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Cleaning up: Olympic cyclist Mike Allen honored
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Ainslee S. Wittig/Range News Road crusader: Olympian Mike Allen participates in the ADOT Adopt-a-Highway program and maintains a mile stretch of Route 186, along Dos Cabezas, seen in background. |
By Ainslee S. Wittig/Arizona Range News
Willcox resident and 1964 Olympian Mike Allen was honored recently for keeping Arizona's highways clean.
Exercising, specifically running, walking or cycling, is his passion. He competed as part of the U.S. Olympic Road Cycling Team in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo.
While training - he still competes to a degree - he much prefers to enjoy beautiful scenery.
About three years ago, his son, Mont Allen, was running with him on his usual 6- to 12-mile route on the highway through Dos Cabezas at Christmas. Mont noticed an Arizona Dept. of Transportation sign that said, "This mile available for adoption."
"He told me, 'You love running and you love this area. That sounds like something you could do.' And the next thing I know, he filled out the form and I'm on the sign!" Allen said.
The sign at SR 186 now says, "Olympian Mike Allen runs here."
"I still tease him every year and say, 'You got me into this, you come up and help me clean!'" he said.
Allen, 71, has maintained State Route 186 from milepost 344 to 345 in Dos Cabezas on his daily runs for about three years.
Volunteers for ADOT's Adopt-A-Highway program are required to clean their area four times per year, but Allen has made it part of his exercise program.
Allen broke his hip recently, also causing injury to his spine (a compression fracture to his lumbar), which has limited his running to walking. But he says he also enjoys walking and cycling, and he'll do whatever he is capable of doing.
"I'll be back up on the mountain within three weeks," he said. Until then, he's walking in town, a bit closer to home.
In the meantime, he received a letter from ADOT inviting him and his wife, Marcella, to an Arizona Diamondbacks game.
"I thought they invited everybody who volunteered in Adopt-A-Highway, and thought it'd be fun to go to the game," he said. "I had no idea I was one of 11 people in the state being recognized at the game. I was really surprised."
Allen said he received a "framed thank-you" from Victor Mendez, the director of ADOT, before the game at Chase Field in Phoenix June 24.
"And then I got to watch the Diamondbacks for the first time. They lost to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, 6-4, in 13 innings. It was a great game."
"I have a wonderful mile. I love my mile and I take good care of it," Allen said. "When you have a mile you care about, it makes you feel great! It makes you feel closer to the area you live in."
The Allens moved to Willcox about 10 years ago after retiring from teaching at Department of Defense Dependent Schools for 32 1/2 years, most of that time in Germany. He has been running in Dos Cabezas since.
"Marcella and I got married in 1967, but we met at Cal Poly Pomona while I was training for the Olympics. She has never known me when I was not training, so she knew what she was getting into," Allen laughed.
He is currently readying himself for a 72-hour race, "Across the Years", in Phoenix on Dec. 30-31 and Jan 1.
"During the 72-hour event, I hope to go 150 miles - that's 50 miles a day average. You can walk, run, sleep, whatever gets you there. It's harder now than it was 10 years ago," said Allen, who turned 71 on May 20. "But it's nice. They have a few sparklers and you get some champagne on New Year's Eve. It's quite festive!"
Allen's family has a history of being athletic.
His father went to the Olympic Trials in 1908, but did not make the Olympic cycling team. His father died when Allen was just 12. Then his cousin, George Mattos, Jr., made the Olympic pole vaulting team in 1952 and 1956, placing ninth and fourth respectively.
In 1958, Allen won the Western Hemisphere Marathon Run, establishing a new course record of 2.32.35, and was third ranked in the U.S. for the marathon. He made the Olympic Trials, but a groin injury in 1959 kept him from making the 1960 Olympic marathon team.
Devastated, he continued on his way toward a bachelor's degree at Cal Poly.
Then one day in 1962, he came home to a 10-speed bicycle in the kitchen.
"Quit feeling sorry for yourself. If you can't make it in running, then make it in cycling," his "gutsy" mother told him.
So he did.
In 1963, Allen won the California state title at the Southern California State Road Cycling Championship, and went on to win the U.S. Olympic Road Cycling Trials in New York after that.
After the race at the trials, he called his mother in California.
"All I could say was, 'I won,' and then we both cried for three minutes until the operator disconnected us," Allen recalled.
"I placed 20th in the Olympics, because 19 people were better than me. But just to be there, the experience, continues throughout life," he said.
At age 61, he carried the Olympic Torch in Phoenix for the 1996 games in Atlanta.
"I carried the torch for about 3/4 of a mile, and I went past a school where all the children came out to see me and the torch go by. I got so excited, I practically went into oxygen debt!"
"Sometimes I'll put on my Olympic jacket, just to put it on. The entire 1964 Olympics seemed like Disneyland to me. It's an unbelievable experience."
(Editor's Note: Companies or groups interested in adopting a portion of their community's highways can go to http://www.azdot.gov/Highways/AdoptAHwy/Index.asp)
Exercising, specifically running, walking or cycling, is his passion. He competed as part of the U.S. Olympic Road Cycling Team in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo.
While training - he still competes to a degree - he much prefers to enjoy beautiful scenery.
About three years ago, his son, Mont Allen, was running with him on his usual 6- to 12-mile route on the highway through Dos Cabezas at Christmas. Mont noticed an Arizona Dept. of Transportation sign that said, "This mile available for adoption."
"He told me, 'You love running and you love this area. That sounds like something you could do.' And the next thing I know, he filled out the form and I'm on the sign!" Allen said.
The sign at SR 186 now says, "Olympian Mike Allen runs here."
"I still tease him every year and say, 'You got me into this, you come up and help me clean!'" he said.
Allen, 71, has maintained State Route 186 from milepost 344 to 345 in Dos Cabezas on his daily runs for about three years.
Volunteers for ADOT's Adopt-A-Highway program are required to clean their area four times per year, but Allen has made it part of his exercise program.
Allen broke his hip recently, also causing injury to his spine (a compression fracture to his lumbar), which has limited his running to walking. But he says he also enjoys walking and cycling, and he'll do whatever he is capable of doing.
"I'll be back up on the mountain within three weeks," he said. Until then, he's walking in town, a bit closer to home.
In the meantime, he received a letter from ADOT inviting him and his wife, Marcella, to an Arizona Diamondbacks game.
"I thought they invited everybody who volunteered in Adopt-A-Highway, and thought it'd be fun to go to the game," he said. "I had no idea I was one of 11 people in the state being recognized at the game. I was really surprised."
Allen said he received a "framed thank-you" from Victor Mendez, the director of ADOT, before the game at Chase Field in Phoenix June 24.
"And then I got to watch the Diamondbacks for the first time. They lost to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, 6-4, in 13 innings. It was a great game."
"I have a wonderful mile. I love my mile and I take good care of it," Allen said. "When you have a mile you care about, it makes you feel great! It makes you feel closer to the area you live in."
The Allens moved to Willcox about 10 years ago after retiring from teaching at Department of Defense Dependent Schools for 32 1/2 years, most of that time in Germany. He has been running in Dos Cabezas since.
"Marcella and I got married in 1967, but we met at Cal Poly Pomona while I was training for the Olympics. She has never known me when I was not training, so she knew what she was getting into," Allen laughed.
He is currently readying himself for a 72-hour race, "Across the Years", in Phoenix on Dec. 30-31 and Jan 1.
"During the 72-hour event, I hope to go 150 miles - that's 50 miles a day average. You can walk, run, sleep, whatever gets you there. It's harder now than it was 10 years ago," said Allen, who turned 71 on May 20. "But it's nice. They have a few sparklers and you get some champagne on New Year's Eve. It's quite festive!"
Allen's family has a history of being athletic.
His father went to the Olympic Trials in 1908, but did not make the Olympic cycling team. His father died when Allen was just 12. Then his cousin, George Mattos, Jr., made the Olympic pole vaulting team in 1952 and 1956, placing ninth and fourth respectively.
In 1958, Allen won the Western Hemisphere Marathon Run, establishing a new course record of 2.32.35, and was third ranked in the U.S. for the marathon. He made the Olympic Trials, but a groin injury in 1959 kept him from making the 1960 Olympic marathon team.
Devastated, he continued on his way toward a bachelor's degree at Cal Poly.
Then one day in 1962, he came home to a 10-speed bicycle in the kitchen.
"Quit feeling sorry for yourself. If you can't make it in running, then make it in cycling," his "gutsy" mother told him.
So he did.
In 1963, Allen won the California state title at the Southern California State Road Cycling Championship, and went on to win the U.S. Olympic Road Cycling Trials in New York after that.
After the race at the trials, he called his mother in California.
"All I could say was, 'I won,' and then we both cried for three minutes until the operator disconnected us," Allen recalled.
"I placed 20th in the Olympics, because 19 people were better than me. But just to be there, the experience, continues throughout life," he said.
At age 61, he carried the Olympic Torch in Phoenix for the 1996 games in Atlanta.
"I carried the torch for about 3/4 of a mile, and I went past a school where all the children came out to see me and the torch go by. I got so excited, I practically went into oxygen debt!"
"Sometimes I'll put on my Olympic jacket, just to put it on. The entire 1964 Olympics seemed like Disneyland to me. It's an unbelievable experience."
(Editor's Note: Companies or groups interested in adopting a portion of their community's highways can go to http://www.azdot.gov/Highways/AdoptAHwy/Index.asp)
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