By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports
Frank Bright is the first to admit that he has always been “a numbers guy.”
With that in mind, let’s take a look at a few of his numbers –
- He has finished 22 Boston Marathons (and didn’t finish one).
- He is No. 4 in America in his age group and is No. 13 in the world in the Abbott World Marathon Majors rankings.
- He estimates he has run a little over 62,000 miles in his life.
- He usually runs about 25 to 30 miles in a week, but if he is training for an upcoming event, then it might be 40 or 45.
That’s all good, number-crunching stuff.
But here is the best – and most significant — number of all: Frank Bright is 82 years old.
At an age that a lot of people aren’t really fond of riding for 26.2 miles, Bright is running that distance.
Often.
And he’s been doing it all his life with no plans of slowing down anytime soon.
Which begs the obvious question: how is he able to do it at his age? “I guess I’ve got good genes,” he says. “My dad drank whiskey and smoked cigarettes and lived to be 80. So I figure as clean as I have lived, I ought to make 80. Well, I made 80 … plus a couple.”
But you won’t find Bright running around here any time soon. You may think he’s crazy for running so much at his age, but he’s not stupid. Every June, he and his wife Suzanne head north. Really, really north.
As in Canada.
For decades he’s had a place in the watery area north of Minnesota. You know how they say International Falls, Minn., is the coldest place in the USA? Bright’s summer residence in the western edge of Ontario is more than 100 miles north of that in the Lake of the Woods area near Kenora.
“When I as six years old, our family was vacationing in that area and Dad had heard about how the fishing up in Canada was supposed to be fantastic,” Bright says. ”So we drove up and stumbled onto an old homestead with a two-story farmhouse. He bought 160 acres and now me and my brother have about 600 acres.”
It’s 1,450 miles from Shreveport to Kenora and, no, Frank has never thought about running it instead of driving it.
The Brights stay until the beginning of October before heading back to Shreveport. Canada may be great for running in the summer, but not so much once the leaves start falling.
That’s not all. Ever the sports fans, the Brights spend March in Arizona to follow his beloved Athletics in spring training.
A Fair Park graduate and a state champion in 1961 with a 4:35.6 mile, Bright was a track athlete at Louisiana Tech. In the mid 1970s, after dabbling in journalism and engineering, he opened a law office.
“I was working all day and felt horrible,” he says. “I was worn out and didn’t think I had time to run. So I started going to the Downtown Y and got into it. Marathons were starting up around here and I decided to give that a try.”
Bright has been remarkably free of injury – a couple of meniscus tears, planter fasciitis (“I guess all runners get that,” he says) – but when he has been shut down due to injury, he’s had to overcome impatience as well. “Runners aren’t good at that,” he says.
After retiring from his law practice in 2007, Bright has found plenty to occupy his time other than running. He picked up his Martin guitar for the first time in 40 years and plays with other retired friends. He is in two book groups, loves baseball, and takes free online courses.
“I still love to learn,” he says.
In the most recent Boston Marathon, there were eight in the 80+ category and Bright finished third with a time of 4:36.17 (about a 10 ½ minute mile pace). In local races, the young whipper-snappers in the 70-79 age group asked race organizers to form a special 80+ category because Bright was bringing home all of their hardware.
“I’ve made so many friends through running,” Bright says. “The social aspect is a big thing. And I hate to say it, but you get a lot of ‘attaboys.’ Your ego gets fed, particularly as old as I am. The first question I get from people I haven’t seen for awhile is ‘Are you still running?’
“I know one of these days I’m going to have to say I hung it up,” he adds. “But right now, I can still tell you how I ran the Boston Marathon in April. It’s ego, I guess, which is probably more than I’d like to admit.”
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com