Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Runner Feature #1 Wayne Plymale

A lot of joggers and runners, when they're not running, often go to running websites to look for training advice. For inspiration and motivation, I notice we would often go to running blogs of real-life runners and read their stories and maybe their training methods. For example, I don't wanna read Patrick Makau's marathon training program, he's way too fast. I would rather read someone a little faster, but closer to my jogging level like Alfred's or Ronnel's blogs. I would assume my readers would read my blog because they wanna follow my training or inspiration. However, my stories aren't always that interesting, and therefore I'd like to share my own real life inspirations for running. I would therefore create Jogger/Runner Features in my blog. Well, I simply copied this concept from Wayne Plymale, http://fcrunner.wordpress.com , so it would be appropriate if he's the one I would feature first. Also, his running career us unlike any other I've known. He has run all over the world for years and has met a lot of runner-bloggers, and jogger-blogger like me.
Wayne with Mike Dasalla, a Filipino from Pleasant Hill in the Oakland area.  He set a PR yesterday of 1:48+

I first read about Wayne in the blog thebullrunner.com and baldrunner.com, during his first visit in the Philippines around 2008. I was just starting to run at the time. Then we became friends in dailymile.com, exchanging motivational comments on each other's workouts and giving advice. So in effect he became like my online coach that I've never met.


Wayne is a really kind hearted runner, who is very wise and very passionate and inspirational when it comes to running. Although he's no longer in his prime, just turned 60 last December 9th, his legs still have the bounce and could often outrun younger newbie runners in all distances. I even remember following him in dailymile, I was trying to increase my mileage to beat his weekly mileage. 2 years ago it was difficult for me to reach 60miles/week (90kms/week) and that was about about Wayne's average. There were occasional weeks that I would beat him, but he's often run more. In fact he was running those miles faster than me. Then when I looked at his PR's from 5K to Marathon when he was in his prime, wow, I could only dream of running that fast. In his 43years of running, he's run 1,030 races and 73,509 miles (118275.981 kms) since he started running in 1968.
Young Wayne Plymale

Wayne's Personal Bests: 
5K: 17:47, 10K: 35:11,  21K: 1:15:55 and 42K: 3:14:46.

Wayne's Statistics:
·  Birthdate- 9 December 1951 in Pensacola, Florida.
·  Height – 6’0”
·  Weight – 140pounds
·  Resting HR – 54bpm
·  Max HR - Maximum HR right now during workouts is 158.  (He used the 220 - age theory).
·  Blood pressure - 104/63


His running longevity is astounding, and he inspires me to keep running, hopefully grow very old running very fast and never stop running till the day I die. I don't know if I could ever match his total mileage and races though. It was a great honor and pleasure when I was able to run with him in November 2010 in RunRio32K(RunUnited), the 1,000th race of his career.
Wayne with ex-i2runner, now JoggerNatz


Anyway, I would like him to write a bit, so here's our Q&A:

How did you get started in running and was there a runner(s) who inspired you along the way?
Natz, I became a runner really by accident.  Growing up, I wanted to either be a basketball and/or a baseball player.  I played both through Junior High (or Middle) School and my first two years in high school.  I got tired in basketball of sitting on the bench when I thought I could be a starter.  In the fall of my junior year, I ran in cross country and in track.  The rest, I guess, is history.  My favorite runners growing up were actually 1500 meters/ milers.  Jim Ryun of the United States and Kip Keino of Kenya were very talented at the time.  Also, Steve Prefontaine really inspired me at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany.  Unfortuantely, his life was tragically cut short.

What is your favorite race(s)?
My favorite races are the Bay To Breakers 12K, Bolder Boulder 10K and the Carlsbad 5000.  Also, I enjoy any race that is put on by Sir Jovie Narcise, Run Rio, and hopefully on my next visit, Jonel Mendoza.   

What is your favorite place to train?
My favorite places to train locally is Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and the Marin Headlands just north in Marin County.  While in the Philippines, I enjoy running the Ayala Triangle and Global City as well as in Cebu City and the nearby mountains.

Favorite running shoes and gear?
Favorite running shoes and gear has changed over the years.  I've become fond again of the Nike Lunar Glide and the Pegasus 28.  The Garmin 205 has done wonders for me, especially for pacing purposes.

Reasons for running?
Running has done a lot to help the stress of our everyday lives.  Also, the family history has my dad's side of the family with heary disease and my mom's side with cancer.

What do you feel about Jogging? Do you also jog?
Personally, I see nothing wrong with jogging and I do it sometimes after an interval or a long workout. However, I still believe all of us run whether we run at the elite level or recreationally.

What do you enjoy when you're not running?
When I'm not running, I love listening to music, travel, photography work, have a blog like yourself and have done some occasional hiking over in the Marin Headlands and have started biking again.

What are your future running goals?

My future running goals is to continue to run as long as I can.  I would like to do another 50K and will attempt to do one this coming July in the San Francisco area.  I haven't run the Chicago Marathon yet and hope to do it in 2013!  Definitely, coming back and running in the Philippines is on my bucket list.

Wayne, thanks for taking time to answer these lengthy questions, anyway I got that from you, and you know that :-)  Good luck with your future running goals like the 50K, the Chicago Marathon, and we're all going to be looking forward to your 3rd coming back to the Philippines!

4 comments:

  1. nice write up, Natz. Wayne from DM! I've never paid much attention to his profile in DM kahit friend ko siya and it's great to know he's this awesome pala. it's amazing how he travels the world to run. Did he frequent the Philippines even before you met him? And nag T2N pa siya! Wah! Too bad I don't remember. I was there 2010 as a support for TPPB. It's great how DM has made the world smaller and smaller. Mike is also a friend of mine, introduced by a colleague. Small world!

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    1. Aileen, wow yes small world indeed! Wayne has been like a father to me in blogging and running. He's been commenting in my old blog a lot, like you, giving me tips in running and motivating me. So maybe someday I'll also feature you too, just keep running and inspire us with your stories as well :-)

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  2. Hi pbandjaddict. A friend of mine - Iah Iaip and Team Ultra were more than gracious enough to make certain that I got through the 50K. It was a day that I'll never forget. In fact, I seemingly got to know many of the near 150+ runners who were there that day. Ultrarunning races are do much different than a local 10K race or track and field. It's a community of runners who really encourage each other! Mike and I met through Dailymile through the number of posts. He heads a group known as RUNaholics. If you and Natz want to join, please let me know and I'll make certain that both of you get added on.

    Natz, thank you so much for this. We've got to know each other well in the 3 1/2 years through blogs, dailymile and facebook. I see a runner who has his best years ahead of him and the marathon proved just that. Team Powerpuff is a great resource and hopefully on my next visit, I'll get a chance to meet everyone with the group. Instead of me teaching, I can continue learning about the great sport of ours. Keep on running my friend and I'll keep reading your blog! I'm glad it's back!

    All the best,
    Wayne

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    1. Hi Wayne, that would be great. But I think you have already met a lot of our team, just not everyone. It's rare that our team is actually complete in a race, normally only in a team race like relays. I hope someday when you come back here again, there would be a team race so you could meet everyone :-) I will be featuring some of my teammates in my blog after you, so stay tuned!

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