One of the most important individuals in long-distance running and racewalking history you’ve never heard of.
Ted Corbitt said the following about John Sterner in 1989:
John Sterner was a New York Pioneer Club (NYPC) Marathoners and a Race Walker. He had two complaints about long-distance running.
*There were too few races in the New York City Metropolitan area. We ran about 80% of our races out of town in those days.
*Too many racecourses were short, and a few were too long.”
“If there had been no John Sterner there would not have been a NYRR in 1958, and course measuring would not be at the level it is today.”
My father Ted Corbitt would tell you his greatest contribution to the sport of long-distance road running was establishing a course measurement certification system for the United States. This movement formally started with his publishing the1964 titled booklet titled “Measuring Road Running Courses.” John Sterner and John Jewell of Road Runners Club of England were Ted Corbitt’s mentors in establishing procedures and standards for accurate course measurement.
Ted Corbitt called the situation of short length courses disgraceful. His historic 1954 national marathon championship was won on a course 26.8 miles. A 1958 diary entry after running his marathon personal record of 2:26:44 in Philadelphia said this:
“If course is true: gives me NYPC record and 4th spot on U.S. all-time list.”
David Katz, my father’s protégé said this:
“I believe Ted is the man who invented the sport of road racing. An activity is just play until you apply standards and rules. Ted did just that when he researched and quietly applied standards of measurement to an activity that was void of them.”
Over the years I heard that John Sterner was the first to speak out about the issue of inaccurately measured courses. My research found the May 1950 issue of Track & Field News where John wrote a column called Long Distance Notes and stated the following:
“I think the cause of so many American runners doing so well here and then falling down when they run overseas can be traced to the fact that almost all road runs here are run over short courses.”
“Why Certify a Course,” was written by John Sterner first appearing in Browning Ross’s Long Distance Log and re-issued in the April 1979 issue of New York Running News. Here’s the article: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UYV0feTpI5aD8mbrZ5Bb05xlVQo74I7j/view?usp=sharing
John was a national caliber race walker and long-distance runner. He was the ultimate hybrid endurance athlete splitting time between national-level race walking and long-distance running. One of the unique features of the New York Pioneer Club was having a dominant race walking team. This timeline will review this racewalking history in the coming weeks.
In 1948, John won the 38th Annual City Hall to Coney Island handicap walking race. The distance was 10.25 miles. Also in 1948, he placed third in the National Senior AAU 25K Walk Championship in New York around Central Park.
John was a member on the NYPC 1950 national marathon team championship along with Lou White and Harry Murphy. This was at the Yonkers Marathon and the club’s first national road running team title.
At the Boston Marathon in 1950 John finished 12th in 2:58:08, and 20th in 1953 in 2:47:48.
Gary Corbitt
Archivist: Theodore Corbitt Institute
Follow other History Timeline Profiles Here:
October 12, 2026
Notes:
Ted Corbitt Archives -1989
Track & Field News – May 1950
New York Running News – April 1979
New York Times – 1948
Boston Marathon – Tom Derderian
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