At age 67, 1966 Cook County High School graduate Harry Sloan was the oldest finisher of the Superior 100 mile trail race.
Former Tofte native Harry Sloan, age 67, was the oldest contestant to finish the rugged Superior 100-mile Trail Race on Saturday, September 12, reaching Caribou Highlands 37 hours and 58 minutes after he had left the starting line at the Gooseberry Falls State Park Visitors Center at 8 a.m. on Friday.
The retired police officer and Vietnam veteran finished with cuts on his knees, hands, arms and face from falls he took. But he never suffered a leg cramp. “I drank a lot of Gatorade and pickle juice and put electrolyte tablets in my water. I was amazed that I didn’t even get one cramp. I think it was the pickle juice,” he said.
As far as falls, they are to be expected, said Sloan. “Everyone falls in these races. I fell more than I would have liked, but you realize you will fall when you run on rugged trails.”
Most of Sloan’s tumbles occurred in the last two miles. “I was bent over on my right side and I had trouble keeping my balance. I was given some ski poles at Temperance River and they helped me a lot,” he said.
Two days after the race Sloan was recovering at his home in Superior, Wisconsin. He was still tired, he said, “But I’m feeling much better today than I did yesterday. I pretty much didn’t do anything yesterday. My back was sore and I was sore all over. My wife Debbie and I took a short walk, but that was about it.”
A 1966 Cook County High School graduate and veteran of over 100 ultra-marathons, Sloan said this was the toughest course he has ever run. And, yes, he was the original race organizer of this event in 1991.
“I was the race director for the first seven years. The course was easier then. We had a loop that went to Grand Marais that was much less rigorous than the new course which starts at Gooseberry Falls,” he said.
Sloan didn’t run distance races at CCHS. He was a polevaulter, but like another Two Harbors pole vaulter he competed against in high school, John Naaslund, he converted to distance running and never looked back.
“My fastest marathon is only 2:44, but I found I had some endurance and could compete well in ultra-marathons,” he said.
At one time Sloan held the Minnesota record for the 24-hour run, covering 127 miles. He has also been on the cover of Running Times and articles have appeared about him in other noteworthy running magazines. He has competed in over 30 races that are 100 miles or longer. And when he was younger, he was a strong threat to win many of those events.
Not bad for a runner who, he says, “has about 70 percent of my lung capacity. Most runners have 120 percent. I was shot a couple of times in Vietnam and I have shrapnel in my legs, arm and right lung. Occasionally these wounds will bother me and I will get blood clots in my lungs. The doctors put me on Coumadin 25 years ago and that helps.”
Training for races today is less complicated than it was in his heyday. “I train four or five days a week. I have reduced my long runs and most days I run for a set amount of time, and not a certain distance. I’m slower now. It was interesting during the race. When younger people would pass me they would say, ‘excuse me sir.’ They were very polite, but I would think, I’m not a sir! I’m a competitive runner. But I guess that’s what happens when you’re 67 and still out on the trails racing. At some point I became an old man,” he said with a laugh.
Both he and Debbie run and bike together, and often run races together. While ultra-marathons might be a thing of his past, Harry said he plans to continue running Grandma’s Marathon and other shorter races. As for whether he will ever run the Superior 100 again he said, “I know at the finish I said this was my last one. But really, that’s what most runners say at the finish of a long race. Give me a couple of months and I might rethink my answer. I probably won’t run the race again, but you know runners. They should never say never.”
Winners
Two Wisconsin-Lacrosse physical therapy students and friends finished first and second in the 100-mile race. Jake Hegge, age 23 finished in 19 hours, 30 minutes, 37 seconds, while Michael Bors placed second for the second year in a row, finishing in 1 hour, 4 minutes, 9 seconds.
Last year’s women’s winner, Mallory Richard of Winnipeg, once again placed first in 25:36:47, bettering her time of last year by almost two hours.
Chase Nowak of Minneapolis was the men’s winner in the 50-mile race in 19:04:01 while Staci Broderick of Oak Bluff, Mass. was the women’s winner in 10:58:48. Grand Marais Mayor Jay Arrowsmith DeCoux had to drop out of the race at the 35-mile mark.
“I ran the full marathon and I was in 10th place and feeling great. I wasn’t sore or anything. Not cramping up at all. But at mile 30 my knee just fell apart. I walked the next five miles then dropped out. Next year I will run longer distances in training and my plan is to come back and just crush this race.” Said Arrowsmith DeCoux.
Kelly Johnson led all women across the finish line in the Moose Mountain Marathon, completing the rugged 26.2- mile course in 4:48:48. River Falls, Wisconsin runner Wynn Davis won the men’s race in 3:39:37.
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