Barry Spitz: Running your age still a special Dipsea statistic

With the 114th Dipsea Race fast approaching this Sunday, aficionados have plenty of statistics to peruse, ponder and debate. This is particularly true since all Race results, back to 1905, were posted online a few years back.

One seemingly esoteric statistic, with its coterie of followers, tracks racers who have run an actual time, in minutes, under their age, in years. In all Dipsea history, only eight men have ever achieved the feat. The matter becomes less arcane upon looking at the list, for it serves as a spot-on identifier of the greatest Dipsea racers and performances of the modern era.

It took 65 years, until 1970, before anyone ran a time in minutes under his age. (This was largely due to the dearth of runners over age 40, much less 50, 60 or 70, in the Dipsea’s early decades.) Norman Bright had been a world class runner in the 1930s, just missing a spot on the 1936 Olympic Team due to injury. In 1937, he broke Mason Hartwell’s 25-year-old Dipsea course record but finished second behind Paul Chirone, who had started six minutes ahead.

Bright did not run the Dipsea again until 1970. His vision was failing — he would spend the last decades of his life completely blind — so thought it was time. He had his “60-60-60” plan, to win the 60th Dipsea at age 60 in a time under 60 minutes. Bright prepared meticulously, regularly riding the bus from Seattle and carefully marking every shortcut. He started with the maximum handicap, 15 minutes.

Bright came through splendidly, crossing the finish line first in a time of 59 minutes, 46 seconds. But the fireworks had just begun in this perhaps most epic of all Dipseas. Seventeen seconds later, Rich Delgado, who had a two-minute head start, crossed. His actual running time of 47:02 broke Bright’s ’37 course record by 20 seconds. Then, in third place, came scratch (no head start) runner Don Makela, His 46:42 broke Delgado’s ephemeral course record. Jack Kirk, an old Bright Dipsea rival from the 1930s, finished sixth.

A year later, 1971, Bright again “ran his age,” recording a time of 60:08 but finished second behind nine-year-old Mike Boitano. Bright would be one of five people chosen for the inaugural Dipsea Race Hall of Fame class.

It would be an additional 22 years, 1993, before another runner, Sal Vasquez, also a charter Hall of Famer, matched Bright’s feat. At age 53, he ran 52:52 and won the Race. Vasquez remains, to this day, the youngest to run under his age. Vasquez turned the feat twice more, in 1995 and 1997.

Joe King became the next “minutes-under-age” runner in 1994 but finished third. The following year, King, 69, not only won the Dipsea but became the first to go more than a single minute under his age with a 1:06:03. King won the Dipsea again the following year in a time of 69:28.

Mill Valley’s Russ Kiernan ran his first Dipsea in 1967 but it took him 31 years to finally win (when he ran 60:59 at age 60). He then began an unmatched string — ten consecutive years — of running times below his age. And six of these years were by multiple minutes, including five below in 2004, still the record.

Hans Schmid notched three sub-age efforts beginning with his outright win in 2008. Brian Pilcher recorded his first sub-age in 2013 and now has five (along with four winner’s trophies). He is the only runner, besides Vasquez, to achieve it in his 50s.

Mark Tatum, who is racing on Sunday, twice has run under his age (and twice equaled it). The final member of the exclusive club is Dan King, in 2021.

While no woman has ever run her age, one came close. That was Melody-Anne Schultz, running 63:36 at age 61 en route to victory in 2003. Her margin of victory — five minutes, 33 seconds — was the second largest in Dipsea history. Schultz’s performance is arguably the greatest in Dipsea history. But that’s the stuff Dipsea fanatics love to argue about!