Tim is our Ridge Runner of the Month for April 2009.
Tim is from Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He and his wife Jeni moved to the area about 25 years ago. Tim made the move to take a job with the Carnation Company, which was purchased by Nestle at about the same time. Tim still works for them now.
Tim started running at the age of 8, delivering newspapers in the evenings. He continued doing this until age 17. Instead of riding a bicycle, Tim ran to make his deliveries, 4 miles every night 6 days a week. He had 90 customers and his goal was to deliver 2 papers a minute. Although his school had one of the top teams in their area, Tim never ran Cross Country, though he always wondered what he would have been able to achieve.
Tim found the Ridge Runners at the track at APU. He had been doing some speed workouts on his own on Tuesday nights and met Leon and Bert. They started talking and someone mentioned the other club runs. Wednesday sounded interesting and he decided to come out to see us. He ran with Ken, Linda, Wendy and Paul. He thought they probably wouldn’t be too fast and a relaxed run would be good. The speed surprised him as he remembers running at 8:30 – 8:45, then 8:00 and suddenly found himself at around 7:30, he was impressed! He decided to run with the club whenever his schedule allowed.
At this time Tim doesn’t really have a favorite club run, though he has enjoyed running the Ridge with the club members a few times.
Tim didn’t run from age 28 to age 48. His first 5K was a first year event in Chino. He ran at a 7:38 pace and surprised himself as he had been running around 8 minute miles in training. The race got him excited about running. He has participated in the Malibu triathlon for the last two years. He particularly enjoys the four miles along the ocean. He has run the San Diego Marathon, Redlands, Disney and most recently the Pasadena Half Marathons, a couple of 10k’s and about a half dozen 5K’s in the last 3 years.
Tim tries to stay away from rituals and routines; he doesn’t want anything to play on his mind if he can’t follow a ritual on race day and it becomes a reason for not running well. His best friend was a baseball player and he would say that when some guys got on a winning streak they wouldn’t change their jock strap until the streak was broken. Yuk!! He says, “I’ve fought against rituals ever since!”
Like many runners, he enjoys a pasta dinner the night before a race.
He enjoys watching the end of the season basketball games, and finds college football exciting because every game means something. Baseball tends to send him to sleep, but he loves to play table tennis.
Tim’s dream vacation would be to somewhere “like” Hawaii, but less crowded. He wants a small hut on a beach surrounded by trees, with not many people, mostly locals. He would take a long run along the beach with Jeni, swim in the warm water and then take a nap.
If Tim could have lunch with anyone living or dead he would choose Jesus Christ. He says that whether you believe in Him or not there is no denying the huge impact He had on the world in such a short time. That would be someone worth meeting.
He remembers the club members for different reasons, some of us for our unexpected speed, and Ken for his encouragement to try to achieve a 3:30 marathon, Tim is still not sure this will be possible. He thinks of Leon because, at just a year older, he smokes up the track every week and Bert because at nine years older he gives him something to aspire to in the future.
Tim’s wife Jeni is a runner and recently ran in her first race a 5k in Pasadena where she ran about an 8:20 mile. In addition he recently got her hooked on using the Garmin. Now she’s always watching her pace and trying to improve on it. She runs about an hour a day at Bonelli, usually in the morning. She's his best friend and supports and inspires him! They have two daughters Kaitlyn and Carly: both were cross country runners with Glendora High School and he can credit them and the Glendora Cross Country team with getting him running again, what a fantastic group of kids both boys and girls. Summer trips to Mammoth with GHS to run are great! And as a final plug for running and high school sports, Glendora Cross Country with Coach Sumners is by far the best sport in high school. Having had his daughters play many sports, track and field, softball, soccer (club as well), and basketball, cross country was the only sport where everyone was welcome. Also varsity was always dictated by the seven fastest times from the previous race. If you want to run varsity, run faster! “We all naturally cheer on the fastest and the best but with running we cheer on everyone because one day any one of us could be at our best and set a personal record and,” says Tim, “that's worth cheering for.”