Geared for long runs
Dylan Gearinger puts more mileage on his legs than some people put on their vehicles in a week.
The Berwick graduate runs an average of 126 miles during that span, training in any condition Mother Nature throws his way by going for 6-mile runs in the morning and 12-mile strolls every afternoon. It’s all in hopes of keeping his body fresh during grueling 26.2-mile marathons — oh, and of winning his hometown Run for the Diamonds.
“I avoid the treadmill at all costs,” Gearinger said. “You sometimes have to race in sloppy conditions, so it pays to train in them.”
The conditioning paid off in Philadelphia last month, surprising even himself with a second-place finish in 2 hours, 14 minutes, 53 seconds. It’s not the runner-up status that surprised him though, it was the time he turned in — an average of just over 5 minutes a mile.
“My thoughts at the starting line were to just hit my splits,” Gearinger said. “I wanted to run it in a certain time: 2 hours, 18 minutes. If you had told me I’d run it in 2:14, I’d have told you you’re insane. I felt amazing and never felt so smooth running.”
Gearinger couldn’t say the same when the race concluded, claiming he passed out immediately after putting “everything I had into that race.”
It didn’t take him long to get back on his feet, as the Holy Redeemer junior high cross country coach went for a 4-mile run with his squad the next day.
Bouncing back is one of Gearinger’s greatest qualities. After all, he ran the Philadelphia Marathon merely six weeks after winning the first marathon he ever ran in 2:20:22. That win came Oct. 10 at the Mohawk Hudson River Marathon in Albany, New York.
“I was actually using that marathon more as a training run. Not to sound arrogant, but I went in knowing that I was the fittest guy in the race,” Gearinger said. “I went in knowing I could win the race, get a good workout in and use it as a stepping stone for the Philly race. I went toe-to-toe with another runner for about halfway, and then accelerated the second half and won.”
He celebrated the occasion by going for a 7-mile run the ensuing day.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Gearinger goes back to his roots when training. After all, he credits his academic track career to get him to this point.
“I thought distance running was something I could do,” he said. “I think to be a top-tier marathoner, you need to have track credentials.”
While running for Haverford College, Gearinger won the 2018 indoor track and field 3K national championship. He finished in 8:16.77 and qualified for the USA track and field 2-mile championships in Staten Island.
He is also the two-time defending champion of the Colonel Half Marathon in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Everything has led him to a point where Gearinger can weigh his options. The Boston Marathon is one, but he’s not certain he wants to run that at this point in time. Instead, he has his sights set on the Pittsburgh Marathon with hopes of running the Chicago Marathon in 2023.
“I just think that with the stage that I’m at, the Pittsburgh Marathon would be a good challenge for me,” Gearinger said. “I would have a lot of competition and would compete for the win as well, that’s where I want to be. I also want to use it as another stepping stone for the Chicago Marathon.”
Nobody knows Gearinger more than himself. He knows he has work to do to get the results he wants as he continues to run more marathons, saying it’s all about how he finishes them.
“The last three miles of my marathon were quite rough. … I just think if I can layer in a bit more strength, I think I can be competitive on a national level,” he said.
“I’m going to keep working on all the same stuff that I’ve been working on.”
Running home
The pressure he felt at the starting line of the Philadelphia Marathon is small compared to that of wanting to win the Run for the Diamonds.
Already owning the fastest time for a Berwick-born runner with 46:41:14 in 2020, breaking current association president Bill Bull’s record, Gearinger strives for more. His sixth-place finish broke Bull’s 1985 timing by 14 seconds.
The internal pressure was then met with external expectations when he didn’t run in this year’s race, instead opting to rest after the Philadelphia Marathon. He came to the decision because training for the Diamonds — despite being 17 miles shorter — is similar to a marathon due to all of the course’s difficulty.
“I feel more pressure with Diamonds because everybody knows me as a runner in Berwick,” Gearinger said. “Even though I came off the Philly marathon, I received texts congratulating me and asking if I was running the Diamonds again this year.
“I will definitely be back to the Diamonds in 2022. It’s my hometown race and I can’t call it a successful running career until I win that race. I’m hoping 2022 is my year. I want to win for the hometown crowd.”
Link to story: https://www.pressenterpriseonl...
