HOOKED BY MARATHONS
Former bass tournament angler transforms himself into elite distance runner
A decade ago, Jason Butler of Oklahoma City traded his fishing rods for running shoes. Not literally, but figuratively.
As a member of a local bass club, Butler’s spare time once would be consumed by fishing and trying to win bass tournaments.
“I would be gone all the time,” Butler said. “I would play hooky from work just to go fishing. It was an expensive habit.”
When his fishing buddies moved away and the habit got too expensive, Butler turned his attention to a new sport: Marathons.
“My running is pretty much what my fishing used to be,” Butler said.
Butler, who turns 45 next week, has become one of the premier longdistance runners in the Oklahoma City area.
In November, he won the Route 66 Marathon in Tulsa, setting a state record for 40 and older runners.
“I went up there with the intention to get that record, and I just happened to get out front and stay ahead of everybody,” Butler said. “I wanted that record really bad. I knew you had to have the right day, and the weather was just right for the way I like to run. I jumped on that opportunity. I was fortunate to get it.”
He followed up that victory with another one last month in the A2A, Arbuckle to Ardmore marathon. Last year, he finished second overall in the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon with a time of 2:41:31, more than an hour faster than the first time he ran the race in 2008.
”Looking back on it now, I hardly did any training for that marathon (in 2008),” Butler said.
A toolmaker at Tinker Air Force Base where he works on KC-135 aircraft, Butler will be gunning for his first Memorial Marathon victory on Sunday. But he knows it will be a challenge since the field will include younger and collegiate runners.
“This year there is really going to be some stiff competition,” Butler said of Sunday’s marathon. “I would love to win it. It’s something I will try until I slow way down. You never really know what is going to happen in the marathon.
”When it comes down to it, you just got to trust your training and let the chips fall where they do.”
Butler was first invited to train for a marathon by a work colleague. His first race was the Beacon on the Bay 25K in Oklahoma City in 2008. He was hooked from then on.
“I will never forget that day. It was like 14 degrees, but I just knew when I did that race I loved everything about it,” Butler said. “I just loved the competing part.”
His second race was the 2008 Memorial Marathon, and afterward, Butler felt so miserable he wasn’t sure if he would ever attempt another one.
He kept running, but stayed away from marathons for the next four years, gradually increasing his mileage in training.
Butler found training partners with the Landrunners-Oklahoma City Running Club and returned to the Memorial Marathon in 2012, running a 2:48 and taking nearly an hour off his debut time.
Now, he is one of the best marathon runners in the state and holds the masters’ (40 and older) record in Oklahoma.
Last year, he averaged running 11 miles per day, and trains a lot around one of his former fishing holes, Lake Stanley Draper.
“That is my favorite place to run,” Butler said. “I like to stay on the dirt, and there are a lot of dirt roads out there. I grew up in the country, and I just like running on dirt roads.”
He also likes running in the middle of the day. His job at Tinker requires an early start, so he is off work by midafternoon, and prefers running when he is the least comfortable.
“I like to train in the middle of the day because it’s the worst time of the day,” he said. “I feel like it benefits me. If I am training in the hardest, hottest part of the day, I feel like I have an advantage over people. It has never been too hot or too cold for me to run. I like to train when it is really miserable out.”
Even though his fishing gear just collects dust now, the angler in him hasn’t left for good. When he runs around Draper Lake, his attention often turns away from the road and toward the water.
“I always look for fish busting the surface,” he said.
He doesn’t have time to stop and fish, though. He is always on the run.