100,000 Mile Website

I had not been aware that there is a list of runners who have accumulated 100,000 or more running miles until my friend Larry Orwin kindly brought it to my attention. To be included, I had to submit a short bio. Here it is:

Name: Dan Horvath
Date of Birth: May 2, 1953
Current Residence: Brunswick, Ohio, USA

Run a lot. That will be the title of my next book. It's been my philosophy from the beginning.

I started running regularly in 1975 and ran my first marathon in 1978. Through 2024, I have completed 130 marathons and 41 ultras.

Also in 1978, I began recording my daily running mileage into pocket calendars. Of course, this process became more and more sophisticated over time. I continue to document each mile to the present day. By the end of 2018, I had accumulated 100,000 running miles, and by the end of 2024, my total was over 117,000 miles.

I may be done with ultras, but my goal is to continue to run marathons and shorter distances. It would be nice to regain some of my lost speed but don't hold your breath for that.

Photo from the 2024 Medina Half that I included with my submission

Year	Miles	Pace
1978	1224
1979	641.5
1980	0
1981	1221.5
1982	1061.5
1983	1178.5
1984	1110
1985	1128
1986	1401
1987	169
1988	2434
1989	2715.4
1990	2156.7
1991	2450
1992	2888
1993	2715
1994	2520.4
1995	2958	7.9
1996	2780	7.73
1997	3000	7.89
1998	2892	7.72
1999	2780	7.69
2000	3238	7.9
2001	3169	8.22
2002	3356	7.97
2003	3390	7.96
2004	3260	8.19
2005	3263	8.15
2006	3296	7.98
2007	3295	8.24
2008	3200	8.2
2009	3108	8.7
2010	3465	8.31
2011	3676	8.53
2012	3188	8.91
2013	2816
2014	2074	9.16
2015	2806.77	10:05
2016	2443.31	10.34
2017	2906.82	10.52
2018	3076.94	10.5
2019	3000.10	11.53
2020	3697.55	10.83
2021	1280.04	11.89
2022	2762.50	11.5
2023	3152.00	11.5
2024	3541.65	11.3
TOTAL:	117886.18

2024 by the numbers

Consistency is the word of the year. You could make a case that it's the word of my running career. More on this in a bit. First, let's do the numbers.

The Numbers

I ran 3,541.65 miles in 2024. That's an average of 9.68 miles per day. Added to my life-to-date mileage, we get a total of 117,886.18 miles, roughly halfway to the moon.

These 2024 miles took me 673 hours and 20 minutes. Thus, the average pace was 5.3 miles per hour or 11.3 minutes per mile. In other words, it's 11:18 minute-per-mile pace. Yup, that's pretty slow. But the previous three years were even slightly slower. I'm just putting that out there.

Marathons

There were five of them: Big Beach (3:57), Cleveland (4:07), Erie (3:55), Akron (4:04), and Brunswick (4:29). With my usual (of late) goal of sub=four-hours being fulfilled two of the times, I'm reasonably happy with the lot.

Half-Marathons

Medina (1:54), Lighthouse (1:51), Pan-American Masters (1:50). I would like to get back to sub-1:50. Sounds like a good goal for me for 2025, no?

Other Races

No ultras of course. It's been a couple of years. I think I may truly be done with them. I did do some shorter stuff, including a few 5Ks. Besides the related Half-Marathon, I participated in the Pan American Masters Games track races (1500 and 5000). Most recently, I did the Hudson Frosty-Five-Miler in 41:41, I need to do more of these kinds of things.

New Experiences

I had much more fun doing the Pan American Masters Games than I thought I would. In future years, I'd like to do more track races like these against my fellow geezers. In any case, I hope to do at least something new and unique in 2025.

Travels

Yes, I traveled a lot in 2024. I mostly managed to keep on running, even when on the road (or the seas as it were). Although running on a cruise ship isn't the greatest, it sure beats not running.

Friends

As always, I did a lot of my 2024 running with new and old friends. These are the truly enjoyable runs. It's one of the primary reasons why I run. Even though I don't run with them all the time, I don't know if I could do it all without them. 

Consistency

Ten miles per day, at least for most days. Seventy miles per week, most weeks. Sometimes more or less, as I also tried to do a long run of 18 miles or more each week. I believe all this consistency is good and helpful. I hope to keep it going.

Weekly miles for all 52 weeks

2024 Brunswick Marathon Race Report

A whole lot of firsts, and Dan is fairly flabbergasted; his fabulous friends have fomented a fiesta of fun. Best he can tell, around 24 runners start the 2024 Brunswick Marathon and Half-Marathon. This is sometimes referred to as the "BM" but you won't find any potty humor here. Nope, this is absolutely the wrong place for that sort of thing. Except, of course, to mention that this BM was the biggest, most solid, and most satisfying BM ever.

This is the first year that the course was entirely on an all-purpose trail. It includes the 1-mile loop around Brunswick Lake, the new 2-mile connector trail to Plum Creek Park, the half-mile loop there, and back. Altogether, this comes to 6.55 miles, a quarter-marathon. Simply do it twice for a half and four times for a full. Only one very small, teensy-weensy little problem: There's a 100-yardish area in the woods where the trail isn't completed. That part is muddy.

Did we mention that the mud is of the shoe-sucking variety? That it became known as the Mud-pit of Death? It is good news for the trail-runners in the group; not so much for the rest of us. Since the temperatures are in the fifties (and we almost had to cancel due to nice weather), said mud is anything but frozen as it had been during the training runs.

Dan runs much of the first half of the race with Shannon Barnes and Kim Tanner. They learn to *try* to stay on the green snake-like thing on the side of the trail through that Mud-pit of Death. The thing may hold mulch or something, but it's a godsend for keeping our shoes on. You just gotta keep your balance and walk slowly.

Kim and Dan complete the second loop as the clock strikes (about) 2:12. Dan thought he'd been running faster than that, but he hadn't been watching his pace. The slow walks through the mud and the pit stops at the car have something to do with the overall time. Interestingly, a gunshot is heard near Brunswick Lake. Kim mentions that a man had been standing near an animal (perhaps a deer) that was on the ground. As they come back around, the police had arrived, and are investigating. It's possible that it was Animal Control or something like that, but gunshots are not often heard around Brunswick Lake.

The third and fourth circuits are fairly fun but uneventful. Dan runs mostly with Matt Palmer and Mark Sukie. It turns out that everyone else has wisely finished up. Matt and Dan finish in 4:29; Mark follows a minute later. This sub-four-thirty feels like a sub-four to Dan, and he's fairly happy with it. And since this is the first full marathon on this particular course, it's a new course record.

Not a bad way to end 2024. Now, what will 2025 bring? Maybe more running.

There oughtta be a law

It's Christmas Day, and I'm lumbering around in the 'ole hood. If there were a way to say "slower-than-slow lumbering" in a one-word description, I'd have happily used it. My thought for the day, other than I shouldn't even call what I'm doing "running," is that there really should be a law. This law should state that if you choose to decorate your home with holiday lighting, said lighting needs to stay on for the entire night.

As it is, I'm cursing those homeowners who have their lights not turned on this Christmas Day at 5:00 AM. That's perhaps 60% of them, by my observations. Sure, kudos to those who did leave their holiday lights on - I am indeed enjoying those.

Merry Godd@m Christmas from Dan.

Frosty Five Race Report

Cool and damp. It's about 35F with drizzly rain as I emerge from my car in downtown Hudson, Ohio. Not my absolute favorite weather, but at least the rain is subsiding. I jog over to pick up my bib and shirt, jog back to the car, then jog back another time to line up. That's where, among the huge crowd, I see some of my peeps.

Julie, Dan, and Theresa at the start

I start off with Julie Boggs and Theresa Wright. We run together often, so it's not surprising that we are starting the Frosty Five together. Our first mile is on the slow side (partly because I spent some time coughing - still getting over this crud stuff), but then we pick it up during mile two. It helps that that one is downhill. Of course, we pay for this during mile three. Four ain't bad, but it's starting to feel warm. Five winds up being my fastest and best mile of the day.

After the finish, it's great to talk with all manner of friends about the fantastic race and our great performances. 

More friends after the finish

My 41:41 seemed pretty good, and I won my ancient age group. But then I made a huge mistake: I looked up my time at this race from last year. A minute and a half better! I guess I'm getting older.