Park Barner of Pennsylvania was one of the greatest American ultrarunners of the 1970s. He was the first competitive American ultrarunner to become broadly known outside the ultrarunning community. He was shy, disarmingly humble and a man of few words. He avoided the spotlight, never was a self-promoter, and was known for his relentless metronome pace rather than speed.

Barner won, and he won often. At one time he held the world record for the 24-hour run and other ultra-distance American records. But he said that he didn’t really need trophies or wins to feel satisfied. To him, running was something he enjoyed doing. He said, “It makes me feel good. I sort of feel like a kid.”

Of Barner, it was written, “He had a unique depth of constitutional strength and resiliency. The stories of his ‘outside the box’ exploits are nearly as impressive as those of his greatest races and have contributed to his almost mythical status in the history of the sport. He was called, “The Lonely Machine,” “The American Record,” “The Human Treadmill,” and “The Human Metronome” for his even-paced racing.

In 1974, one who knew him well wrote, “What Park has done is merely to shatter the existing standards of what the human body is physiologically capable of doing. He is establishing himself as a living legend in the ultra-distance events.” During the oil crisis of 1979, it was written about him, “Park Barner is the guy with the answer to gasoline prices.”

Today few runners have heard about Park Barner. Here is his story.