John Kolmetz is one of six runners that have run all 29 Free Press Flagstar Marathons. At 78, he’s the oldest of the group by nine years.
In 1978, the marathon was the first race he completed. He almost didn’t make it. A week before Kolmetz hurt his back while working on his kid’s bike. He said he had never hurt his back before. “You can imagine the anticipation of running your first marathon and then this happened. I tried everything. I went to an orthopedic doctor, a chiropractor and an acupuncturist. I was really desperate.
The Friday before, I was lying on my office floor at GM answering phone calls when friend, Art Keurajian, asked if I was still planning to run the marathon. He offered to meet me for drink at Lelli’s restaurant. I said I could barely make to the car. He was persuasive. Once I got there he suggested that three shots of Crown Royal would straighten me out. An hour later, I got up to go to the john and low and behold I’m feeling OK. It was magic!”
Kolmetz started running when he was 43. He ran 3 to 4 miles a day four times a week. “When I approached 50 years old I got this goofy notion that I wanted to run the Boston Marathon after I had watched it on TV. I said to myself, I can do that.”
But he found out you had to qualify. Friends told him about the Free Press Marathon was coming up and he decided to train for it. He prepared all by himself since he didn’t know anyone that ran at the time. He did start a prior race, the Motor City Marathon. He wasn’t prepared and cramped up half way through. Then he got lost on Belle Isle trying to find a short cut to get back to his car.
Fortunately, at the first Free Press he made it all the way and qualified for Boston in a time of 3:18. At the time he didn’t realize what he had accomplished. He said, “It was a wonderful race for me, I had no real problems and later called the experience being happy, stupid”.
After running the next five Free Press Marathons it became a yearly thing to do, as did Boston. Outside of these two, he’s done the World Master’s marathon in Eugene, Oregon finishing sixth. Kolmetz has run most of the Crim 10 mile races too.
Finishing the Free Press Marathon in Tiger Stadium was one of his favorite years, just for the nostalgic opportunity alone. “As an over 65 year old runner I got a half hour head start. Jerry Johncock, another top senior runner and I were at the top of the Ambassador Bridge when the TV crew started following us thinking that we were the lead runners. They followed us old guys for five miles until the real lead runners and everybody else started blowing by us.”
Kolmetz enjoyed the Grosse Pointes but said the last few years has been such a huge improvement in the course that he’s just about forgotten about the Michigan Avenue years. He’s also happier to be starting in Detroit rather than getting up early to be bused to Jackson Park in Windsor. “The Ambassador Bridge has made all the difference in the world and the sunrise as you go across is incredible.”
“Watching yourself on the Jumbotron at Ford Field was a wonderful experience. Only finishing on the 50 yard line of Oregon’s Haywood field can compare.”
“Although I’m an east sider, I’ve always enjoyed my runs on Edward Hines Parkway with Ed Yee, another runner who has run all the Free Press Marathons.”
He attributes his ability to be healthy enough to run every Detroit Marathon to Wayne State’s former coach, Frank McBride, who suggested staying off cement and running on blacktop or trails. “I’ve been blessed especially considering the kind of shoes we first started running with, which were more like today’s bowling shoes.”
Tom Kell says~