131: Tom Osler – The Serious Runner

By Davy Crockett Thomas Joseph Osler (1940-2023) of Camden, New Jersey, was a mathematician, former national champion distance runner, and author. His published running training theories have made a deep impact on distance running for multiple generations. His book, Serious Runner’s Handbook became a classic book on running. He was the first to verbalize in a way that was really understandable to most athletes. Runner's World wrote, "Tom Osler was among those who helped push and pull America toward the running mania of the 1970s." His pioneer 1976 24-hour run in New Jersey brought renewed focus on the 24-hour run in America. He won multiple national championships and was inducted into the Road Runners Club of America Hall of Fame. During his running career, he ran in more than 2,100 races of various distances. Of his youth, Osler said, “I was a sickly little kid at 12 or 13 and didn’t have many friends. This annoyed me, so I decided to leap head-first into every sport there was. I was terrible. I came home night after night looking like an ad for the Blue Cross." He was an excellent student, but purposely lowered his grades for a while in order to fit in as a “regular guy.” His gang in his neighborhood picked distance running as "that day’s form of athletic torture." When he was still 13 in 1954. He jumped in head-first and started to run. He discovered that there were races of a mile and further. He also learned about the current local running hero and Olympian, Browning Ross (1924-1998). Browning Ross wins the 1954 AAU 30K Championship. Young Tom Osler on left. Osler heard about a 30K race, a national championship, which was scheduled for Atlantic City. He went to watch it and met Ross for the first time.  Ross won, and Osler got into the finishing picture by holding the finish-line tape. Osler grew up in Camden, New Jersey. He had dreams he would be the first person to break the four-minute mile. He went to work training by running around his block. In 1954, England’s Roger Bannister was the first to break the four-minute mile barrier, which crushed Osler's dream. His best mile was 4:54, which was disappointing to him, but he was one of the best high school milers in Camden. He finished his first marathon when he was 16 years old with a time of 3:27. In high school, he excelled in his classes, especially in the sciences. At Camden High, he was instrumental in getting a cross-country team established. Osler joined the Camden YMCA and competed in his first running race on December 5, 1954, the 32nd annual Camden YMCA handicap street run of 4.7 miles. Browning Ross won it. One of Osler's High School Events Early on, Osler was pretty much self-taught using things he found about running. read. He eventually found a  seasoned running mentor, John "Jack" Albert Barry (1925-1993), from who competed against elite runners such as Browning Ross and Ted Corbitt. For more details of Osler's early running life, read an excellent article and Osler interviews conducted by Coach Jack Heath: The Running Chronicles of Tom Osler. Off to College Osler's father was a plumbing contractor and sacrificed to make sure Tom went to college. In 1957, he went to Drexel Institute of Technology in Philadelphia, where he studied physics and won many academic awards. Osler loved running and found time during his busy college life to be deeply involved with road running as well. Road Runners Club of America In 1959, Browning Ross invited Tom Osler and others to witness the National Indoor Track Meet at Madison Square Garden. While there, representatives of various running districts got together at the Parmount Hotel and organized the Road Runners Club (RRC). Osler became the first co-secretary of the RRC. He raced multiple times a month in many shorter races put on by Ross in Philadelphia and throughout New Jersey. Running Improved For his first six years of serious running,