ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 24, 1996 TAG: 9604240016
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-7 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: DUBLIN
SOURCE: ANGIE WATTS STAFF WRITER
All roads in Pulaski County lead to Boston. Well, not exactly - at least not for everyone. But for Pulaski County High School football coach Joel Hicks this was certainly the case.
Hicks used the back roads of Pulaski County to train for the 100th running of the Boston Marathon April 15. It was the seventh marathon for Hicks, having run one in Pittsburgh, four in Cleveland and now two in Boston. And while Hicks said he probably won't run in the Boston Marathon again because of the expense and the long road trip just to get there, the lure of its 100th anniversary was too much to pass up.
Hicks, 54, started running in shorter 5K and 10K races six or seven years ago, and said his interest was piqued from there.
"I just got interested by the other people in Blacksburg who ran marathons," Hicks said. "It was just a progression thing for me - moving up the ladder from shorter races to marathons."
This particular marathon drew more than a few eager participants, with more than 39,000 athletes from around the world converging on Boston. Hicks said it took 850 "ol' big yellow" school buses just to move the athletes from their athletic village in Boston to the starting line. In order to keep track of each runners' individual time, a small computer chip was placed in the shoe of every athlete.
"I knew with 39,000 people it would be tough, but my goal was to run about eight minutes per mile," Hicks said. "With all the people in front of me it took about 10 minutes to get the starting line. Then the first two miles were still slow because of the crowd, but from mile three on I kept a 7:45 pace."
Hicks finished the race in 3 hours and 41 minutes. The winner of the marathon, Moses Tanui from Kenya, took first place in a time of 2:09:16. His time fell two minutes and one second short of the record, set in 1994 by Kenyan Cosmas Ndeti. Ndeti captured third place this year.
"It was a great experience," Hicks said. "I wouldn't trade it for anything. In the 26-mile journey there was a million and a half people watching. There wasn't a spot along the side where they weren't lined up five people deep watching and cheering."
The streets of Pulaski County may not have held cheering spectators, but they can take partial credit for Hicks surpassing his eight minute/mile goal, along with a lot of hard work and determination, of course.
"There's probably not a road in Pulaski County I haven't been on," Hicks said. "Then three of the last four Saturdays before the marathon I went on 23-mile runs from Wythe County to Pulaski County on the New River Trail."
The work paid off.
LENGTH: Medium: 53 linesby CNB