The year is 1978. Thirteen-year-old Sheila Burth takes off from the starting line of the inaugural Boilermaker Are Average Runners Getting Faster? It Depends.
“My parents ran behind me with water bottles,” she said. “They didn’t have many water stations then. All that knowledge wasn’t really known at that time.”
The New Hartford, New York resident is about to complete her 40th consecutive Boilermaker road race, which is now dotted with more than 20 water stations. At age 53, Burth is the only remaining female perennial runner—but that was not her intention.
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“The race is such a community event that I just kept on participating year after year after year, now it’s to the point where, how can I not run?” she said.
The Boilermaker is an annual 15K in Utica, New York, and will celebrate its 40th running on July 9. The inaugural race had only 876 participants, and today, the race hosts over 17,000 runners between the 5K and 15K races. The event attracts elite runners from throughout the world.
In the years after the first race, Burth’s family members followed in her footsteps—her parents and siblings all entered the race.
“It’s really gotten to be a big family event for the summer,” she said. “It’s good too because everybody is kind of using it as motivation to keep healthy and keep track of their fitness.”
She runs other races to stay in shape, but said the Boilermaker is the pinnacle. It’s more of an experience than most other races, she said. And though she enjoys it, the race doesn’t come without pressure. She knows she has to finish to keep the streak alive, and the race is notoriously tough. But she tries to stay relaxed, she said.
But nothing has held her back. Not even pregnancy—she raced in July and had her daughter in August. She had people positioned in areas along the race route so she could get off the course if necessary.
“Physically I felt like I could do it, I was very relaxed,” Burth said. “I would run all the time, so it was just no question. But I was very aware of my body temperature and my heart rate, things like that that you have to be aware of when you’re pregnant.”
The secret to the longevity of her running career, she said, is putting one foot in front of the other. Though Burth isn’t as fast as she used to be—her personal best was 1:02 at age 18—she doesn’t let that stop her from running.
“At first, I was really kind of bumming out because I’ve gotten slower,” she said. “But then when I reflected that I’ve been running for 40 years, I thought, ‘You know what? Who cares?’ I’ve been able to do this for 40 years, even if it’s slower, as long as I keep going, that’s all that’s important.”
To train, Burth does a combination of running, yoga, Pilates and strengthening workouts. Everything she does, she said, is so that she can keep running, no matter the pace.
“This will be the 40th year and I’m probably twice as slow as I was 40 years ago. But I’m still going, so that’s good,” Burth said. “I’m still able to put one foot in front of the other. I still enjoy running. I’d like to keep the streak alive until it takes me four times as long.”
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