Ultramarathoner, 80, Sets Record With a Birthday

Dizzy and queasy, Carl Llewellyn managed a modest smile as spectators along the dark road slapped him on the back and cheered.

He crossed the finish line 14 minutes shy of the 14-hour time limit--becoming the first 80-year-old to finish the grueling John F. Kennedy 50-mile ultramarathon.

Then he made his way to the side of the road and threw up.

The chicken soup, power drink, beef bouillon, water and flat cola that had fueled the 134-pound man’s feet also had upset his stomach. A few minutes later, he was composed and feeling fine.

The race began the morning of Nov. 18 with a three-mile warmup on paved streets near Boonsboro in western Maryland, about 70 miles northwest of Washington. Racers then began a 1,190-foot ascent up South Mountain for 12.7 miles on the Appalachian Trail, which was icy and slushy from a recent snowfall.

“The trail was horrible,” Llewellyn said minutes after finishing. “My feet were just sliding all over.”

After winding down a steep switchback, the runners faced a normal marathon--26.5 miles--on the flat and sandy Chesapeake & Ohio Canal towpath, which parallels the Potomac River. The final 8.3 miles were on roads in Washington County.

“Around the 30-mile point, there was a place I got real low,” Llewellyn said. “My legs, they wouldn’t go anymore. I was doing more walking than running. I thought I was going to have to quit.”

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Llewellyn said encouragement from friends and relatives who ran various sections of the race with him helped him through. His 28-year-old son, Craig, ran the entire course at his father’s side.

“He’s always been an inspiration to me physically and intellectually, and I’m just happy I could share this with him,” Craig Llewellyn said.

About 560 people started the JFK-50 this year; 485 finished.

The winner was Eric Clifton of Greensboro, N.C., who finished in 6:15:35. The first female finisher was Janice Anderson of Stone Mountain, Ga., at 7:40:54.

Llewellyn has finished the race six other times--in 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1992 and 1994. Three years, he failed.

“The big freeze froze me out in 1974,” he said. “We had freezing rain. Even the towpath was a sea of mud. I went 35 miles, but I just got too cold.”

In 1991, Llewellyn ran out of steam after 32 miles. In 1993, he fell and hurt his knee.

Every year, Llewellyn runs out of daylight at about the same spot.

“You’ve never seen anything blacker than the canal towpath at night without a moon,” said Llewellyn, who suffers from vertigo that makes him unsteady in the dark.

Three years ago, he fell and dropped his flashlight. The light went out, but he saw another light coming from behind. He waited and the approaching runner let Llewellyn hold onto the back of his belt. They ran like that for about four miles until Llewellyn regained his bearings.

“He does all of this not for any glory. He does it for the challenge,” said William “Buzz” Sawyer of Hagerstown, who organized the first 50-miler on March 30, 1963, for members of the Cumberland Valley Athletic Club. “It’s a monumental accomplishment.”

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Llewellyn, who spent 44 years as a draftsman and a toolmaker at a Hagerstown airplane manufacturing plant, started running when he was in the Army. Then, before the jogging craze began in the late 1960s, he started running in his neighborhood--at night, because people would often sneer at him.

The sight of an older man running in what appeared to be his “underwear” made people stop and stare, he said. Once, young people in a car yelled at him to “Get off the road!” and threw a cup of ice at him.

Jogging wasn’t in vogue, but Llewellyn kept running.

At age 55, he entered his first JFK-50.

Normally, he runs 25 to 30 miles a week. Once a week during the four months before the race, Llewellyn goes on a 12- to 15-mile run that he calls his JFK workout.

It takes him about a month to recover from the experience. “I used to get up and go to church on Sunday, [the day after the race] but I can’t any more,” he said.

Llewellyn knows his JFK-50 days are waning. His hip muscles and knees demand more pain relievers.

His wife, Ruth, said the workouts sometimes leave him exhausted and crabby. She supports his running, but said it often drains all his energy, which means the household chores fall to her.

“This is my last year,” Llewellyn said.

Then he laughed and added: “I say that every year.”