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WHEELING -- Terry Whitecotton has fit a lot of racing into 41 years. The 67-year-old Wheeling resident started racing when he was 26 and ran in his 961st race Saturday morning at the Debbie Green Memorial Mile in downtown Wheeling.
"I've done all of them," Whitecotton said of the Debbie Green Memorial. "This is the 23rd annual and I've done every one of them.
"It means a lot because it's not about us, it's about the kids. It'd put this one as one of my favorites."
Whitecotton, who graduated from John Marshall, said he has been racing for so long in part because he loves doing it and also because of all the friends he has made along the way. He loves racing now, but when he started running in 1980, it was a different story.
"I was more into playing basketball at the time," Whitecotton said. "What started me into racing was that I lived up at Wheeling Creek and there was a bar out there that put a race on. Living out there, I decided to enter the race."
Whitecotton said he underestimated how difficult racing was at the time.
"I wasn't prepared, I thought I was ready but I wasn't," he said. "When I started training more seriously, it got to where I couldn't wait to race, I couldn't sleep the night before, just couldn't wait to get out there and I fell in love with it."
He raced all throughout the 1980s and '90s in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
"In the mid-80s, I started going to St. Clairsville and places like that for racing," Whitecotton said. "I started finding out about races out of the area like up in Pennsylvania and down going towards Marietta and Parkersburg and I just started traveling. It was almost like being on the NASCAR circuit."
To get to 961 races in 41 years, Whitecotton was racing almost once a week in his prime. He has slowed down recently and does not travel as far, but has not stopped.
"Back then it was probably 45-50 (races per year), now it's about 15-20," he said. "In terms of local races, I'll go about as far as Barnesville and I'll go down to Moundsville."
Near the turn of the century, Whitecotton transitioned to speed walking, which is how he races today.
"At the time, it was all the rage," Whitecotton said. "In 1999 into 2000 I got into race-walking. It's a little bit slower and the walking division was just starting to get competitive.
"I walk seven miles a day. I get on a path or wherever I can find a flat spot and do speed walking."
In the Debbie Green Mile Saturday, Whitecotton finished in seventh place with a time of 13:12 in the men's open division among walkers. Gary Bennett, 53, of Moundsville won the division with a time of 8:58. Nancy McCabe, 50, of Wheeling won the women's open walk with a time of 11:57.
Sean Flannagan, 34, of Morgantown won the mile run in 4:57, the only sub-five minute time. Casey Morrison (5:02) and Casey Hancock (5:05) finished second and third. Elah-Grace Konkle and Maggie Miller, both 11 and both from Wheeling, tied atop the women's run with a time of 7:31.