Chuck Engle wins 5th Marathon of 2006

Last month, the website, marathonguide.com, came out with its first annual Marathoners of the Year. They explained that their criteria for ranking, which would take most elites out of the picture (as they only run one or two major marathons a year), were as follows:

+ run at least 3 marathons in the year ("our initial filter for the ultra-committed marathoner")
+ achieve a top-3 finish in at least three marathons ("these runners are leaders")

Three Texans made the list in 2005. They included Coppell's Dave Emerson, who finished 25th among the men, and Houston's 46-year-old Suzy Seeley, 20th among the women, and Wendy Terris, 36, of San Antonio, who was 23rd.

The top three women - Tacoma, Washington's Annie Thiessen, Littleton, Colorado's Tania Pacev and Seattle, Washington's Jennifer Yogi - provided the most incredible achievements of the 2005 season.

Thiessen ran in 16 marathons, finished in the top three 11 times and won eight (8) of them! Pacev won five marathons and placed in the top three 7 out of the eight (8) marathons she entered while Yogi ran in 14, had eight (8) top three finishes and also won five marathons.

However, last year's male Marathoner of the Year, Jackson, Mississippi's Chuck Engle may redefine all of their accomplishments before 2006 is complete.

In 2005, Engle batted 1.000 by finishing in either first or second of the seven (7) marathons he entered. His 2005 performances were as follows:

1/2/05 -- 2:43:12 (1st), First Light Marathon, Mobile, Alabama (206 finishers)
4/10/05 -- 2:52:49 (2nd), Whidbey Island Marathon, Oak Harbor, Washington (220)
(winning time was 2:48:29)
9/4/05 -- 2:46:02 (1st), Tupelo Marathon, Tupelo, Mississippi (138)
9/18/05 -- 2:41:22 (1st), Lewis & Clark Marathon, St. Charles, Missouri (453)
11/5/05 -- 2:46:03 (1st), Midsouth Marathon, Wynne, Arkansas (158)
11/19/05 -- 2:45:57 (2nd), Oklahoma Marathon, Tulsa, Oklahoma (293)
(winning time was 2:37:41)
12/3/05 -- 2:54:20 (1st), Baton Rouge Beach Marathon, Baton Rouge, Louisiana (92)

After winning Saturday's 13th annual Memorial Health Tybee Marathon in Tybee Island, Georgia, Engle is now 5-for-5 -- all wins -- in 2006. They are as follows:

1/1/06 -- 2:52:44 (1st), Texas Marathon, Kingwood, Texas (124 finishers)
1/14/06 -- 2:41:30 (1st), Mississippi Marathon, Clinton, Mississippi (140)
1/21/06 -- 2:36:28 (1st), Orlando Xtreme Marathon, Orlando, Florida (38)
1/29/05 -- 2:39:27 (1st), Callaway Gardens Marathon, Pine Mountain, Georgia (53)
2/4/05 -- 2:41:08 (1st), Tybee Marathon, Tybee Island, Georgia (316)

Engle told the Savannah Morning News in their February 5, 2006 copyrighted coverage of the event that he is "using the platform (...the attention and publicity that comes from winning marathons) to raise awareness about Americans' poor health."

He went on to share the following in the Morning News article:

"God's blessed me with the gift of endurance and my calling is to show people that we as a society have let ourselves go," said Engle, who won the Tybee Marathon in 2003 in 2:36.52. "Our obesity rate is 65 percent right now and that is deplorable. As an American, I'm humiliated by that. We're the fattest nation in the world."

"My grandfather worked 18-hour days on the railroad and he lived to the ripe, old age of 72," said Engle, who refurbishes houses for a living. "People work the 9-5 now and think it's too much. I'm up at 4:30 every morning doing my run, and then I go to work and don't get off until 7 or 8 p.m.

"I want people to know that if they seek God and ask God to bless them, I think He'll get them off the couch. That's why I feel compelled to run 26.2 miles every weekend. I'm not saying that everyone has to go out and run a marathon, but at least get out and run three miles. If there's one guy crazy enough to run 26 miles every weekend, can the rest of us not strive to run one mile?"

Personally, I'm not surprised with Engle's humility and approach to life.

It was in the second loop of the Texas Marathon, after the organizers had decorated trees near the end of the first loop with all kinds of pink signs with the runner's name and/or facts about them, that Engle was passing Rick Cook, Dalton Pulsipher and myself. As he flew by behind the lead bicycle, I verbally inquired if he was indeed Chuck Engle and he acknowledged that he was -- without breaking stride.

In my third loop, and this is what genuinely impressed me, as I somewhere going out (as I went through the front half and first two loops in 2:28) and he was coming in to finish on his last loop, I congratulated him by name and he took the time to read the name on my bib number and say "Thanks" and acknowledged me by name. (But like he was quoted in the Savannah story about taking it easy in the last two miles, he was doing the same on a hot New Year's Day in the woods of Kingwood too.)

Did it surprise me? No, not at all. Why? Because there are guys just as fast that I know, namely Striders Brett Riley and John Yoder, that acknowledge you and appreciate the support. Which is one of the reasons why I believe now that running is a great sport. Where else can you have that type of interaction with the participants in the heat of the action?

Let's face it, would Tiger Woods do the same in the middle of a swing? Would Kobe Bryant in the middle of a jump shot or on a fast break? Nope!

I'm sure that there's a record out there for most marathon wins in a year. If so, Engle is certain to already have a bead on it. If not, he's seems to be the type of individual that deserves it.