I’m a record keeper. Golf scores, flight hours, travel journals, and running records have been dutifully recorded in scores of logbooks kept in my file cabinets. My running activity began the morning after a Christmas cocktail party and a conversation I had with a doctor friend of mine, David Kier, who told me about an interesting exercise program he had discovered, titled “Aerobics” by Ken Cooper. Aerobics is about the Oxygen demand your body requires during exercise. To test your fitness level you simply time yourself walking or running as fast as possible for a mile and a half. A fit individual ought to be able to cover that distance in 11.5 minutes. Continual training in a variety of exercises; running, swimming, bike riding, Tennis, even walking while golfing can be measured by calculating your aerobic points.

My test results the next morning weren’t under 11.5 minutes, but I was close. So not too bad. I immediately began an every-day program of aerobic exercises, logging each day’s time, distance, and type of exercise.

Here’s a confession. I was a smoker, not cigarettes, but a pipe. Still, I was inhaling that pipe smoke so it was no less harmful than cigarettes, I’m sure. Amazingly, my weekly time/distances showed improvement. What if I quit smoking all together. I tried it. And one week later, I was astounded at my performance improvements. Guess what? I never smoked again.

Soon I had increased my jogging distances from 3 to 5 miles and one day did a 10 miler. Wow! That gave me a whole week’s worth of aerobic point requirements. And now my jogging had transitioned into running and an eight-minute pace felt like a 100 yard dash.

This was the early 1970s and 5K and 10K “Fun Runs” had gained popularity. Why not, a 10K (6.2 miles) was well within my capabilities, and a 10K race was being staged that weekend in Columbus, IN, my hometown. Could I run 6.2 miles in under 50 minutes (an 8-minute pace)? Sure, but how would I judge my pace. That day Ray Sears, a 70-year-old runner, featured in Runners World Magazine was running that race. I spotted him before the event and heard him say he ran an 8-minute pace. Ah ha, I’ll just follow Ray.

The gun went off and I was close on the heels of Mr. Sears. So why was I getting so breathless. By 3 miles, Ray was pulling away and I was sucking wind. I finished but at a more moderate pace. After the race I found Sears and asked about the pace he claimed to run. “Oh, eight minutes? Yeah, that’s when I run a 26-mile marathon.” Geeze!

My next race was a Mini-Marathon (13.1 miles)  in Indianapolis. Can you believe it? First a 10K and next a Mini. But I finished. So what is next? A full marathon (26,2) , obviously. And the Boston Marathon was a most prestigious event. In order to legitimately enter the Boston event you must have run a previous marathon that year and completed it in a time determined by your age. I had just turned 40 and my qualifying time for Boston had to be under 3 hours 30 minutes, an 8 minute per mile pace. Could I do it? Hell, yes!

The Huntsville Rocket City Marathon was held I December. Boston was run in April. I was going to Huntsville to qualify for Boston.

It was a perfect day for running in Huntsville; overcast and cool. I had a wristband I wore showing the time I needed at each mile marker for the 8 minute pace. My wife had traveled with me to Huntsville and had water and fruit juice waiting for me at strategic points along the racecourse. The first mile of the race was downhill which gave me a one-minute cushion at every mile marker. Unfortunately, at the 22 mile marker, I missed seeing the sign and thought I had dropped off the pace. But I was wrong and successfully qualified for Boston.

Boston was great. Not a record setting time because of the huge crowd of 8,000 participants, it took me 20 minutes to reach the starting line once the gun was fired. But I loved it.

In the years that followed I ran seven other marathons: Chicago, New York, Detroit,  Louisville, Crawfordsville, Toledo. Toledo was the best at 3:18:39. My ultimate running goal was to beak 40 minutes for a 10K race (a 6 Minutes 27 second per mile pace). On fourteen occasions I was under 41:00 but my best was 40:06 at Greenwood, IN on 4/12/80. Six other times I was under 40:30. I ran over fifty 10K events between 1977 and 1983 but never beat my 40 minute goal. What a disappointment. I did however collect a fair share of trophies and awards. By competing in age groups (40 to 45), I was usually in the top 10 % of that group.

My passion for running had me getting up every morning at 5:30 a.m.; Mon 6-miles, Tues 10-miles, Wed 6-miles, Thur 10-mile, Fri 3-miles, and Saturday 25-miles. I took Sundays off to recover but was running 60 miles each week.

My middle son, Chris, caught my running bug and we frequently ran together. During his spring break of his Junior year, we decided to go to Florida and spend four days running from Sanibel Island on Florida’s west coast to Stuart, Florida on the east coast, a total of 164 miles. We trained hard, running over 100 miles each week to get ready for the run, but it was hot and humid in Florida that week. We made it but really suffered from the heat.

That Florida achievement got some media publicity and that led to talks to service clubs. We were also asked to lead individual torch bearers 20 miles to the start of the Olympic Team Trails in Indianapolis.

My youngest son, Brian, also caught the running bug, but he put us all to shame by running 5,000 miles across the United States in 1998. Having crossed so many states he set a goal to run across all 48 by the time he was 50, but after completing 36, moved to Kuwait and Switzerland where he and his wife taught at private boarding schools. That didn’t slow down his running however and he ran across Switzerland and Italy, just for the fun of it.

Both Chris and Brian ran cross country in highschool and college, and now their older brother, Eric, who used to scoff at runners has now taken up the sport and added a couple mini-marathons to his accomplishments.
I can honestly say, athletes run in my family.