Wally Hesseltine was 37 years outdated in 1981 when he picked up operating with a view to enhance his heath. A couple of months later, he completed a 10-kilometer race. The month after that, he completed a marathon. And whereas he didn’t initially set out on a racing streak, to this date he’s accomplished a race each month for the previous 42 years.
Right this moment, we’re undecided what’s extra spectacular: the numerous operating accolades he’s accrued all through his operating profession or that he’s maintained a meticulous run report for the previous 40-plus years. Both means, the now 80-year-old is an inspiration to different runners, on the roads and trails alike, and maybe particularly an icon for individuals who are getting into athletics later in maturity.
Wally Hesseltine has completed the Western States 100 six instances. All pictures courtesy of Wally Hesseltine.
The Begin of Operating
Hesseltine was born and raised in California, the place he additionally raised his personal two children and now 5 grandchildren. His father was a minister, and their household moved across the state as he was rising up, residing in locations together with Ukiah, Redding, and Oakland. The oldest baby with a brother and two sisters, he didn’t take part in sports activities as a youth.
He attended church college and graduated from the College of Southern California with a enterprise diploma earlier than persevering with to legislation college at Golden Gate College in San Francisco. After graduating, he began his profession as a deputy district lawyer, which led to his position as a protection lawyer.
It was solely as soon as Hesseltine was well-established as an lawyer that he picked up operating.
“I had a younger affiliate, and he’s nonetheless a legislation associate of mine, Tim Walker. He was an completed soccer participant. He was 26, and I used to be 37, and I advised him, ‘We have now obtained to get in higher form.’ We began operating on June 8, 1981,” remembers Hesseltine.
That September, he completed his first 10k, which he adopted up with a marathon the following month. By studying and examine, Hesseltine taught himself the best way to prepare for operating.
“From the start, I saved very cautious data. It took two weeks, and I thought-about myself a runner. Then, it wasn’t lengthy earlier than I thought-about myself a marathoner. And it wasn’t lengthy earlier than I did extra runs and noticed that, ‘Hey, I’ve been doing one race or extra a month.’”
That was the beginning of a 42-year racing streak that’s nonetheless ongoing. “I’ve carried out 616 races, and I simply did one other 100 miler,” says Hesseltine, who began doing ultramarathons in 1991, a decade after he first began operating.
Throughout that preliminary operating chapter, Hesseltine certified for the Boston Marathon and different main marathons, reaching a PR of two:57. After 10 years of specializing in pavement, Hesseltine determined to attempt operating on filth.
“My first filth run was in Nevada on Mount Charleston outdoors of Las Vegas. Then I did a race within the Grand Canyon [in Arizona]. My very first ultramarathon was in Fremont, California, in 1991: the Ohlone 50k — I’ve now carried out it eight instances,” says Hesseltine. “It was a tough wilderness path run, and that gave me confidence to do a 50 miler, as a result of it felt like a 50 miler.”
Operating and Document-Setting in His 70s and 80s
Hesseltine has obtained “UltraRunning Journal’s” Age Group Efficiency of the 12 months award 3 times when he was 70, 74, and 80 years outdated. He’s maybe finest identified for making an attempt to turn out to be the oldest particular person, at age 72, to complete the Western States 100 in 2016. After ending the race six instances prior, he missed the 30-hour cutoff by a two heartbreaking minutes.
Previously 4 months of late 2023 and early 2024, Hesseltine ran two 100 milers: the Tunnel Hill 100 Mile in November 2023 and the USATF 100-Mile Street Nationwide Championships on the Jackpot Ultras 100 Mile on February 16, 2024.
On the Jackpot Ultras, which came about in Nevada, he received his age group and had “a variety of enjoyable,” assembly seven different male athletes racing of their 80s. Six of them grabbed dinner the night time beforehand. “They’re hard-chargers, actual skilled fellows, and I actually obtained a kick out of them.”
Throughout the desert race, one of many largest obstacles for Hesseltine was the temperature swing from heat, shiny 70-degree Fahrenheit days to the chilly night time. “Throughout the day I used to be trying ahead to the night time and throughout the night time I used to be trying ahead to the following day. I additionally haven’t carried out very many loops that tight, which works on you psychologically somewhat bit.” Hesseltine accomplished 85 loops and mentioned that one of many highlights of the expertise was in serving to different runners get going once more, encouraging them to drink broth, eat, sit out a lap, and to rejoin him.
4 months previous to the Jackpot Ultras 100 Mile, Hesseltine ran the Tunnel Hill 100 Mile. “The Jackpot 100 Mile was largely hardscape, and that was arduous. The Tunnel Hill 100 Mile was a mud run, but it surely’s not the hilliest run you ever noticed. It’s an ideal run, and it’s on a rails-to-trails setup, with possibly 1,000 ft of climbing. After all, that has its personal obstacles, since you’re operating in the identical movement more often than not. I’ve carried out mountain 100 milers too — a variety of them, however a flatter one has its personal challenges,” says Hesseltine.
He completed the Tunnel Hill 100 Mile in 26 hours, 22 minutes, which is kind of a stable 100-mile ending time for a runner of any age. Now an octogenarian, Hesseltine’s efficiency set a brand new USATF males’s 80-84 age group report by a outstanding two and a half hours.
After 42 years of operating a race a month, Wally Hesseltine has no intention of leaving the game. Right here, Hesseltine races the 2024 Jackpot Ultras 100 Mile.
A Nationwide Extremely Objective
Hesseltine began in on a brand new objective of racing an ultramarathon in each state in 2020 and is nearing the top of his listing. He simply raced the 2024 Mississippi Path 50k on March 2, and the Marquette Path 50k is on August 17 this 12 months, leaving solely three states to go after that pair of races.
Throughout our interview forward of the Mississippi Path 50k, Hesseltine commented on the problem, “I need to be certain I get it carried out. It has a reasonably liberal time cutoff. We’ll must see how arduous it’s. I check myself with the cutoff limits after which I apply selecting it up.”
Hesseltine is meticulous together with his planning and preparation. About his planning for the Mississippi Path 50k, he says, “If I might do a 15-minute mile tempo, I’d be very joyful, however I can do 16- or 17-minute miles. It has a 12-hour cutoff, so you could possibly recover from 20-minute miles. We’ll see what occurs.”
Seems, Hesseltine did nice. He crossed the end line in 9:16, in 51st place of 61 finishers.
In coaching, Hesseltine goals to clock 60 miles per week, two to a few weeks per 30 days. Most of these miles are solo, and he usually stacks two back-to-back lengthy runs of 15 to twenty miles and round 3,500 ft of climbing every week. He all the time takes in the future off per week, and vitamin, restoration, power coaching, and remedy, reminiscent of massages, have all been points he “sparsely” focuses on.
“I preserve my weight, so I focus some on vitamin. I take into account myself genetically blessed to get away with this. I’ve slowed some, so I’ve to cope with that, however I understand how to get this stuff carried out, so I love to do them,” he says.
Whereas not ending a race hasn’t occurred usually — he has seven complete DNFs together with getting off beam and never with the ability to end — he pays shut consideration to the cutoff instances nowadays. Typically, he’ll additionally run a 5k originally of a month when he has an extremely deliberate, simply in case he isn’t in a position to end the extremely and in order that he can preserve his racing streak.
Household Help
Whereas his household is just not concerned with ultrarunning, they take pleasure in supporting his ardour. “On my eightieth birthday, my spouse, each of my kids, their spouses, and their kids all ran the 2023 Dangerous Bass 5k path race in Oakland, California. That was good. That was enjoyable,” says Hesseltine.
Wally Hesseltine’s household joined him for the Dangerous Bass 5k in 2023.
“Lynn [Hesseltine’s wife] travels with me and helps and watches. She doesn’t keep up all night time on the 100 milers. I don’t trouble her an excessive amount of in runs which can be shorter than 100 miles. We keep within the state after we go to those issues, and we now have enjoyable afterward. We see the websites and exit to dinner and it’s a really enjoyable factor. After the work of operating is completed, that’s when the enjoyable begins.”
After he wraps up his objective to run an extremely in each state, his subsequent focus can be to return to the locations he’s most loved. Hesseltine says, “I do like operating loads, for sure, and I need to do it so long as I can. I don’t have any intention to stop in any respect.”
Name for Feedback
- Have you ever ever partaken in a operating or racing streak?
- As all of us age as runners, how do your racing and operating objectives change?
