Neil Rosen never met a running road or trail he didn’t like.
A 10-mile day was once par for the course for Rosen, who before moving to Arizona in his retirement years, was a mainstay with the Bucks County Roadrunners Club.
So it came as no surprise last year when Rosen passed the 110,000-mile mark for his running career.
Heck, a lot of people don’t have cars that last that long.
He never did things halfway. That’s why other runners admired him, right up to the end, which came recently when he died at the age of 73.
Rosen was both liked and respected by all those who knew him. And he had many admirers.
When he reached the 100,000-mile mark in 2014, only 65 people in the United States had achieved that incredible total.
It took him 10 years to get to the 110,000-mile plateau but he loved what he was doing and that’s all that really mattered.
“When I get up in the morning, believe me, there are days when I don’t want to run,” he said in a telephone interview exactly one year ago to this day. “The first thing I think of is: ‘Is it mental or do I really need a day off physically?’ If it’s a mental thing, I just say ‘stop being a crybaby.’ Just shut up and run. If I’m really hurting and something is bothering me, I’ll take a day off.”
Running so much could account for his low weight (130 pounds) and low body fat (three percent). But diet played a role as well.
Those who watched him compete would marvel at how light on his feet he ran. Even in longer distance events he would be up on his toes.
“I think the low bodyweight cuts down on the wear-and-tear of your joints,” he said. “I eat well, although I do eat my share of junk. If I get on a scale and if I see I’ve started to gain weight, I’ll cut it out because I know it’s going to be more wear and tear on my joints.”
Dr. Johnny King-Marino said Rosen’s running form was about as close to perfect as you’re going to get.
“He had the best running form,” King-Marino recalled. “It’s very interesting — his form was more like a sprinter, high up on his toes, a lot of arm action.”
King-Marino said his older brother, Michael, and Rosen were “fierce competitors” in the same age group.
On Oct. 2, 1983, a 32-year-old Rosen competed in the original Courier Times 10K Classic at the Penn Warner Club. He won the 30-39 age group in 34:17 to finish seventh overall.
That’s the kind of competitor he was.
Rich Riggi, who goes back to the very beginning of the BCRR in the late ‘70s, said Rosen was always competitive and did well in most of the races he ran.
“His stability and his endurance, he was hardly ever injured,” Riggi said. “His longevity was based on that. In a way, he had kind of an ideal physique. In the pictures of him, he’s almost airborne, light on his feet.”
