| March 2002 Newsletter |
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Some Hubert Morgan Memories
From Don Farley:
Many of you know that he ran across the country (west to east)
one summer. I forget the year, but he was over 60. I think he averaged
well over 20 miles a day, maybe as much as 40?. As I recall he ran his
first 10 or so, then had breakfast (his wife drove his support van), then
did his next run, and maybe added a 3rd or even 4th. He ran 6 days a week
(he preached on most Sundays) and ran through at least one serious injury
(bad achilles or similar?). He was certainly in his 60s then, and
remarked later that this run had wiped out his speed permanently.
The second item concerns the spring marathon that we used to run that started and ended at Barton. He showed up for that one year but forgot his running shoes. No problem; he ran the whole thing in his black leather street shoes, shoes that might have had leather soles even! He was a preacher, remember. He finished the marathon in some decent time, with no foot problems that I remember.
I remember running once in the same race with him -- the Mountain Back 10 miler, an infamous course in PA that TJ Pempel talked a carload or two of us into running one year. The course had many long, wicked hills. I finally passed Hubert at about the 5 mile mark. Afterwards he complained about his slow time of 63+ or similar. I was impressed.
One year he ran the 10 of the 5&10 in under 60 and received the
"outstanding performance" award that MacDonalds gave out then, when the
start and finish was on the Commons. He might have been 60 at the time.
From Vince Wojnar, of the Wyoming Valley Striders:
What a super person to have known . . . Our club had him as a
speaker 10 or more years ago and he gave a talk about his run across the
U.S. I don't know about him using only one pair of shoes. It took him 80
days. He would run 6 days and rest 1 day. He averaged 40 miles/day. I
just can't comprehend that. If anyone could do that, it would be
Hubert. He may have been about 50 years old at the time. I wish someone
would write his biography. It would almost have to be in the fiction
category.
From Herb Engman:
I have good memories of Hubert Morgan. I ran against him in my
first Triennial. He was the first older runner to impress upon me the
potential to run throughout old age. He was very unimposing and never had
the latest shoes or running outfits, but he could fly. Frankly, I thought
he would be running until his nineties. Another lesson learned.
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