Paul's running home page
This is me finishing the Zoy Run in November 1997. Oh, the textbook form.
If you're here for the links, there are about eight right now, with
more to come at some point.
I know, though, that you're really here to find out obscure
details about my running career. I often lie awake at night, wondering "do
people really want to read about the time that guy spit on me at Danville?
Do they want to know that five thousand people passed me as I sat in a
port-a-pot at Boston?" Nonetheless, all this and more will one day be here.
Welcome to the downside of the information age.
As with most things, this is still growing.
some links:
a brief timeline:
- 1984-1988: I started running cross-country as a freshman at Eastern High
School in Greentown, IN. I ran cross-country and track all four years without
distinction. Bests: 17:27 for 5K cross-country; 10:54 for the 3200 on the track.
- 1988-1992: I went off to college at Wabash and decided to do it
again. In the first week of practice Rob Johnson (1995 Div.III Coach of the
Year!) observed my awkward running form and predicted I wouldn't last a month.
Well, I lasted, and even made the top 7 for about
2 weeks (it was a good team, OK?) in 1990. I left with a best of 26:30 for 5-mile cross country and
34:44 for the 10,000 on the track.
- By the way, don't ever run a 10,000 on the track. Especially if you aren't
very good. Time loses all meaning and you enter this weird vacuum-packed land
where your legs move like cement and you just want to vanish but there's
nowhere to go. The leaders come around and lap you. And again. And again...
- November 1995: I ran my first marathon at Columbus, in 3:09:14,
good enough to qualify for the 100th Boston in April. It was cold.
- April 1996: In Boston I went into a portapot after the starting gun fired but
before I crossed the starting line (they had The Chip, which starts your
time electronicly when you cross the line). Smart, huh? Not really. When
I came out 5000 people had gone by (ie I started in the 11 thousands; now
the 16 thousands were going by) and I spent the rest of the race in a
mob of people going just a little slower than I wanted to. No big tragedy. The big tragedy was the 950-mile solo drive home the next day.
- May 1996: I ran my first ultramarathon, the Ice Age Trail 50 Miler.
It was insanely hot and less than half finished and they were giving out
IVs like they were cookies. I crashed and burned but still came in
under the 12hour limit in 11:29:56.
- Fall 1995-1998: I won the Brookston(IN) Apple
Popcorn Festival 10K three years in a row: 1995, 1996, and 1997.
In 1998 I missed the race to perform my friends Kevin and Jen's
wedding, but I won the
Prophetstown Run just a few miles away two weeks later. In doing
so, I ran my fastest 5 miles in years (28:17) and beat four people
who had beat me the last time I ran against them. Needless to say,
I was pretty happy. Also in 1998 I won the Air Force ROTC 5K; it was
just a little race and all the good people were elsewhere. It was
fun nonetheless.
- December 1996: I ran the Kentucky Marathon, my third, in a
personal best of 3:04:47. I was 11th of 177. Cool.
- April 1997: My second Boston marathon. Again with the driving. The run itself went a little
better, though. I went through 20 miles at 7:01 pace (but already
slowing) before blowing up over the last 10K, which took 54:01. I
ran 3:14:27 officially (3:13:52 net time) to finish 1902nd.
- June 1997: I ran five races in Scotland. For the story, click
here.
- August 1997: my second ultra, the Howl at the Moon 8 Hour,
near Danville, IL. I was hoping to get 50 miles in, since the Ice Age
time is slower than I would like. But I kinda crashed and ended up
with 44.23. Maybe I shoulda kept going until I had 50.
- Winter 1997-1998: I made two attempts at updating or improving
my PR, and both were derailed by bad weather and, perhaps, less-than-
optimal fitness. In December, I ran Kentucky again, this time with 25F
temperatures and a biting headwind the last 12 miles. I missed the
only water stop in the last 6 miles because I was racing to beat the
train. I finished in 3:27:57. So I decided to run Houston 6 weeks
later and got temperatures in the 70s with 95% humidity. Result: a
3:27:19. Oh well.
- April 1998-January 1999: I was back at Boston in 1998, realizing I
should have bought new orthotics long before. Didn't know if my legs
would hold up, and they didn't. I made it in in 3:28:21, but it wasn't
fun. This left me without a qualifying time for the next year. So I
trained fairly hard that fall and was in good shape. I ran a half
marathon in Indianapolis in 1:21:42 and then drove down to Bloomington
to bike the Hilly Hundred - 50 miles that same day, 50 the next. And I
felt pretty good. Maybe I should have run the marathon that day.
Instead, I ran Columbus 3 weeks later with a bad cold. I ran 3:17:48,
missing qualifying again. Then in Houston came the race that made all
the others look good. I had run a 50K three weeks before,
I had the stomach flu, the temperature was in
the 70s and humid, and I felt dead by mile 12. I almost dropped out at
19 miles, I stopped and had a beer at 23 miles (it helped), and I
dragged home in 4:01:29. Thirty percent of the people who started did
not finish. I should have been one of them. I haven't run a marathon
since, though I am planning one for the fall of 2000.
- January 1999-August 2000. Since that last marathon, many things have happened.
I got engaged. I wrote my thesis and finished my Ph.D. I moved to Pennsylvania
and then took a bike trip across Cuba. I worked on a vegetable farm. We moved
again, to Bloomsburg. I started a new job, as an assistant professor at Bloomsburg
University. We moved once more, buying a house in the country across
the Susquehanna River and over Nescopeck Mountain from Bloomsburg. There is much
work to do on the house, but it is hilly and the running is good. I don't
know when the next marathon will be. Right now I'm just working on
being competitive at shorter distances again.
- August 2000-November 2001. Somewhere between carrying a 140 pound
drum sander upstairs, turning my ankle in a hole in Los Angeles, and
slipping on ice while walking my parents' dogs, I did some bad stuff to
my back and hips. I've done the physical therapy, had a shot in my
spine, and I'm on a stretching routine. I'm hoping I'll be back to
running in 2002.
- Jim Elliott is
a local runner with whom I have a rivalry over distances from 5 miles to
the half-marathon. He's a much better marathoner, though. Since I'm really
vain, here are a couple of his race reports in which I appear:
races I've run many many times:
- Greentown Glass Festival 5-mile: 1985-92, 94-96, 98 (12 times)
- Wabash College Alumni Meet: 1988-98 (11 times)
- Shoals Catfish Festival 5K: 1986, 88-91, 93-96, 98 (10 times)
- Indianapolis Mini-Marathon: 1988-90, 92, 94-96, 99 (8 times)
- Purdue Co-Rec 8K: 1992-93, 95-98 (6 times)
- Prophetstown Run: 1990, 93, 96-98 (5 times)
marathons:
- Boston: 1996, 97, 98
- Kentucky: 1996, 97
- Columbus: 1995, 98
- Houston: 1998, 99
ultramarathons:
- Ice Age Trail 50 mile, Wisconsin: 1996
- Lairig Ghru Race, 28 mile, Scotland: 1997
- Howl at the Moon 8hr Run, Illinois: 1997
- Huntington Ultra Frigid Fifty 50K, Indiana: 1998
exciting, huh?