Running the DMV Since 1961
Running the DMV Since 1961
Home » Membership » Runner Spotlights »
Ed Grant
Q: When did you begin running and why?
I grew up with the sport, as the son of a prominent track & field journalist, statistician, and official. But only after failing at virtually all “ball sports,” I started running seriously in the summer of 1970, before 8th grade. It gave me something to do, got me out of the house, and I found I enjoyed it. The best advice my father gave me was to run on grass to start—so I wove a quarter-mile path around the ball fields at Hillview School in New Providence, NJ. All young runners should follow this advice when they start out.
Q: How did you find out about DCRR and when did you join?
After an early-adulthood hiatus from competitive running, I started seriously again in early 1992. I heard about DCRR races through the old listings in the Washington Post about a year later, and ran my first one in the winter of 1993. By that fall, I qualified for Boston. The following summer, I took over as coach of the club’s mid-week track workouts.
Q: What are you training for right now?
Cautiously for a 10K this fall, and for a half-marathon in spring 2024, in Jersey City, where I was born
Q: What is the toughest run or race in which you have participated?
Two: my first marathon, Penn Relays 1976, run in 90-degree heat, where only about 25 percent of the field finished. And my last, also in Philadelphia, 2000, where I swore to myself at Mile 18 that if I broke 3 hours, I would never do this again. I have kept the promise!
Q: What is the most important lesson running has taught you?
Apart from being a participant in the most universal of all athletic pursuits, running is about overcoming—not feeding—the “ego-self,” to transcend the limits that ego imposes through discipline, perseverance, and good humor regarding setbacks and losses. Those are lessons, as slow and limited as my running now is, that I am still learning.
Q: What is your favorite route in the area?
- Washington-Liberty HS track, because that’s where I get to run with my Wednesday Night friends
- C&O Canal, fall and winter
Ed Grant holding a piece of running history
Q: What race day traditions do you have?
Arrive early. Offer help if needed. Be realistic, after first 800M, about what is really possible that day, accept it, and never give up.
Q: What is your favorite post-race meal?
Full breakfast, eggs, bacon, pancakes. OK, and beer!
Q: What is your proudest running moment?
Seeing Wednesday Night Track participants qualify for Boston Marathon. It puts in proper perspective any success I’ve had in my own running. But I’m also proud of placing 3rd in New Jersey in my first 3000M steeplechase (1973), and for participating in a world record for the 100 x 1-Mile relay (Shore AC, NJ), the same year. We averaged 4:53 per leg!
Q: What is your favorite running book and/or movie?
Chariots of Fire (movie). Running with the Buffaloes (book). Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (both).
Q: What else have you done in running/track & field?
I worked in media for decades, including for ESPN and NBC, at the Penn Relays, America’s largest annual track and field meet, and am now an official at Penn. I announce and do other officiating at high school track meets the DMV area.
Q: What is your life like outside of running?
I recently retired. My goal is to become more involved in the sport we love, with the many great folks I’ve met in the sport over the decades. Apart from that, writing, teaching, catching up on a lifetime’s worth of deferred reading. And travel with the best companion in the world. Julia.
In the picture, I am holding the gold medal won by American Johnny Hayes in the 1908 Olympic Marathon. Due to a bequest by the Hayes family, the medal remains in possession of the Shore Athletic Club (NJ), which was my first running club.