Profile and Interview with Gene Joseph; An Ultrarunning Icon

Here it is trail folk, hot off the press, my interview with Gene Joseph, former Tucson Trail Run co-director. Discover secrets from one of the Ancients. I had the pleasure to sit down with Gene in his backyard, or maybe I should call it habitat, and talk about his running career and personal interests and viewpoints. Gene has been a pillar of the Tucson trail and ultra community for over 30 years. Here is his profile followed by what we talked about:

PROFILE OF RUNNER:

A.  Name, age, city and state, how long lived there?

Gene Joseph, 58 years young, living in Tucson, AZ for 41 years.

B.  Place of birth, where did you grow up, high school, college, military, other?

Born in St. Louis, MO and lived there through high school. I left as soon as I could for some place more interesting.

C.  Other than running – hobbies, interests, pets, kids, current employment?

Owner of a desert plant nursery, Plants for the Southwest. I like to collect plants and sleep.

D.  Favorite distance to run or race on trail and on the road?

The trail 50-mile run.

E.  Favorite race course or event?

Avalon 1988 2nd place finish

Avalon 50-mile race on Catalina Island; completed 24 consecutive Avalon races dating back to 1987.

F.  Favorite Tucson area trail to train, run, hike?

Bear Canyon; completed 478 Bear Canyon loops and counting.

G. Favorite vacation destination?

I like to go to a different place for each vacation. But after more than two dozen trips to Catalina Island, I still love it there.

H.  Favorite post-race/run  food, drink and activity, ie. hot tub, ice cold river soak, etc?

Sweet electrolyte replacement and potato chips (sugar and salt), pepperoncinis (salt); ice soak on feet and legs.

Trail Aficionado (TA): Gene, thanks for taking the time to meet with me. I’ve known you for many years by being out on the trail and visiting at yearly potlucks but have never had the chance to really find out how you became to call yourself a runner. What made you want to run and what did you like about it?

Gene:   Anytime Chase. I never really ran in high school. I had an interest in baseball but in a highly competitive area I couldn’t make the team after three years of tryouts. It wasn’t until I graduated from the U of A in 1976 that I experimented with running in my early 20s. I read the book, The Zen of Running, (by Fred Rohe, 1974)  and found good advice, like “stop when it hurts” and start by running around the block, maybe just a quarter mile a day. It took a long time but eventually I signed up for the Fiesta Bowl Marathon and trained on the streets with other runners like Rick Kelley, who was also entered in the same race.

     I really liked the way running made me feel. I liked getting out there and knowing I could run as far as I wanted to. It made me feel good all over.

TA:  So how did this new found love of running transfer to the trail?

Gene:  My first trail run was in 1981 with Rick Kelley and Paul Yates. This turned out to be one of my fastest Bear Canyons at 2:26. Later that season I ran my first TTR run on the Mt Lemmon Ascent Trail. I was working at the Desert Museum at the time and had great access to the Tucson Mountains. I was running Wasson Peak three times a week.

TA:  What were the conditions of the trails then? I mean, I always understood they were paved with golden bricks. Were the trails in Sabino Canyon fairly new?

Gene:  Oh no, to my understanding the trails were built in the 1930’s by the WPA. I believe some recent work had been done by the Southwest Conservation Corps due to federal money available. Now I will tell you that the crossings before Seven Falls had steps built in so you could literally run right over them and with a foot and a half of water in the creek you would still be dry. They were washed out in the winter of ’93; you can still see some of the block and rebar bent down in places. The flow in Sabino Basin was changed as well. What used to be a nice big cottonwood and a juniper tree turned into a 100 yard wide jumble of rocks. I think these changes caused at least a 10 minute slowdown. But before this, in the late ‘70s and throughout the ‘80s the trail was in great shape.

TA:  What about shoes? Did you just take your street shoes and take off over rocky trails and it never bothered you?

Gene:  Initially that is what we did. Mizuno put out three different shoe styles and one was the Mizuno 450 trail shoe. Everybody got these. They didn’t have any cushion but had a good waffle sole for traction. I still have a brand new pair of size 10.5’s. In fact, at one time I bought 14 pairs. But honestly I don’t think it really mattered. When you are young and immortal you can run in anything.

TA:  What about water? Did you just depend on the time of the year or a recent rainfall and know you could get water along the way?

Gene:  Right, depending on the route and the time of year you knew you were going to hit a couple creeks. The Sycamore Creek crossing was avoided unless absolutely necessary but everybody drank out of Sabino Basin. People did start carrying bottles like a soap bottle that had a hook on it. I had a plastic military style canteen that worked for me.

TA:  How did you come upon the ultra distance? Did you do a 50K or just jump straight to the 50 mile?

Gene:  My first longest ultra was a 52 mile double marathon on the road. I did the Tucson double marathon several times as well as the Mule Mountain Marathon double starting at midnight from the Fort Huachuca front gate. This type of thing really worked for me. Being out on the road for a long time, alone, not going very fast. It was a cool feeling to just be able to keep going.

TA:  Tell me about your first trail ultra?

Gene:  I believe Tanque Verde Loop which is a TTR run was probably my first. At the time that was our longest run. As far as a race, we started Old Pueblo I think in ’85. I advised a little but Trig directed it until after a few years I directed it a couple of times and then had Ross Zimmerman’s help. We started with about 20 local runners and it was run in conjunction with the horses. This was probably my first trail ultra race before I got into the Avalon routine.

TA:  How did your love affair with Avalon blossom?

Gene:  A guy came from Southern California to do Old Pueblo and had heard of me and asked if he could stay at my house. He told me about this run on Catalina Island. I had been to the island once before. Incidentally, on that first trip I spent an hour after the boat ride recovering from seasickness. The run was by invite only and he got me in. This was in 1987 and I have gone every year since then. This year would have been 25 but there was no way I was going with the events of January 8^th in Tucson. Next year will be 25.

TA:  So let’s follow your progression. What in your mind said, “I can do 50 miles so why not do two times 50 miles?

Gene:  Well, it seemed like the next place to go and also, I saw it happening around me. Actually my very first over marathon distance run was on a training run with Wally Shiel. Ross and I were training with Wally while he was preparing for Western States. You know how it happens when somebody is really training for a run, everyone around him gets in shape. This is what got me interested around 1982. I signed up for my first 100 in 1983 at Western States and got in. Two weeks before the run I got injured while hiking in Mexico by a large rock that slid off the trail onto my foot. There was no way I was running. It was close to 10 years later before I got around to entering another 100.

TA:  What happened then?

Gene:  Well first, later that fall in ’83 my foot was better so I was still trained and attempted to run a 100 miles by putting together a 100 mile course here in Tucson.

TA:  Were you the only entrant, were you going to run it by yourself?

Gene:  Well yeah, I was going to have people run parts of it with me. The course was Esperero, then run over to Mica, and I did, and then I ran Mica and then I came down and then the plan was to run over to the monument and do a loop and then do Tanque Verde in reverse and finish at the end of Speedway, I mean it’s pretty ambitious. I loved the course because it was a combination of all of our runs with connectors in between. But I dropped after 70 miles. After Mica and at the entrance to the monument; I did not do the monument loop.

TA:  What kind of problems did you have?

Gene:  Again it was the same thing; I felt like I was good at going forever running long distances. Unfortunately for me it didn’t hold true from the 50 to the 100. My nemesis has always been my gut. I’m good to about 11 or 12 hours and then I have to start doing special things. I still don’t know what that special thing is. I’ve been able to get through several hundreds but have dropped from at least four. It’s always been nausea. Then since I can’t eat anything then nothing stays down.

TA:  Were you taking salt with you or was it available at aid stations?

Gene:  People did take salt and it was out on the tables; boiled potatoes and salt. That never really interested me. I was eating chips but I was not getting enough. Another one of my problems is that I’m not a good thinking runner. I don’t pursue things in advance. I knew I could eat off the tables. Let’s just go out and see what happens and I think I failed some of the time because I wasn’t prepared as I should have been. The other problem is quitting when you have other people involved like a crew and a pacer. If it were just me crawling underneath a bush and quitting, that’s one thing, but with the others it makes it harder.

TA:  So where was your first 100 mile finish?

Gene:  10 years later at Angeles Crest. It used to finish at the Rose Bowl. I dropped at mile 70 the first year and went back the next year and finished. I started AC five times and dropped three times.

TA:  Hopefully I’m not headed in that direction. I entered once and dropped at 59 and am going back in six weeks. I would like to be one and one.

Gene:  They moved it to from September to July then; so it might be cooler.  Typically the hottest month in SoCal is from middle to late September.

TA:  Did you have any other luck with the 100 or was it always brutal?

Gene:  The year I finished Western in 2000 I had a “Born Again” moment. I started to come alive at about mile 80 and by the time I hit the highway crossing at mile 93 I had to leave my pacer behind. I was running three feet off the ground. The only person that had a faster split for that last 7 miles was the winner, Scott Jurek. The way I felt the last 7 miles was truly phenomenal. I was running up the hills into the community near the finish in Auburn. I must have passed 40 people in the last 7 miles. I finished in 27 hours.

     Later that same year I ran Arkansas Traveler 100 and finished so I doubled in one year. I was as high as a kite after that Western finish which helped. I still get excited thinking about it. There is another 100 that I want to tell you about…

TA:  Was it after that?

Gene:  No, it was in ’95. We had a grade school, Keeling Elementary, in our neighborhood and one of the teachers had this Miler Club. Her goal was to get the kids to walk or run a total of 100 miles around this school. When each kid made the goal they became part of the club. She figured the distance around the school was a half-mile. When I wheeled it, it turned out to be .47 of a mile. At the time, Jane was pushing a charity event called Christmas in April. There were 1300 volunteers in the neighborhood reroofing houses and making repairs to homes in need. I decided to do a benefit run to raise money and run 100 miles around this school in one day. It was incredible. I call it the richest run I’ve ever done.

     I was interviewed by the newspaper. I had running friends come by throughout the day and run with me. The kids would run with me. I started at 9am and ran throughout the night. The police were out there. I had to run 213 laps to get 100 miles so I was going to run 214 to be sure. I had so much fun.

TA:   Did you make the 24 hours?

Gene:  I had a friend, Gordon Neal, running with me at the end. I started to get a little delirious and concerned whether I was going to make it. He said, “Listen, I’m an engineer, you’re going to make it.” I ran it in 19:40. I had a great time. I walked to the start and I walked home. Fifteen minutes after I finished I’m in my house standing in my shower. All of these things, it was a miracle run.

TA:  Well Gene, this is great. I just have a couple personal questions and we can wrap this up. What are some running accomplishments that you are most proud of?

Gene:  The Keeling Elementary 100 mile charity run; 478 Bear Canyons; 24 consecutive years at Avalon.

TA:  If you could provide one helpful hint to a new ultra-runner, what would it be?

Gene:  Pay attention to what you eat and experiment with food and drink ahead of time.

TA:  What is the most useful thing you have learned or advice received that helped your running career?

Gene:  Indirectly, I learned from Wally to test things out ahead of time. Don’t try anything brand new in a race and don’t pay attention to what other people tell you to eat. A funny story; I once went on a training run with Wally and he had set his watch to beep every 21 minutes or three miles. At that point we would each drink two orange sodas and a pack of Twinkies. I began dreading the timer alarm. After 10 miles I was so sick I had to bail and get a ride home.

TA:  Any personal heroes or someone you look up to?

Gene:  That’s a tough one. I’ve gotten bits and pieces from a lot of people. I would have to say Ross, because of the ever increasing strength he found after the tragedy with Gabe. I mean, he found a way to excel in the face of adversity. It would have left me crumpled.

TA:  Do you have a favorite quote or words to live by?

Gene:  I don’t know if someone made this up but I’ve said it to people when they are down and I want to help inject some humor. “Hang in there – life is like a bat cave – if you let go, you know what you’re going to fall into.”

TA:  Biggest pet peeve?

Gene:  Trail damage by mountain bikes and horses. Mostly horses, especially after wet weather. I’m surprised no one has been injured by the push-outs from their hooves.

TA:  I have heard about an eccentricity of yours regarding saving shoes?

Gene:  Well, I only have about 60-70 pairs and I do give them away to friends that can use them. If I found an organization going to Mexico I would probably give them up. What I had been doing is planting a pair of shoes in every foundation of the buildings at the nursery but there aren’t enough foundations. In 200 years some archeologist is going to have a field day with that.

TA:  Last question. What is the meaning of life?

Gene:  Phew… I would say that you should expend as much energy as you can in a good effort that elicits satisfaction in all of your endeavors.

TA:  That sounds good to me. Thank you for your time Gene.

Gene:  Thank you.