Jerry Riemer is a Wyoming born, Houston area resident, who spends his days as a quality control manufacturing supervisor for Halliburton. A volunteer paramedic who has taken mission trips to Honduras, Reimer is also celebrating his 25th wedding anniversary this week. In his own words, “Five years ago, ‘running behind,’ ‘jumping to conclusions,’ and ‘passing the buck’ were my only exercise. Now, I’ve developed ‘Adult Onset Athleticism.’ I’ve been to doctors and there is no treatment….”
FNF: Who is your running role model?
JR: John Bingham [The Penguin]. I can identify with many of his writings. Every chance I can, I see him speak. He cracks me up! I was a follower for a long time of Jeff Galloway, and of course, there’s Frank Shorter.
FNF: What has been your most memorable running / racing experience?
JR: It might have been this run we did in the rain at 35 degrees. Even though we were soaked to the bone, the senses were very much attuned to what we were doing: one minute you were cold, then your feet would warm up. I was training for my first half, and I said to myself, “I think I have become a runner.”
FNF: What have you enjoyed about working with Focus-N-Fly?
JR: I signed up a year ago. I knew I had run six halves by then, but I needed something to keep me going during the off-season, when it was warm. What I didn’t expect was that it not only kept me running, but the speed workouts made a huge improvement in my conditioning. I went out and ran a 5k and took 4 minutes off my time! So, now if I can only take 4 more minutes off, I might get a medal!
For me the biggest advantage is that I can adjust the program to match my running and whatever else is going on in my life. When it says I can run this distance at this pace, by golly I can. With other people I run with, I can see them plateauing. but I don’t at all with this program.
FNF: What is one part of your racing routine you can’t do without (sleep, pre race meal, tie shoes certain way, other ritual)?
JR: I always have coffee first thing, then half an hour later I have breakfast - always steel cut oatmeal with sun butter and half a banana. Before a race, I like to do a bit of warm up: 1 min run, 1 min walk, a little bit of stretching.
FNF: What is your favorite place to go for a run?
JR: There’s a five-mile loop around lake woodlands in the woodlands. I’ll run there any day of the week.
FNF: In the next year, what goals do you hope to accomplish?
JR: January 2, I was signed up for four athletic events at the same time. I ran the Disney marathon, a 5k, the Woodlands Marathon, and a sprint triathlon in may. I am going to do some more sprint triathlons, and hopefully do some halves this fall and another marathon or two in 2013. A couple years ago, I realized I do well when I have specific goals; everything kind of focuses on that. So, I want to run two sprint triathlons between now and July and see if I can get under 2:00 for the first time in the half.
