An Interview with Jason Pyles

Jason Pyles has been tearing up the road racing circuit in Huntington, WV for a couple of years. He came to Huntington to run Track and Cross Country at Marshall University. When he was not competing collegiately, he was most likely in front of you at a race. He has won several road races including; Bun Run 5k, Ashland Summer Motion 10k, Herd Hoops 5k, Huntington Half-Marathon, Marshall Half-Marathon, Run by the River 10k, and CU-Run 10 Miler just to name a few.

He has agreed to be the first interview for TriStateRacer.com. His insight and dedication to running can hopefully be motivation for others.

Name: Jason Pyles

Age: 26

Hometown: I say Huntington because I have lived here for 8 year's now but I grew up in Gallipolis Ferry, WV and attended Point Pleasant High School.

Where do you live now: Huntington Apartment across from the YMCA...2min jog to Ritter Park!

Family: Married (Marian Brooks). My wife is currently the Grad-Assistant Distance coach with Marshall University.

Animals: NONE as of yet. Our apartment complex won't allow any but I hear everyday from Marian how we have to get a cat when we get a house in the future.

PRs: Track: Mile 4:25, 3k 8:55 Really haven't been able to run on the track much.
Road: 2mile 9:30, 5K15:15, 8K 24:34, Half Marathon 1:09, Marathon 2:31
I hope this is the year that I take the Training to the Races and have some big PR's.

Weekly mileage: When I'm at my peak training I usually hit around 90-100 miles a week. My last build which ended early with a stress fx consisted of 12 runs a week with Cruise Intervals, Tempo Runs, hill burst and Long Run every week. Still yet to find the right training that can keep me improving but more importantly keep me healthy for more than a 10-12 week span. My cycle is usually run 12 weeks then miss 6-8 weeks. If I ever could find a way to break this cycle I would see some big Improvements in races because in training it is already there.

Occupation: Currently teaching Health at Hannan High School which is located on the Cabell County/Mason County line. It is a small high school of about 200 students 7-12. I continue to apply for college coaching jobs everyday, after my last 2 year's of being the Grad-Assistant at Marshall University I know that is what I want to be doing for my job.

When and why did you get into running? Tell us about some of your earliest running memories.

Like a lot of people I guess running for me got started in grade school with the PE Physical Fitness Mile. One of my earliest memories was that in 3rd Grade my time in the Fitness Test Mile was basically dead even with the time of a 6th Grader for the fastest time in the school. It was close enough that the PE teacher decided to have a 1on1 race between us in front of the whole school. As only a 3rd grader I can remember being awful scared. I lost the duel by 1 second but ended up loving the attention of running in front of everyone.

Other early running memories would be Hershey Track State Meet. I was on my age group 4x100 state champs one year and won my age group for the 1600m 2 years.

Most of my early running though was done while playing other sports. I played basketball, baseball, football, and even soccer basically what ever sport was in season.

I heard that you had another side job. Something about private coaching. Talk about how you decided on doing that, why you think you can do it, and for some of us who have never heard of it before, what  it is?

I decided to start the personal coaching site (http://herdracing.blogspot.com/) as a way to hopefully help other's reach their goals. I have helped coach at Marshall and Winfield the past 3 years but I have also helped some other people on the side and have always loved every minute of it. Just recently I helped my uncle gear up for this 1st ever Marathon and watching him do so well (2:56 at the age of 46) really got me pumped up and also got me thinking there might be other's like him that want to reach a goal but need a little help and guidance from someone else.

My Plan for Team Herd Racing is to offer coaching help to runners of all abilities. My coaching fee's will be very reasonable but most importantly my plans will be well thought out and will be solely based on each individual's needs. If the goal is to break a personal record or just to finish your first race, I will help them reach their goal.

Ok, ok just thought I would give you a nice plug there!!

Everyone has heroes, mine is someone who can eat anything they want and not gain any weight (still working on that one, even with my 40 miles a week). Who are some of your heroes? Besides people who create really awesome running websites!!

Well my #1 running hero is going to make you mad because he also has created a awesome running website (but not as good as yours but don't tell him that). Too late, I have already e-mailed him and rubbed it in his face!! But the person I look up to most in running is Casey Batey. If it wasn't for Casey I would have never ran in college and wouldn't be running now. I looked up to Casey from the first day at Marshall and he was a perfect example of what a distance runner was with everything he did. The greatest thing about Casey though wasn't that he broke numerous school records, won countless conference titles or qualified for D1 Nationals in the steeple it was that he was so humble about everything, he never said anything about what he did to you. He always was more interested in seeing how you were doing and giving encouragement to you. I still to this day look up to him for everything he has done.

My favorite race I ever saw him run was the 2002 MAC Championship 1500 Final when Casey out kicked about 4-5 other guys for the conference title in his last college race. Before the race he needed to borrow a pair of running pants so I gave him mine and we made a bet that if he won the race he got to keep the running tights. That definitely was the happiest losing end of a bet I have ever been on!

Other's I look at as heroes in running would probably be Ryan Hall not only for what he does with his running but more importantly for what his perspective on life is outside of running. Billy Mills I had the honor to talk with him on the phone a few years back and recorded the talk and wow it was by one of the most inspiring talks I have ever heard about running and it gave more meaning to running for me.

**Editorial note**

I have heard that Casey started his site out of revenge since this runner beat him in a 1995 conference championship race. I thought after 12 years, he would have let it go. :)

How about your favorite local races and runs? Any way you can let some of us know about your favorite routes?

My favorite local race would have to be Summer Motion 10K in Ashland, KY. I have ran the race the past 4 summers. I usually go over to the race with a bunch of Marshall University runners and I use it has a good Tempo Run for the week. I also have a bunch of favorite races that I like in Huntington. I usually just use the road races in this area like Summer Motion or Marshall Half Marathon as Tempo Runs but it is still fun to run in you hometown area. My goal is to run more bigger races in other areas, like Chicago Marathon that was the best race atmosphere I have ever ran.. it was crazy!

My favorite local place to run would be Ritter Park. I probably hit about 40-45% of my mileage at the Park. I do all my morning runs around the 1 mile Loop and I will use the 4mile out and back stretch for most of my Tempo and Cruise Interval workouts. I really got big on Hill Burst (10 second all-out burst up a steep hill repeated for up to 10 times) during my last build and there was a perfect hill at the park that I used for that. Most of my other runs will be done around town in Huntington or at B'ville Park on the trails. Beach Fork, other than the drive out there, is by far the best trails in this area as well which is a great place for long runs.
 

Any other sports? Ever see your name in the paper in regards to something other than running? And I am including the police blotter in this as well!

So far I have avoided making the paper for any illegal action, the goal is to keep it that way. I did however make the paper for totaling my SUV so that wasn't a good thing

Well from a young age up to high school I played lots of different sports. Then in high school after my 9th grade year I decided to play only basketball and track. I concentrated mainly on basketball and did track only because it is always fun to race. But basketball is what I would spend all my time working on back then. I was contacted by around 8 smaller D1 programs to come play basketball but I always wanted to play at Marshall. So at the state basketball tournament Greg White the Basketball Head Coach for Marshall at the time, stopped me in the arena and asked me to come be a "Invited Walk-On" with a hand shake promise for a Scholarship my second year. So I went to Marshall thinking my main focus was going to be basketball but Coach Small was going to allow me to run as well. The first year of XC was my first time ever running XC and training and I loved it and became addicted. Then basketball came around and I quickly saw my size and height was a huge disadvantage on the D1 level so it was a easy choice to stick with running only after that first year. I got lots of great Greg White stories though which have became classics around Marshall.. lol

I am sure some of us would love to hear those Greg White stories. If you ever see Jason at a race, just ask him for a story or two!!

What are your goals for this spring? What are your ultimate goals?

Well this is a good question right now I would say I have no idea and no plans. This fall I was having my best build-up ever and had decided my goal race was to be a Half Marathon in Naples Fla. So I went to Richmond, VA to run a 8K(24:34) where I had hoped to run about 10 seconds per mile faster than Goal Half Marathon Pace. That race went great for what I wanted. So the goal was to run under 1:06:30 in Naples and training was heading in the direction to where I felt I was going to be ready for that goal. But then injury striked yet again...so now I'm 9 weeks later and I just started back running 2 miles a day. So now it all depends on how quickly I can get back into shape while slowly working my miles back up.

My ultimate goals are to continue to love running. I hope to stay healthy and find the perfect training that finally will allow me to train for a whole year without interruption. If I can do that I think my times will reflect what I have been doing in training. It is a huge goal and one I'm nowhere near right now but I want to continue to shoot for the Olympic Marathon Trials standard of 2:20. The longer events are where I think I can do the best in and I know how easy the 1:09's Half Marathon Tempo felt back in November at the Marshall Marathon so that drives me to think it is possible to one day put 2 of those 1:09's back to back. Think Big and Dream Big is the only way to go...I have a poster of Billy Mills hanging on one of my walls and it has a quote that says "Every Passion has it's Destiny" so the future will show if my goal is meant to be or not.

Do you have any advice for other runners that are getting into running or experienced runners that want to go faster and farther?

My best advice is to love what your doing and have fun. If you don't love running or training then this probably isn't the sport for you. Natural talent will only take you so far with running before the ones that work hard will catch up. Always keep running fun, if you get so serious about running that you start to not enjoy it then it is time to take a step back and change your thinking about running.

I also say you have to have big goals and dreams. There is nothing wrong with setting a big long-term goal and working hard towards that goal. Make sure to have many short-term goals that you can acheive on your way towards your ultimate goal.

We at TriStateRacer.com would like to thank Jason for being our guinea pig.... I mean agreeing to be the first interview on the site. We hope the best in his running and wanted to remind him that he still owes the crew at TriStateRacer.com lunch for a certain Chesapeake race in October!

If you know of someone you would like to see interviewed, send an e-mail to coachriley@bmstrack.org and we will do our best to get them on the site!!