Fayetteville, AR
DOB: Apr 19, 1950 [a Boston Marathon day]
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I began running while in the
the USN in Coronado, CA in 1973. I used to play a lot of volleyball and basketball in those days, but at some point after many “turned ankles” and a busted out front tooth from an elbow, I turned to running, first in the sand to strengthen my ankles, and from there I was hooked.
I didn’t log any of the miles the first years, I only began logging in 1976 after I ran my first marathon, The Heart of America Marathon, in Columbia, Missouri. I was in school at this time at the University of Missouri at Columbia, and had hooked up with the Columbia Track Club, which was very active at that time with races every couple of weeks. I ended up running that first marathon in 2:52 on about 8m per day training, no long runs. Eventually, I took 2nd in that race in 77 and then won it in 78. I won a few marathons in Tulsa, Springfield, and in Fayetteville over the years.
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| "In my prime, about 135 lbs." |
I didn’t log any of the miles the first years, I only began logging in 1976 after I ran my first marathon, The Heart of America Marathon, in Columbia, Missouri. I was in school at this time at the University of Missouri at Columbia, and had hooked up with the Columbia Track Club, which was very active at that time with races every couple of weeks. I ended up running that first marathon in 2:52 on about 8m per day training, no long runs. Eventually, I took 2nd in that race in 77 and then won it in 78. I won a few marathons in Tulsa, Springfield, and in Fayetteville over the years.
During my stint in Columbia my mileage averaged about 70 mile per week, but when I moved down from Columbia to Springfield, Missouri I really got introduced to high mileage. There was a guy at SMSU named Dan Dwyer that really got me into 100 mile weeks, and from that point I improved quite a bit.
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| More recent, 180 lbs. |
I moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas in 1979 and for about seven years, I averaged from 80 to 110 per week and was locally competitive with PR’s of 2:25 in the NYC marathon in 81, good for 106th place, and fairly modest times at shorter distances. Living in Fayetteville in the heyday of all the University of Arkansas great XC and track teams made it real easy to maintain interest.
Once I reached the end of PR’s, I eventually lowered my weekly average to 50-70 per week through about 1997. For the past twenty or so years, I probably average 30 to 40 miles per week, and never race. I reached 100,000 in 2014 and the guys at work actually had a fun run and party (newspaper even showed up) where the 3rd mile was my 100,000th. As of March 31st of this year I am at 107,630 miles. I only run about three days a week, but spend quite a lot of time cycling, and in the summers swimming and aqua jogging.
I just turned 68 on April 19th and am living a nice retired life in Fayetteville. It’s funny, I looked forward all those years of running before and after work to the day I would retire and have all this free time to run (in the daylight). But, my body just doesn’t work that well these days. I have a bulging disc and a nerve impingement that causes my left calf to seize up at about 35 minutes of running, so I bike.
I'm currently averaging about 20 miles a week of running.