SAN FRANCISCO – When Danville native and running enthusiast Dennis Durbin went for a jog at Lake Tahoe on July 21, 2020, he surpassed a staggering 100,000 miles in a lifetime of running.
He has averaged 7.75 miles a day for 12,850 days and has been logging his miles in yearly log books for 51 years.
Durbin, who graduated from Danville in 1969, went to St Vincent de Paul Catholic School until the high school closed their doors in 1968. His mileage includes cross country and track at Ashland College. He also ran in the 1971 Boston Marathon, clocking a time of 2:55:35.
Durbin went on to earn a business degree, eventually taking a position with Sohio near the Arctic Ocean, where the Alaska pipeline was under construction. It was too cold to run, but he was soon reassigned further south, along the Yukon River.
When he started running again, however, he discovered that although Alaska was settled, it was still not tame— especially one afternoon running on a dirt road.
“Suddenly, I looked to my left and saw a big black bear staring at me,” Durbin said. “He might have been 50 yards away and I thought, ‘Man, there's nothing I can do. I can't climb a tree and I can't outrun him.’ So I just kind of backed up. The bear didn't look away. He didn't do anything. Then this loud truck drove by. The bear ran off and I took off too. After that, I had someone drive along while I ran.”
The terrain wasn’t tame either.
“When I came out of camp, if I went south, it was one mile uphill,” Durbin said. “If I went north, it was one mile downhill, but then you have to come back.”
He saw the completion of the Yukon River Bridge.
“Once they built the bridge,” Durbin said. “I was the first one to run across. It was kind of cold. Fortunately, it wasn't a long bridge and I got a ride back.”
He ran a marathon in Alaska, finishing third. He went on to run many road races, posting his best marathon time in 1977 in Chattanooga (2:37:38).
Now, 69 and living in San Francisco with his wife Jan, Durbin’s road racing days are behind him, but he still puts in the running mileage day after day.
“My advice to an older person is to stretch,” Durbin said. “I've been in physical therapy a number of times, so I've learned a lot of the different exercises you can do to help strengthen your core, your hips, your knees and your back. Also, I do a little bit of light weight training, which keeps my upper body in shape.”
