POSTED ON 8/2/04
ON RUNNING

Regarded as royalty in the 'sport of kings'

By Ira Josephs

Inquirer Suburban Staff

Tom Osler gently places the diary on his living-room coffee table, displaying decades of running history in the undecorated pages.
All his races are here. There's the first one, a 4.7-mile street run in Camden on Dec. 4, 1954. There are the three national championships, the marathons, the ultramarathons, the biathlons and the triathlons.
Maybe someday the Glassboro resident will be inducted into the National Distance Running Hall of Fame, like his mentors Browning Ross and Ted Corbitt. He entered the National Road Running Club Hall of Fame in 1981 and the Gloucester County Sports Hall of Fame in 1998.
Osler, 64, is celebrating his 50th anniversary as a runner. While he's slowed some, he shows no signs of stopping.
With a grin, Osler completed his 1,798th race on July 22. His time in the sixth Browning Ross Summer Series weekly 5K at Rowan University was 25 minutes, 45 seconds. He's run three more races since, including Saturday's Rancocas Romp 5K in Mount Holly.
"I'm happy to be running," Osler said. "There were a few years when I ran in the front, and it was exciting. The middle and back is also exciting and pleasurable. It's the act of running, the rhythm. It's the sport of kings."
Though he doesn't act like it, Osler is running royalty. He doesn't brag or bring up his national titles or the popular running books he has written.
At Rowan University, Osler is better known as the affable and accomplished mathematics professor.
"He's the best teacher I ever had," said Kevin Pelton, 36, of Moorestown, a runner himself. "It wasn't even close. I kept trying to get him."
Ringo Adamson, a 1984 and 1988 Olympian for Jamaica, is another disciple.
"The guy has so much knowledge," said Adamson, the race director for the Browning Ross Summer Series and cross-country coach at Camden's Woodrow Wilson High. "I've picked up a lot from him. He always wanted to give back. He's a low-key man who enjoys what he's doing."
Growing up in Camden, Osler found success in running that eluded him in other sports. He became one of Camden High's top runners in the mid-1950s, achieving a best of 4:54 in the mile. After graduating from Drexel in 1962, he became one of the nation's best distance runners.
His national titles include the Amateur Athletic Union 25K in 1965, the AAU 30K in 1967, and the Road Runners Club 50 mile in 1967. Osler ran his best time in the marathon - 2:29:04 - when he placed 19th at Boston in 1967.
"He wasn't blessed with natural ability, but through hard training and smart training he accomplished a lot," said Glassboro's Seth Bergmann, a fellow professor at Rowan and an accomplished runner.
Among those who have been encouraged by Osler is Drexel Hill's Neil Weygandt, who ran his first of 38 straight Boston Marathons in 1967.
"Tom was my mentor and inspiration," Weygandt said. "Between Tom and Browning Ross, I consider them the best you could have in the country."
Runners all over the country became aware of Osler when his Serious Runner's Handbook was published in 1978. More than 25,000 copies were sold. He also privately published The Conditioning of Distance Runners in 1967 and coauthored Ultramarathoning: The Next Challenge with Ed Dodd of Collingswood.
Osler's life has meaning beyond running. He and his wife, Kathy, have been married for 36 years and have two sons, Eric, 34, and William, 30. Osler is also an opera buff. As he has curtailed his running to 20 to 25 miles a week, he has written 50 mathematics papers in the last five years.
"It's a good life," he said. "We've been fortunate."