UnUntil 1996, only one person who had been inducted into the Maine Running Hall of Fame had owned a world record. That is Joan Benoit Samuelson. Bernd Heinrich makes it two. Heinrich set four American open ultra distance records and a world masters record, all coming after his 41st birthday. He was twice named national "Ultra Marathoner of the Year."

Heinrich, who grew up in Wilton and later attended Goodwill in Hinckley, isn't exactly sure just what got him interested in running. But he thinks it goes back to the time he was about eight years old "because I remember people telling me that I ran fast," he said. It was during his junior year at Goodwill that Heinrich started running on the cross country team. The school had no track team. He remembers winning nine cross country meets in a row, setting course records, "which whetted my appetite for college running," he says.

Although he wasn't sure that he could get into college, he applied to a number of schools including the University of Maine. He said that track coach Ed Styrna was probably the only college coach who had ever heard of him. Heinrich jokes today that it must have been Coach Styrna's pull at the admissions office that got him in and later his influence at the financial aid office that kept him there. To this day, Styrna remains the person who has had the greatest influence on his running.

Once given the opportunity to go to college and compete as a collegian, Heinrich now took everything more seriously. He excelled in the classroom and on the track. Although he injured himself lifting weights in his freshman year and couldn't contribute to what was already a strong team, Heinrich was able to run the next three years in cross country, indoor and outdoor track. In cross country Maine took second in the Yankee Conference and 7th in the New England’s in 1961. In 1962 they were again second in the YC meet and 5th in the New England’s, and in 1963 they finished first in the YC and were second in the New England’s where Heinrich finished in 15th place, just behind Fred Judkins.

In indoor track the only meet the Bears lost from 1961 to 1964 was to Dartmouth in 1961 and Brown in 1963. In outdoor track, Maine won the Yankee Conference Championship from 1961 through 1965, with a best showing of third in the New Englands in 1963.

After getting his bachelor’s degree at Maine, Heinrich worked toward a master’s, also at UMaine, which he earned that 1966. Then it was off to UCLA where he eventually received his Ph.D. in zoology. In the meantime he had stopped running. But in 1975 the spark was ignited once again while he was teaching at Berkley.

In the fall of 1979, he decided to try the Golden Gate Marathon in San Francisco. It was a hot day with strong winds tearing at the runners. Running an evenly paced race, Heinrich eventually found himself in third place. Heinrich polished off the fading leaders, finishing in 2:29:16 for a 1:32 victory. Heinrich was 39.

But during these years away from New England, Heinrich had missed the forests and streams. He decided to return to the east, taking a teaching position at the University of Vermont in 1980.

Now that he was back home again, he decided to run in the Boston Marathon. On Patriots Day, 1980, just a few days after his 40th birthday he finished in 2:25:25, winning the masters division which in those days did not get much notice. He beat the second masters runner by over two minutes. Also in 1980, Heinrich ran 2:22:34, his lifetime PR, in the West Valley Marathon in California where he placed third and missed qualifying for the Olympic Trials by just 40 seconds.

Heinrich noticed that during the final miles of his marathons he had a lot left and ended up passing runner after runner. Perhaps it was that his best racing distance was beyond the marathon.

He decided to enter the RRCA National Championship 50 mile and l00-K race which was to be held in Chicago in October, 1981. The two events were combined into one race. It was no day for record setting it seemed as runners faced strong headwinds most of the way. Just the same, Heinrich, 41 years old, passed the 50-mile mark in 5:10:12, 15 minutes under the world masters record, averaging 6:12 per mile. He continued on, setting yet another world masters record for 100 kilometers, clocking 6:38:20, erasing the old record by 43 minutes. His l00-K time also set an open American record, a record that would stand for 15 years. In his first attempt at ultra running, Heinrich had blown the lid off. He was already on his way to becoming a legend among ultra runners.

For several months of the year, Heinrich might only run 10 to 20 miles a week, often because his busy schedule at UVM permitted only that. But as he approached a planned race date he gradually built up his mileage to a peak of 150 miles a week, sometimes taking runs of 30 to 40 miles. The yearly build up of his level of fitness gave him a satisfying sensation of "progress" which he says he thoroughly enjoyed. By the same token, he saw running as a form of play, like chasing animals in the woods, like being an animal. Running for him was also a time to do some of his clearest thinking, a time when he was away from other distractions.

In November, 1982, he returned to his home state to run in the Rowdy 50 Miler in Brunswick. He beat a field of 36, winning by 37 minutes in 5:22:48. Heinrich decided to try his hand at a 24-hour track race. He finally settled on Maine's Rowdy Ultimate 24 hour track race in August, 1983. In heat that reached the 90s, he covered 156 miles, 1388 yards for an American record. "I entered the 24-hour Rowdy with the intent of breaking the 100-mile record, then stopping, going all out at the beginning. I'd never given running 24 hours a thought! But the race started at 10 a.m. and it was hot already. I know I didn't have a chance in that heat to get a record. So I switched plans to run slow, and save it for the night when it was cool and go for the 24 hours. Otherwise all those months of training would have gone to waste." He accelerated so strongly during the last hour that race officials, fearing a case of heat prostration, ran alongside him, urging him to take more water. Heinrich collapsed at the finish and spent the next 24 hours in intensive care. Three months later the TAC record committee voted to disallow the record on the grounds that Heinrich was "paced" by the officials.

Fortunately for Heinrich, the ruling was eventually overturned the following year. Incidentally, in the same race he set an American record for 200K of 18:30:10. In the year that followed he shaved over an hour off the U.S. record for 100 miles, clocking 12:27:01 at Ottawa, Canada, and in the same race also set an American record for 12 hours on the track, covering 95 miles, 1216 yards. In 1985 at Brunswick, he set still another American record for 100 K on the track, clocking 7:00:12. Remember, these were open records, not masters records, for a man who was well over 40.

Heinrich says that his three best lifetime performances are his records for 100K, 100 miles, and 24 hour run. His best racing distance, he says, was 100 K. "Even though my best lifetime performances were after I was 40, I never considered myself a "masters" performer. The records were open."

"My 24-hour record was not as hard as the 100-K record, but it was my toughest by far. It was so close, and I knew it would be, that I needed 100 percent effort every single step of the whole way. When I collapsed at the stopping gun, I think I kept repeating in my mind, ‘I did it, I did it!’ for days." He was running close to seven-minute miles the last few miles. Although Heinrich's long distance records have all been broken over the years, one, the 100-K record, stood for 15 years.