Running to a Healthier Lifestyle

Perki interviewed Dennis Crowne this week. Dennis is a returning member having first joined Phillyfit in 2003.

PERKI: How, what and/or who started you on the road to training for distance?

Dennis: January 2002 I was 46 years old, 370 pounds, obviously in bad health.  I went to the Doctors office with a bad cold; my blood pressure was 220/140, so the Doctor sent me to the hospital.  I spent 5 days in the hospital getting my pressure under control.

I quit drinking, cut out junk food and started walking.  Then I started adding some short jogs in with the walking.  By July I had lost 100 pounds and entered a 5K race on the Norristown Farm Park.  Two of my daughters also ran the race and got first and second in their age group.  I took 39 minutes to complete the race and felt great.

 By the fall I had lost another 50 pounds (150 pounds total) and did a 5 mile race. That started me thinking about the Broad Street 10 miler.  I trained over the winter on a treadmill, didn’t think normal people really ran outside in the cold.  A few weeks before the Broad Street Run I read a book “Marathoning for Mortals”.  This started me thinking, maybe I can do a half.  When I picked up my race packet there was a flyer in it for PhillyFit Marathon training. So a couple weeks later I signed up.  I remember the night before I signed up my daughter asking me where I was running Saturday, I wouldn’t tell her or anybody, I didn’t want them to think I was nuts.

So in 2003 I ran my first half and full marathon.  I stayed with PhillyFit for two more years.  I ran two marathons in 2004, three in 2005 and in 2006.   I Continued running long distances in 2007-08.   I didn’t run much in 2009 and not at all in 2010 because of other medical problems.  I’ve done 10 regular marathons, a couple 25 mile mountain trail races and several long distance relay races.  Last year I did the Rock n Roll Half.  This year is like I’m starting over; I’m looking forward to the Philly Marathon.

P: What was your favorite race?

D: My favorite race was the Green Mountain 200 mile Relay Race. With 5 other members of the Wissahickon Wanders Running Club we rented a 15 passenger van and drove to Vermont for the race. We each took turns running 6 different legs each, so there were 36 legs. It was a lot of fun and took us about 28 hours.  I loved running my leg in the middle of the night on a county road in Vermont, no street lights or other runners around, just me and the full moon.

P: What is your motivation?

D: What keeps me motivated is the love of running, and being a part of the running community.  Besides Philly Fit I also run with the Wissahickon Wanderers and Delaware County Road Runners.

P: Tell us about a EUREKA! moment.

D: My eureka moment would be last year when I volunteered for the Broad Street Run.  I realized how much I missed running and knew I had to do whatever I could to get back. At the time I was running short distances, but my knee was bothering me.   I got a cortisone shot and that helped get me back running longer distances.

P: What is your favorite workout?

D: I guess hill workouts are my favorite.  I haven’t been doing them this year but I think you get the hardest workout in the shortest time.

P: What is your least favorite workout?

D: I'll try doing some core work but then my back starts bothering me.

P: What is your least favorite sound in training?

D: A loud dog bark, that second or two when you don't know where it is or what its intentions are. Just thought of another sound I hate, when I'm tired and start dragging my feet.

P: What is your favorite sound in training?

D: Quiet. Just running a trail with nature sounds, birds, running water...

P: What has been your hardest lesson to date?

D: To listen to my body and know when to rest.

P: If you could spend a day with any athlete present or past, which would it be? Why?

D: Scott Jurek is a long distance runner who won the Western States 100 mile race 7 years in a row.   In 2005, just a few weeks after winning Western States, Jurek set a new course record in the Badwater Ultra marathon, considered one of the world's most difficult races. Jurek came from behind to win this race despite temperatures of 120 °F.  WOW!

P: What else would you like to tell us? 

D: After I got out of the hospital I tried to do everything possible to get off my blood pressure medicine.  Tried eating this, not eating that, and then finally went vegan with my diet. (No animal products; no meat, fish, eggs, dairy…)  I still take my meds but not as much.  So I’ve been vegan for about 8 years and love it. I'm married with one son, three daughters and two grandchildren. My daughters were Philly Fitters in 2004 and 2005, they have also completed marathons.

P: When it comes to your training or racing what would you love to hear someone say to or about you?

D: I would hope that they would say I was an inspiration to them to lose weight or start living a healthier life.