Name: Scott Douglas
Date of birth: June 29, 1964
Current residence: South Portland, ME
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My fascinating story: I started running in March 1979 as a 9th grader in Reisterstown, Maryland. My high school was 10th through 12th grade, but I somehow knew I wanted to run cross country and figured I should get going on being ready. I was hooked almost immediately. My first summer of running, before being exposed to a team or coach or things like that, I thought I invented long runs, speed work and two-a-days. At least my instincts were right!
I've never logged ridiculously high mileage, but I've never had low years, either. I've lost some documentation twice, but am pretty sure I'm being conservative in claiming to be at 100,000 miles by now, after almost 33 years. In the 1990s I had close to 40,000 miles; now in my late 40s, I'm still at over 3,000 miles a year. Boringly steady is my approach here as in much of the rest of my life. When I tell people I'm claiming 100,000 lifetime miles and they say "wow," I'm sincere when I say, "It's really not that big a deal--just average an hour of running for 30something years." I'm not an anal streaker, but by taking care of my running body I've been able to mostly steer clear of injuries that would cause serious interference with decent daily running.
In terms of times, I was sort of half decently OK in my late 20s, with bests of 30:48 for 10K, 51:01 for 10 miles and 68:40 for the half marathon. Then I started working for Running Times and my running times went to hell, although my mileage stayed good. I've never run a good marathon (2:43 best), but can claim some fantastic differences in pace between the first 20 miles and the last 10K. My main racing goal in 2012 is to break 3:00 for the marathon, but as always, simply enjoying my running on a daily basis will take precedence if there's a conflict.
Date of birth: June 29, 1964
Current residence: South Portland, ME
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My fascinating story: I started running in March 1979 as a 9th grader in Reisterstown, Maryland. My high school was 10th through 12th grade, but I somehow knew I wanted to run cross country and figured I should get going on being ready. I was hooked almost immediately. My first summer of running, before being exposed to a team or coach or things like that, I thought I invented long runs, speed work and two-a-days. At least my instincts were right!
I've never logged ridiculously high mileage, but I've never had low years, either. I've lost some documentation twice, but am pretty sure I'm being conservative in claiming to be at 100,000 miles by now, after almost 33 years. In the 1990s I had close to 40,000 miles; now in my late 40s, I'm still at over 3,000 miles a year. Boringly steady is my approach here as in much of the rest of my life. When I tell people I'm claiming 100,000 lifetime miles and they say "wow," I'm sincere when I say, "It's really not that big a deal--just average an hour of running for 30something years." I'm not an anal streaker, but by taking care of my running body I've been able to mostly steer clear of injuries that would cause serious interference with decent daily running.
In terms of times, I was sort of half decently OK in my late 20s, with bests of 30:48 for 10K, 51:01 for 10 miles and 68:40 for the half marathon. Then I started working for Running Times and my running times went to hell, although my mileage stayed good. I've never run a good marathon (2:43 best), but can claim some fantastic differences in pace between the first 20 miles and the last 10K. My main racing goal in 2012 is to break 3:00 for the marathon, but as always, simply enjoying my running on a daily basis will take precedence if there's a conflict.