Team Member Bio: Rich Marion

Rich Marion


Primary sport(s):   
Track, road,  cross country

HS/College:  
NRHS (Narragansett Regional High School) - Templeton, MA.  /  College - Western New England College - Springfield, MA.

CMS MORT/Masters Racing Team member since:  
1981-1997, 2008-present

City/state of residence: 
Templeton, MA

Occupation: 
Financial Analyst

Goals for 2010:  
To get healthy - it's been awhile.  Beyond that, to gradually get back into the racing scene and possibly set some age group records.

Notable achievements/memories/PR’s in your sport: 
Undefeated in Cross-Country competition (1977-1979), 10K age-group record at age 16 (31:45) - broken many times by much faster runners since those dark ages.  1st Vermont finisher at Boston in 1988.  National champion in the 1500m and 3000m at the National Masters Track & Field Championships in Columbus, OH (1992), National Meet record in the 3000m in that same race (later broken by Craig Fram).  3rd New England Finisher at US World Cross-Country Trials behind Gary Giffen and Eric Morse in Tennessee (1994).  Led field of 6000+ runners in the 1995 Philadelphia Distance Classic through the first mile in 4:31 (what was I thinking)?  The race was won in 1:00:55 in a downpour (I faded to 48th overall).

PR's:
800m - 1:57.5  ; 1500m - 3:53.35; 1200m - 3:01 (relay); road mile - 4:03 (Downhill); 5 miles - 23:53 ; 30K - 1:41:49 (Stu's)

List one thing others may not know about you: 
I play a mean saxophone (I'm no Clarence Clemons by I can hold my own).

Your favorite workout:  
When I was training hard, many eons ago my favorite workout was simply running negative splits (i.e. 6:30, 6:20, 6:10, 6:00, 5:50, 5:40, 5:30, 5:20, 5:10, 5:00)  - 57:30 never felt so hard.

Your favorite race(s) and why?  
Stu's 30K - it's long enough to test your strength but not so long where you can't get away with running less than 40 miles per week and still run well.  Any cross-country race - it has a way of telling you you're not as conditioned as you thought you were.

Website/Blog Address:
masterstrack.com, coolrunning.com, nerunner.com