June 12, 1982

(Editor's Note: Bob Haring, who has accompanied FreeWheel '82 participants all week, ran the final 4 miles with George Roberts while conducting the following interview.)

By BOB HARING
World Executive Editor

MUSKOGEE - While hundreds of FreeWheeling bicyclists pedaled through rainstorms Friday, 33-year-old George Roberts said he ran - from Stilwell to Muskogee.

Roberts finished the 71 miles over some of Oklahoma's most scenic terrain in just over 12 hours. He headed immediately for a hot shower and food to the cheers of waiting bikers who had ridden with or past him.

Roberts said he kept running through severe thunderstorms and hailstorms and ran most of the distance at an 8-minute-per-mile pace. He walked for a few miles just south of here when his muscles cramped because, he said, he had picked up the pace a little too far from the finish.

Roberts' pace would have worked out to about 10 minutes per mile for the distance. He said that until recent months he had been training 75 miles a week at a faster than 8-minute per mile pace but that in the last few weeks he had trained on 50 miles per week.

It was the farthest Roberts had ever run. A native of Pittsburgh, PA, and recent Ph.D. graduate of Pittsburgh University, Roberts said he has entered three 50-mile races, but finished only one.

Roberts camped with the FreeWheel '82 contingent at Stilwell Thursday night and left at 5 a.m. He reached the Bacone College campus at 5:03 p.m.

What did he eat during the day? "Four Three Musketeers bars, and orange and a banana," he said.

He then explained he had not eaten breakfast because the previous evening's dinner had not set well and he felt queasy when he began running.

His wife, Leanne, and two children, 8 and 5, accompanied by car most of the way. He also was accompanied by the several hundred cyclists who pedaled that route.

"They were very friendly," he said. "They would say things and offer me water." He said he drank about a quart of water every nine miles.

Roberts moved to Tulsa with Amoco Research only a couple of months ago so this was his first experience with an Oklahoma thunderstorm.

"But I've run in bad weather before," he said, noting he once raced in Pennsylvania in a driving rainstorm with strong winds and eventually cold and snow. Another time he ran in his native state of Michigan when it was 15-below zero.

Roberts began serious running only a couple of years ago after he tried to run a half-mile and discovered he could not do it.

And does his wife urn? "Oh, a half a mile now and then," he said. "But she puts up with me."

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