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| Chattanooga 50 |
Tell us a little about yourself not necessarily related to running: age, where born, education, area you live in, etc…..
I was born and grew up in Davenport, IA. Pretty average middle class white kid. Combo nerd/athlete. I was always decent at sports. I did sports from as long as I can remember: gymnastics, basketball, softball, baseball, football, track and field, wrestling, cross country, and powerlifting. For awhile I thought I would be a pro baseball player - a catcher. Truth is I really wasn’t that great at baseball.
I moved around a lot after college, from job to job (because I’m rarely satisfied), including brief stints in Georgia and Oklahoma. Got married and had a daughter, who was born in Macon, Georgia, who is now 23 and has recently taken up running herself! Got divorced, remarried and am currently in Middletown, Ohio (near Cincinnati). My wife Deb is a teacher who bikes and runs and does some triathlons, duathlons, and running races up to the half marathon distance.
What is your profession?
I grew up doing well at math, so I began college (U of Iowa) as a math major, but switched over to chemistry. I then got a Ph.D. in organic chemistry at the U California in Berkeley, and did post-doctoral work for two years in Switzerland. I then taught at a few smaller colleges/universities but never really felt right in the tenure-track environment so jumped into industry at some smaller companies doing things like drug research, radiochemistry, and special projects at a company that makes small snippets of DNA (which they sell to researchers). More recently, since moving to Middletown, Ohio four years ago, I’ve been teaching chemistry as an adjunct professor at the U of Dayton, doing a bit of chemistry consulting, working as a K-12 substitute teacher, coaching high school cross country, personal coaching, doing a podcast, and directing races. I started up and directed the Hawkeye 50K/25K in Iowa back in 2010, which still exists after I handed it off. Truth is though, I’m mainly a house husband at the moment.
How did you start running and what prompted you to do so?
I’ve never not run or been in sports. I’m hyperactive, generally, and was likely a handful as a child. So I guess I was just “born to run,” although in my younger days that was mostly channeled into team sports. Once it became obvious I wasn’t going to be a pro-anything, I started powerlifting in high school after hanging out with my friend Charlie Driscoll, who became world-class at the sport. During my 20’s and 30’s I was engrossed in my studies, work, and my family so mostly stuck to powerlifting, which I could do by just going to the gym a few days a week. About the age of 40 (17 years ago), I took up running for a few reasons, in part because I maxed-out on how good I could be in powerlifting (which was never that good), plus the sport was becoming idiotic to me- long story there. Also my father died at the age of 49 so I was aware that maybe more cardio was needed, and running just sounded like a new adventure, since it had been so long since I had done it. Like many folks, I moved up from shorter road races, to longer ones, to trails races, to longer trail races, and I also enjoy biking and triathlons. I completely had to teach myself to swim about a dozen years ago. I couldn’t do a proper single lap at first.
How long have you been running?
See above. About 17 years now since I took it up as an adult.
Did you run in grade school, High School or College? If so where?
I was never really very good at running. I did it between other sports. I did some track and field and my best races were at the longer distances. The longest was the mile, which I know I did in 5:07 in 9th grade. I wish I had continued to train that so I could say I did a sub-5 minute mile at least once. I only did cross country my senior year of high school. It was only two miles then in Iowa. I was probably an average runner on our team. I don’t remember for sure. I regret somewhat not going to a smaller college, rather than the U of Iowa, and trying out for the baseball team or maybe in cross country. That would have been fun. But I directed most of my college energy into academics.
So we get an idea of where you have been with running can you share your PR’s for: 5K, 10K marathon and any other distance you may have run in the past.
- 5K: Since I took it up again as an adult, 20:00. Yeah I’d like to beat that!
- 10K: Not sure. Low 40’s?
- Half marathon: 1:35-something. Run for the Schools, Iowa City, IA ~2010.
- Marathon: 3:28-something, Indianapolis Monumental Marathon, 2010.
- 50K: Just over 5 hours? I think at the inaugural Earth Day 50K? Around 2013?
- 50 mile: 9:37? Ice Age 50 around 2009?
- 100K: About 14:15? At the inaugural Booneville Backwoods 100K in Iowa. Maybe 2014-ish?
- 100 mile: 25:15-ish at Tunnel Hill in 2018.
- Iron-distance triathlon: About 13:30 at the Redman Triathlon in Oklahoma around 2013-ish?
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| Thrill in the Hills 50K Relay |
The personal coaching I do is mostly for fun, because I can talk and think about running endlessly. I have just a few clients at any one time. I’m probably the very cheapest coach you can find in the States. I’m flabbergasted at folks charging hundreds of dollars per month, but that’s fairly common. I don’t claim to have all of the answers with my clients but try to gently get them to focus on a few straightforward goals to simplify their training, to take the stress out of training. I try to work with what they can do, and what they like to do. It’s really interesting how individual every individual actually is.
What is your most memorable race or races and share a little about at least one of them?
I have a number of them. So many are memorable.
That 5:07 mile in 9th grade is the first one. Interestingly I was the #2 miler at our school. This race was the city championships. On the last lap I surprisingly found myself in the lead, with our #1 guy just behind me. At the last moment I let up and let him pass, so he got first and I got second. I felt like he would be let down to lose and didn’t want that. I know this may sound like some kind of humble brag, but it bugs me to this day. It told me that I’m not really the fighter type of athlete. I’m still not. I wish I were, but the truth is I like to participate more than I like to fight for the win (not that that’s a consideration now).
In more recent years, the Detroit Marathon in 2008 where I barely qualified for Boston was fantastic. I had tried hard for many races to qualify. The Boston Marathon in 2009 was amazing. Runners are treated like royalty all weekend. I loved it. The race was great and I ran really well.
My 9:37-ish at the Ice Age 50 was great. I know that’s just an average time, but I have never approached that speed again. I’ve never finished a 50 miler under 11 hours besides that one. That was also 2009, I think. The years from 2008-2010 were my magic years where I had enough miles in my legs to feel strong, and no nagging injuries yet.
The 13:30-ish iron distance triathlon was really cool. (I say “iron distance” because it’s the same distance as an Ironman, but that’s a trademarked name and this was not put on by the Ironman corporation.) That’s not a good time either in comparison to others, but just a few years before I couldn’t swim nor had ridden a bike more than a few miles for about 30 years.
My first 100 mile completion, in 31:06 at Mohican was quite memorable. Very painfully memorable. You get 32 hours there, thankfully. I had all kinds of problems but managed to get through it. Finishing the Indiana 100 in one of their ridiculous rain/mud years was memorable just because it was so so hard to fight through it. Finishing the UROC 100K last year was memorable. I was nearly dead last, just beating the 19:30 cutoff. But it was really really hard. Lots of folks dropped.
Finally, just a week ago I ran a 50K relay with my daughter down near Atlanta (Thrill in the Hills 50K). She took up running a couple of years ago and is doing great. What a dream come true, to run with her!
Besides this, so many races bring happy thoughts because of what I experienced and because of the athletes I’ve met. I can’t think of a single race I didn’t enjoy. Also just running by myself or with others in training has been fun.
Do you have a favorite workout you do?
No, because I love everything. Seriously. Any workout is fun, slow and long or short and speedy (although in the past few years a chronic and tiny niggle in the knee has prevented me from doing much sprinting). I like cycling, and I still lift weights 3x per week just because I like it. I always do at least a couple of short swims every week.
How about a favorite route you like to run?
Honestly not really. It’s all good. I’m always happy running. I’ve only been an endurance runner in Iowa and Ohio so it’s not like I’ve got some amazing mountain trails to train on, but I enjoy what I do have.
What is your favorite distance to run and race? I think 50K to 50 miles on trails suits me best now as far as total enjoyment goes. What’s nice is that I can run those races, feel like I really did something tough, yet still get to bed that evening. (Half iron distance triathlons fit this category too.) None of the overnight stuff I need for 100 miles, and 50K-50 miles means a few days of medium-pain, not the mind-bending pain I have after 100 miles. Having said all this, I love every distance from 5K to 100 miles, as well as triathlons, bike races, and cyclocross. Oh, I think I forgot cyclocross. I do a few cyclocross races in the fall. It’s a blast!
What shoes do you run in and what do you like about them?
Oh boy! This is embarrassing but I have like 40 pairs of shoes in my efforts to try to figure this out. I have wide stupidly-shaped feet so there’s that. What I have worn has evolved over the years. I do like some cushioning. I have tried about six different Altras and have run up to 100 miles in the Olympus but am transitioning away from them now. The no-drop just doesn’t suit me. I like Hoka but, as everyone knows, they are too narrow. Still I’ve done 100 milers in those (Challenger) and have not given up on those completely yet. I wear the Speedgoats too. For both the Challenger and Speedgoats I have to buy very oversized so they are wide enough. More recently I’ve enjoyed running in Skechers for both road and trail. They are wide enough, with some drop and good cushioning. I’ve got two different road versions and two different trail versions of those I like. Finally I like the Topo Terraventures (also wide, with some drop) for shorter trail races and just got the new Topo Ultraventures and did my first race in those recently. Pretty good.
Do you have any long-range plans?
Not specifically. I just like to do new races that are interesting. I don’t repeat races much. I often use races as reasons to visit an area. One thing I would like to do that I haven’t yet are some solo-adventuring, either hiking or biking or a combination of the two. I think getting into fast-packing would be fun.What do you like best about living and running where you live?
There are a lot of races and lots of athletes. Ohio is highly populated, so there are lots of runners and running clubs and race directors. Same for triathlon. Some races are very inexpensive. A local club (ORRRC) puts on races that we can run for free if we join. There are some decent parks to run in as well. I’m also well situated to travel to a number of great running destinations in nearby states like KY, TN, WV, NC, PA, VA.
Anywhere else you would like to visit to run?
I would really like to do a race in Switzerland or near there. Unfortunately when I lived in Switzerland I was too dedicated to my research and wasn’t yet into trail running. It kinda kills me when I realize what I could have been doing. Same goes for the five years I lived in California. Beyond Switzerland, I just read about so many cool races I’d love to do from Iceland to Comrades in S. Africa and beyond.
Do you have any bucket list races?
Not exactly. Just a long list of races that sound fantastic.
What do you struggle with most with regards to running?
Hmmm… I suppose mostly aging, and the chronic aches and pains that accompany that. Getting slower isn’t great either. But I can’t complain. I’m still moving. Social media can be annoying, in that it’s full of misinformation, athletes who want to put others down, and so-called experts know-it-alls who substitute opinion and bias for actual knowledge. But like many, I’m still addicted to it and fall prey to being that same annoying person I just complained about.
What do you see as a trend in running?
One thing is people who go from Couch to 100 miles (or similar) very quickly, skipping so many intermediate steps. It seems crazy to me, but many do it successfully. I imagine this is due to social media and people highlighting *epic* races and the feeling of checking off an accomplishment. This is not necessarily bad but just perplexes me some. Women kicking butt is certainly a great trend. And of course longer and out-of-the-box races and anything Laz does being copied by others. I’ll be against the tide on this one, but I think there is a lot of over-focusing on nutrition, leading to goofy diet wars. Everyone’s a nutritional expert these days. Footware has graduated to the point where neither barefoot running or max cushioning is the fad right now, so it’ll be interesting to see if some new shoe fashion pops up soon. Politically I’m curious to see if more endurance athletes will mix their sport with poliitcal issues. E.g., Claire Gallagher, Stephanie Case and Avery Collins. I applaud their kinds of activism. Oh, and there are too many podcasts. Ha ha.
If you had one, well maybe two or three, things to say those that are running to encourage them what would it be?
- Take your time. Enjoy the shorter races leading up to longer ones. What’s the rush? Don’t let the accomplishments of others decide for you what to do.
- It’s cliche, but listen to YOUR body and create a training lifestyle that fits YOU. It’s good to learn about what everyone else is doing, and to try new things sometimes, but in the end it’s likely no one is going to train just like you do. And over the years your training will change. Do workouts you enjoy, that give you real satisfaction. And slow down or STOP when you feel little injuries coming on, or you’ll end up with a big one.
- Make your own nutritional rules. You know what’s healthy and what’s not. For example, I don’t eat breakfast (unless I have a race or very long workout in the morning). That’s a big no-no, according to the experts. It works for me though.
- Try not to let social media get to you. Don’t compete with their Instagram pictures. You can’t win that game. (I confess I fight with this myself.)
Website is RunSmith.net, on Twitter I’m @RunSmithE, on Instagram timcsmith1961. On FB join RunSmith Enterprises. I don’t post a whole lot there, but I announce new podcasts episodes. Add me as a friend on FB. Search Tim C Smith. Finally, I’m on Strava too.
Any closing comments?
Nah. I blabbered on enough.
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