PROFILE OF RUNNER:
A. Name, age, city and state, how long lived there?
Joe Dana, 75, Tucson, AZ. Arrived in Tucson
B. Place of birth, where did you grow up, high school, college, military, other?
Born 23 April 1936 in Bradford PA; a small town in Northwestern PA. It's the home of Case Cutlery, Zippo lighters and Kendall Oil. As a teenager I worked for my father helping with the harvest of hay in the summer for our dairy farm. I also worked on maintaining the oil wells we owned and as a clerk in the men’s clothing store; again, my father’s store.
After high school I spent one year at St Bonaventure University where I majored in beer drinking which landed me on the school’s probation list. School not working out for me I joined the Air Force and spent 3½ years starting at Samson AB NY, to Lowery field (Denver) for school on to Orlando AB in Florida and a tour in Tainan, Taiwan.
Another semester at St Bonaventure, managed to get off probation but still directionless. Then an opportunity arose to go back on active duty and go through the Aviation Cadet program. Success! Graduated second in my class and as a new 2nd lieutenant navigator my military career was launched. Time passed; I made Lt. Colonel and retired in 31 Jan 1981 with 25 years of service.
C. Other than running – hobbies, interests, pets, kids, current employment?
Hobbies, I've always had a garden where I lived growing the plants that were appropriate for the climate. I like physical work and working with my hands. A friend and I built a geodesic dome and a regular house doing everything except the duct work. Photography has been an interest of mine for most of my adult life and occasionally I produce a good photo. I'm very interested in science in general and astronomy in particular. Employment, I'm retired.
I'm a big fan of the U of A women Softball team.
I have two children, daughter Cara 47 currently an Army CWO 4 with about 4 years to retirement and Son, Sean, 42 freelance motion graphics designer and aspiring professional photographer grandson (Sean's) Jack, age 4.
D. Favorite distance to run or race on trail and on the road?
Anything 10 miles or longer, this gives me time to settle in to a pace. I find shorter runs to be way to much work. I avoid running on the roads as much as possible, trails are much more fun and a whole lot quieter.
I've been running trails since about 1980 but most of my races were road.
E. Favorite race course or event?
OP 50 is my favorite event.
F. Favorite Tucson area trail to train, run, hike?
The Douglas springs trail system is my home ground and where I do most of my running, hiking and walking.
G. Favorite vacation destination?
Just about any wilderness area but my preference is the desert.
H. Favorite post-race/run food, drink and activity, ie. hot tub, ice cold river soak, etc?
A hardy soup and a cold micro brew. The cold river soak is wonderful but not available around here.
I. Pet Peeves?
Loud obnoxious people in any setting. Horse dung on trails. Leave the trails the way you find them!
Reckless drivers who suffer from hurry-up-syndrome (Steve Kanoza’s term) out to save 30 seconds even if it kills them.
The overuse and misuse of the word “Hero.”
People who allow their beliefs to get in the way of facts. Climate change, evolution, etc.
J. Current book you are reading or favorite author?
Bill Bryson “A Short History of Nearly Everything” , Alexandra Horowitz “Inside of a Dog”
Favorite author Edward Abbey.
K. Favorite quote or saying to live by?
Abstinence is best if practiced in moderation.
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS:
Trail Aficionado (TA): Thank you for taking time out of your retired schedule and answering a few questions about your life and running experiences?
Joe: This is fun; usually nobody wants to listen to my stories.
TA: I love hearing the old stories. It wasn’t until the age of 39 that you started running. What did you do before that? When did you first call yourself a runner?
Joe: I’ve always been active just not an athlete. I was on the varsity high school rifle team for four years and the county pistol team. I remember as a junior in high school I hung around the track team and made myself useful by retrieving the javelin and the shot-put ball. I thought it was really cool how they could race around the track again and again. I didn’t know how to train so I went home and measured a quarter-mile to the next driveway. I took off at full speed and after 100 yards I was shot. That was the end of my running. I couldn’t figure out how the hell they did that.
I began running in the spring of 1975 when my new boss arrived from a tour in Germany where he was a regular participant in the Volksmarches and needed someone to run with during our lunch hour. When we first went to the eighth-mile track I barely made it around once and then I walked. After a month or so I was running two or three miles and setting goals. I made each goal and continued.
I ran my first race in May of 76 at the age of 40. All of my races were as a Master. The race was the Lake Merritt 10K in 44:55. Eighteen days later I ran Bay to Breakers, 7.6 miles in 56:55.
I started a log book when I first started running that I keep to this day, over 570 races and 55,741 miles logged.
Trish: Did you dress up at Bay to Breakers?
Joe: No. It was early on in the race’s history. There was only one starting line. I ran that race several times but the last time was with my son, Sean, when he was 9. We were running through Golden Gate Park. The event had gotten much bigger; the winner crossed the finish line before the last person crossed the start line. A streaker ran by us and then a little later I felt a whoosh over my head and just missing Sean’s head. After it hit the ground I discovered it was a full can of beer launched from the sidelines. That was my last Bay to Breakers.
TA: Did the Air Force didn’t have running as part of their physical fitness test?
Joe: They didn’t for some time. They had calisthenics. I don’t remember taking any kind of test until after I had become a runner. Eventually they came up with a mile and a half run that you had to finish in something like 15 minutes. The first time they did it they said I couldn’t run I'd have to walk the 1.5 miles because of my age, over 40. I said, “Screw you, I’m running it anyway.” Just to show them I ran from where I worked, two miles to the test area, ran the mile and a half in around eight or nine minutes and then ran back.
TA: Did you make the normal progression to the marathon before the ultra distance?
Joe: I ran a marathon a year after I started running, May of 1977, Avenue of the Giants. I ran 3:28:51. My sister accompanied me and took pictures. When she got home she discovered there was no film in the camera.
My first ultra was a 60K a couple years later in Sacramento on a multi-loop 2.5 mile course. The course was very flat. I ran 5:12:34. The race was put on by Buffalo Chips Running Club. A week later I ran a 10K PR in 38:47.
TA: Did you have any experience with the trails?
Joe: I had trained on trails while stationed at Travis AFB. My daughter was on the high school cross country team. They always ran on the dirt and grass. I ran a lot of the same routes they ran.
It wasn’t until I moved to Salem, Oregon in 1990 that I discovered a lot more trails. A running friend, Eb, was signed up for Western States and needed a pacer. I volunteered for the job. I paced him for 38 miles from Foresthill aid station. Eb always had a difficult time eating and drinking after about 12 hours which meant we walked the 38 mile to the finish. Eb is an excellent walker and I had to bust my ass to keep up with him. Inspired, I signed up for the lottery the next year and was fortunate…or unfortunate, to get in.
TA: How did it go?
Joe: I completed it. I was the last official finisher under the 30 hour cutoff in 29 hours 58 minutes and 17 seconds.
Trish: Were you freaking out thinking you weren’t going to make it?
Joe: No. My son Sean paced me from Foresthill to the river crossing. Lynda paced me after that. The funny part is after I got past the road crossing at mile 93 I had five minutes more than Eb had last year at the same point and I felt I could still run a little bit. It actually took me longer to run / walk it than it took him to walk it. It was a thrill…very emotional. They handed out the awards and I was the last one. I could barely stand up. I finally walked up and everyone started to cheer; I started crying…very emotional.
TA: I don’t blame you. My first finish was at Western and I cried also. What was next?
Joe: The next year, 1998, I finished Leadville. That was the end of my 100s. I tried it again in 1999 and made 72 miles. I weighed in at 50 miles and the guy said I was six pounds under. At the previous aid station I was a half pound over so I thought…What is this sh*t? So I’m sitting there trying to eat and drink and it’s not working. I start to overhear a conversation he’s having with another volunteer and he says, “You know, everybody’s coming in about six pounds under?” Driving down the dirt road I guess the scale got uncalibrated. With that I left. But by that time I used up half an hour sitting and I didn’t have enough time to finish.
TA: You were 61 years old when you finished your first 100 and completed Leadville at the age of 62…
Joe: Right, I tried Leadville again in 2000 and again in 2006. Both times I didn’t finish. I had a couple bad days. As you age, bad days come up more often and are more pronounced.
TA: With all of the 100s out there, why didn’t you try a different one?
Joe: Since I had done Leadville already I figured I knew the terrain, I knew the course. If I’m going to have a chance at finishing another one it’s going to be Leadville.
I did do some 24 hour runs. They’re not as bad as you think. I got up to 97 miles once at a 24 hour in Seattle. I did a 6-day event in Douglas, Arizona. Gary Cross directed it. We just did it to do it, not to set any records.
TA: Just to do it? Get up every day and run the majority of the day for six days?
Joe: Yeah, it was just a job. We stayed in a tent and got up every morning and ran. Gary would bring breakfast in and we would stop and sit around the table and eat…too funny. Then we would go back out and when it got hot in the afternoon we would take a two hour break and have a beer. When it cooled down at night we would go out for another four or five hours and then go to bed.
TA: What was the course like?
Joe: Oh, it was the worst damned course in the world. It went around a park. It was constantly changing surfaces; you would run on a concrete sidewalk and then on the asphalt, then you would run through a dirt parking lot, then you would run on the grass. It was a .87 mile loop with softball games going on and cars parked in different places at different times. One morning we got up and the sprinklers were going and it was a mudfest out there but it was fun.
TA: How many miles did you amass?
Joe: I got to 213 miles. The best part about a 24 hour race as opposed to a 50-miler or a marathon…if you make one lap, it counts. You get into the results. I’ve also done Across the Years several times.
TA: Just the 24 hour version?
Joe: I did the 48 hour once just because you get a buckle if you get 100 miles. I couldn’t get 100 miles in one day but I knew I could in two. I got 115 miles.
TA: I did the millennial change 24 hour from 1999-2000 and got 92 miles. I slept for four hours. We camped in the infield.
Trish: No, the kids and I camped; you ran in circles all day and night.
TA: Thanks honey, you are right. Talk about your connection with the Tucson Trail Runners.
Joe: It took a couple of years after I moved here. I had heard about them but didn’t make the effort to call anybody. I’m not normally a joiner. I showed up for a run and got herded by Ross for a couple of runs. But then I got on my own and would often get lost. I always found my way by wandering around and backtracking. Nobody treated me like I needed help.
TA: So then you stuck with TTR group runs mostly?
Joe: Yes, I liked the group and I liked being a run director; at least I could give back a little bit.
TA: Speaking of race directing, did you ever direct a race?
Joe: I did, I was co-founder of a running club in Fairfield, California. I was the race director for a 15K. We were called the Solano Striders.
TA: That’s cool. What has been your worst running injury and how did you come out of it?
TA: How did you get interested in the triathlon?
Joe: I used to swim a lot when I was a kid and biking isn’t all that hard. So since I could run I put all three of them together. I was driving across country to visit my hometown and found a triathlon in Sylvania, Ohio and decided to make that my first race so I bought a bike and started swimming. I asked one the lifeguards, a young girl, to be my coach. She was reluctant at first but then went ahead and helped me. She laughed at me when she saw me swim. She said, “You look like you’re swimming from the 1950’s?” I said, “That’s right!” She taught me the proper stroke.
The race was a 700-yard swim, 25-mile bike, and a 10-mile run and I was a runner at this point. I passed 47 people on the run. I finished as the first Master. The next day I ran a 10K in 39:44 and won the Master division again.
TA: Incredible! What running accomplishment are you most proud of?
Joe: Pikes Peak ascent 1991 in 2:57:58. I was the second man over 55 to get under 3 hours; the first was just ahead of me that day.
TA: If you could provide one helpful hint to a new ultra-runner, what would it be?
Joe: Learn to walk fast, practice during training runs. A really good walker will beat someone who is running / walking.
TA: What has been the most useful thing you have learned or advice received that helped your running career?
Joe: Walk hard, run easy.
TA: Do you have running related goals and what do you think will be the hardest to attain?
Joe: I'd like to do a few more 50K's and my goal would be to finish feeling good enough to have a micro-brew.
TA: Speaking of micro-brews, I would like to hear your theory on the healing power of beer?
Joe: Hahaha!! The healing power of beer!?
TA: Yeah, you know, whenever someone on the TTR list has an injury question you would always respond with one word, “Stout” or “IPA.” There must be something to it?
Joe: I don’t think it replaces fluid but after a run you’re usually tensed up and have a little adrenaline going. It seems to relax me. I’ve always felt good having a beer after a hard workout or race with a couple exceptions where I was so exhausted it would have made me sick. The overall benefit is it is relaxing and it tastes good. Bitter things taste good when you are exhausted as opposed to a glass of sweet Gatorade
As an example, last year at Old Pueblo, my friend Eb came down and paced me. I was out 16 hours so he was with me a long time. He normally can’t drink anything late in a run. He tried some Gatorade and even water after 33 and started to gag. We pulled into mile 40 aid station and Bruce had some beer which Eb could drink. I think it’s because of the tartness, but sweetness, no, no.
TA: What is your preference of a beer style and any recommendations for a good micro-brewery?
Joe: I like dark beers…stouts and porters. But I also like very hoppy beers. I drink beer because I like the taste; not to get a buzz. I have a story. I was with a buddy after a race and someone mentioned that a new brewery was opening up that day in Hopland, California. It was 67 miles away so we decided to go. We got there and knocked on the door and found out they were opening to the public in 10 minutes so we sat on the steps and waited. They opened the doors to the Mendocino Brewing Company. It turned out we were the very first customers to the first brewpub opened in California since the prohibition was repealed in 1933 and the second in the United States (1983). Unfortunately on my visit back there last year it was all run down and gone to hell.
TA: That’s too bad, though it’s always good to be first at something. This is my second to last question for you Joe. Before your heart surgery, did you have any indication leading to the heart attack that you might have a problem?
Joe: At that point, I didn’t. Looking back at it, yes, essentially I didn’t read it. I had an ischemia, a minor stroke, about three years before the heart attack. I think I had two of these. I had run to Cowhead Saddle and back on a very hard run and came home to take a shower. When I moved the soap to my left hand it just fell on the ground. I thought…that’s funny. I discovered I could barely move the hand and had no strength whatsoever. So I took a one-handed shower and toweled off and noticed I was beginning to regain the strength in the hand. I went in the kitchen and told Lynda about it and was now able to make a fist. Within fifteen minutes I had full strength back. I figured it was due to electrolyte problems. It really had been a hard run.
The other time I didn’t lose the strength, just a tingling in the same arm. I chocked it up to the same reasoning of electrolytes but looking back at it I probably had a stroke. The next couple of years I began to get slower and slower, you know…getting older. The last couple of long races of 50 miles or 24 hours toward the end I would begin feeling light-headed and would have to stop running and walk. Then it got to the point I couldn’t even walk hard. I attributed it to age and I thought…this is the pits. What was really happening; I was only getting 80% of the blood flow to my heart. The heart was only able to keep me conscious and moving slowly.
I got the heart fixed, bypass and stent, but a year later had to fix the brain. They checked my carotid arteries and found one was plugged 80% and the other plugged 70%. I've had those cleaned out so looks like I'm almost good as new.
I got the heart fixed, bypass and stent, but a year later had to fix the brain. They checked my carotid arteries and found one was plugged 80% and the other plugged 70%. I've had those cleaned out so looks like I'm almost good as new.
Joe: What I noticed before was when I'd squat or bend down and then stood up I'd get light headed? That was pervasive; I couldn’t do anything without that happening. Now that is gone. Yes there were signs if I had known then what I know now I would not have blamed it on age. It was simply that my heart was not getting enough blood supply.
TA: What’s your future outlook after this?
Joe: I did Sedona 50K and I would like to do some more 50Ks. I do have a problem with pushing myself though. I just don’t feel comfortable. I’m not sure how much pressure the heart can take. The bad thing is I don’t know what my heart was doing before. Now I wear a heart rate monitor most of the time. The other day on the bike I was pushing up a hill and got my heart rate up to 176.
I would like to race walk again. A couple years ago I was a pretty good race walker. I had won my age division and placed first overall a couple of times in the Senior Olympics. That was really pushing it. It’s going to have to be an all out push and probably going to run 180 and I don’t know if I want to do that.
TA: Very interesting; I didn’t know you get your heart rate up that high race walking.
Joe: Oh yeah, done correctly you can really work.
TA: Well Joe, I could ask you a dozen more questions but we should wrap this up in time for dinner. Last question – What is the meaning of life?
Joe: 42! No, really, I believe life is the sum total of all the experiences one has had using the five senses: sight, smell, touch, hearing and taste. My life is unique to me, as yours is to you. No one else has exactly the same thoughts, feelings or reactions to any event. Because we are all unique and always changing, we cannot communicate to others our exact thoughts and emotions. We can only truly know ourselves. What life means to me then is the total of everything I have sensed interpreted by my constantly changing knowledge base and will continue to evolve until my life ends.
TA: Enough said. Let’s eat!
Love the quote - walk hard, run easy :)
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