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Westchester Weekly Desk | April 20, 2003, Sunday
April 20, 2003, Sunday BOB SWEENEY has run extensively on both sides of the Atlantic. But many of the steps he took to train for the Boston Marathon that he plans to run tomorrow -- and the 100K qualifying race three weeks later for the United States 100-kilometer ultramarathon team --were in the attic of his Rye Brook home. Mr. Sweeney, 36, the recent winner of the New York Road Runners' 2002 male Ultramarathoner of the Year award, is in a sport that defies convention. He is the Westchester Track Club's only ultra runner. But even among ultramarathoners he is an anomaly. While he runs Westchester roads and trails, it's not uncommon for him to jump on his attic treadmill and log more than the marathon distance of 26.2 miles. He said he goes through six pairs of running shoes a year. That's a conservative estimate. ''To the average person on the street that sounds absurd, and to most runners, too,'' said Conor O'Driscoll, a fellow Westchester Track Club member. Mr. Sweeney succeeds because of his ''aptitude and willingness to put up with the drudgery involved,'' said Mr. O'Driscoll, who runs with him at least once a week. ''I can focus on an inane activity like running for a long time,'' explained Mr. Sweeney. Since 1989, when he entered his first marathon shortly after graduating from Marist College in Poughkeepsie, where he primarily ran cross-country, Mr. Sweeney has competed in 30 marathons (with a personal best of two hours, 30 minutes) and 36 ultramarathons. He helped his track club to a first-place team finish in the New York City Marathon last fall. . But it is in the ultras, which he began running in 1994, that he has excelled. Mr. Sweeney holds the course record and has won the Sybil Ludington 50K in Carmel all five times he has entered. Three years ago, he broke seven hours at 100K in France and he rewrote his own course record earlier this year in winning the New York Road Runners' Kurt Steiner 50K race in Central Park. His time there was 3:17:58, which averages out to a 6:21 mile for 31.1 miles. ''It seems like when he runs he wins,'' said Rich Innamorato, executive director of the Broadway Ultra Society. ''I can't think of anyone in our area who is better.'' ''He can go to races in the city just as a training thing.'' said Mike Barnow of Peekskill, the Westchester Track Club coach and founder. ''He's a notch above.'' A stay-at-home father who loves to cook, partly because he loves to eat ''gluttonous'' amounts of food, Mr. Sweeney runs every day, totaling up to 130 miles a week. (Six feet tall, he weighs 140 pounds.) He's often on the treadmill while his daughter, Corinne, 3, naps, although sometimes she'll scamper around the attic, announcing she's doing a 50-miler. While airfare is sometimes provided, prize money, if any, is minuscule. Mr. Sweeney has a sole sponsor, he said with a laugh, pointing to his wife of 12 years, Sue, a finance manager. When she was assigned to work in France for four years, , Mr. Sweeney, who had worked in libraries and as a painter and handyman, went along and spent his days running. He qualified there for the six-man American world ultra team. Mrs. Sweeney, who is happy to jog 15 miles a week, said she understood her husband's commitment and love of competition, although not she doesn't fully relate to the fact he really enjoys the training. Mr. Sweeney plans to tackle a 100K in Canada just three weeks after Boston. He hopes a good run will help him win selection to the American world ultra team that will compete in Taiwan in November. He has made the team three times already. So far, Mr. Sweeney has been relatively injury-free, although this year some groin and hamstring problems meant that he had to cut his running to 50 or 60 miles a week for a while. As he considers running 100-milers, Mr. Sweeney disdains ultra races that seem to draw the most publicity, like desert runs in the heat of the day. ''It's not a freak show,'' he said. ''I try to downplay the stranger side of the sport.'' His goals are to win the national ultramarathon 100K championship; his best finish was third. And he wants to be one of the top three Americans at the worlds, since only those times are calculated toward team totals. So far, his best has been fourth. ''There are still a couple of things I want to accomplish,'' he said. ''At a certain point I'll probably put this amount of effort into something else. I don't know what. I have to work on that.'' Copyright © 2003 by The New York Times Co. Reprinted by permission. |