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Run Across America? Ask Jay Birmingham

By Randy Lefko Sports Editor
Posted 4/1/20

FLEMING ISLAND –Fresh off a kayak ride around Pace Island last week, retired St. Johns Country Day School track and cross country coach Jay Birmingham admitted that “I ran out of gas …

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Run Across America? Ask Jay Birmingham


Posted

FLEMING ISLAND –Fresh off a kayak ride around Pace Island last week, retired St. Johns Country Day School track and cross country coach Jay Birmingham admitted that “I ran out of gas because it was so windy. I kayaked about an hour and a half trying to get to Whitey’s.”
“As a runner, I learned during my early years that I was not the fastest guy out there, though, I was a pretty good runner, but that I could hold a six minute pace for a long time,” said Birmingham, now 73, near 74, from Wilmington High School in Ohio where he was a conference mile and half mile track champ in 1963. “I soon realized that running marathons and beyond might be for me.”
Birmingham attended medical school at Dayton for a year after high school, but returned to Wilmington; Wilmington College, with hopes of going to Dayton where his father was.
“Wilmington offered a science scholarship, but passed to go to Dayton,” said Birmingham, who taught in Florida at Episcopal High and St. Johns Country Day School after running a running shop in Jacksonville. “I found a track club; uniquely called monickered Ohio Valley Track Club, but better known as Old and Very Tired Club (OVTC), there with bunch of old guys; like 30, me 18, that gave a real insight into distance running. I only knew high school track at that point.”
At 21, Birmingham ran his first marathon.
“I gradually figured out I wasn’t a half miler,” said Birmingham. “The further I ran, the more successful I was. I didn’t have two minute track speed, but I could hold six minute pace for a long time. A 55 minute 10-miler was considered competitive at that time.”
Birmingham, in March, became one of 27 ultra-distance runners that have trekked across the United States, Birmingham the holder of one of the fastest solo, self-supported journeys, highlighted in a recently released book titled, “Across America on Foot”, a collection by writer/runners Brian Stark and Jim McCord with Birmingham offering an introductory. Birmingham’s story is chapter three.
“Brian and Jim worked hand in hand on this book and me and Brian wrote the introduction,” said Birmingham. “They contacted me about six months ago after gathering stories from the fastest runners across America since 1978. They also included a bunch who took close to a year to cross the country.”
Cross the country? Digest that one. Run across the country. Mileage: 3,067 miles from San Francisco’s City Hall to New York’s City Hall. Think Forrest Gump, Forrest Gump.
In his trek, Birmingham, who as a high schooler and collegiate runner dabbled with various distances before, when a freshman in college, he read about a South African runner who was running through Upper Sandusky in Ohio on his way to completing his run across the country with just a backpack.
“I read about him in the local newspaper; the Dayton Daily News, and thought, My God, maybe I should meet this guy,” said Birmingham. “My longest run at that time was 10 miles. I never did meet him, but it got me thinking about the whole idea.”
Nearly 10 years later, in 1976, Birmingham, with a two hour, 51 minute marathon time under his belt, had ascended in his own training in the marathon to think he could earn a start in the U.S. Olympics Trials Marathon by running a qualifying time in the national championships marathon in Louisiana.
“I had run up to three marathons per year up to that point and thought that could be a defining moment to run the Trials and possibly be an Olympian,” said Birmingham. “Although, I ran the national race in a best time of two hours, 41 minutes, I finished 56th. From there, I got a reality check and thought maybe I could do something longer. Since then, I’ve done handfuls of 50 milers, marathons and ultras.”
Not long after his epic Olympics’ attempt, Birminghan, who did a run across Ohio (160 miles), a run across the Grand Canyon and a 219 journey; four days, from Miami to Titusville, crossed paths with runner/writer Ted Corbitt, a noted ultra runner and running historian.
“He talked of a transcontinental run, but never did it,” said Birmingham. “That was the kick I needed.”
In 1977, Birmingham made his first attempt after two runs were given some fanfare; one the backpack solo run by Don Shepard, the other a supported run by John Tuhla.
Birmingham’s first two attempts were both disheartened crash and burns; in 1977, done after just 238 miles in Arizona and, 10 days later, done in just two days.
“I was running 8:30 pace and should have been doing 10 minute pace,” said Birmingham. “Nobody who is successful at this hammers the pace. My body couldn’t hold up.”
Birmingham thought the audacity of the attempt inspired the initial financial support.
“I had a good job (Thompson Beckwith Mechanical Contract, now in Largo) that I could run 10 miles to and 10 miles home where I washed up in the washroom before the owner walked in then suggested his personal shower,” said Birmingham, a material expediter (fill orders). “They gave me great support when I made my attempts. They kept giving me my salary and I had some product sponsor money. And then I didn’t do well; twice.”
W?ith a limited pocket of cash; quarters for pay phone calls home (enormous phone bill afterward), and to local newspaper followers, Birmingham stepped off the steps of Los Angeles City Hall on May 20, 1980 aiming at Shepherd’s 1964 run of 73 days, eight hours.
“It would be an all day training run everyday with no need to run fast,” said Birmingham. “I trained 30 miles a day sometimes and was aiming to stay near 40 for the attempt. I was very good at recovery after long runs and I drank a bunch of Mountain Dew with peanut brittle and PayDays along the way.”
Birmingham finances included $500 to start and $500 if he finished from some running magazines.
“I started in debt and finished in more debt,” said Birmingham. “Across America, people gave me about 50 percent of my food, runs, etc, and I was getting witness signatures to document the run. The Guinness Book of World Record thought that was a good idea. I never made the Guinness book.”
After 2,964 miles Birmingham, who turned 35 three days before finishing, ran over the George Washington Bridge in New York under record; 71 days, 22 hours, 59 minutes, a new record that still stands 40 years later.
“In the photo, it looks like I was all alone, but, honestly, there was a small crowd of photographers and a police escort to the bridge, but one or two photographers actually ran ahead to take the photo with noone in it,” said Birmingham. “Ted Corbitt signed my final witness card and asked if I wanted him to round up. Heck no. Him being there meant the most to me because he believed I could do it.”
Birmingham said he has met four of the other 27 runners in the book and thought McCord was angling to get all the runners together.
“I am one of the oldest ones of the group,” said Birmingham, who has his own transcript; three times revised, called “I Alone: A Transcontinental Run”. “I”ve got the file, but don’t think it would sell. Not many people want to read about running across the country.”
Birmingham has plans for a 50 miler in Key West and a six-day stage race in Romania. Really?