101-year-old State College runner prepares for his 15th Tussey Mountainback relay race

At 101 years old, George Etzweiler is the oldest runner to take part in the annual Tussey Mountainback 50-mile relay and ultramarathon, which occurs each October, but it’s certainly not his first rodeo. Sunday will mark his 15th time leading his relay team, christened “The Old Men of the Mountains.”

But while Etzweiler has been running longer than some of the relay participants have been alive, the State College man is quick to point out that running wasn’t always his hobby of choice. It started when he was 49 years old, and he said he was overweight and couldn’t stay awake in the afternoon.

“I was on the electrical engineering faculty at Penn State and a professor friend of mine had read Kenneth Cooper’s book on aerobics and decided to start doing a run around the track at Rec Hall,” Etzweiler said. “He had another professor friend run with him and they started beating on me to join them. I read Cooper’s book, decided to give it a try and have been off and running ever since.”

Over the next six months, George said he lost more than 20 pounds. When his son, Larry Etzweiler, who was in graduate school at the time, came home for the holidays, the two discovered running was a love they shared.

“At the same time Dad was reading Kenneth Cooper’s book, I was in graduate school when I read Kenneth Cooper’s book and I, too, was gaining weight and getting tired in the afternoon, so I, too, started running,” Larry Etzweiler, 75, said, “and when I came home for Christmas, I told Dad that I had this great new sport and Dad said ‘I have a great new sport as well’ and we discovered that we were both running.”

The two have run alongside each other multiple times since, both in the Tussey Mountainback relay and otherwise, including races up New Hampshire’s Mount Washington, which George Etzweiler continued to participate in up until last year.

This year, George Etzweiler plans to run Leg 5 of the 12-leg Tussey Mountainback relay, a 3.5-mile section of the race that ends at Alan Seeger Natural Area. However, this year’s relay will look much different from years past. The Old Men of the Mountains relay team has lost two team members since the last race, a 91-year-old runner who decided to sit out this year’s event and a 70-year-old team member who died from a heart attack after leaving for a run earlier in the year. Two new team members have been added to the roster, but Larry Etzweiler said he’s prepared to take a spot on the team beside his father, if needed.

For George Etzweiler, preparations for the upcoming race include near-daily workouts, going to the mountains to run three times per week, running two miles each time. On another two days of the week, you can find him at Ki’netik Fitness, where he works on his strength and stability training. Even when he’s not preparing for a race, though, he still finds joy and catharsis in his running routine.

“Since I retired, I’ve enjoyed getting out in the local woods here for years now,” George Etzweiler. “I run up Laurel Run Road to the top of Tussey Mountain. ... It’s two-and-a-half miles up the mountain, at about an 8.5% average slope.”

After the 2010 death of his wife, Mary, running became an even more important part of George’s routine.

“After Mary died ... I just wanted to go out and start running and never stop — just keep on running up these Mid-State Trails to New York and on across New York into Ontario and all over the pole and around the world. I just wanted to keep running. I seem to feel better when I get out there to run.”

As for Sunday’s Tussey Mountainback relay, George Etzweiler said he’s most looking forward to the finish, with a good-natured, “I just hope I’m still upright.”

Proceeds from this year’s Tussey Mountainback will support CommonFood Centre County. For more information on the event, visit www.tusseymountainback.com.