Start Slow and Taper Off

This picture of drinking Coors with Walt Stack and my buddy Jeff Alexander in 1976 after the Pikes Peak Marathon will always be one of my favorite hero pictures.  I have been to a lot of races over the last fifty years, but my friendship with Walter stands above all the rest.  He was a man's man and a ladies' man, an original in a world of lookalikes.  His prowess into advanced age is still the standard that I aim for.  If credit is due for my own longevity in the sport of running, much of the weight of that lies with Walter's influence.

Before becoming the world's most famous senior-citizen distance runner, Walt Stack (who died in 1995 at age 87) first got into shape the old fashioned way: He worked as a hod carrier, ferrying supplies to bricklayers, stonemasons, and the like on his broad shoulders. But in 1965, at 57, he decided that eight daily hours of hard labor just wasn't enough. So he ran the first of what would eventually become 62,000 lifetime miles, crafting a highly visible training routine that made him a San Francisco institution - though many a Bay Area commuter was heard to mutter that he instead should've been committed to one. "I'm going to do this till I get planted," he'd say, and indeed he nearly did. Every day for 27 years, until sidelined by failing health in 1993, Stack would set out on his bike and ride the six hilly miles from his Potrero Hill home to Fisherman's Wharf. There he'd strip off his shirt - to display the tattoos of peacocks, wild horses, and bathing beauties inked across his broad, rawhide chest - and run over the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito and back, 17 miles. Next, Walter would jump into the Bay near Alcatraz Island (sometimes accompanied by sharks) for a two-mile swim in choppy water he called "colder than a landlord's heart." Perhaps even more impressive than his daily routine, however - and a timeless reality check for those who may feel compelled to boast of their fitness exploits - was the perspective with which he viewed it. "All this work I'm doing," Stack once said in the midst of a bridge crossing, "it don't mean shit." 

In conversations I had with his wife Marcy, she confirmed all the rumored legendary tales.  I even keep a newspaper clipping of Walt swimming in San Francisco Bay with Alcatraz in the background and the fin of a cruising shark not too far away.  Marcy told me that every day he never failed to rise at 0300 to run his 17 miles across the Golden Gate Bridge, bicycle 40 miles, and swim two miles in the ocean - all before going to work as a hod carrier.

In the late 1970's or early 80's, Sports Illustrated sent a writer to do a story on Walt. The writer followed him around for a week, talking to friends and getting to know his habits and routine. When the article came out, Walt hated it. But there was a great line that I remember from that article which had to do with one of Walt's physical traits, his steady gait. It seems almost regardless of the distance, Walt ran 8.5 minute miles. So the SI writer wrote: "Walt Stack's pace is so steady, if he fell out of an airplane he probably would fall at the speed of 8.5 minutes per mile."

  The memory of Walter in a Nike commercial on television back in the day is till fresh in my mind.  The ad showed Walt in the locker room preparing to go for a run.  Another runner asked him if the cold weather ever made his teeth chatter, to which he responded in typical Walt Stack panache:  "Never.  I always take them out and leave them in the locker before I run." (with a big false teeth grin, the commercial ended with the classic Nike "Just Do It")

Walt and Marcy had a cameo appearance in perhaps the finest running movie ever made - On the Edge - with Bruce Dern - about an old guy training for the Dipsea race on the Marin peninsula above the San Francisco Bay Bridge.  It is a great movie where I can enjoy seeing my old friend any time I need a chuckle.  The Walt Stack Double Dipsea race up and down Mount Tamalpais now commemorates his colorful history every summer.  It is an event I aim to participate in before they "plant my bones".  There are many stories of this man that echo in my memory.  Following is one example, just to get an essence of who this colorful human being was.

At the Dolphin Swim Club (DSE) races, Walt (who was responsible for starting the DSE) was a frequent master of ceremonies and presenter of ribbons to the top finishers and one never knew quite what to expect. At one of the Sunday races there was a runner named Gail Gustufson who had been training for an important marathon and was doing quite well. She mentioned that she intended to finish in a time that everyone who knew her thought was unrealistic.

Well, Walt heard about the prediction and after handing out ribbons one morning said, "I hear Gail's going to break a record in the marathon next week. Come now Gail, if you run that fast, I'll kiss your ass at the Ferry Building at high noon and give you an hour to draw a crowd!" Laughter broke out and the gauntlet had been thrown. To everyone's surprise Gail ran the race in the time she had predicted. On the following week when Walter presented ribbons, fellow runners made sure that Gail would be at the Ferry Building at noon as Walt was expected to be there.  As noon rolled around a huge crowd of mostly runners gathered along with some curious tourists and spectators. Everyone wondered what would happen and how would Walt would handle it?

What only a few people knew, was that Gail and a friend had rented a jackass costume and were off in a hiding place. As Walt walked up, the "animal" appeared, turned, and directed its hindquarters toward Walt. In the typical Walter Stack style, he walked over and planted a big kiss on its behind. Then Gail and friend stepped out of the costume to the roar of laughter and shouts. God only knows what would have happened if she had actually dropped her shorts! Of course, there was one heck of a party afterwards.

Blue of eye with cheek of tan,
Blessings on the DSE's First Man. 

With inspiration for all who dared
(The grubby jokes were never spared.)

Len and Buck and Ruth and Stu
And Sister Marion, they all knew

Walt, with several minor flaws
Unique-a rebel with a cause.

Those who didn't run or soar
With Walt beside the Bay missed more

Than just a legend in our time;
But also lost the chance to climb

With winged feet the heights of charm
With Walt, whose character so warm

Is with us still throughout the land,
On mountain trail, along the sand.