Updated DRS Bio

Here is the bio I submitted in 1996, updated for 2007. It was kind of fun to do it this way.

Name:
1996-Dan Horvath
2007-Dan Horvath

City/State:
1996-Farmington Hills, Michigan, USA
2007-Brunswick, Ohio, USA

Phone:
1996-(810) 474-5765
2007-(330) 558-0418

Birthday:
1996-May 2, 1953
2007-May 2, 1953 (seems a lot further away now)

Occupation (Title):
1996-Senior Systems Engineer
2007-Senior Software Metrics Consultant

Occupation (What I actually do):
1996-I’ll let you know when I find out.
2007-ditto

System:
1996-Gateway 2000 Pentium
2007-Toshiba Notebook

E-Mail Addresses:
1996-au507@detroit.freenet.org
2007-runhorvathrun@hotmail.com

Family Life:
1996-Got one! 1 (one) wife. 2 (two) teenage daughters. And you wonder why I run. Actually got into the habit of (very) early morning running when the kids were small so that I could spend time with them. Now that they don’t want to spend time with me, I’m still in the habit.
2007-My teenage daughters are now in their 20s with lives of their own – Veronica lives in Connecticut, and Valerie is in Chicago. So now it’s just me and my wife, of 32 years, Debbie. And I still do that early morning running.

Education:
1996-BS Computer Science, MS Information Systems.
2007-ditto

My Obsessions:
1996-Food, running, reading, music(classical), maybe a little wine & beer to go with the food. In that order.
2007-Almost the same. I still like the food, books and music, but I no longer drink alcohol.

My Ideal Running Program:
1996-Perpetually training/recovering from marathons and other races. I copied this from another runner’s bio but it does apply to me too. In miles, I’d say 70+ per week (that’s somewhere around 111 Km for you metric folks). Included would be 2 speed sessions per week, (9x1600m and 8x400m) along with a tempo run.
2007-Perhaps a little moderation would be in order here. Not much, mind you. I’d still like to be doing 70+ mpw. And I’d still like to get those speed sessions in, but maybe only 2 per week.

My Real Running Program:
1996-I am doing a lot of marathons (a record 5 this year) and other races. But my mileage has dropped to about 50-60 per week. Usually get in the 2 speed sessions, but it’s been a while since I did 9x1600. Talks about killer workouts.
2007-My mileage this year has been 60-70 mpw – a bit less than last year. I did more speed work last year, but I’m ramping up now. I’ve done a few 8 x 1600s lately and some tempo runs. Even so, most of this has been pretty durn slow. I need to pick it up.

Shoe of choice:
1996-I generally like anything ASICS puts out but my all time favorites would be among these: Avia Meridians (2063 or so), Adidas Response, Reebok Graphlite Road. Starting to like the ASICS Gel DS Trainer. In my next life I want to be a namer of running shoes.
2007-I still generally like ASICS shoes best. Although I’ve really liked some of the DS Trainers over the years, lately I’ve been running almost exclusively in the 2000 series models (I think it’s up to 2120 now). They work really well for me.

My Paces:
1996-They vary a lot. Overall, according to my Excel Training Log, I average about 7:40 per mile. I’m not even gonna try to translate that into min per Km.
2007-Wow. 7:40?? It’s telling that 1996 was the last year that I broke 3 hours. Now then: 2006 was a very good year for me, and according to my Access running log, I averaged 7.98 minutes per mile. So far in 2007 I’m averaging a relatively pedestrian 8.12. I vow that this will change. There is still a fair amount of variance.

Goal:
1996-3000 miles (4800 Km?) in 1997. That would be a record. Also: Continue to improve every year until I’m 60. I know: that’s a tough one. I’ve got 16.5 years to go before I can slack off. But I generally have continued to get better as I’ve aged. So far...........One more goal: to actually win a road race. Don’t care if there’s as few as 2 people running, I WANT TO WIN ONE!
2007-That was funny, for a couple reasons. I’ve had no trouble at all hitting 3000 miles for many of the years since. Improving every year? Until 60? What was I thinking? 1997 was the year I started to slow down. And no, I don’t think it’s because of the increased mileage. I mentioned that 2006 was a relatively good year, and I ran 3296 miles – a goodly amount. My goal for the last 10 years or so has been to get back to sub-3 hour land. Yes, I still think I can do it.

Other Fitness Stuff:
1996-Weightlifting a few times per week with light weights. Walking with my wife.
2007-Weightlifting a few times per week with light weights. Walking with Debbie.

Outdoor interests:
1996-Anything that doesn’t involve yardwork. Or swatting bugs. Nice beaches work fine for me. Non-insect infested forests are great too.
2007-I can’t say it better than I did 11 years ago.

Indoor interests:
1996-Reading, movies. I know... I’m dull.
2007-Reading and movies. I have a sort-of movie theater in the basement. Spend a lot of time with that.

How did you find out about the Dead Runners Society?
1996-From Dead Person friend Pat Mitchell.
2007-Haven’t heard from Pat in many years. I keep in touch with friends Rita Cognion and George Ziga, and also with a few other local (to NE Ohio) Deads.

I Could Be a Really Good Runner If:
1996-I could hold my #@%%# weight down.
2007-DITTO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That’s about it.