Pete Sherry to defend Marine Corps Marathon title on Sunday

by Phil Turner, American University

Pete Sherry runs at the 2003 New Balance Maine Distance Festival. (Photo by Alison Wade/New York Road Runners)

(October 28, 2004) Pete Sherry of Great Falls, Virginia, has spent half his life training to make a U.S. Olympic team as a distance runner. But after illness kept him out of the 10,000 meters at this past year's Olympic Trials, Sherry took a step back. For the first time since he walked on to the cross country team at Georgetown University in 1986, as an unknown newcomer to the sport, he started to think about life without racing shoes.

"After these trials my priorities have changed," said Sherry, who at age 36 will line up as the defending champion at the Marine Corps Marathon on Sunday.

Sherry is now the father of two children, Kelsey and Colleen. He is an assistant cross country and track coach at Herndon High School in Northern Virginia, and he also owns a share in the District's popular new full-service running store, Gotta Run, in Alexandria's Pentagon Row. All of the sudden, finding time to train as an elite distance runner is not as convenient as it once was. That doesn't mean Sherry is quite ready to leave the Washington, D.C. running community he's been an elite member of for 18 years, though. This Sunday he intends to prove his motto — "Age is just a number" — to be true by winning the Marine Corps Marathon for the second year in a row.

"It's not that I'm taking the sport less seriously, it's just that I have other things on my mind than, say, five years ago," said Sherry.

Sherry turned 36 on August 22, and began his buildup for this year's Marine Corps Marathon around that time. Last year he won the race by putting on a strong burst over the final six miles of the course.

"I approached my training a little differently this year," said Sherry, who was in good track shape before a flu bug kept him out of this year's Olympic Trials and disrupted most of his summer training. "I built up slowly with some jogging, and then got up to 70-80 and, recently, over 100 miles per week in preparation."

The 12-week base training period is shorter than what he's done in preparation for his previous three marathons, but Sherry's talent, experience, relentless work ethic, and love for the sport places him among the pre-race favorites despite his age and changing priorities.

Frank Gagliano, who coached Sherry at Georgetown and now oversees the Nike Farm Team in Palo Alto, California, expects Sherry to run well Sunday. "His drive now, as he [gets] older is the same type as it was when he was a kid," says Gagliano.

Sherry walked on to Gagliano's team in 1986, ignorant of the fact that many of his teammates were national-class runners on full scholarships. Sherry had only started running a year and a half earlier, after he was cut from the varsity soccer team at Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, New York.

"He came in as a walk on — I think as a former baseball player in high school, and his classmates were some of the best runners in the country," said Gagliano.

But having grown up playing sports since he was a 5-year-old, Sherry wanted to stay involved with a team atmosphere and get faster. "Being naïve helped a lot," he said. After a rather dismal freshman season, Sherry dedicated himself to running. Five All-American certificates and a leg on Georgetown's championship 4 x 1,500 meter relay at the prestigious Penn Relays in 1991 resulted from that simple-minded dedication.

"He had and still has a tremendous drive to succeed," said Gagliano. "He was a loyal person to his institution and his teammates and really wanted to contribute, just a great team player."

Matt Centrowitz, a two-time Olympian and current head coach of the American University track and cross country teams, has coached Sherry since the early 1990s. Centrowitz sees Sherry displaying the same fire in preparation for this current test as he has for any running challenge throughout the past decade. "Pete's dedication through the years for our sport of running has not diminished an ounce," said Centrowitz. "Most guys, they get into their 30s and lose interest. Not Pete."

In many ways, Sherry's love for the sport has intensified. It has evolved and been refined. The opening of Gotta Run with his former training partner, Andre Williams, ensures that Sherry will be involved with the sport long after he's finished competing. Sherry also plans to continue sharing his love for running with the track and cross country teams at Herndon High School.

Shane Young, a current freshman at Georgetown, ran the school two-mile record at Herndon. He has honed in on the knowledge Sherry passed along to him when the two would run together at practice and go to meets. "Pete told me to take it one day at a time," said Young. "He really showed me what he had done and that the longer you run the more it will pay off."

When a cannon signals the start of the 2004 Marine Corps Marathon, expect to see the lanky and faded red-haired image of Sherry among the leaders, chasing another victory and a finishing time under 2:20 for the 26.2 mile course. And when it's all over, Sherry will assess the direction in which his competitive running career is headed. Whether it is to be continued on the track as a runner or put aside for his children, his coaching, and Gotta Run can only be determined by him.

"Pete's been going half his life with this," said his business partner at Gotta Run, Andre Williams. "For people like me and him, we need a constant competitive outlet. After running, it will come from the business side for him. He just has too much energy."

Anyone who has been surprised to see Sherry continue training for the past 18 years would not be surprised if he continued going now. "At some point we all have to pack it in," said Gagliano. "But as long as he enjoys running, he should do it."

Sherry's goal is nothing less than victory on Sunday, and his mindset shows he still has plenty of motivation — even in his self-proclaimed "old age."

"The watch is what drives anyone in the sport. I know I can still run faster than my personal records," said Sherry. "I don't know if it's going to happen, but those numbers drive me. At some point I've got to be realistic, but you never know."