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Show Running is fountain of youth for Lynn Daines ' C ' I , V 1 ' 1 ' t ' If. by JIM SMEDLEY Record staff writer Lynn Daines listens to his partnerand part-nerand that's good, because otherwise other-wise one of Utah's top runners may have never discovered the sport. About five years ago Daines decided decid-ed he needed something more than racquet sports and skiing to keep in shape. His practice as a certified public accountant made it difficult to schedule court time or break away to the hills. He was pushing 200 pounds and at 42 years of age, he was not feeling good about it. :.'".. "I was really getting out of shape. One of my partners suggested that I should take up running," Daines said. "So I went out and bought some -shoes and began running. It was really convenient. I could do it-whenever it-whenever I had time. It wasn't too long, about two to three months, that ' I dropped 20 pounds." , Was he happy running individual- -ly and not competitively? .Yes. Daines never thought about entering a race that is, until his partner, Lee Rassmussen, suggested he try one. "At first I thought, 'No way. I'll die,' " Daines said. But he had listened to his partner once and it worked, so he entered the . Salt Lake Memorial Classic in 1980. It was an eye-opener for Daines, who immediately became hooked on running run-ning competitively. Aside from being be-ing just plain fun, Daines ran into . friends who also were running. "That race did two things for me,",' he said. "It gave me goals to shoot ' for and I found company, to run with." " V ..' At that time, he was ninning 20 miles a week. He steadily increased that count and soon it was doubled. Last year he ran 3,300 miles.: His wife, Renee, said .she lias noticed "a real lightening of his spirit," since her husband has been" running. .' "Something just took hold after he , ran in the Memorial Classic,!' she said. "Running really fit into his lifestyle. You can tell he feels much better about himself ." He and his family, including Todd, 21, Holly, 18, and Spencer, 12, moved to Summit Park about 4 12 years ago to take advantage of the clean air and out-of-doors life that mountain moun-tain living provides. Daines' oldest daughter, Shelly, 24, is married. Now he takes running more seriously than he did five years ago. He said he tries to stick to a healthful, non-fatty diet that excludes ex-cludes red meat and refined sugar. He also does, weight training to strengthen his upper body to withs-tand withs-tand the rigors of longer races.. Daines ran' in the Deseret News Marathon in 1981 in 3:13.00. He ran in the Boston Marathon in 1982 and '83, turning in .times in the 3:06.00 , area. ' '., ' ,r ' ; ' -In his age group, a runner has to .have a time of 3:10.00 or better to qualify for Boston. He has not been to Boston in the past two years because the race has been run on . April 15 and then the 17th two of the ' busiest days of the year for CPAs. In. 1983, Daines placed third in the 45-49 age bracket in the Salt Lake Grand Prix Series a group of races that begin in the last week in January and end with the St. George Marathon in October. In 1984, he won the Grand Prix Series by winning the next-to-last event, the Salt Lake International Center 10 kilometer, to edge out '82 Series winner, Harry Ewing. "I was more amazed that I won the Series than pleased," Daines said. "It was a real tough grind with a lot of tough races. They just kept coming Saturday after Saturday : after Saturday." . ' - ' This year, Daines decided to skip formally entering the Grand Prix Series to concentrate more on the races in the Park City area. ; "I enjoy the Park" City, races. They're as well-run as any other race I've ever" entered. Thp group here really does an excellent job," he said. "When I was running the Grand Prix races, the only race I could get in up here was the Twilight Run, which is part of the Series." , Daines has done well in the Park City races. He was the best in his age group in the 10-kilometer Speed Run and was the top Park City finisher in the 5-mile Autumn Classic. There are 15 races in the Grand Prix Series, ranging in distance from the 2-mile Ed Murrell Invitational Invita-tional in Sugar House Park to the final race of the series, the St. George Marathon, To arrive at a winner, the runners' best 12 of 15 races are totalled. Daines now is training for the St. George Marathon, which will be the last time he runs for about a month. He said he is down to "fighting weight" 150-155 pounds. After St. George, he'll take time off for the hunting season. He enjoys going after duck, deer and elk. Daines said Lynn Daines nears finish in - Autumn Classic, he will start running again sometime in November. He keeps away from speed running at first and just goes for bulk runningchalking runn-ingchalking up the miles. Daines said his tastes in running are changing. "After a couple of years in the Grand Prix Series I wanted to do something different, so this year I entered the Park City races and competed in the 'Greenhorn' segment seg-ment of the Ride & Tie," Daines said. "And since I got my feet wet, I'm going to do the Ride & Tie in 1986." , He entered the Ride & Tie with Parkite Kim Meehan and the team finished third in the mixed couples division. The annual event pits teams of one horse and two riders against time in a 30-odd-mile race over the steep terrain of Bonanza Flat. One rider starts out on horseback. When he gets to a certain point, he dismounts, ties the horse, and continues on foot. His teammate catches up to the horse, mounts it and rides past the runner to the next "tie" point. Daines met Meehan at a July 4th race. "We joked back and forth about entering the Ride & Tie. In the back of my mind I knew that I really wanted to try it," Daines said. "So we tried the No. 1 loop (Greenhorn division) and practiced the week before the competition. ' ''I've done a lot of distance running runn-ing and a lot of competing in the last , two years, but the Ride & Tie is by far the most demanding event I've ever entered. There were a couple of hills I couldn't run up," he added. Daines' wife said he and Meehan were like a couple of kids while preparing for the Ride & Tie. And to Daines, feeling like a kid at 47 is not that bad. i 1 . V 1 .1 V JimSmedley Daines, "I was amazed that I won the series." |
