 | Kevin Beck Age: 39 Location: Dover, NH |
Kevin has been with CMS for almost eleven years. At Concord (N.H.) High School, he ran 9:43.3 for 3200 meters and finished in the top three in three different state championship meets in track and cross-country, and ran 15:57 for 5K on the roads. He competed sparingly in college after becoming serious about academics and launching an impressive drinking career (pursuits which, oddly enough, seemed to complement one another) and recorded track bests of 8:55.2 for 3,000 meters, 15:51 for 5,000 meters, and 32:56 for 10,000 meters.
Returning to serious running as a grad student, Kevin ran his first marathon in 1994 in Atlanta, placing seventh in 2:39:37. He eventually pared his time down to 2:24:17 (BAA Marathon, 2001). He has completed thirteen marathons, winning once and placing second three times. He was second in the USATF 50K Road Championship in Peachtree City, Georgia in 2004, his best year overall. His other personal bests include 14:58.2 for 5,000 meters (track), 15:16 for 5K, 51:32 for 10 miles, and 1:08:22 for the half-marathon, all at age 34. In 2002, he averaged over 100 miles a week for the year. He may hold the N.H. state record for the costumed-with-canine 5K (17:18 at the 1999 Jingle Bell Run for Arthritis 5K).
Outside of the competitive milieu, Kevin has been a senior writer for Running Times Magazine since 1999, and has also written for Marathon & Beyond, Triathlete, Men's Fitness, and a slew of other eminently forgettable rags. He was the editor of the CMS newsletter from early 1998 to early 2000, is the editor of the training book Run Strong, and expects to begin work on another running book--this time as a writer rather than as an editor--in early 2009.
He has been as inert as he has been itinerant for the past three years, with his only remotely serious wire-to-wire effort in that span being the Groton 10K in April 2007 (33:38). Having moved back to New England for good, Kevin, despite being officially musty (39 as of last week) and even surlier, more cynical, more shiftless, and more catastrophically misanthropic than before, hopes that the company and influence of his old running friends will revitalize his competitive spirit or at least force him to run enough to pare the disgusting roll of fat that has recently sprouted around his abdomen.
so funny!
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