Ten years, 10 marathons for this Runner of Steel
Brian Stack ran only short distances as a young man. As a hurdler at North Allegheny High School, toeing up for a race longer than 400 meters was unthinkable, let alone competing in more than a dozen marathons after the Pittsburgh Marathon was revived in 2009.
Besides, his true love was baseball.
The McCandless native alternated among third base, shortstop, and left and center field positions during his four years on Edinboro University’s baseball team. He’d continue playing semi-pro ball for Warrendale after graduating in 1987 with a degree in business administration, in what was then the Butler Eagle County League.
Becoming a marathoner? That wouldn’t happen until his mid-20s, after the Greensburg father of two took up running to get healthy. It quickly morphed into a habit.
This year’s 10th-anniversary race on May 6 will be Mr. Stack’s 10th Pittsburgh marathon in a row. And far from experiencing the “been there, done that” mentality some runners develop after running the same race over and over, the 53-yearold says he’s more excited than ever totackle the 26.2-mile course through 14city neighborhoods.
What started as a way to get fit has grown into something that keeps his life on course while creating a sense of pride about his city.
“Every year it just keeps getting better and better,” he says of the marathon, which has grown from 10,000 racers the first year to an event with four times as many participants in various races over marathon weekend. More racers at the start mean larger crowds of spectators cheering them on — and increased pleasure in knowing he’s participating in one of thecountry’s premier foot races.
“It’s a great showcase for the city,” he says, not to mention a great way for the UPMC senior systems analyst to spend time with his
23-year-old son, Brendan, whom he starting running with four years ago, when he was a student at the University of Pittsburgh. Father and son ran the marathon together last year and are planning a repeat performance May 6.
Pride in accomplishment
Mr. Stack’s transition from weekend jogger to veteran marathoner who missed qualifying for the Boston race by 3 lousy minutes is a familiar tale: He wanted to get healthy.
His first job out of college with Blue Cross required constant travel, sending both his cholesterol level and blood pressure soaring. He also packed on pounds. Running was a way to relieve the stress without medication and burn up calories.
By the time he took a job with UPMC in 2004, running was so ingrained into his daily routine that he spent his lunch hours cruising through Oakland with a running group.
It was one of those running buddies who suggested they might want to take it one step further. Or as Mr. Stack remembers his friend Phil O’Shaughnessy saying, “We ought to do something.”
They signed up for the Erie Half Marathon in September 2007. They hadn’t really trained, and the weather was far from ideal — he raced in a torrential downpour — but Mr. Stack remembers loving it.
He’d finish his first full marathon a year later, in Columbus, Ohio, after finding a training program online that promised to get him across the finish in less than 4 hours. He was hooked. “Once I started doing weekend runs in the double digits, it started to feel like something I just wanted to keep doing,” he says.
Three Marine Corps Marathons in Washington, D.C., followed, along with races in Ohio.
While his love for the Pittsburgh marathon has only grown since 2009, his motivation for running has changed over the years. He’d still like to earn that personal record that would get him into Boston, although he didn’t mind slowing down last year and helping his son, who recently was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, cross the finish.
This year, the goal is simply to finish. Last October, he was diagnosed with stage 2 prostate cancer just a few weeks before his daughter, Kaylyn’s, wedding. Two weeks after, he was on the operating table at UPMC Shadyside Hospital.
“But I told my doctor right from the start: I’m a runner,” he says. One that wouldn’t allow his disease to beat him or break his 10-year Pittsburgh marathon streak.
Three weeks after his surgery, Mr. Stack managed to run a loop around his neighborhood. He’s been upping his mileage ever since, with Brendan logging many of those training miles beside him.
Like most marathoners, Mr. Stack has run races where his body and mind were simultaneously tested. He’s blown up at mile 20 because he went out too hard, and he’s also had to deal with IT band issues.
“But you just keep going, because all you want to do is crossthat finish line,” he says.
Because once you do, no matter how many bad runs you have or the pain you are feeling, it all is forgotten.
“You just won another one for yourself.”