Gordy Ainsleigh - Clydesdale Division Pioneer

Clydesdale Division Pioneer

Ainsleigh also briefly held the oddball record for the fastest marathon ever run by a person who weighed over 200 pounds, 2 hours, 52 minutes, and 7 seconds, at the Avenue of The Giants Marathon in May, 1973, along the Eel River and among the famed giant Redwoods of the Northern California coast. His friend, Ken 'Cowman' Shirk, bettered that time two years later, at the same Avenue of the Giants race, by running 2:48 "and change". Ainsleigh ran a 2:58 "and change" that same day.

In 1988, Ainsleigh started rock climbing with Zane Kime, MD, an alternative medicine doctor from a nearby town who was among the pioneering scientists researching the health benefits of natural light through sun exposure. Through this friendship, he became involved in Kime's scientific work, and in 1993 authored a medical journal article on the substantial ability of sun exposure to prevent internal cancer. His article was the first scientific literature review on that subject to be published in a peer-reviewed medical journal, and advanced that avenue of scientific exploration by interesting several more research groups into exploring this phenomenon (see Studzinski & Moore 1995).

Ainsleigh also wrote an article on the life of the first great modern endurance horse and his owner, Wendell Robie, the man who started the Western States Trail Ride and the sport of modern equine endurance riding. The story appeared in the January 1978, issue of Western Horseman.