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Dave Blankenship keeps running and running and running.
The former Parkersburg resident finished ninth overall and first in his age division 70-74 in the North Coast 24-Hour Endurance Run last month at Edgewater Park along the shores of Lake Erie in Cleveland. The run is the USA Track & Field's National 24-Hour Championship.
Blankenship, 70, who lives in Tallmadge, Ohio, completed 93.7 miles during the run from 9 a.m. Sept. 21 to 9 a.m. Sept. 22.
Weather conditions at the Cleveland run were miserable with a heat index of 98 degrees, Blankenship said this week. Blankenship said he is disappointed he didn't complete 100 miles in the 24-hour event but is pleased with his ninth-place finish given the scorching temperatures.
Winners are determined by the number of miles completed in 24 hours. Harvey Lewis, 43, of Cincinnati was the winner with 130.7 miles among the 112 participants who finished.
Participants competed in a .88-mile loop course along the lake. Blankenship completed 106 laps around the loop.
Blankenship finished 50 miles that Saturday before feeling sleepy around midnight after running and walking for 15 hours. He had to deal with a hamstring spasm that forced him to leave the course for a while until a physician provided assistance.
Blankenship walked and jogged the course during the early morning hours that Sunday. "You try to keep moving," he said.
With about 45 minutes left in the endurance run, Blankenship said, his lower back tightened.
The 24-hour run tests your limits, he said.
Blankenship was a librarian at the Parkersburg and Wood County Public Library from 1977 to '87 and from 1999 to 2000. He competed in many local running races while living in Parkersburg and after he moved back to Ohio.
Blankenship recalls winning the first Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot in Parkersburg in 1978.
His prize was a live turkey, which the race organizers dressed in Blankenship's backyard.
"It's the best turkey I have ever eaten," Blankenship said.
While living in Parkersburg, Blankenship said, he won the North Bend 10-Mile Race in Ritchie County for seven consecutive years. He also ran in the Parkersburg Half Marathon.
The most grueling race for Blankenship was the TransRockies Run -- a six-day run covering 120 miles in the Colorado Rockies. Blankenship ran the TransRockies with Jon Sinclair of Fort Collins, Colo., who won the Parkersburg Half Marathon in 1987 and 1991.
The average elevation on the Colorado run was 10,000 feet with the highest point being 13,000 feet, Blankenship said.
Blankenship said he felt exhausted, fatigued after running at high altitudes for a long distance.
"It was the hardest thing I had ever done," he said.
Blankenship and Sinclair won their combined age group in the 2016 run in Colorado.
Blankenship said he has won national masters and/or age group titles running at several distances, including the 5K, 10 mile and half marathon, in addition to titles in cross country, track (3,000-meter steeplechase), 100-mile trail ultramarathon, and the 24-hour road ultra.
He has been running for 55 years, since he was 14 years old in Portage County, Ohio.
Blankenship plans to compete in the outdoor track nationals in 2020, running in the 1500 and 5000 meters.
You might even see him at the Parkersburg Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning.
Contact Paul LaPann at plapann@newsandsentinel.com