Irvine reflects on marathon career

Academic Dean Colin Irvine was 30 years old and in graduate school when he decided to try running a marathon. He ended up running 12.

“[Conditioning] was always the part of sports that I liked the least,” Irvine said. “Ironically, when I took up running, I decided that because I’m competitive, I might as well race rather than just jog. And then I thought, ‘what’s the longest race I can do?’”

Irvine has run the Twin Cities Marathon, Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota, the Milwaukee Marathon, and the Oslo Marathon in Norway, among others. Irvine said he also ran seven or eight half-marathons, one of which was the Race to Robie Creek in Boise, Idaho, a ten-mile uphill run followed by three miles downhill.

“That was the very first race I ever did,” Irvine said. “Everybody in Boise does it at some point, and so I thought, ‘Well, I’ll give it a try.’”

Irvine said, “Near the end of that strange set of goals, I knew Boston was kinda the top thing you could do, and I thought, ‘Well, I wanna see if I can do that.’” And in 2004, he did.

Irvine qualified at the Milwaukee Marathon with a time of 3:14.38. He was initially disappointed after crossing the finish line because the clock said he’d missed qualifying by 26 seconds. Luckily, Irvine’s chip time was correct and he’d actually finished with 22 seconds to spare.

Living in Minnesota while prepping for a marathon proved to be difficult. “It had been such a long winter that I trained indoors on the treadmill,” Irvine said. Before each run, Irvine said coffee and a peanut butter and honey sandwich were “musts.”

Irvine said he also took lots of ibuprofen. “I’m still paying for that, I think,” he said. His knees have kept him from running marathons, but he said he’d “like to get back to at least the half-marathon level.”

‘Well, I wanna see if I can do that.’” And in 2004, he did.

Irvine qualified at the Milwaukee Marathon with a time of 3:14.38. He was initially disappointed after crossing the finish line because the clock said he’d missed qualifying by 26 seconds. Luckily, Irvine’s chip time was correct and he’d actually finished with 22 seconds to spare.

Living in Minnesota while prepping for a marathon proved to be difficult.

“It had been such a long winter that I trained indoors on the treadmill,” Irvine said. Before each run, Irvine said coffee and a peanut butter and honey sandwich were “musts.”

Irvine said he also took lots of ibuprofen. “I’m still paying for that, I think,” he said. His knees have kept him from running marathons, but he said he’d “like to get back to at least the half-marathon level.”

“I think I watched all of Arrested Development several times over, and then watched a lot of movies while I was running on the treadmill in the basement,” Irvine said.

The Boston Marathon is in April and was Irvine’s first time running outside. He knew that he wasn’t going to set a PR because it was an April race, so his goal was just to finish and enjoy it.

“It was 91 degrees at the start of the race,” Irvine said. “On a hot day like that, you actually get the salt crusts on your skin.”

During the marathon, Irvine had a celebrity sighting.

“I was probably at mile 16 or 17, and was kinda delirious, and I looked at him and I thought, that’s Doug Flutie,” Irvine said. “I chatted with him for a little bit and then jogged on ahead.”

Flutie was an NFL quarterback who made his debut in the 1980s and played until his retirement in 2006.

After crossing the finish line, Irvine said he felt great.

“It’s interesting; after marathons, you’re not as tired as you think you would be,” Irvine said. “I don’t know if it’s adrenaline or relief. We were exhausted due to the heat, but it was a really great atmosphere.”

Irvine recalls his race time being around 3:40. It was the slowest of his 12 marathons, but he credits that to both the 90-degree April heat.

“The greatest thing about [marathons] is that you’re surrounded by anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 people having one of their greatest, most memorable days,” said Irvine. “It’s so rare in life that you can be in that group of that many people doing something extraordinarily positive.”

Irvine said the training takes up a lot of time. “When you’re doing 50 miles a week, I could never do it now, with this job. I just would never have enough time.”

One of the things Irvine misses most about running marathons is training because he loves the clarity and opportunities to reflect that long runs offer. He said it was a great way to clear his head.

“When I was doing my research and writing, after [my mind] would clear out, then I would start to have what I thought were these good ideas,” Irvine said. “By the time I got back to the car, they probably weren’t all that brilliant, but they seemed brilliant at the time. And that’s one of the things that I miss most—that clarity of thinking and opportunity to reflect that comes with long runs.”

While he would like to get back into running and training for half-marathons, for now, Irvine works out at GreatLIFE and enjoys downhill and cross country skiing.