Although not quite the summit of Mount Olympus, a former Cattaraugus County man expects to achieve impressive heights in Greece this weekend.
David V. Bruce, former director of Cornell Cooperative Extension and 4-H program leader in Cattaraugus County, will run the route of the original marathon in Athens dating back to 490 BC.
The Athens Classic is Sunday, going from Marathon to Athens and following the same trail Philippides took all those centuries ago.
“I’m going to run all those young guys right into the ground,” said Bruce, who turns 80 in February. “I’m just kidding,” he added with a laugh.
Bruce said the Athens Classic usually has about 20,000 runners but with coronavirus precautions only 10,000 are running this year. Of that total, he said only about 300 are age 70 or older.
“I’ve always wanted to do it,” he said. “I initially started running when I was 42. I ran the Buffalo Skylon from Buffalo to Niagara Falls, Ontario. Because of my work I was spending 60 to 65 hours every week so I just didn’t have a lot of time.”
Now living in New Smyrna Beach, Fla., Bruce is originally from Moriah, N.Y. He and his family lived in the Salamanca and Ellicottville areas for nearly two decades until the mid-1980s while he worked for Cornell Cooperative Extension. He came to the county from another unit in 1967, and ran the 4-H livestock programs for 12 years.
“After I became director in 1974, I went in and did a lot of community development work,” he recalled, including starting many bed and breakfasts in several communities, coordinating the forest industry resource study team with local companies and working with the Seneca Nation and Amish communities.
“It was a fun job. I loved what I did,” he said.
After getting back into running in his 50s and peaking at a marathon a month in his 60s, Bruce became a member of the 50 States Marathon Club. Shortly before turning 75, he completed a full 26.2-mile race in every state in the country.
But now Bruce has his eyes set on another club, and it all starts with the original Marathon.
“I had heard about this and said, ‘You know, that would be a really neat experience,’” he said. “Then I hooked up with a group called the Marathon Tours and Travel Company out of Boston, and they sponsor what is called the Seven Continents Club. I just enrolled in that, and my objective is to run on all the continents and this one will be Europe.”
The traditional story is that when the Greeks defeated the Persians at the Battle of Marathon, the commander sent his best runner, Philippides, to Athens to tell the Athenians of the victory. When Philippides arrived in the capital city, he reported, “Joy, we win!” and soon after died.
“As time went by, that reputation of what really happened got brought into the Olympics and that’s what started it,” Bruce said. In the 21st century, there are anywhere from 2,500 to 4,000 marathons held annually across the globe.
The company Bruce is going with to Athens has about 40 runners in total. While in Greece, they’ll be visiting many historic sights and enjoying what the country has to offer for several days, he said.
For the race itself, Bruce said his goal is to finish in six hours. His best times were about four hours in his mid-60s. Although the beginning and ending stretches are relatively easy, he said the terrain from about mile 8 to mile 16 is a real challenge.
“You can be running along and doing OK but you can trip on something, you can have a terrible headache or have cold or the COVID issue that floats around all of us. Those are concerns,” he said. “I’ve always maintained my health well, and I have three vaccinations, and that’s given me a good feeling that I’m OK to do this.”
In preparation for marathons, Bruce said he does a three-month program with various-length runs on different days. He said during this past rest week, he’d only been running a few miles a day.
“Marathoning is something you have to be dedicated to not only from the standpoint of physically running but you also have to be dedicated to a good diet, everything that relates to good health, and that’s been the fun thing about it all,” he said.
Looking ahead to 2022, Bruce is hoping to run marathons in Africa and possibly Asia. In January 2023, he’ll be running the Antarctica Marathon.
Keeping the legacy going, marathoning is something that runs in the family. Bruce said he and his wife, Susan, who is originally from Texas, have three children who also participate in marathons.
Michael Bruce, a hospital administrator in Alabama, has run a couple; Jennifer Bruce, a Spanish teacher in New York, has run five; and Gregory Bruce, a construction company manager in Florida, has run about 35 on his way to completing the 50 states tour. Michael and Jennifer are also graduates of Salamanca High School.
“Having lived in Cattaraugus County and having done what I did for the years I was there, it was a great experience and a great life,” David Bruce added. “I just love that area of the world.”
