rom American Ultrarunning Association
Morristown, NJ, December 21, 2008. In 1980, barely a year after he began running ultramarathons, Stu Mittleman won the New York Road Runners Club’s annual 100 Mile race with the second fastest time ever by an American, 13:04:09. The following year he ran 5:14:05 for 50 miles, becoming #5 on the all-time U.S. list for that distance. One month later he successfully defended his title at the New York 100 mile (now designated as the U.S. National Championship), lowering his time to 13:00:11. In 1982 he notched the #5 all-time U.S. 100k performance, running 6:57:49, then again returned to win the National 100 Mile in New York City in 12:56:34.
In the the inaugural New York 6-Day race in 1983 Mittleman finished second to multi-day legend Siegfried Bauer of New Zealand, racking up 488 miles to Bauer’s 511 and becoming the top American at this newly revived event. The following year he exploded onto the world-class multi-day scene, finishing second to 24-Hour World Record holder Jean-Gilles Boussiquet of France in the LaRochelle 6-Day Race with a U.S. best of 571 miles, 1164 yards. Three months later, in early 1984, he covered 577 miles, 1320 yards to win a 6-day race in Boulder, Colorado.
But his crowning achievement was yet to come. In 1986 he faced off against Bauer at the Sri Chinmoy 1,000 Mile Race in Queens, New York. After a solid week of racing, Mittleman increased his pace, cut his rest time, and came from far behind to defeat Bauer and demolish his world best by 16 hours with a final time of 11 days, 20 hours, 36 minutes, 50 seconds.
After an apparent retirement following a half-decade of meteoric successes, in 1994 Mittleman suddenly re-appeared on the ultra scene to win the LaRochelle 6-Day race with 536.36 miles. In 2000 he averaged over 50 miles per day for 8 straight weeks in a solo charity fund-raising run across the United States.
No other American ultrarunner, male for female, has exhibited national class excellence at such a wide range of racing distances. None other than Ted Corbitt, inaugural Ultra Hall of Fame inductee and “The Father of American Ultrarunning,” once judged Stu Mittleman to be the best-ever all-around American ultrarunner.
Mittleman joins Sandra Kiddy, Marcy Schwam, Sue Ellen Trapp, Ted Corbitt, and Bernd Heinrich as the third man to be inducted into the American Ultrarunning Hall of Fame.