41 at 58: Man takes on long distance run for a birthday goal

On his 58th birthday, Dave Hardesty woke up at the Days Inn in Sikeston, Mo., and ran 41 miles to his home in Cape Girardeau.

At 58, and mile 40, Hardesty was still able to hold a steady conversation. He said he started mapping out his course after he ran the St. Louis Marathon in April, but the idea for a birthday run, which was Thursday, came some 11 years ago.

"Actually I had this idea when I turned 47," he said between breaths on his last mile. "I was going to train and run my age when I turned 50."

But a shoulder injury and "just life" prevented him from doing it that year.

"The next thing I knew, I got old," he said.

Hardesty's gray hair was hidden under his vented blue runner's hat with the GO! St. Louis Marathon logo on the front. His white beard was beaded with sweat that he patted away with a wristband. He was still moving with one mile to go to reach his home on Woodbine Place.

The original 40-mile route was mapped out from the house to a marker about a mile from the hotel. When Hardesty started out about 2:45 that morning, his legs were fresh and he decided just to add that mile in and start at the hotel.

Dave Hardesty took a drink Thursday while running along South Kingshighway on his way into Cape Girardeau. Hardesty began his run about 2:45 a.m. Thursday in Sikeston, Mo.

"Seemed like a good idea 40 miles ago," he said as he topped the first of the three hills left on his run. "Not too crazy about it right now."

Hardesty has been associated with crazy before. He kayaked down the Mississippi River from Minnesota to Cape Girardeau in 2005. He has also kayaked with a friend from Cape Girardeau to Memphis, Tenn.

"I like to push myself out of my comfort zone, you know, different things," he said.

His wife, Marla, just sits back and offers her support.

"After the Mississippi trip, I just say fine," she said while sitting in her Chevy Tahoe before Dave appeared to start his last mile. When he told her his plan in February, "I just said OK," she said. "It didn't surprise me."

Marla played leapfrog with Dave on Thursday, meeting him at mile 27 and then driving ahead and stopping to wait and check on him every two miles along the route. The Coleman cooler in the back of her white sport utility vehicle held Gatorade and fresh water bottles to replenish her husband's supply belt.

Hardesty started running in 1987 on doctor's orders to start exercising. He's run countless marathons, half-marathons and he's done triathlons, and he cross trains the six days a week he's not running.

When he is running, he said he just thinks.

"I think about everything," he said as he jogged past the Waterworks Coin Laundry at Themis Street and North Silver Springs Road, only half a mile to his driveway.

Family was in his thoughts for most of the miles, he said.

"I passed the cemetery where my mom's buried. I stopped there, thanked her for being at my first birthday."

He has two daughters, 10 grandchildren, his wife and his father in the Missouri Veterans Home, whom he visits almost every day.

"Getting old's not easy. You've got to train for it."

Hardesty discovered in his training that he could stretch while running to alleviate stiffness. He squats a little and takes a longer stride to stretch his hip flexors and quad muscles.

His watch alarm goes off every 20 minutes to remind him to drink something and eat a bit of power bar, honey or energy beans. It beeped about a block away from his house. He took a drink, put the bottle back in his belt and sprinted the last few yards to his driveway where Marla was waiting with a camera.

"I like to finish strong," he said.

He finished the 41-mile run Thursday in about 9 hours and 18 minutes instead of his projected 10 hours, which he based on his weekly training runs that started at his driveway on Woodbine and wound through Cape LaCroix Recreation Trail and down to Sikeston, Mo.

Hardesty retired from Southwestern Bell in 2003, but hasn't stopped working. Aside from kayaking, training and running, he does survival camping in the winter and volunteers at Blanchard Elementary School a few days a week.

"I don't feel 58," he said. "You can't feel old working with kids."

He's barnspoiled. He ran faster pointed home than away.

charris@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 246