If you pay even the slightest attention to road racing, you know who Allan Olexa is. You can say the same if you live anywhere in the Neffs area or up Dixon Hill.
You’ll see him training daily, getting in his miles as part of his daily health regimen.
Neither age nor COVID-19 has kept Olexa from getting in his daily runner’s high, though admittedly, he’s logging fewer miles per day than previously.
“I still run every single day. I take no days off at all,” Olexa said. “But as I’ve gotten older—I’m 69 now—I run somewhere between four and a half and 8 miles per day. I used to run 10-15 per day.
“I walk a substantial amount, too, as I enjoy doing the hills. I’ve always done this for fitness and health more than training for the races. Those I do for fun.”
The is one thing the pandemic attempted to take away from Olexa is his competitive races. The recommendations were still to get outside and exercise, run, and be active. Just don’t do it in large groups.
One of the big races locally each year is the Ogden Half-Marathon in May. Last year’s was canceled. This year’s was, too. The Debbie Green race in Wheeling also didn’t run in 2020. The list goes on and on.
Some races, however, went virtual. The idea was to get out on a certain weekend, run the particular race’s normal distance and time yourself. Then submit that time to see how you finished.
“A lot of races just out and out canceled,” Olexa said. “So many of the small races canceled, ones I had already signed up for. But some went virtual. You could run any course you want, just record your distance and time.
“It was on the honor system. They still wanted that (entry) money, but you send in your time, they record it, then they sent you your medals and a t-shirt, whatever it normally was.”
Limiting the Virtual Races
Olexa admittedly didn’t do too many of the virtual races. If he had previously signed up already, he competed.
A race he annually runs with his daughter Abby, the Peachtree in Atlanta, normally brings 60,000-plus runners to Atlanta to compete during the July 4th weekend. Naturally, that wasn’t doable with the pandemic. At first, the race was moved to Thanksgiving.
But with the pandemic still raging in November, the decision was made to run it virtually. So that’s just what father and daughter did.
“We ran the Peachtree race on Thanksgiving Day in San Francisco,” Olexa said. “The rule was you could run it anywhere, but it had to be on Thanksgiving. So that morning, we ran the race along the Embarcadero.”
Olexa’s also competing in the virtual four-miler that, if run in person, would have finished on the 50-yard-line at Ohio Stadium. Being a Buckeye, he didn’t want to miss out on this race, despite it not being in person.
This time, he’ll log his time whilst running along the Hudson River in New York City.
In the last year, he’s run only three in-person races and a few virtual ones. That’s far fewer than his usually 50-70 races per year. It’s not uncommon to see Olexa run multiple races in the same weekend. He’s also been known to run two in the same day.
He credits running every day, along with a particular dietary regimen that cut out meat and carbs, to his longevity in terms of optimal health. He’s never been sick a day in his life, this despite teaching for decades.
Olexa is a retired teacher from the Bellaire school system. Classrooms are breeding grounds for germs and bacteria, and yet Olexa never once got sick.
“I credit my fitness routine, that I started in 1983, for building my immune system and keeping me healthy,” Olexa said. “I quit eating junk food in 1983, burgers, anything processed. In the 90s, I quit red meat, and 15 years ago, I quit all meat entirely.”
A trip to the Virgin Islands was crossed off the bucket list 
The weather may have put the stops on that day’s hike, but the views in Mt. Ranier National Park in Washington state can’t be replicated.
Enjoying the Pandemic
When the pandemic first was raging through Italy before it made its way west, Allan and Abby Olexa were in Italy.
Christmas morning, 2019, the Olexa’s took in an early morning run in Aversa, Italy. Now as Allan mentioned earlier, he’s never been sick. But he did admit that while in Italy, he believes both he and Abby had COVID-19.
“All the years of teaching, I’ve never been sick, no colds, headaches, nothing,” Olexa said. “For three days, we both have very mild symptoms. We both think we had it then.”
That Olexa immune system kept them both fairly healthy, despite potential contraction. And it’s the Olexa sense of adventure that’s kept Allan and Abby visiting and running in places across the country during the last year.
Shelter in place was not going to work for these two. That’s not to say Olexa hasn’t followed the rules. When he’s required to wear a mask, he does. He’s also received his first round of the coronavirus vaccine.
But he didn’t let it stop him from living his life, although travel plans out of the country had to be put on hold. Fortunately, this is America, and there are plenty of exiting places to visit.
“I pity people who have isolated themselves and stay inside and don’t go any place,” Olexa said. “They feel traveling by air is so dangerous. But the planes are extremely sanitary. They are unbelievably clean.
“We have conducted our normal life and probably even done more traveling than we would have.”
Allan Olexa is retired. Abby works in convention services for Hyatt Hotels, so she’s been off work for a while like many in the industry. But that time off has allowed father and daughter to do even more traveling than normal.
In the last 14 months, they’ve been to San Francisco four times. Next week, they are returning to New York City for what will be their fifth trip to the Big Apple during that span.
In their most recent trip they flew out of Atlanta to New York as that’s where Abby is based. The round trip cost for the flight from ATL to NYC? $30. And yes, you read that right.
“She’s never had this amount of time off before, so we’ve been traveling all over, doing a lot of walking and hiking,” Allan said. “We don’t do the normal touristy stuff. Most of that is closed anyway. But we are outdoor people; we’re doing park tours, hikes and exploring.”
The two take advantage of using Air BnB for lodging and usually can find great rates on accommodations. There was an Air BnB listing in New York roughly a block from Times Square that normally goes for $300 a night. They were able to stay there for $800 for the entire week.
For those willing to travel, deals can certainly be had. As can a great time.
