"And she also wanted me to give her my horse. "And she wanted to get married and have kids," Gordy says. "He didn't really like me that much, but we had a lot of fun together," Gordy says.īut after that second ride, in the summer of 1972, Gordy met a woman. And I was having a good time."Īnd that brings us back to the early 1970s when Gordy, running almost as often as he was riding, and Rebel finished two Western States trail rides together. "And I made sure I wore a real pained expression whenever he could see me. "You know, I'd goof off, and he'd make me run," Gordy says. And then, in junior high, he had a teacher who treated gym class like military PT drills - lots of push-ups. Soon, he was running to school whenever he missed the bus so that he didn’t have to bother his mother for a ride. I wanted to belong so much.” Gordon Ainsleigh And I just dropped my lunch, and I ran home for lunch." Grandma had packed the lunch, and I just couldn't see anybody I could go up to and say, ‘You want to have lunch?’ I panicked. I came out on the playground with a bag lunch. "I remember this one day - I think it was second grade. And, you know, that made me feel really, like, undeserving. We - my mom and grandma who raised me - I didn't have a dad. "I just felt really out of place," Gordy says. But from the time he was very young, he’d learned to find solace in running. Gordy’s very clear on this: he says he’s never been a great runner. "And, you know, I'd be passing all these people who are walking their horses," Gordy says. (Running or trotting them with weight on their backs puts too much pressure on their front legs.) Instead, Gordy hopped off Rebel’s back and ran down the hills. Gordy says most riders walk their horses on the downhills. Rebel turned out to be a very good endurance horse - but Gordy was not an ideal rider. By this point, 1971, Wendell Robie's trail ride was well-established as one of many endurance horse races around the world. "I said, ‘What's that?’ "Ī good endurance horse is what was needed to finish the Western States 100. "And the lady said someone had told her that it would make a good endurance horse," Gordy says. And years later, while attending college at University of California, Santa Barbara, he finally bought a horse named Rebel. Gordy dreamed of owning a horse of his own. "When I was a kid, I actually subscribed to Lone Ranger comic books," Gordy says. He’s now better known as the father of ultramarathoning.įor Gordy, much as for Wendell, the Western States started with a horse. That’s how the Western States 100 trail ride - now know as the Tevis Cup - began.Īnd this is where I should probably mention that Gordy Ainsleigh isn’t just an old friend of Wendell Robie’s. "But then so many people said, ‘God, if I thought you had any chance at all, I would have come with you.’ " "Wendell only planned to do it once," Gordy adds. "And one of the guys said, ‘Ah, you can't compare that to the great horses of the last century.’ And Wendell says, ‘Well, what could they do that my horse can't?’ And the guy said, ‘Well, they could go a hundred miles over mountains and desert.’ And so Wendell said, ‘Well, what about mountains and canyons?’ And so, he got a few of his friends together. "Wendell was bragging about what a great horse he had," Gordy says. Gordy recalls sitting around the campfire on the last night of the trip. In 1954, Wendell was camping with the Sacramento Horsemen’s Association at Robinson Flat, 30 miles west of Lake Tahoe. Gordy was a friend of Wendell’s back in the day. "He's strong, he's wiry and he wears cowboy boots. "Wendell's a little guy," says Gordon Ainsleigh, who most people call Gordy. And it’s true - tens of thousands of people every year run 50, 100 and even 1,000 miles over rough terrain because of that man and his nonexistent horse.īut the story of ultramarathoning actually begins with another man - named Wendell Robie - and another horse. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: the modern-day sport of trail ultramarathoning began 45 years ago when a man showed up to a 100-mile horse race - without a horse.Īn ultramarathon is defined as anything longer than 26.2 miles. This story was re-broadcast on our 8/8/20 episode. Facebook Email Gordon Ainsleigh on the trail.
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