The Bloggling Joggler: drubbling

Thursday, June 20, 2024

‘Drubbling’ Inventor Riley McLincha Dies in Kayak Accident

Riley McLincha, known as “The Drubbler,” died on June 18 in a kayaking accident, according to a post by his family on Facebook. “On Tuesday while waiting for a lock to allow passage, Riley was pulled under a barge by the current,” the post reads. “There was simply no way for him to escape.”

The 73-year-old retired science teacher from Clio, Michigan, invented the sport of “drubbling” in April 1994 with a four-mile run along a local trail while simultaneously dribbling three basketballs. In celebrating the 30^th anniversary of the sport, McLincha noted that only two other people in the world have ever taken up drubbling, to which he explained that “the reason it doesn't catch on is because it is too difficult or too stupid.”

McLincha began joggling in the mid-1980s and joggled his first race, the Crim 10 Miler, in 1987 joggling three eggs (he kept three spare eggs in his pocket and ended up using them all). He is a legend at the Crim Festival of Races, having run every single edition of the race for the last 46 years, 29 of them while drubbling. McLincha had planned to drubble this year’s race in August for the 30^th and final time, and was going to joggle the event in future years in honour of joggling inventor Bill Giduz, who died in May.

Drubbling was only one many McLincha’s many talents. He also invented the sport of “runyaking,” which involves kayaking a section of waterway, running back to the launch site to retrieve the transport vehicle, driving back to the kayak, and continuing the process from that point the next day. He wrote a book about his runyaking adventures, “The Runyaker’s Journey,” and posted regularly on Substack.

In 1978, McLincha set the Guinness World Record for reciting the most digits of pi, to 7,500 decimal places. He was also a craft beer aficionado and musician.

We never met in person, but I considered McLincha a great friend, as we’ve been in touch regularly for the past 19 years, when I first started joggling. He had just recently discovered this blog and left a bunch of insightful comments on some of the old posts. We were just messaging each other three weeks ago, so it feels unreal that he’s gone. Like Bill Giduz, Riley McLincha’s legacy of living life to the absolute fullest will live on in the hearts of all those he inspired.