Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Masters Legend Doug Kurtis Running Marathon Number 200

Lots of people (i.e. Marathon Manics) have run 200 marathons, but if you calculated his average finish time, I doubt anybody who has run 200 comes close to Doug Kurtis. Headsweats ambassador and marathon running legend, Doug Kurtis, is getting ready to run his 200th marathon on October 17th at the Detroit Free Press Marathon. Kurtis, 58, was a former director of the marathon

I have a couple of Doug Kurtis stories. Years ago I was on a 17 mile run in Stuart Florida and spotted a runner up ahead as I ran the Hutchinson Island stretch between Stuart Beach and Jensen Beach. I caught the guy and recognized him immediately- turns out his parents had a condo. We had a nice chat about training, etc. Cranking out a sub 2:20 marathon a month as he was doing back in those days, his long workouts were easy 7 min miles. As I recall he normally did one interval session a week but that was a long time ago.

At the 1994 Boston Marathon, I was 40 and looking for a masters PR. We had a tailwind, and I had an exceptional race finishing 2 hr 34, which I felt put me in the hunt for a top 10 finish. I went to the awards ceremony and 10th Masters Men was announced- 2 hr 25! Kurtis won that year in a masters course record of 2:15. I was 19th.

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