Choose Strong
For Tim.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/JACK-KIRK-1906-2007-The-Dipsea-Demon-was-a-2620235.php
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPSheE9Fh5M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8BJW-rxAcw
杰克.柯克: 1906-2007 / 'Dipsea精灵' 生前是一个有名的长跑运动员和倔老头
在1933或1934的一天，有名的Dipsea山路竞赛中, 杰克.柯克在一段陡峭的路段
马林县Steep Ravine）上开始了他的传奇。
当跑向Stinson海滩时，选手们已经很疲劳了。这时候，一个人突然不知道从那儿冲出来。
他滑下陡峭的山坡，越过树丛，超越其他选手们好象他们是站在那儿一样。
"那家伙跑得象一个精灵。"一个选手说道。
从那一天起，杰克.柯克就以"Dipsea 精灵"闻名了。他也对得起这个绰号。
他连续67次参加了这一艰难的7.1英里的赛事直到96岁时在海拔1362英尺的Cardiac山顶上崩溃。
那个在一次比赛中曾经击败了John Muir's 的孙子的人周一晚间在Clovis（Fresno County）
医院去世了。享年100岁。
柯克是一个古怪的家伙，他几乎一生都住在内华达山麓小镇马里波萨,
多年没有自来水和电, 驾驶一辆一钱不值的老车, 常和他的邻居们打架。
如果不是因为他的跑步, 他可能死于无名. 跑步把他变成了马林县最被谈论的人物之一，
如此受欢迎, 他不得不随身携带一个标志, 要求观众在比赛时不要拍他的背。
生于1906年，他出身贫寒. 有三个兄弟和一个姐姐。他的父亲, 一个爱尔兰移民, 去世时,
他还年轻, 但不得不在一个农场工作帮忙养家。
他是一个小个子，据说, 他跑步(经常光着脚)是为了摆脱他的兄弟和恶霸。
这后来成为一种逃离生活中困难的手段。
他曾在太平洋联合学院学习数学和生物学，在那里他最终得到了生物学学位。
他曾一度在马丁内斯的壳牌炼油厂工作。
他身高5英尺5，体重135磅，是一个终身素食主义者，柯克第一次听说Dipsea比赛是在1930年.
比赛由一些自称"Dipsea 印第安人"的奥林匹克运动员成立于1905年. 当时已经享有盛名。
出于好奇，柯克搭乘渡轮和火车到米尔谷, 央求一位老前辈带他去看看.
据卓尔米勒(获奖纪录片圣安塞尔莫电影"Dipsea精灵"的制片人)说, 就在同一年，
他跑了他的第一个Dipsea，就迷上了，
即使在当时, 柯克也是异类. 他的廉价平板运动鞋就像那些受女学生欢迎的鞋一样。
他对那些不知情的人解释说他习惯于赤足跑步, 喜欢脚上东西越少愈好.
他每年都很有竞争力，但Dipsea的复杂系统的设限--让老人, 小孩, 和女运动员先出发--
在早期把他打败了.
36岁时, 柯克获得亚军并创下个人最好的时间. 他终于在1951年赢得了比赛.
16年后，当他60岁时，他再次赢得了比赛，成为最老的冠军.
柯克没有结婚. 20世纪40年代, 他有几年在优胜美地担任垃圾收集工.
在那里, 他的训练是跑到优胜美地瀑布的顶部。
1941 年, 他买了马里波萨一个400英亩的农场. 一个人在那里生活了60年.
除了一些窝棚和自己修复的老旧汽车, 他什么也没有。米勒说，
在把小木屋塞满了垃圾后, 柯克大多睡在车后座上，
“约翰·斯坦贝克叫我们收破烂的," 他告诉米勒，他解释他爱好收集垃圾。
他脾气古怪，经常和误入到他的地盘的邻居和孩子们对峙。据米勒说，
他蹲过马里波萨县的所有三个监狱, 通常由于开枪吓跑进入他的地盘的人或和警察口角。
他从未有过电话，他从附近的小河里汲水, 在河里洗澡.
60年代初，他与PG＆E争执, 失去了电力. 自那以后他没有电用。
柯克总是连夜开着一辆用胶带和电线捆在一起的大众汽车,踩着点到达赛场.
比赛的前一天是安息日, 作为一个Seventh-day Adventist,
柯克直到夜幕降临才会向赛场出发.
他总是妙语连珠。问他为什么下山跑的这么快，他会回答，
“他们还没有废除万有引力定律呢，有吗？”
当他老了，他常说，“老运动员永远不死，他们只是到达第676步“，
指的是比赛开始时的675级Dipsea台阶。
他的一个传奇的事迹是, 因为不想闹肚子, 在本赛当天他会不吃不喝.
即使在炎热的日子, 他也会跑过山顶的水站而不停，
当有人想给他点什么的时候, 他会咆哮，“我什么都不要!”
1997年，90岁的柯克打破了波士顿马拉松传奇人物约翰尼·凯利的连跑纪录，
大家都如此喜欢他以至于会陪他举着牌子，上面写着“不要碰Dipsea 精灵"
当他的连跑在2003年结束时，主办方安排他最后一次走过终点线。
“他在成百上千的人们欢呼中走过了终点线.” 米勒说:“这是一个非常感人的经历."
他的弟弟克洛维斯的Earl.柯克还在世。
葬礼安排仍在进行中。
-----------------
The legend of Jack Kirk began one day in 1933 or
1934 on a steep slope called Steep Ravine in Marin
County during the famous Dipsea Trail race.
The runners were tired as they headed toward
Stinson Beach when suddenly a man appeared out of
nowhere tearing down the slope, sliding and
leaping over brush, passing other runners like
they were standing still.
"Boy," one runner said, "that guy runs like a
demon."
From that day forth, Jack Kirk was known as the
"Dipsea Demon," and he lived up to the?nickname,
running the arduous 7.1-mile trail race out of
Mill Valley 67 consecutive times. He didn't quit
until he collapsed at the top of the grueling
1,362-foot elevation Cardiac Hill -- at age 96.
The man who once beat John Muir's grandson in a
race died Monday night of old age at a hospital in
Clovis (Fresno County). He was 100.
Kirk, who lived almost his entire life in the
Sierra foothills town of Mariposa, was a bit of an
odd duck, living for years without running water
or electricity, driving old junky cars and
fighting with his neighbors.
He might have died a complete unknown if not for
his running prowess, which turned him into one of
Marin County's most fabled characters, so popular
that he had to carry a sign asking spectators at
races not to pat him on the back.
Born in 1906, he grew up poor in Mariposa County
with three brothers and a sister. His father, an
Irish immigrant, died when he was relatively
young, forcing him to work on a farm to help
support the family.
He was a small child and, according to legend, he
began running, often barefoot, to get away from
his brothers and bullies. It later became a kind
of escape from life's difficulties.
He studied math and biology at Pacific Union
College, where he eventually got a degree in
biology. He worked for a time at the Shell oil
refinery in Martinez.
A 5-foot-5, 135-pound, lifelong vegetarian, Kirk
first heard about the Dipsea race in 1930. The
race, founded in 1905 by a group of Olympians
calling themselves the "Dipsea Indians," was
already renowned. Curious, Kirk took a ferry and
train to Mill Valley and perusaded an old-timer to
take him on the trail.
That same year, he ran his first Dipsea and he was
hooked, according to Drow Millar, a San Anselmo
filmmaker who produced the award-winning
documentary, "The Dipsea Demon."
Kirk was recognizable even then for his footwear
-- inexpensive flat sneakers like those popular
among schoolgirls. He explained to those who
wondered that he was accustomed to running
barefoot and preferred minimal covering on his
feet.
He was competitive every year, but the Dipsea's
complicated handicapping system -- which gives
head starts to old, very young and female runners
-- foiled him early on. Mr. Kirk came in second
and had the best time in the race when he was 36.
He finally won the event in 1951. Sixteen years
later, when he was 60, he won it again, becoming
the oldest runner at that time to win.
Kirk, who never married, worked as a garbage
collector in Yosemite for several years in the
1940s, where he trained by running to the top of
Yosemite Falls. He bought a 400-acre ranch in
Mariposa in 1941 and lived there alone for 60
years with nothing but a couple of shacks and the
old cars he fixed up. Millar said Kirk mostly
slept in the cars after he filled up the cabins
with debris.
"John Steinbeck used to call us scroungers," he
told Millar, explaining his penchant for
collecting junk.
He was cantankerous, often confronting neighbors
and children who strayed onto his property. He had
the dubious distinction, according to Millar, of
spending time in all three jails in Mariposa
County at one time or another, usually for firing
his gun to scare off trespassers or mouthing off
to a cop.
He never had a telephone, bathed in a nearby creek
where he also got his drinking water, and lost his
electrical power during a dispute with PG&E in the
early 1960s, never again having electricity.
Kirk was famous for barely making it in time for
the race, often driving all night in Volkswagens
held together with duct tape and baling wire. A
strict Seventh-day Adventist, he would not leave
for the Sunday race until after nightfall on the
Sabbath, the night before the race.
He was always quick with a quip. Asked why he was
so good running downhill, he would answer, "They
haven't repealed the law of gravity yet, have
they?"
As he got older he would often say, "Old runners
never die, they just reach the 676th step,"
referring to the 675 Dipsea stairs that start the
race out of Mill Valley.
Part of his legend was the fact that he would not
eat or drink on the day of the race because he
didn't want to upset his stomach. He would run
right past the watering stop at the top of Cardiac
Hill, even on blazing hot days. When someone
offered him something, he'd bark, "I don't want
anything."
In 1997, at age 90, Kirk broke the record for
competing in consecutive foot races held by Boston
Marathon legend Johnny Kelley. He was so beloved
by then that runners would accompany him holding
signs that said "Don't Touch The Dipsea Demon" to
discourage fans from patting him on the back.
When the streak ended in 2003, organizers arranged
for him to walk across the finish line one last
time.
"He crossed the finish line with hundreds and
hundreds of people cheering him," Millar said. "It
was a very powerful, moving experience for
everybody."
He is survived by his brother Earl Kirk of Clovis.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
