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TODDS ROAD
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Matt Rogers - September 21, 2006 photo from preventarthritis.org
From: Matt Rogers Subject: Todds Road Days - update Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2006
I was looking for a race to run when I visit KY for my 25 year HS reunion at Shelby County and “stumbled” (pun intended) across the TRS website. I will be home the weekend of October 28 but was planning to race at Bernheim Forest. If I change my mind I will try to get to the TRS reunion.
The old newsletters brought back some great memories, especially the articles about Dave Schaufus and Dennis Haddad/Mike Raftery. I ran XC and track at EKU as a walk-on when Dave was our graduate assistant coach, and after graduation moved to Lexington to be a running bum prior to graduate school. I was a regular hanger-outer at John’s Running Shop and even worked part time there for a while. I jumped right into the TRS “offshoot” that met at John’s on Saturdays and Sundays. I still can’t believe I was able to hang with those guys (for most of the run anyway) as untalented as I was then and as slow as I am today at age 43. I also look at some of those old race results and realize how fast the 40 – 45 age group guys were back then; much faster than I can handle today. Because I was hooking up with that group, I never managed to get out to the club house and sign the roster during those 1980’s golden age days. I won’t say who, but the one Saturday I was planning to head out there someone left without me (but Dennis knows who he is) Okay, so I was a little bit late and may have violated the long standing 5 minute rule. I did eventually get out there after moving back to Lexington from Arizona around 1992, got the TRS tank top and finally assuaged my guilt for having raced in a TRS singlet as an unofficial member. That old singlet doesn’t actually fit anymore; it looks like it was made for a grade schooler when I put it on now.
Update: I left Lexington again in 1998 to take a rehabilitation job at a hospital south of Savannah, Georgia. In June of 2005 I was fortunate enough to get a great job back in the research field, where I had intended to be all along. I now live in Holiday, Florida and work in Clearwater at The Arthritis Research Institute of America (www.preventarthritis.org) conducting clinical trials of the effects of exercise on people with osteoarthritis. Eventually I plan to conduct a study on the effects of long term running on osteoarthritis. I have finally gotten back to working on my PhD – the reason I moved to Arizona – and will be able to keep working at ARIA while I pursue that goal. So it seems an old Stumbler can learn new tricks. Running wise, I finally finished a marathon in 2004 (John can now stop ribbing me about dropping out of the 1990 Columbus Marathon), suffered a pelvic injury and had to take some time off. I am now running around 40 – 65 miles most weeks and very gradually getting back into some semblance of racing fitness. TRS members are welcome to drop me a line at mrogers@*take this out*preventarthritis.org if they plan to be in the Tampa Bay area.
Take care, Matt Rogers
Matt Rogers, MS, CSCS Director of Exercise Physiology The Arthritis Research Institute of America Clearwater, FL 33755 |
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Mark Nenow - April 1, 2006 photo from sportinggoodsbusiness.com
Mark Nenow is unquestionably the most accomplished runner among the Todds Road Stumblers, once holding both the American and the World records in the 10K. Mark ran many races while wearing a Todds Road Stumblers racing singlet. He liked to train alone and his training consisted of long, steady, hard training runs over the rolling hills around Lexington. He would do 140 miles a week, running twice a day, and would take 4 to 6 weeks off each year with no running.
Mark ran for the University of Kentucky, winning SEC conference titles, but his performance peaked after graduation. After graduating from UK Mark was ranked in the top 5 in the U.S. for the 10K for the years of 1981 thru 1989. He was ranked as the number one American 10,000 meter runner in 1986, 1987 and 1989. Mark smashed the world road 10K record in 1984 with a 27:22 at the Crescent City Classic in New Orleans. That time held as the world's best for 10 years and was still the American road best until 2002. Mark set the American track 10K record in Brussels in 1986 with a time of 27:20:56, breaking Alberto Salazar record. Mark's American track record stood for 15 years and was finally broken by a naturalized citizen, Meb Keflezighi, in a time of 27:13:98 in May of 2001. Mark won the Bluegrass 10K in 1983 with a time of 29:14, a record that still holds today.
Mark never acted like he was better than others. He thought of himself as a regular guy and would talk to anyone about running and would give you no clue that he was a world class runner. A few months before he would be participating in the 1984 Olympic Trials, Mark even pitched in to help with the annual roadside cleanup. Several of our old Milemarker newsletters have articles about Mark, check out issues #2, #4, and #7.
Mark has had a very successful career as an executive at Asics and Nike, and just recently joined Brooks. Several people have been asking about Mark and we thought we would see if we could find him and get an update on what he's been doing. Turns out Mark lives in beautiful Portland, Oregon and was nice enough to send an email with an update:
From:
Marcus Nenow Thank
you for the nice note and update. I hear about TRS
occasionally through the shoe business grape vine. I also have
referenced TRS hundreds of times in my job working on product at
asics, Nike and Brooks over the years. The heart of the
running boom lies in all the great clubs around the country, TRS
being one of the best! I
looked back at old issues on the site recently. I even
forwarded the link to a few folks like Dennis Haddad (he works for
Nike in Korea). It's always fun to look back. I
don't have a [TRS] shirt any longer but I do still have a singlet
(boxed away with keep sakes somewhere). I haven't been to
Lexington forever but one of these days....... My
running is just right with slow one hour runs several times (3 to 6)
a week. I have gotten into outdoor climbing and mountaineering
over the last few years and really enjoy that too. I
finally got married a few years ago (there's hope for anyone Becky
R. would probably say) to an awesome person and partner (Cheryl) and
we have a 20 month old son (Jacob Marcus) that we can't get enough
of. I
also changed jobs recently and have attached the press release that
Brooks sent out.
[click here for the press
release] Hello
to everyone in the club and I hope they're running happy and
healthy! Regards, Mark Nenow
Mark Nenow winning the BG10K in 1983 |
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Ron Lovan - February 4, 2006 photo from nkwater.org
I was a UK Engineering graduate and in the consulting business with Kennoy Engineers while in Lexington. My first run at TR was on Feb.20, 1982 when I ran 10 miles for the first time with Bill Alley ( this comes from old running logs that I kept ). I finally got my girlfriend, Susan (who I eventually married), out of bed on Sat. morning Sept. 25, 1982 to run her first 6 miles at TR with Jan Collins. They both got their T-shirts on that morning. We spent a lot of Sat. mornings for the next several years at TR with our friends Don & Jan Collins, Dan Wells, Dan Jordan, Bill Sanborn and others. Most of us had met at Sin The's health club on Richmond Road. I made my 500 miles on Sat. Sept. 29, 1984. In the spring of 1986 we moved to Denver Colorado, where I was general manager of a water/wastewater utility. On September 5, 1987, we returned for a Sat. visit with our newborn son, Austin, and he received his "strollers shirt" (got this from the website and old newsletters). We moved back to Kentucky in 2001 and I am now President of the Northern Kentucky Water District. I am not running outdoors as much now, but do a treadmill reading the newspaper 5 days a week. We live in Union, Boone County, Kentucky just south of the Cincinnati airport. Susan and I have two sons, Austin(18) and Charlie(16). Those were wonderful times back then at TR. Say hello to everyone and we will have to come down and visit one of these Sat. mornings. Regards, Ron Lovan, P.E President/CEO Northern Kentucky Water District Cold Spring, Kentucky 41076 Email:rlovan@*take this out*nkywater.org |
