Profile - Gary Maxwell

RUNNER'S PROFILE: Gary Maxwell
By Joe Howell

So who is this guy Gary Maxwell? If you’ve gone to the SBAA Tuesday night track workouts within the last couple of years or run any of the longer local races recently in the sub-7 minute per mile range, you are bound to know Gary Maxwell. However, if you want to know what he does for a living or any other personal secrets, don’t bother reading his Profile. He does an excellent job of deflecting attention from himself by devoting most of his Profile to his wife, Ann, daughter Caitlin and son Andrew.

Nite Moves regulars and local triathletes certainly know Gary’s son Andrew, a very promising up and coming triathlete. When they start father-son team endurance sports competition, look out for Team Maxwell; they will be hard to beat!

Basic information
Name: Gary Maxwell
Age: 53

Personal information - basic
Employment: Self Employed. Once my kids could talk, they answered questions about where their dad worked by saying "he talks on the phone and works at the computer." They still answer this question the same way. I like it. It adds an aura of mystery where none really exists … "international commodities trader, government agent, bag man for the mafia – who knows?"
Family: My wife Ann is a special education teacher for Santa Barbara County Schools. She works with children from birth to three years old who are at risk for learning delays. My daughter Caitlin just finished her sophomore year at Dos Pueblos, has a keen interest in world affairs, and attends ballet classes six days a week. Andrew graduated from Dos Pueblos in June and is going to attend the University of Colorado at Boulder. He lives and breaths triathlons -- wonder if that had any influence on his choice of schools? Watching your children blossom is one of the joys of life -- trust me, the good stuff they got from their mother.
Other sports, hobbies, etc.: At one time I was into photography, kayaks, karate, roller hockey and who knows what else. But this running Jones has taken over my life.

Personal information - additional
My friends describe me as .. .I had no idea how my friends would describe me, so I decided to ask some. I quit polling when a disturbing number of the replies came back with "anal" somewhere in the description.
My trademark expression is . . .It isn’t trademarked, but "I think I went out too fast" has to be one of my most frequent expressions. (Of course "going out too fast" is a relative term.)
If money were not a consideration, I would love to be a . . .Philanthropist. With unlimited resources, what could be more fun than picking great places to put them to use? Lotto tickets anyone?
Goals - In the next 5 years, I hope to . . .Still be getting better at the stuff of life. Family, work, friends.
In the next 10 years . . . Same as above, but also watching my kids do the same
Accomplishments – I am really proud of the fact that . . . I find that the things I’m proud of now are more personal, less public. I’m proud of the fact that Ann and I are raising two good kids, I’m also proud that after a disastrous first marathon, I actually prepared to do a second one.

Running highlights
Favorite Distance & PR at same Anything between 10K and a half marathon. But my best time based on age grading was the McConnell’s 10K – 40:52 / 6:35/mile / 74.71%. Yahoo!
Best Race and Why Actually, I think my best race was the 2002 La Cumbre to La Playa. Ran 53:51, which was much faster than I anticipated. Went out too fast (sound familiar?) but managed to hold on during the hills and finished well.
Worst Race and Why Without a doubt my first marathon, the 2002 LA. I read Larry Reynolds account of his race at Boston this year and thought "Larry, you ran my race!" His experience was almost identical to my own, including exactly when things in the race began to go terribly wrong. I thought I had prepared well -- hubris kills.
Average Weekly Mileage (last 12 months) I was running approximately 40 - 45 miles a week until I got real sick right after the Rotary 10K last year. I didn’t start running again till the second week in January, and I use the word "run" loosely. Mike Swan has been guiding me back to fitness, so now I run heart rate and time. Don’t really know what the mileage is. It varies, but the last couple of months have been low heart rate runs totaling 6 - 7 hours and bike of 1 – 2 hours each week. The schedule is interspersed with recovery weeks with a much lower volume of work. This is all early work for my target marathon in October. In the past few weeks, Mike has begun to add some interesting variations with tempo and fartlek work, as well as some challenging changes in the hill work.
Favorite Local Race The Chardonnay 10 miler is my favorite course. It is a beautiful route with enough elevation change to make the racing interesting, without being crushing.
Running Goals (Realistic) for this year I would love to hit 3:15 in October (2002 Twin Cities was 3:25). It is a little early to know if this is truly realistic.
Running Goals (Wildly Optimistic) for this year
Running Goals - (Lifetime)--
Before I die, I hope to . . .How about a 3:05 marathon, or a sub 19:00 5K. Do pigs fly? Actually make my 3:15 goal for the marathon, Run a sub 5:15 State St. Mile, and a 6:50/mile half marathon. What the heck, throw in a 6:12/mile 5K. The best thing about starting to run so late in life is that it is still possible to set lifetime PR's, but the clock is ticking.

Additional running information
Why I Run I began running regularly about four years ago because John Feely twisted my arm and kept twisting if I didn’t show up each morning. I let John twist my arm because I had been thinking about my father's recent quintuple by-pass. Things like that help you to focus. I keep running and racing because it is a challenge, it’s fun and it makes me "happy." The Winter 2001 issue of Forbes ASAP Magazine contains an unusual article about "the pursuit of happiness". If you can find a copy, look up the responses given by Lance Armstrong and an eclectic group of individuals, when asked for their interpretation of happiness. It says a lot about us as a people.
My Local Runner Hero & Why There are lots to choose from locally. But at the top of my list are Jack and Marguerite Bianchi, who along with many of the S.B Tri Club people took Andrew under their wing and encouraged him to test his limits.
Personal Training Tips If what your doing doesn’t seem to be improving your running, maybe you need to change what your doing!
I love runners who... Challenge me to go a little faster than feels comfortable, but not so fast they drop me.
I hate runners who... Go by me breathing so easily I’d swear they were driving.
Suggestions for SBAA Please don’t ever ask me to do this again. I think I would rather run a 5K bare foot over broken glass.

Quote (on running, life, whatever)
I don’t know where my father first heard this, but I’ve always enjoyed hearing him repeat it. "The easiest way to end up with a small fortune is to start with a large one."

Miscellaneous
SBAA Member since 2002. Only since last year. (Way too new to be doing a "Profile.")