Competitor 1: Edward Payson Weston – First great pedestrian and Astly belt champion

1. Competitor 1: Edward Payson Weston – First great pedestrian and Astly belt champion Overall summary • Weston was one of the first great “running” celebrities when his ultra-distance walks gained him fame in the mid-late 19th century • His career started when he lost a bet on the 1860 presidential election (“Breckenridge was due!”), so walked from his home in Maine to Washington D.C. for the election. • He went on to take on tasks like “Walking 4,000 miles from coast to coast in 100 days”, in addition to his career as a 6-day “Go as you like” racer (basically you can walk or run) Moustache attitude: • “I’m walking across the country, and I want to make sure my upper lip… and chin… stay warm” Final take: • Fantastic, but… in his racing days he was clean-shaven, unlike his Irish competitor, who rocks a great ‘stache For more about Weston, including a summary of a new biography, see this article: http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8339692/brian-phillips-edward-payson-weston

2. Competitor 2: Spyridon Louis – winner of inaugural 1896 marathon Overall summary • Pretty much just the one marathon win • He was a greek peasant – what do you expect? Moustache attitude: • “I’m a greek peasant, what do you expect?” Final take: • I love it – and he sported it well late into life (below)

3. Competitor 3: AbebeBikila – winner 1960 Rome marathon Overall summary • AbebeBikila – Ethiopia • “He has remained, enigmatically, a shadowy, remote figure, speaking only his native Amharic, vaguely remembered for having won in Rome in 1960 in bare feet…In Tokyo he ran the fastest marathon ever (26 miles 385 yards in 2:12:11.2) and did calisthenics on the infield grass of National Stadium while defeated opponents were being carried away on stretchers” Moustache attitude: • “If I had those connectors, I would grow a goatee” • “Bro, I don’t even wear shoes, you think I’m going to take time to shave?” Final take: • Good runner, not world-class when it comes to moustache growing

4. Competitor 4: Frank Shorter – 1972 Olympic marathon champion Overall summary • A gold and a silver (to East German WaldemarCierpinski – read: probably blood doping) in ’72, ’76 olympicmarathons • “He is 5'10", 133, and runs straight up—’a vertical hyphen,’ according to Marty Liquori” • “Beautiful, Frank Shorter. Here you come…at the end of a muddy 10,000 meters in the cold and the wind, a good furlong ahead of everyone and winning the National AAU cross-country championship, and still, for all the world, you look like nothing more than a Madison Avenue art director warming up for a Sunday morning touch football game. Well, look at you. There's all of what you call your artsy-craftsy hair exploding every which way from under that Indian headband. And there's your Elliott Gould mustache, the droplets of saliva hanging from it turning into crystals of ice” Moustache attitude: • “My moustache is like my two-mile races – it may not be my specialty, but I can still hang with the best” Final take: • Legendary sportswriter Frank Deford: “His appearance is much improved since he shaved off the big bushy mustache he featured at Munich; it swallowed up his whole face.”

5. Competitor 5: Steve Prefontaine – 4th place 1972 5,000M Overall summary • You know… Moustache attitude: • “I may be small and come across as sort of meek, but I sprout whiskers like a goddamn Chia pet” Final take: • There’s a little too much “I come across as very young, so I’m going to grow a moustache to seem older” in it for me (see below – he really looked and sounded young, recommend youtube as well for evidence) – but otherwise just a great ‘stache

6. Competitor 6: Rod Dixon – 1983 NYC champion Overall summary • New Zealander won the 1983 NYC marathon in one of the race’s most exciting finishes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llfcZUyTJGA • “For a snack, Walker and countryman Rod Dixon, who would run the two-mile, bought a large Dungeness crab in a supermarket, took it outside and cracked it on the sidewalk. ‘When they got done,’ said a compatriot, ‘it looked like something awfully mean had vomited in the carpark.’” • Training methods: "I got up at 10 and annoyed my wife by turning on the TV," he said the day of the race. "Well, you can't do that at home—have TV in the mornings. After breakfast I played those electronic pinball games, and then we went to the zoo all day. Before dinner I tried to take a run. It lasted seven minutes” Moustache attitude: • “If Tom Selleck ever needs a week off, I can fill in on Magnum P.I.” Final take: • Perfect for him

7. Competitor 7: Rob de Castella – winner Boston Marathon 1986 Overall summary • Rob De Castella – Australia • Consensus “World’s best distance runner” for a few years in the mid 1980’s, with a slew of 2:08 times • “At 5'11", 155 pounds, he's a stiff-backed runner with the most powerful thighs of any world-class marathoner. ‘And his arm action looks as if he's tearing jungle undergrowth out of his way.’” • “De Castella has never been injured” “Yeah, most trees aren’t” Moustache attitude: • “All I came here to do was run and get beer foam stuck in my prodigious whiskers, and I drank all the beers already, so let’s go” Final take: • Big fan – plus he spends a lot of his time encouraging young folks, especially at risk aborigines, to run