Walking of the bulls: Old bull vs. young bull St. Patty’s long walk ends in tie

Eleven-plus miles, three hours, pub-to-pub and back again — and it’s a tie!

“Old bull” Chuck Copley of Little Compton and “young bull” Mike Jupin of Westport strode past the Westport Social Club parking lot finish line side by side Friday afternoon, thus splitting the winnings of their St. Patrick’s Day Old Bull vs. Young Bull Walking Challenge. Chuck hikes for the Veterans Spinal Association; Mike for 21 Friends (Down Syndrome).

The third annual walk took the duo, as always, from the Westport Social Club down Main Road, to Adamsville Road, to John Dyer Road to Crowther’s Restaurant on Pottersville Road in Little Compton.

There, “We paused for a cold one then turned around and went back the same route,” Chuck said.

The colorful pair — Chuck with his shock of long white hair and cane with American flag, Mike in his tie-dyed painter suit — drew lots of horn toots and waves from passing cars.

“One woman pulled over and said, ‘Why don’t you guys put some clothes on, it’s cold out!’ We were both wearing t-shirts.

But the cold was no problem, Chuck said, since the fast place kept the blood moving.

And he has another cold-weather tactic.

“Cayenne pepper inside the sneakers,” something he heard that Green Bay Packers fans do at frigid Lambeau Field. “It really does keep the feet toasty.”

There’s something of an age advantage — Chuck is 76, Mike nearly 40 years his junior. But those who know him say that, when it comes to long-walking, Chuck is not to be taken lightly.

He trained for this year’s ‘competition’ with brisk walks up and down the hills of Fall River — “Try it sometime — not easy.”

“I’ve walked all my life,” as a young man mostly in Fall River, now in Little Compton down to the beach and back.

“I go to the doctor once a year and he can’t believe it” — knees, hips, “they’re all still good.”

Still, the return trek to Westport Friday was no cake walk. “That last long (gradual uphill) stretch was brutal on both of us.”

He carries the cane not for walking help but as tribute to his late wife.

She died a few years ago and during her last year, “ she couldn’t walk so well. It was her cane so it’s always with me.”

Both men are regulars at these establishments, and “the contest was born out of these two playing pool together and busting chops,” says Rebecca Haines, whose father Bob is among the owners of the Westport Social Club.

“That is how it started,” Chuck agreed. “I said something like, ‘You kids don’t know how to walk these days,’ and that’s all it took.”

Last year Mike pulled ahead over the final couple hundred yards to win the walk.

Could he have won this year had they not agreed to finish together, Chuck was asked.

“Don’t know, maybe not, but 30 years ago, that might be another story.”

Back at the Westport Social Club Friday, “we played some pool, had a few beers, razzed each other — same old.”