PROFILE--Ed Rousseau has been running for 62 years

Finishing his 24th straight
Twin Cities Marathon in 2006

(2-19) Ed Rousseau of Minneapolis has run 106 marathons, 117 ultramarathons, and loves races with “hours” in the title as in a 24-hour race or 72-hour race. He also looks forward to the “day” races, as in the six-day race he ran totaling 384 miles. “A guy’s got to run or head for a recliner,” says Roussseau, 79. “I’ll take running.” What he is most proud of though, more than his numerous age-group records, is his 35 years of sobriety.

When did you start running and why? September 1957.  After high school, I enlisted in the air force. During basic training, we had to run three miles on a track. My high school basketball years prepared me for endurance and running and also with a desire to win. I was not going to be last. I was going to win. I finished my first three-mile run out front and realized I was a good runner.  So I owe my running to the Air Force but that’s where I also started drinking.

After the Air Force I worked for a technology firm in Minnesota. My work progressed and so did my after-work drinking which cost me my marriage. A promotion 10 years later had me transferred to a project in Iran and located him in Tehran in 1974, just before the coup. I loved the country, and strangely started to jog because