When did you begin running and why? I grew up with the sport, as the son of a prominent track & field journalist, statistician, and official. But only after failing at virtually all “ball sports,” I started running seriously in the summer of 1970, before 8th grade. It gave me something to do, got me out of the house, and I found I enjoyed it. The best advice my father gave me was to run on grass to start — so I wove a quarter-mile path around the ball fields at Hillview School in New Providence, NJ. All young runners should follow this advice when they start out.
How did you find out about DCRRC and when did you join?:
After an early-adulthood hiatus from competitive running, I started seriously again in early 1992. I heard about DCRRC races through the old listings in the Washington Post about a year later, and ran my first one in the winter of 1993. By that fall, I qualified for Boston. The following summer, I took over as coach of the club’s mid-week track workouts.
What are you training for right now?:
Cautiously for a 10K this fall, and for a half-marathon in spring 2024, in Jersey City, where I was born.
What is the toughest run or race in which you have participated?:
Two: my first marathon, Penn Relays 1976, run in 90-degree heat, where only about 25 percent of the field finished. And my last, also in Philadelphia, 2000, where I swore to myself at Mile 18 that if I broke 3 hours, I would never do this agin. I have kept the promise!
What is the most important lesson running has taught you?:
Apart from being a participant in the most universal of all athletic pursuits, running is about overcoming — not feeding — the “ego-self,” to transcend the limits that ego imposes through discipline, perseverance, and good humor regarding setbacks and losses. Those are lessons, as slow and limited as my running now is, that I am still learning.
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