Running News Daily

Remembering Dos Pueblos High’s 24-Hour Relay Record

In 1972, 10 Distance Runners Completed 1,106 Laps, or 276 Miles 

Starting at 10 a.m. on June 9, 1972, Gil Rocha ran a mile, four laps around Dos Pueblos High’s 440-yard track, in five minutes and four seconds. He carried a baton that he handed to Tom Phillips, who also ran a mile, in 4:53. The baton was passed to eight more runners — Dale Nickel, Joe Szerwo, Joe Lambert, Tom Kelsey, Craig Bjorkman, Carl Udesen, Mark Pruner and Doug Hopwood, who finished his mile at 10:49 a.m.

Then it was Rocha’s turn to run again, starting another cycle of miles by the 10 DP distance runners. And so it went for the rest of the day and through the night — with Phillips and Lambert consistently cranking out sub-5:00 miles — until exactly 10 a.m. the next day, as Nickel was rounding the final turn of the team’s 1,106th lap.

The Chargers had run 276 miles, 769 yards — the distance from Goleta to San Jose — breaking the high school record in the Runner’s World 24-Hour Relay. The previous record was 271 miles, 1,217 yards — established in 1971 by a DP team that included nine of the boys who ran in 1972.

“It was the hardest thing we’d ever done,” Hopwood said, “and we did it again.”

Kelsey read about the 24-hour relay in Runner’s World magazine and convinced his teammates that they should go for the prep record at the end of the school year when all were in shape from the track season. They were well trained by their coach, Gordon McClenathen.  (The 24 Hour Relay was created by RW founder Bob Anderson.  Teams from around the world ran the relay.)

“He taught us all about commitment, hard work that pays off, and so much more,” Phillips said. “I know that I speak for all of us when I say that those life lessons we got from Gordon have gone with each and every one of us as we went our separate ways, and made us the men we are today.”

Assistant coach Bill Trimble arranged a reunion of the men with McClenathen, a runner himself for most of his 87 years, at Stow Grove Park last month. Phillips said the event “rekindled the comradeship we had 50 years ago.”

It also brought back memories of those long, sleepless days and nights of running in circles. “It seemed like my eyes were closed for five minutes before I had to go out again,” Rocha said. Bjorkman recalled that after the 1971 relay, which went from noon to noon, “I went to bed at 2 p.m. and woke up at 8 the next morning” — an 18-hour nap.

Parent shone headlights on the track at night. To Nickel, the uneven track was like a moonscape. “I saw the tops of asphalt bumps,” he said. McClenathen timed every mile while also massaging cramps out of the runners’ legs. June 10, 1972, was the last day of school, and that morning the track was lined by students and teachers who shouted encouragement to the tiring runners, most of whom put in 28 miles. “I’m sure that contributed to the adrenaline they needed to finish the relay,” Trimble said.

The Dos Pueblos record still stands, as far as anyone knows. The 24-hour relay proved too daunting to engender repeated attempts. It has gone the way of the Pony Express, a heroic endeavor from another time.

(Photos) THEN AND NOW: Ten runners from Dos Pueblos High posed after setting a national 24-hour relay record in 1971 (top photo). Standing: Dale Nickel, Craig Bjorkman, Joe Szerwo, Doug Hopwood, Terry Baker, and Gil Rocha. Kneeling: Tom Kelsey, Joe Lambert, Tom Phillips, and Carl Udesen. They set a new national record a year later. Seven of them got together recently for the 50th anniversary of their feat (left to right): Nickel, Kelsey, Szerwo, Lambert, Phillips, Hopwood, and Rocha. |Credit: Paul Shanklin

(The third photo was added to this story by MBR. "I put together the 24-Hour Relay Handback in August 1970," says Bob Andetson.  "0ur team ran the first one in 1970 at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills California.  My editor, Joe Henderson also was on our team.  It was such an amazing experience. One I will never forget."

The official rules are simple: 2-10 person teams.  Each person has to run one mile on track and pass the baton to the next person. Order must be maintained.  A person can drop out but not return. Distance of last runner after 24 hours is measured.