Wv Coach Runs Away With 10,000

Dori Robertson dares to be different. When she does things she likes to go against the grain.

Which explains her preference for ultra-marathons over a saner race.

“One of the reasons I got into running was because my sister was a cheerleader,” Robertson said. “I hated normal people so I ran.”

When the normal people discovered running, she quit.

“One of the reasons I went away from it was because it was so popular and I didn’t do popular things,” Robertson said.

She returned to it after a slight from her then-boyfriend and it’s been all out ever since.

Robertson has done every distance from a mile to 50 and prefers the longer race.

“I’m probably better at a 50-miler,” she said.

Her obsession with the sport has meant a successful track coaching career and involvement with the Bloomsday Roadrunners Club.

Last weekend Robertson, 35, found time to win the 10,000 meters in 42:08.88 at the USATF Masters National Track meet in respite from her duties as a member of the meet planning committee.

The Chattaroy resident, who left Springdale in 1995 where her teams were a Panorama League power to coach girls track and teach at West Valley High, used it as speed work in her preparation for bigger things.

“Here’s the deal,” Robertson explained. “I’m training for a marathon and want to break three hours.”

Next up will be a half-marathon in Chicago, Sept. 29. The marathon will follow either in Washington D.C. in late October or in Philadelphia in late November.

She earned the Chicago trip, including expense money for lodging and toward her plane ticket, by winning a USATF half-marathon qualifier near Pullman in 1 hour and 28 minutes last March.

Two months later Robertson was in a protective boot, recovering from stress fractures. The 10K run at Spokane Falls Community College was part of her preparation.

All of this because Robertson’s husband-to-be called her fat.

“I said, ‘forget him’ and went out and ran nine miles,” said Robertson.

She had loved running beginning in the fourth grade when her teacher gave her money for an AAU card. She had an injury plagued career at Mead High School, missing much of her senior track season in 1979.

After a brief try in college, “I didn’t go near a track for four years,” she said.

Properly challenged by the unflattering comment, she returned to running sporadically. Within three years she was training regularly and has been on the run ever since.

Ten years ago this fall she ran her first marathon, timing 4:17 despite a stress fracture and cold.

“I couldn’t believe I ran it,” she said.

Her second marathon two years later was 3:36. Her third, a 10th-place finish in Coeur d’Alene, was 3:26.

“I remember thinking, ‘Ooh, I’m good now.’ That was probably the big turning point,” said Robertson.

All told she’s run 18 marathons with a best of 3:12, and one ultra.

“The farther you go, the less it hurts,” she said. “You get numb but there’s no more pain.” Someday Robertson would like to run a 100-miler.

“For the average person it makes you realize you can do things,” she said.

Just to be different.

Medalists at Masters

Valleyite Vince Martin, just back from a backpacking trip to Wyoming, won gold at the USATF National Masters Track and Field meet.

Martin, 37, a teacher and financial planner, triple jumped 42-6 to win the Men’s 35 competition.

He beat Dwayne Deckard who jumped 36-10-1/2. Deckard placed second at 16-10 in the long jump as well.

Also coming away with a silver medal was Reg Hulbert in the pole vault.

Hulbert, an airline pilot who coaches vaulters at University High School, cleared 12-11-1/2 to finish second in the Men’s 45 category.

“I was disappointed,” he said. “I’ve been clearing 14-0 in practice. The runway in my back yard is downhill, so that is an advantage.”

Calvin Brown, 59, finished second in the 20 kilometer race-walk and was fourth in the 5K.

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