‘Just get out there.’ State College runner continues to inspire at 104 years old
Weeks after celebrating his 104th birthday, George Etzweiler is lacing up his running shoes in preparation for another season of outdoor fitness events.
First up is the Paterno Family Beaver Stadium Run where Etzweiler, a longtime State College resident, plans to walk the two miles of the event during Penn State’s Blue-White weekend. The 5K run and two-mile family fun walk takes place Sunday, with proceeds from the event benefiting Special Olympics Pennsylvania.
The race ends at the 50-yard line of Beaver Stadium, which a 103-year-old Etzweiler rappelled down last year as part of the Over the Edge fundraiser.
After a brief hospitalization in March, Etzweiler has resumed training and is looking forward to kicking off the start of the 2024 running season.
Etzweiler is doing the Beaver Stadium walk with two groups this year — his all-senior relay running team, the Old Men of the Mountains, and a group from Ki’netik Fitness, the State College gym where he trains twice a week.
Each week, Etzweiler and other group members meet at Laurel Run Road in Rothrock State Forest to train for the Tussey Mountainback 50-mile relay, which will take place in October. Over the years, nearly 30 members of his group have come and gone but Etzweiler has remained. This will be the 18th consecutive year the group has participated in the race, with Etzweiler hoping to finish the fifth leg of the relay.
“I’m actually the only one who’s run every time with the team since it was formed ... when I was a young man of 87,” said Etzweiler, a retired engineering professor. “The days when I could actually run two legs (of the relay).”
Mike Casper, race director of the Tussey Mountainback, said that calling Etzweiler inspiring is an understatement. Seeing Etzweiler train on Laurel Run Road every week helps put into perspective how important physical activity and getting outdoors is, Casper said.
“I think there’s a connection he has with nature and with the world that must propel him along every day,” he said.
As the years go on, his mile times get longer, but that hasn’t stopped Etzweiler.
“It gets awful hard to go a mile when you’re 104,” Etzweiler said. “Runner’s World has what they call an age graded calculator and it’s handicapped based on age, and there is a rather constant deterioration as you get older. But boy, when you get right into the 90s, that thing goes crazy.”
At 104, Etzweiler has surpassed the Runner’s World scale, which only reaches 100. He’s broken age records as a member of the Mount Washington Road Race Hall of Fame, finishing the 7.6 mile race up the highest peak in New Hampshire 13 times, the last time when he was 98.
Throughout his races, Etzweiler has served as an inspiration for those around him and a reminder to keep going. One time on Mount Washington, a runner who chose to retire from the race early ran into Etzweiler on her way down and stopped to talk with him.
“She didn’t look like she had finished the race and was coming back down. And when she got to us, she turned around and started walking with us,” he said. “She just couldn’t go any farther, she just couldn’t finish. So she gave up, walked back down and then decided if I was going to finish walking that way, that she would just go on with us.”
After decades of running, Etzweiler has no plans to stop anytime soon, and shared his advice to new runners or soon-to-be runners.
“Just get out there and get started,” he said.
