Jason Tamblyn has a passion for distance running. The Beaverton, Oregon, native hasbrlogged more than 90,000 miles in races including the Boston Marathon and DisneybrMarathon. These days, he's not training for any event; he's helping locals become betterbrrunners at Bob Jones Nature Center. The two-time cancer survivor has made it his mission tobr nd ways to give back and make a positive difference in the lives of others.
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I DEVELOPED A LOVE FOR RUNNING: in eight grade. I stopped doing all my other sports to concentrate on running since I had some natural ability.
SOME OF THE PROUDEST MOMENTSbrFROM MY RUNNING CAREER INCLUDE:brrunning Cross Country at Sunset High School in Beaverton, Oregon, and in 1980 being part of the team tobrwin the Oregon Cross Country StatebrChampionship. The second was placingbrin the top 20 out of more than 200brrunners at the Furman Invitational inbr1984 while both my parents and latebruncle were in attendance.
MY MOTIVATION TO RUN STEMSbrFROM: the peace it gives me—just beingbrable to get in the zone where I get anbrinner calm and feel the endorphins. Also,brI nd it is a place to ponder life’s upsbrand downs.br
THE RUNNER I MOST ADMIRE IS: the late Steve Prefontaine, who ran atbrUniversity of Oregon. Prefontaine diedbrin an auto accident at age 24. At thebrtime of his death, Prefontaine held everybrAmerican record from 2,000 to 10,000brmeters, which is quite amazing. Mybrfavorite quotes from Prefontaine are:br“To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift” and “Somebodybrmay beat me, but they are going to havebrto bleed to do it.”
SURVIVING CANCER TWICE HAS SHOWN ME THAT: God hasbrunaccomplished business for me onbrthis earth. In May 2014, I was diagnosedbrwith melanoma of the scalp and hadbrinitial surgery. I had a reoccurrence in September 2014. Doctors gave me a 70-percent chance of a deadly recurrence.brBy the grace of God, doctors re classed it as abrsarcoma and not melanoma in 2015. Fortunatelybrfor me, sarcoma is not as deadly and aggressive asbrmelanoma.
I WAS DRAWN TO BOB JONES NATURE CENTERbr(BJNC): when I was searching for some green spacebrupon moving to Texas in 2014. I had tried somebrother natural areas, but they were crowded and onbrcement, and I wanted a place out in nature.br
MY GUIDED SATURDAY-MORNING RUNS AT BJNC: depend on the ability and goals of the folks whobrshow up. I try to make the program fit various levelsbrof runners or non-runners and adjust the distancebrand pace accordingly. Normally, we run betweenbrfour and seven miles on the dirt trails.
WHEN I LEAD THE TRAILS RUNS, I PERSONALLYbrENJOY: not only nature and regenerating myself,brbut helping people reach their goals, whether it’sbrrunning a 5K, 10K or a half or full marathon. Justbrwatching people become better runners fills mebrwith joy.
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WHEN I'M NOT RUNNING, I'M: watching live bands.brI’m into hard rock and some new-rock bands. I alsobrenjoy traveling to places such as Jamaica, Cancunbrand Lake Tahoe.br
MY RUNNING PHILOSOPHY IS THAT: it’s somethingbranyone can do. People who have never tried itbrwould be surprised at what they can do over time.brThis was the case with two women I worked withbrgoing up to their rst half marathon. They couldn’tbrbelieve what they were able to do. I was proud ofbrboth of them for running the full 13 miles.br
MY BEST ADVICE FOR NEW RUNNERS IS TO: notbrdo too much too quickly. It’s easy to push yourselfbrat first and think you should be able to get a certainbrnumber of miles in a certain time. You have tobrestablish a base of miles, much like a pyramid, and that takes time and self-control.
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