I ran track and cross country for DeVilbiss High School in Toledo from 1986 to 1989, and at Bowling Green State University from 1989 to 1992. (Neither school is still open.)
I continue to run with varying degrees of success. My personal records:
| Distance | Time | Site & Date |
|---|---|---|
| 1600 meters | 4:56 | 1989 dual meet at Bowsher |
| 3200 meters | 10:23 | 1989 Spartan Metro Meet |
| 5km cross country | 17:31 | 1988 City League Championship |
| Distance | Time | Site & Date |
|---|---|---|
| 3000 meters | need to look it up | |
| 5000 meters | 16:43 | 1991 indoor meet at Eastern Michigan |
| 10,000 meters | 35:11 | 1990 Hillsdale Relays |
| 8km cross country | 27:37 | 1991 dual meet at Univ. of Toledo |
| 10km cross country | 35:30 | 1991 dual meet at Miami Univ. |
| Distance | Time | Site & Date |
|---|---|---|
| 3 miles road | 17:36 | 2004 Cherry Festival |
| 5km road | 18:20 | 2002 BGSU Homecoming 5k |
| 4 miles road | 25:20 | 2003 Pemberville 5-Miler split |
| 5 miles road | 31:30 | 2003 Pemberville 5-Miler |
| Half-Marathon | 1:29:24 | 2003 Churchill's Half-Marathon |
| Marathon | 3:09:05 |
2002 |
2. Watching my high school teammates win the 1987 Ohio High School championship with a come-from-behind victory in the 4x400 relay. After two of our regional champs (and state favorites) blew it in the Friday semifinals, Saturday's (Toledo) Blade headline read "DeVilbiss Loses Chance at State Title". In Saturday's finals, we beat the odds by winning two events and plus a third in another, and then the 4x400 put us over the top.
3. Watching Mike McClain, my teammate and best friend, win the 1989 Ohio discus championship. On his final throw he added several feet to his PR and went from sixth to first.
4. I only saw it on NBC's late-night tape delay, but the 1991 World Championship long jump duel between Mike Powell and Carl Lewis must be the greatest showdown of the last 40 years -- or maybe ever.
5. The 1988 Ohio 4x400 relay finals. Shaker Heights had a team capable of running 3:16; there were no stars on that relay as all were equally good. Dayton Dunbar had three average guys and Chris Nelloms. Nelloms, just a sophomore, had already won the 100, 200 and 400 on an unusually hot day, so there wasn't a lot left in the tank. Nelloms got the baton 50 meters behind Shaker's anchor man and proceeded to make up 49 meters before he ran out of track. The Columbus Dispatch reported his split at 44.8.
6. Watching the son of a teaching and coaching colleague win the 1995 Ohio high jump championship on his final attempt at 6' 10".
7. Being asked to write for Trackshark by Tom Borish.
Others to mention and sort out are the 1992 Olympic Trials marathon, the 1995 (final) Cleveland Knights of Columbus indoor meet, the 2002 NCAA cross country championships, the 2003 NCAA MidEast regional, teammate Todd Black out-kicking future Olympian Paul McMullen, any of the Gebreselassie v Tergat duels, Khalid Kannouchi's first World Record where he hawked down Moses Tanui in Chicago, meeting and chatting with Kevin Sullivan at the Owens Classic . . .
2. The day I was listed on the travel squad to the 1991 Ohio Intercollegiate Cross Country Championships. I was the 29th and last guy on the team my freshman year, but by my junior year I went as high as 11th. I made it with the greatest race of my life -- a 35:30 on a very hilly cross country course.
3. Turning the final corner in the 2002 Columbus Marathon and knowing I was going to qualify for the Boston Marathon. A year earlier I couldn't go 8 miles without stopping.
4. The first, last, and only time my points were important to my high school team. (If I could score, we didn't ever need the points; if we needed the points, the meet was too competitive for me to have any chance of scoring.) It was at the 1989 Spartan Metro Meet -- I heard the scores over the PA, added in the 200m results I just saw, and knew that the team pushing us had a lock on 2nd in the 3200m, all of which meant I had to take 5th to keep it tied going into the mile relay. I was in fifth with two laps to go and the guy on my shoulder was just relentless. I didn't want it to come down to the last 100 meters, but you don't always get a choice in these things. I heard only one voice from the bleachers -- my father yelling "Kick!" In my head Hayton's "Pick up your knees, pump your arms, relax and DRIVE" mantra got me to the line in fifth and I was the hero -- for five minutes. Then the pole vault results (which I hadn't counted on) came in and we lost.
5. My junior year in college we had a new walk-on one day named Doug Patterson. He was just a guy to everyone else, but I remembered him -- in high school he ran at St. Francis and was city champion my senior year. I introduced myself to him but he didn't remember me and gave me a funny "you must suck" look when I said I had run at DeVilbiss. I told him to run with me that day since surely he could keep up. I pounded the living daylights out of him in that workout and he never came back.
6. Turning pro! I won $25 in a road race last year, with a time I hadn't bettered since a few months into the Clinton administration.