Hal Higdon A running and writing career

Hal Higdon has been writing and running for half a century. Higdon grew up on the south side of Chicago. He first went out for track as a sophomore at the University of Chicago's Laboratory School (U-High) in 1947, placing fourth in the conference with a 5:04.7 mile. Higdon explains: "I skipped sports as a junior because I switched schools, but started running again my senior year. Except for a month or so off now and then, I've been running continuously since the spring of 1949."

Higdon attended Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, winning Midwest Conference titles in the mile, half-mile and cross-country. His best mile time was 4:13.6, although he had more success at longer distances, including road races. In 1952 he participated in the US Olympic Trials for 10,000 meters. "I was dead last in 15th place, but two dozen other runners got waved off the track after being lapped." That was the first of eight Trials appearances for Higdon, his high-water mark being fifth in the 3,000 meter steeplechase in 1960. He had two other top-ten Trials finishes. (Only the top three make the Olympic team.)

He participated in his first marathon (Boston) in 1959, running with the leaders through Wellesley, but dropping out at 22 miles. Five years later, Higdon led through 19 miles before being passed by eventual winner Aurele Vandendriessche. Higdon held on for fifth (first American), clocking a personal best 2:21:55. (His 111 marathons include four overall victories and numerous age-group firsts.)

"I'm probably better known in Boston as a writer than as a runner," Higdon concedes. In 1963, Sports Illustrated published an article by him on the Boston Marathon titled "On the Run from Dogs and People," later expanded into a 1971 book by the same name. Only 150 runners had run Boston in Higdon's first year (1959), but his article sparked an upturn in numbers at Boston five years later and helped inspire the running boom that followed a decade later. At the centennial 1996 Boston Marathon that attracted 38,000 runners, Higdon ran his 100th marathon--his 18th at Boston.

Despite winning several national championships as an open runner, Higdon achieved his greatest success as a masters runner. ("Masters" denotes runners over the age of 35.) He won the 3000 meter steeplechase at the 1975 World Masters Championships, setting an American masters record of 9:18.6 that remains unbroken more than a quarter century later. He also won world masters titles in 1977, 1981 and 1991. His 1977 steeplechase victory set a world record. His American masters record of 14:59.6 for 5,000 meters, set at London's Crystal Palace in 1972, lasted more than 24 years until finally bettered by Minnesota's Steve Plasencia in 1997.

Runners know Higdon best for his insightful articles on training and racing for Runner's World,. His first article for that publication was for its second issue in 1966. "The magazine was little more than a newsletter," Higdon recalls. "Bob Anderson, founder of what was then called Distance Running News, wrote and asked me to contribute something, so I sent him an article on the London to Brighton race that Sports Illustrated had commissioned, but never published. Probably fewer than 100 people saw that article. The magazine's circulation is now over 500,000." Although still listed on Runner's World's masthead as Contributing Editor, Higdon now mainly publishes his writing on the Internet.

Higdon's magazine credits include more than running magazines. He has worked full time as a freelance writer since 1959, covering subjects as varied as politics for the New York Times Magazine, science for National Geographic, business for Playboy and aviation for Air & Space Smithsonian.

In addition to running titles, his 34 published books have included The Crime of the Century (about the Leopold and Loeb case) and The Horse That Played Center Field (a children's book made into an animated TV special by ABC). His most successful books include Run Fast, Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide, and Boston: A Century of Running. Most recently he combined with cartoonist Dana Summers to produce a children's book titled Run, Dogs, Run! His most recent book is Masters Running, published in 2005. He is currently working on a novel about marathon running and a book about cross-country, tentatively titled Through the Woods.

One of the founders in 1958 of the Road Runners Club of America (RRCA), Higdon received that organization's Journalism Award in 1980 and also was named to the RRCA Hall of Fame. In 1986 Higdon was a finalist in NASA's Journalist-in-Space program to ride the space shuttle. In 1995 the North American Ski Journalists Association presented him with its Harold Hirsch Award for ski columns that appeared in the South Bend Tribune. At the American Society of Journalist and Author's annual meeting in 2003, the Society gave Higdon its Career Achievement Award, the highest honor given to writer members.

As the field of journalism changed, Higdon changed with it, shifting seamlessly to cyberspace, writing an"Ask The Experts" column for Runner's World Daily on America Online and, lately,Virtual Training with TrainingPeaks, providing training schedules and answers to several dozen questions a day. Higdon's own popular Web site (www.halhigdon.com) features training schedules from 5-K to the ultramarathon plus other training tips.

An art major at Carleton College, he lately has begun to sell and exhibit his paintings in a Pop Art style. One of his paintings of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra titled "The Conductor" won Best of the Show at the Winter View Juried Art Show in Long Beach. Another painting titled "Chocolate Box" was featured in an exhibit sponsored by Peter Brooke Chocolates in Jacksonville, Florida. For his college class's 50th reunion, Higdon drew portaits of more than 100 classmates for a book of biographies titled, Beyond The Tower.

He lives on the lakefront in Long Beach, a suburb of Michigan City, Indiana. He coached four years at the local high school, directing his girls cross-country team to fifth at the state championships in 1992. They won the title the two following years. He also assists with a training class for the LaSalle Banks Chicago Marathon that enrolls 2,000 runners each summer. His wife, Rose, hikes, bikes, skis and manages book sales off his Web site. She co-authored one book with him about her Italo-Albanian heritage: Falconara: A Family Odyssey. Now out of print, several copies recently have been offered on eBay at prices between $150 and $200. They have three children and nine grandchildren.