Confucius says, “a journey of 100 miles begins with one step.”  Modesto Man shows how it’s done under 12 hours.

September 28, 2013

Teachers teach by imparting knowledge and they inspire by setting amazing examples.  There’s much to learn from Modesto’s Math teacher, Jon Olsen.

Did you know that some celebrated yesterday as Teacher’s day? Why? Because it was also a celebration of great teacher Confucius’ Birthday and now there’s another reason. It’s the day that a math teacher (Modesto’s Jon Olsen) set a new American 100 miler record averaging a 7:12 min/mile pace for 100 miles. I knew about this teacher’s day celebration because it was celebrated at Dr. Tammy Wu’s school yesterday (I went too).

Confucius says that a long journey (ie. 1000 miles or 100 miles, whatever) begins with one step.  Well, Mr. Olsen has run more than all of that.

Jon Olsen’s photo on his FaceBook outside of the indoor track where he set the new American Record one day after the picture was taken.

Details of the 100 mile experience in Canada

11:59:28 was his time for 100 miles and he beat the previous American Record (12:12:19) by around 12 minutes.  He set a new American indoor track record.  The race was held in Ottawa, Canada, called the Self Transcendence Ultra Classic 6-12-24 Hour Races.  The previous record was set by Bernd Heinrich at 12:27:01 in 1984.

What’s next for Mr. Olsen?  Soochow Invitational 24 hour race in Taiwan

He says in 10 weeks he’ll be in TAIWAN running a 24 hour race. He’ll now have the challenge of running in TROPICAL weather. Congrats again.  Good luck at Taiwan’s Soochow Invitational Race.

My previous blog post about Jon Olsen winning the Gold Medal at the 24 h international race in Netherlands – he ran more than 167 miles in 24 hours.