WCS Superintendent Sees Running As Way To Boost Health, Performance
WCS Superintendent Sees Running As Way To Boost Health, Performance
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
WCS Superintendent Sees Running As Way To Boost Health, PerformanceRunning the Boston Marathon twice has helped Dr. David Hoffert not only improve his health, but also his relationships and job performance.
The Warsaw Community Schools superintendent ran the marathon for a second time April 15, but getting there began in 2015.
“It’s kind of a funny story how this all transpired and happened. I never thought I would go into running the Boston Marathon or even having a desire to run 26 miles,” Hoffert said.
In high school, he was an all-state track athlete. At college, he really loved running, and when he returned to Warsaw to teach history, he also was the boys track coach.
“It really was a dream come true for me,” he said.
But in his 20s, and then his 30s, life started taking hold of him. His time to stay physically active and go out for a run seemed to disappear. While he was working toward his doctorate, he gained 35 pounds as he drove back and forth to Terre Haute and Louisville two or three times a week. “Taco Bell became my best friend,” he joked.
His breaking point came as he was finishing his doctorate. He went to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field with a group of educators. They watched it from the rooftops where the food was all-you-can-eat, so Hoffert decided to eat “all around the bases,” meaning he tried to eat one thing of every item on the menu.
“It was phenomenal. I enjoyed the game. I ate absolutely miserably, and then the next week was an annual physical,” Hoffert said.
In his mid-30s, his tests came back “miserable.” He tried to hide his results from his wife, Rachael, but she saw them. For a post-doctorate present, she gave him a new pair of running shoes and told him to find a healthy lifestyle again. That was in August 2015.
“I got this strange idea in my head. I thought: Wouldn’t it be cool to run a marathon? Sounds like a fun bucket list-type of activity,” he said.
At the end of August, he signed up for a marathon in October.
“That’s not a good idea. That’s not a wise idea at all,”?he said, laughing about it now.
He didn’t tell anyone he was going to do it. He put on the running shoes and his first few runs felt really good. But by September’s end, he was hurting from getting back in shape. He considered dropping out of the marathon, which was on the Civil War battlefield of Chickamauga in Georgia, but went and just didn’t tell anyone.
Hoffert’s great-great-grandfather was actually down there for the Civil War battle and was shot.
“I think he was the lucky one after I got done running that race because I think he probably felt better than I did, because I went down there, ran it and it absolutely hurt. I knew nothing about running a marathon. I didn’t know about the hydration, I hadn’t really studied the science of it. I just thought I’d go out and run 26 miles. And it very much hurt,” Hoffert recalled.
After crossing the finish line, he thought he’d never run a marathon again. On the drive back with Rachael, though, he decided to figure out how to run a marathon and try to qualify for Boston.
His time in the Georgia marathon was nowhere close to qualifying for the Boston Marathon. For Hoffert to qualify for Boston he needed to run a marathon in 3 hours, 5 minutes. He ran over 4 hours in that first marathon.
Hoffert began reading up on what it takes to run a marathon. He started training, finding the early mornings and late nights running was best for him so he didn’t take away his time with his wife and sons or his job duties.
“I found that early morning time and late night time was really a de-stresser for me. It was a way to help me to focus and be a better father, a better husband. Feeling healthier, even inside of my job, and just my life,” he said.
Hoffert found others to go on runs with him at 5 a.m. Sundays. They run for 15 to 20 miles, many times on treadmills just to do it.
His running times started coming down and his physical level returned.
In spring 2016, he ran another marathon and shaved almost an hour off his time. He realized it was getting close to qualifying for Boston. The next fall, a year after getting started, he ran a Chicago marathon, with a time just over 3 hours and qualifying him for the Boston Marathon.
A runner has to qualify for the marathon by the September of the year before. Only about 30,000 runners are accepted for the Boston race, with most of them being accepted based on their qualifying times.
“I looked at it really as a bucket list goal of doing it and being able to find that self-help and self-awareness inside of it ... I dropped that 35 pounds I had gained. I made some new friendships along the way,” he said.
Hoffert took his oldest son Ryun with him to the Boston Marathon in April 2018. It was the worst weather the marathon ever had. It rained over 2 inches. The high was 30 degrees, with snow, sleet and 25 mph headwinds. Many elite athletes dropped out and there were cases of hypothermia.
“It was just an unreal experience to be able to have the opportunity, but when you finish that, you’re very thankful for the opportunity, but I said I wanted to come back and try it again,” he said.
He qualified for the April 2019 Boston Marathon and took Ryun with him again. They also got to spend some quality time bonding.
“This year the weather ended up being so much better. It looked like it was going to be a cold, nasty day ... but it was amazing. There just seemed to be a block of time where the skies cleared,” he said, noting that some runners who finished after him got into some nasty weather. “I feel very fortunate to have some good weather.”
His time was 3 hours, 8 minutes, 48 seconds.
Hoffert qualified for 2020 and said he’ll probably run the marathon at least one more time. His dream would be to run Boston in under 3 hours, though that’s difficult there because of all the hills.
While running three hours in a marathon, Hoffert said you’re thinking about many different things including the sites and sounds around you. “But a lot of times it’s even kind of a time of reflection and celebration. What has it taken to be able to get to that area, how do you push through pain. The human body really isn’t meant to run more than 17 miles. I always think about the first marathon. You think about the human body and the human limits,”?he said.
Running the Boston Marathon is an exclusive club, with three WCS employees having ran it in recent years: Hoffert, Barb Martz and Eric Linn.
“It is kind of a badge of honor. If you are a marathon runner, the Boston Marathon is kind of the crux of it,” he said.
“I really do love it, because as we talk about, with our employees, about taking care of yourself mentally and physically, it’s really the way I’ve found to be better at what I do by being healthier and also just being a better father and husband by taking that time, that hopefully doesn’t get in the way of anything else, and finding that stress relief and physical challenge,” he said.
