"Running: there's no better exercise for your health." So says Duane Spitz, 56, of Holt, who is really healthy. Before an injury slowed him last spring, "I was running 85 miles a week," he says.

Spitz was one of the top road racers around in the 1970s and early '80s, recalls Doug Kurtis. "All I know is Duane Spitz was fast," adds Scott Hubbard. "He was always way up there in the results."

Fast he was -- and still is. In 1973 Spitz won the Motor City Marathon, which later became the Detroit Free Press Marathon, in 2:23:05. Five years later, "I was second in the first Free Press Marathon by three or four seconds. I lost it in the last little bit," Spitz says.

He also won marathons in Saginaw and Athens, Ohio. Spitz ran his 2:17 PR in Miami. In all, he ran five sub 2:20s. He finished in the top five at marathons in Chicago, Dallas and Cleveland, as well as Detroit.

Spitz loved running the Boston Marathon. "I won my first medal there in 1973," he recalls. "I finished 21st in a not-fast time, but it was a real hot day. Only the top 35 got medals then, not the top 100 like today."

His '80 Boston was memorable also. "It was really hot that day too," Spitz says. He finished 25th in 2:21:03, besting former Olympians Jeff Galloway and Kenny Moore and 1968 Boston champ Amby Burfoot.

"I was 11th with four miles to go," Spitz says. "But I mentally gave up when Benji Durden (another Olympian) passed me."

Now, 26 years later, "I still run to work at five in the morning. I can still run a 6:45 to 7:15 mile pace," he says. Spitz has been hampered a bit by lower-back and hip problems. He's traced the cause to "worn orthotics. They're about three or four years old. It's funny how a shoe or orthotic can cause injuries," he says. Now he's "only" running about 65 or 70 miles a week.

"I run mainly for my health now," says Spitz. "I don't do many races, maybe three or four every couple years. When I do race, I'm pretty competitive. I'm still running as hard as I used to, just not as fast."

Spitz began his competitive running at Lansing Eastern High School, and became a junior college All-American. "I was mostly a road racer after school," he says.

It seems like a throwback to the '70s when he speaks of the Williamston 10K, which he ran once in 29:35, as "10,000 meters." Whatever you call the distance, that's pretty fast.

At his peak, "I trained at a 6:00- to 6:20-mile pace. I was pretty comfortable," Spitz says. He remembers training with Gordon Minty, 1979 Free Press winner and another state running legend, one summer. "We did five times 1600 meters, for a 25:41 workout. We also did quarters." Efforts such as these helped Spitz post a 14:40 5K best.

Later, at age 52, he clocked a 16:34 5K, a 28:41 five-miler, and a 34:13 10K. Now he chuckles at those times. "You feel like you're doing everything like before, but you're not," Spitz says.

"I believe in high mileage," he continues. "It makes you stronger. I like to run 85 to 90 miles a week." He tosses in a form of fartlek for speed work. "I run hard for 30 seconds, then jog, run hard for up to a minute, then jog again."

"Duane and I did a lot of training together," says Gordie Schafer, who ran with Spitz in the early '70s as a Mid-Michigan Track Club member. "Often he ran with a group of us. It was common for Duane to either have knocked off 10 solo miles before the group formed, or for him to take a five- to 10-mile cooldown after the rest of us were done."

Spitz was always "willing to go at your slower pace and talk as you ran along," Schafer adds. "Everything was fine if you kept your shoulders behind his, but if you went a half-step ahead he instinctively picked up the pace.

"We also found out you had better keep talking to him, because as soon as you fell silent Duane picked up the pace. Our training was LSD (long, slow distance) for him, but since we were running sub-seven-minute miles, it was LFD for me."

"Duane is the toughest runner I've known," says Dan Fuller, another old training partner. "I got a call from him on a Saturday morning at the height of a blizzard. Roads were impassable for cars. We spent over two hours running up and down a main road in Lansing to get in our 15-miler."

At his peak, Fuller says, Spitz was working 50 hours a week to provide for his wife and two children, taking night classes and training 100 miles a week. "I don't know many people who could have accomplished what he did," Fuller says.

"Duane arranged his long runs so he did the first portion at his speed, then came to run with me," Schafer remembers. "He inspired me to get back into running. I owe most of my marathon success to our tough training runs and the encouragement he gave."

Spitz has seen changes through the years. One, he notes, is increased road traffic. "Even running to work at five in the morning, there's all kinds of traffic," he says.

"There aren't as many fast runners as there used to be," he continues. "Some overall winners run better times than we used to, but there isn't the depth of quality, especially in the marathon, there once was."

He recalls the early Motor City/Free Press marathons. "Only 120 people would show up, but most were pretty competitive. The year I ran 2:18, 30 or 40 guys broke 2:30.

"In the local 10Ks, you had to be under 31 minutes. There were a lot of guys in the 32s."

Any tips? "I think you simply have to enjoy running," Spitz declares.

It is clear he is doing that -- swiftly, even after all these years. MR

Ron Marinucci can be reached by e-mail at

ron_marinucci@comcast.net