I still think he's crazy, but it's a wonderful kind of crazy," said Keller.
The group meets every Friday to pound the trails of
The fastest runner of the group averages a 10-minute mile.
"You made it! What's your time?" asked Sarah.
"Oh, it was 48 minutes going up. Coming down it was unreliable," said Etzweiler.
"George, how would you describe your speed?" asked Sarah.
"Speed? Slow and steady," he said.
"We run a bit slower than those athletes who are 60-70 years younger than us, but it's amazing.
Every time one of them goes shooting by us, they're always yelling encouragement," said McCullough.
"They all go by, I might point out. I haven't caught up to any on this race yet," said Keller.
But that doesn't matter to these men, they're just happy to cross the finish line.
"And when you cross that finish line, how does it feel?" asked Sarah.
"Glad I'm there. Glad I didn't drop dead a half mile before this," said Etzweiler.
And happy to be doing it all together.
"I give you guys a lot of credit. People half of your age couldn't do what you do," said Sarah.
"Well, we have a great leader," said one runner.
"Yeah, that's right," the others chimed in.
"What a great inspiration. He gets us all together and he's our inspiration. Believe me," said McCullough.
The youngest member of the team this year is actually George's son. He just barely made the cut at the age of 65.
