By the 1980s my friends and acquaintances knew me as someone who frequently stuffed his face with the three C's -- cigarettes, coffee and chocolate, a diet without which I never imagined I could survive. But my 17-year smoking career came to an end in October, 1986. (Although I was down to 2-1/2 to 3 packs of Camel Lights each day, I had been smoking 4 packs of Lucky Strikes in earlier years. The biggest problem, though, was in waking up every half hour for a cigarette.) The other habits took much longer to kick and, at the beginning of 1993, I found myself 40 pounds overweight with a blood pressure that sometimes shot up as high as 185/135. Finally, by spring, I began eating better and started a regular walk routine. Encouraged by having lost 20 pounds, I started running in August, 1994 and began racing in the spring of 1996.

My best 10K pace to date is 6:18 per mile. Not bad, IMHO, considering that, in high school, I required 20 to 25 minutes to get through 2 miles!

  *Course: 1=virtually flat                A=small crowd
           2                               B=moderate crowd
           3=very hilly                    C=very crowded
           4
           5=extremely difficult