| Classmate Connections! |
| Classmate Tom Fort shares this article from the Delaware News-Journal |
Longtime runner and race official Fort is back winning races
The News Journal/FRED COMEGYS
Tom Fort, who has resumed racing, crosses a wooden bridge at White Clay Creek State Park. He says he doesn't train as hard as
he once had, but he's back to finishing first in his age group.
By KEVIN TRESOLINI
The News Journal
04/05/2006
Tom Fort's association with running events has been continuous in the nearly 40 years he's lived in Delaware.
It's his own running and, more precisely, racing that experienced a recent rebirth when Fort turned 70.
The Newark resident is a fixture at high school track meets as a Delaware Sports Club official. In the 1970s and '80s, he served a
long stint as director of Wilmington's annual Caesar Rodney Half-Marathon. Prior to that, he helped start and operate many of the
track and cross country meets that preceded the subsequent road-running
During all that time, Fort has never stopped running. But since deciding to step up his training to race competitively again last
year, Fort has been delighted with the results. He has won his age group in all five events -- four Delaware races and the Road
Runners Club of America national 10K championship in Houston, where he covered the 6.2 miles in 52:12.
A retired DuPont engineer, Fort's other passion is teaching Sunday School at Ebenezer United Methodist Church on Polly
Drummond Hill Road.
"I never stopped running," said Fort, who was a Big Eight Conference indoor track two-mile runner-up at Missouri. "I just didn't
race. If you pushed hard enough, it hurt."
Now, the pain comes with some pleasure.
What made you decide to resume racing?
"I'd just been threatening to get in shape. I needed something to cause me to train a little harder. Turning 70 did it."
Has it been hard?
"It's sort of with mixed feelings. It's good to run well for your age group. But when you're at a mile and a quarter on one of those
turnaround courses and you see the big boys coming back at two miles. It's a little humbling."
What kind of mileage are you putting in?
"The kamikaze training, as I've been accused of doing, I don't do anymore. But I do get my two quality track workouts in a week.
Once a week, I run a 10-mile loop with the group at Buckley's [Tavern, in Centreville] or a 12-mile loop from my house. I'm doing 25
miles a week, give or take five. I'm not going out running in the rain or on snowy roads anymore. I don't have the ambition to fight
the elements."
Did you keep running after college?
"I was in the Navy for three years in Philadelphia and there was never time to get any running in. When I got out, I was in Texas for
two years and Louisiana for four, and it was too hot to run. When I moved to Delaware in 1967, I joined the YMCA my second week
here, back when all the running was on the indoor track there. In 1972 or 1973, I directed the Caesar Rodney Half-Marathon for
the first time. I started the race, tossed the gun to somebody, ran, finished, then scored it and did the awards."
What made you decide to get so busy as a race director and official?
"It's really just a chance to give back to the sport. I'm not as fast as I used to be, but, you know, it's really been an honor to be
involved in some of the things that I've done."
Contact Kevin Tresolini at 324-2804 or ktresolini@delawareonline.com.
| Here, Tom shares an early picture taken during his Navy Days refered to in the article. |
| SHS Class of 53 Picture Album |
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