When Terry Stanley and his wife Cindy take a family vacation,
Terry isn’t your typical tourist.
While most vacationers would be piling into a rental car to go
sightseeing, Terry’s lacing up his running shoes.
Not even time away from his daily life of being a principal at
Otto-Eldred Elementary School can hold Stanley back from setting
out on his daily run.
In fact, since he began running as a student at Ridgway High
School, Stanley estimates that he has not missed any more than one
or two days of exercise. When injuries like stress fractures or a
broken ankle have sidelined him from running, he asks his doctors
for a soft cast so he can hit the elliptical runner or the
stationary bike.
It is this rare – even unparalleled – commitment that allowed
Stanley, at 53 years old, to win the Presque Isle Marathon in Erie
on Sunday in a time of 2 hours 46 minutes.
This time is still more impressive when broken down to show that
Stanley averaged a 6:34 mile over the 26.2-mile course. Further,
the time was just 27 minutes off the course record that he set (and
still holds) in 1978 as a 26-year-old.
“Actually, running wasn’t my first love,” Stanley, an Eldred
resident, recalled. “I come from a long lineage of football
players, my dad played at Penn State for a brief period of time and
I have three brothers (Jim, Chuck and Dave) who were all Big 30
quarterbacks.
“I wanted to be a quarterback, too, but I got knocked around as
a 112-pound freshman quarterback even though I could run pretty
well. The coaches identified that (skill) in me and said ‘Why don’t
you stick to the running?'” Stanley mused. “I took their advice and
haven’t stopped since.”
By the time he graduated from Ridgway in 1970, he had been a
state-qualifier in the two-mile. In his time at Mansfield
University (then-Mansfield State College), he set the three- and
six-mile records.
“From there (college graduation in 1974), I thought my running
career was over,” Stanley remembered. “Then I saw an add for a
marathon and thought ‘Well, I’m a former college runner, I can
probably handle this,’ and I went to the God’s Country Marathon
that runs between Galeton and Coudersport over Denton Hill.
“I got over that hill and then I dropped out. I wasn’t ready,”
Stanley said. “It kind of made me angry that I couldn’t finish it,
so I started asking questions of the top finishers about how to
train and so on. I started taking some of their advice and piling
on the miles. At that time, I was running as much as 120-130 miles
a week. Of course, I was a little younger then.”
Twenty-odd years later, Stanley still runs between 85 and 90
miles a week, running twice a day Monday through Friday and
venturing out for a 20-mile jaunt on the weekends.
“With work commitments and stuff, you can only put so much time
into leisure activity,” Stanley explained. “It adds up to about
three hours a day with loosening up, training and cooling down. You
can’t squeeze out much more time than that.”
Hauling himself out of bed at 4:15 a.m., he puts in a good five
miles before work every day and goes home to another seven or eight
miles in the evening. He admits that some days he does not look
forward to his run, but he does it still. It would seem that an
injury would bring a welcome respite from the grind, but that isn’t
so for Stanley.
“There are days when I just dread going out, but I always feel
better when I come back,” Stanley remarked. “You just have to get
over a hump and establish that good habit. I’m very stubborn and
you have to be very consistent. There are days when I don’t feel
like going out there, but I’m just one of those people who is a
creature of habit. I’m persistent. When I get injured and can’t
actually run, I’m chomping at the bit when that happens.
“My wife says ‘People think you’re so nice, but if they saw you
when you haven’t run for three or four days, they wouldn’t think
so.’ Running is like an addiction for me.”
Stanley gets his fix participating in marathons (between 60 and
70 of them so far), many 5K and 10K runs and some
half-marathons.
“I do enjoy running half-marathons, I can run OK in those
events, but I can usually compete on a national level in the
marathon. My body (6-0, 150 pounds) is just more prepared, or more
tailored, for the marathon.”
He has taken part in marathons in Honolulu, Hawaii, twice, the
Goodwill Games in Seattle, Wash., Puerto Rico, Bermuda and New
Orleans among others.
His very first marathon win came at the Presque Isle Marathon in
1977 in a time of 2 hours 22 minutes. He is the only runner to have
captured the Skylon Marathon (Buffalo, N.Y.) twice and holds course
records at the Wine Glass Marathon (Corning, N.Y.), and the God’s
Country Marathon.
He ranks his personal best 2 hour 17 minute performance at the
Penn Relays in Philadelphia (1981) as his most meaningful
accomplishment.
As far as training goes, Stanley does his best.
“I do like my sweets, but I try to get everything I need to be
healthy. If I feel like having some some french fries, or a bowl of
ice cream, I will. I just try to get my fair share of fruits and
vegetables and grains, and I never have trouble sleeping at
night.
“Mostly I just attribute it (his running talent) to good genes.
I’ve had my share of injuries, but my foundation is good. I’ve
never had any back or knee pain. I guess it’s just something that I
was always pretty good at.”
That skill landed him a job as the St. Bonaventure cross country
coach for 14 years, while he also coached the Terrors for a
season.
Running has always been a major part of Stanley’s life and he
expects that to continue in the future.
“I’ll always run. There’ll be a day when I just don’t race,
because it does get hard to keep up with the younger kids,” Stanley
admitted. “In the race Sunday (Presque Isle Marathon), I was
running with a pack of guys for a while – one was 27, one was 32
and one was 34 – and they asked me how old I was. When I told them
I was 53, they almost dropped their shorts. They don’t expect to
see a middle-aged guy up front. That’s kind of gratifying to me,
even if I don’t win.”
