Randy Burt ate pepperoni pizza and drank red wine for dinner on Sept. 24, 1977. The next morning, he put on his old high school gym uniform and went to the starting line of the first Chicago Marathon.
“I made it past 10 miles feeling pretty good about myself, and then, by around mile 21, that pepperoni pizza started to say hello to me,” recalled Burt, now 76. “I got stomach cramps and saw the top of my shoes because I was bent over.”
It may have been a rookie mistake, but he was hooked. Now 45 Chicago Marathons later, Burt is training for his 46th race.
The Antioch resident will join more than 50,000 runners expected to make the 26.2-mile trek through the city on Sunday for the city’s 46th marathon, now called the Bank of America Chicago Marathon. (There was no race during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.)
The first wave of participants will start pounding the pavement at 7:30 a.m. About 77,000 gallons of water and 36,000 gallons of Gatorade will be on hand to help athletes make it to the finish line.
Burt is among just two other runners in this year’s race who can say they’ve every Chicago Marathon since it began. George Mueller, 76, of the Streeterville neighborhood, and Henry Kozlowski, 74, of Wilmette, also were among the 4,200 runners in the city’s inaugural race through Chicago streets in 1977.
“George Mueller, Randy Burt and Henry Kozlowski are a shining example of the spirit of the marathon, as they have run every Chicago Marathon since its inception,” said the race’s executive director, Carey Pinkowski, in a statement to the Tribune. “Their dedication to the race is a testament to the power of setting goals and working tirelessly to achieve them.”
Mueller and Kozlowski say they also had unpleasant, first-time experiences: Mueller suffered shooting pain in his right knee, and Kozlowski ran far slower than he expected.
Despite the odds — Burt only started training a month before, Mueller had traded in cigarettes for distance running, and Kozlowski’s main form of cardio was pickup soccer — the three Chicago-area natives were among the 2,100 runners to complete Chicago’s first marathon.
“Some ran bent forward, their heads pushing toward the finish line that lay two dozen miles off. Some led with their legs, their heads and body pulled back,” the Tribune reported at the time. “Some runners seemed to leap. Others seemed to barely lift their feet. Some ran with little effort. But after the first two miles, most began to sweat.”
And, they’ve learned a lot since that first race, adopting some new routines to make their impressive streak possible.
Burt, for example, plans to wake up at 2:30 a.m. for next Sunday’s marathon. He’s swapped the pre-race pizza and wine for power gels and a banana. After the race, he said he’ll mow the lawn to keep the lactic acid from building up in his legs.
The men are also fond of keeping traditions alive.
Kozlowski has worn his “famous” high school gym shorts for every Chicago Marathon and doesn’t plan to mess with the tried-and-true attire next weekend.
Mueller similarly won’t be seen on the course without the Livestrong shirt he’s worn since the 2007 marathon he ran months after having foot surgery. And, his pre-run dinner is always homemade lasagna; he doesn’t trust any restaurant right before race day.
As they’ve aged, race day has become less about beating personal records and more about staying active and crossing the finish line.
“One of my short-range goals is to do the 50th Chicago Marathon,” Burt said. “It will be my 100th marathon and I’ll be 80 years old, so it’s a lot of neat numbers coming together.”
Kozlowski and Mueller don’t see their last marathon in sight either.
“As I get older, the motivation is not to turn into a couch potato,” Kozlowski said. “It’s basically a way to fight my battle against chronology. I intend to live forever or die trying.”
Chicago Tribune’s Peter Breen contributed.
