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		Running Boom
		On September 10, 1972, Frank Shorter won the gold medal in the Olympic Marathon. This created the first national "Running Boom". Running continues to grow at a rapid pace. Participation in American road races has increased from 4 million entries in 1976 to 8 million entries in 1996. Large and small road races continue to pop up all over the country. Another contributor to the "Running Boom" was Steve Prefontaine, who is considered one of the best distance runners of all time. Prefontaine died in a tragic car accident in May of 1975 at the age of 24. Pictured to the left is a photograph of Steve Prefontaine along with one of his famous quotes.
Throughout the 20th Century American distance runners increased greatly. However, the past few years has shown a decrease in the number of elite distance runners in the United States. There is an increasing number of distance runners in other countries that have been adding a great deal of competition in American road racing events.

My Running History
Throughout my life, running has been my favorite sport. I began running at the age of 12 with the Dam to Dam 5 Kilometer road race. I competed in several road races before starting cross-country and track at Ankeny High School. In cross-country, our team placed third at state in both 2000 and 2001. In track, I ran in the 1600 meter and 4x800 meter relay at the Drake Relays in 2001. I also competed at the state track meet in 2001. Since high school, I have continued my running with road races throughout the year. Some of my favorite races have been the Des Moines Marathon and RiverRun. I have completed the Des Moines Half-Marathon twice and the Des Moines Marathon twice. To the right is a picture of me near the finish line of the Des Moines Half-Marathon (Fall 2005). Recently, I have began trail running. I plan to enter a few trail races in the near future. I also plan to run more marathons in the future. Some of the marathons I plan on running in the next few years are the Chicago Marathon and the Boston
Marathon. Running has been very enjoyable for me and I plan to continue running well into the future.

Information from Post-Standard World Class News
Logo courtesy of Des Moines Marathon
Copyright © 2005, Andy McDermott