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Recaptured Glory: BY JOHN SERRAO When Rich Byrne graduated from New Jersey's Ridgefield Park High School in 1982, our country was in the midst of a love affair with running. It seemed like everyone, from Catholic nuns to U.S. Presidents, was lacing up their Nikes and pounding the roads. In towns across America, weekend races drew thousands of participants hoping to run personal-best times and share in the camaraderie that this growing sport offered. Beginners and amateurs could actually rub elbows on the starting line with genuine sports heroes like Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, Alberto Salazar, and Joan Benoit. Major marathons like Boston and New York City were even getting three-hour coverage on national television. Running became an integral part of our culture, as running clinics, training manuals, philosophical books, shoe and clothing stores, and even running movies received tremendous popularity. New Jersey proved to be a very fertile ground for this wave of mass participation. From suburban centers like Ridgewood and Paramus, to the shore towns of Asbury Park and Spring Lake, road races attracted ever-growing numbers to the starting lines, where the songs of Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel blasted over the crack of the starting pistol. With its own glossy running magazine, Running New Jersey, and its nationally-acclaimed running author and spiritual guru, George Sheehan, the "Garden State" became a Mecca to some of our country's best runners, at a time when legendary competitors like Salazar and Benoit were handily defeating international fields and setting world records. Even small-town 10Ks and 5Ks were being won by local New Jersey runners with very respectable times in the 30-minute and 15-minute range, respectively. It was in this stimulating, exciting, athletic environment that high school phenom and state 2-mile champion Rich Byrne became a force to be reckoned with. Graduating with school records in both the mile (4:18) and 2-mile (9:12)--records which stand to this day--and some of the fastest cross-country times ever recorded at the grueling Holmdel and Garrett Mountain courses, Byrne launched himself into the open running scene where competitors had been nervously awaiting his graduation. A lot has changed in the sport since 1982. Americans no longer win major races--that distinction now belongs to a vast contingent of runners from Morocco, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and especially Kenya. Local 5Ks are now often won in 17 or 18 minutes, and hardly any 10Ks see times below 32 minutes unless they are won by African runners. Amazingly however, 20 years after graduating high school, 38-year-old Rich Byrne continues to set personal records. It's been a rocky road for Rich. Quitting the University of Houston after a year, he returned to New Jersey and worked at temporary jobs. His running struggled, and although he won a few local races, his times never approached those predicted from his high school successes. "I had a rude awakening," says Byrne. "The competition was really fierce, and I wasn't able to dominate at this next level like I did in high school." His life also lacked the focus and structure that he enjoyed in high school, and like many former teenage standouts, he couldn't quite capitalize on his talent and achieve what everyone, including himself, knew he was capable of reaching as a runner. "I was in too much of a hurry, I guess. I wanted to make it big in this next arena immediately, rather than over a four or five year plan. I was young and naïve. I really needed a coach to nurture me along and give me direction--to patiently develop my potential in stages." Frustrated by his lack of success, Rich made a risky decision in 1988: devote himself full-time to training and concentrate on becoming one of the best runners in the country. He found a part-time job, took an unfurnished apartment with nothing but a mattress (and stacks of running magazines), and began a rigorous schedule of training and racing. "I didn't want to look back someday and wonder what I could have done," says Byrne. "I wanted to give running all my effort to see just what I could accomplish, so I decided to remove all distractions from my life." His times gradually began to improve, and he even began winning money at races to help support himself. By 1990, Byrne was running a 4:03 mile, 14:08 5K, and winning big New Jersey 5-mile races in 23:30. In 1991, all his months of hard work and single-minded dedication were rewarded when he qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials in the 10,000 meters by running a phenomenal time of 29:05 in a prestigious track meet in North Carolina. In order to accomplish that (an average of 4:40 per mile for 6.2 miles!) Byrne ran 60 seconds for the last 400 meters of the race. In 1991, he was ranked 30th in the nation in that event by Track & Field News. "I felt vindicated. All my hard work paid off, and I knew I was on the right track. I was able to run with our country's best distance runners." But then, just as he was gaining national acclaim, Byrne suffered a series of knee and foot injuries that derailed his training. At this stage in his life, Byrne's main sense of identity was as a runner. Unable to fulfill this role, he needed to take a radical departure and assume a new identity with a different set of goals. "I made a pact with myself," says Byrne. "If injuries prevented me from performing at my highest level, then I had to do something else with my life. The military seemed like a good choice--they'd pay for my college education and give me an opportunity to travel." In 1992, Rich joined the Air Force and was sent to OFFUT Air Force Base where he also enrolled in the University of Nebraska for a degree in Exercise Physiology. With his experience as a runner and his newfound knowledge, he began coaching and led many runners to their own personal records. His own running, however, was put on hold. After his stint with the Air Force, Byrne moved to the Poconos and stopped running completely for a couple of years. Finally, following two surgeries to correct his nagging injuries, he gradually returned to the sport he missed so much. He worked part-time for the Post Office and started to train. Now in his mid-30s and the father of a baby boy, Mason, Byrne once again decided to stage a comeback. The initial results were even more discouraging than in the mid-1980s and Byrne found himself lacking the fiery competitive drive that made him successful as a younger runner. He dropped out of races and even considered quitting again. "I'd been removed from the competitive nature of the sport for too long. It seemed like it took forever to regain my form and passion." It took an accidental encounter with someone at the Spring Lake 5-Mile Race (a race Byrne had won a decade prior) to change his fortunes and put him back on track. Gene Mitchell, the owner of the new Ridgewood Running Company store in New Jersey, offered Byrne the position of manager, and Rich found himself moving back to the same county where he had once excelled as a high school runner. With a new sense of purpose, and the structure which Byrne had always required for successful running, he used his background in Exercise Physiology to formulate a new training schedule, and…it worked! In 2001, he ran 2:25 at the prestigious Chicago Marathon, and everyone began to take notice, once again, of this formerly familiar face on the running circuit. Bolstered by this accomplishment, Byrne decided to dedicate the entire year of 2002 to qualifying for the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon by returning to Chicago and running sub-2:22. In the months leading up to Chicago, everything seemed to come together for Byrne. No stranger to hard work (many of his workouts in 1989 and 1990 are legendary to those in his circle of running friends), Byrne found himself completing training runs that even he considered amazing. He did weekly 20- to 25-mile runs on the roads, with the last 10 miles at sub-5:30 pace! He went to the track alone and ran seven separate miles at 4:55 pace, with just a one-minute jog between each mile! He ran a 5K on the track in 16 minutes, took a brief rest, and then ran a second one in 16 minutes (that's 5:10 pace per mile!). Week after week, month after month, he never wavered from his training schedule, even in pouring rain or driving winds. Although he had training partners, most of these workouts were performed alone since no one could maintain his punishing pace. However, Byrne's true fitness level leading up to Chicago was difficult to gauge, since he didn't enter any serious races, preferring not to stray from his carefully crafted training regimen. Would he be able to attain his goal without really testing himself in a big race before Chicago? On October 13, Rich Byrne answered that question in a big way. Through 26.2 miles around the "Windy City," he maintained a pace of 5:18 per mile, running an incredible 2:19:11--well below the qualifying time for the "A" Team at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials. He finished 26th in a field of nearly 40,000 runners and was the 10th American. His time is even more remarkable considering Byrne's age of 38--he may very well be the oldest starter at the trials! "I was on an emotional high for weeks," says Byrne. "I was so proud to qualify for the Olympic Trials and to have that accomplishment etched in stone on my resumé. But I think I can run even faster!" No longer will runners and followers of the running scene during the "running boom" of the late '70s and '80s ask, "What ever happened to Richie Byrne?" Now, he has one final goal to make his running career complete: participate in the U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon in Alabama in February 2004 and run the race of his life. John Serrao writes the "Pocono Outdoors" column
for the Pocono Record every Sunday. A two-time National Masters
Champion in the 1500 meters, John's been a close friend of Rich
Byrne for almost 20 years and runs with him on his "easy"
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