“I never imagined that 20 years ago, I would be known for running!” But while Mark Lawrence may have never imagined it, he is a staple in the Vintage Athlete running community.
Mark started running during his service in the military. Having first joined at 18 years old, he initially just wanted to get in better shape, but eventually set a goal to go to Officer Candidate School and wanted to get in the best shape possible to prepare for that challenge. At that time, the fitness test consisted of push-ups, sit-ups, and a two-mile run. In order to get the maximum score, he trained himself to be able to do 70 push-ups, 70 sit-ups and a two mile run in under 13 minutes. After successfully completing OCS and becoming a commissioned officer, he wanted to maintain that level of fitness the rest of the time he was in the Army.
During those years, he started to participate in some races, but really didn’t consider running a marathon until after his military days when he turned 40 years old. “At that point, I was the typical novice doing their first marathon. I figured I could do it on my own, which resulted in a crash and burn. I finished, but I had to walk much of the last six miles. But I at least found out that I could go that far” Lawrence said.
That drive to go the distance renewed upon moving to Frederick in 2001. But he now had his eye on a goal that was beyond a marathon. Having grown-up in Hagerstown, he had always heard about the JFK 50 Miler. He was intrigued by the challenge of being able to traverse 50 miles on the Appalachian Trail and the C&O Canal in a single day and he encouraged his 16 year old son Adam to train for it with him. But this time, he got some outside help.
“When I moved to Frederick, I found the Steeplechaser Running Club, and that was an eye-opener.,” continued Lawrence. “ I thought I was in pretty good shape for my age, but I quickly realized by running with lifelong runners often older than me, that I hadn’t even begun to excel. My first training run with the group, they were running my 5K race pace going for an 8 mile run!”
“I pushed myself to just keep them within sight, but guys like Tim O’Keefe challenged me to get better.”
Pushing himself in those training runs as well as doing long runs with his son got them ready to finish the JFK later that year. The following year, he did it with his younger son Marshal, and the year after that, they all 3 did it together! From that point forward he was hooked and began running at a torrid pace averaging 50 miles a week , completing 2 Boston Marathons along with dozens of other races of marathon distance or longer finishing in the top 10% of the field at the JFK, 15th overall in the tremendously challenging Catoctin 50K Trail Run, and was named the Steeplechaser’s “2004 Masters Runner of the Year”. “I couldn’t have done all that without the camaraderie of the Steeplechasers. They gave me incentive and guidance to train.” Lawrence said.
For the next few years, Mark began to influence other runners with his enthusiasm helping to develop greater interest for trail running and ultra-marathoning. “I was entering my late 40’s and was doing things I never imagined I could do. I felt invincible!” Lawrence recalled.
However, by 2007, the predictable thing started to happen. Knee problems began. In Mark’s case, he had Varus deformity (bow legs) and his right knee started to give way becoming more bowed than his left. Doctors and physical therapist were telling him to find another hobby and that his legs just weren’t meant for this. Mark was told that his right knee was in bad enough condition to warrant a knee replacement. Mark didn’t want to hear that. Instead, he sought another solution and found it in a book published in 2004 called Chi Running: A Guide to Effortless and Injury Free Running written by Danny Dreyer. Mark read the book and started to re-learn how to run.
Simultaneously, Mark knew that the knee issue was certainly going to inhibit his ability to compete, so he started to see what else he could do with his passion for running. As it happened, the Steeplechasers Running Club was going through a difficult period. For some reason, the 30 year-old organization was losing membership. Membership had gone from a high of about 250 runners falling to a low at the end of 2006 of less than 100. Mark thought he understood why. “To me, we were too internally focused on competitions and not paying attention to the community outside of the Club. “We especially need to do something to reach out and encourage entry level runners, he said.”
That thought process led Mark to being elected the Club’s President and among other changes, he began to organize training runs for entry level runners and started to share with them the Chi Running technique. “I knew it was helping me, so I wanted to share it with others. It was phenomenal thing for me to watch as people I was coaching that couldn’t sustain a running pace for a full mile when they started were doing half-marathons and beyond the following year!”
As time went on, he got in even deeper into the organizational end of running by taking charge of the Club’s Race Support function where he leads volunteers in doing the finish line timing and course marking for lots of local area 5K races where you hear him consistently announce to all participants “If you are a runner in Frederick County, you too should be a Steeplechaser.” Over the next 5 years the club quadrupled in membership and today has grown to nearly 1000 members. “My contribution to that growth” Mark said, “is my proudest accomplishment in running.”
By 2011, Mark had become a certified Chi Running instructor and began teaching formal workshops on Chi Running while also coaching a youth running program where he shared his passion for running with hundreds of kids here in Frederick as well as adults that came from all around the region to learn.
As far as that bad knee, Mark continued to run trail ultramarathons to 2012 and ran his last marathon in 2014. In 2017, another problem came along. “I knew I had to slow down and back off the super long distance stuff to make the knee last longer, but while running the 2017 Mission 10 Miler, I started to experience a sensation I had never felt before. I started to have difficulty consistently picking up my feet behind me.” Mark said. “It scared me and I thought it had something to do with the knee. I thought I was doing nerve damage and thought that it was a sign I needed to finally get the knee replaced.”
Later that year, Mark had the knee replaced and rehabbed for 6 months before trying to run again. But he found that despite the knee being strong, the same awkward sensation persisted. Disheartened, he did little running for the next several months before another symptom began. This time, it was tremoring in his left hand. He was referred to a neurologist who diagnosed him with Parkinson’s Disease at the age of 60 in February of 2018.
For Mark, this gave him a new sense of purpose to run. “A lot of runners think of running as therapeutic, but for me to fight the progression of Parkinson’s, it’s a therapy that’s absolutely necessary to maintain function. The doctors tell me that the only way to fight the progression of the disease is to force yourself to stay as active as you can be. I don’t run as far or as fast anymore but running with proper form and technique is more important to me now than ever.” How’s that for a Vintage Athlete?
Mark still works full time as the Director of Facilities Engineering for Sheppard Pratt’s affiliate Way Station Inc. As part of those duties he also serves as the Race Director of their largest fund raiser, “The Frederick Turkey Trot” which he has helped grow in recent years to the largest 5K race in the State of Maryland. He doesn’t coach professionally anymore, but says he still enjoys sharing the technique of running for a lifetime with anyone that would like to learn. To Mark, “Running is the basic human athletic function” that everyone should nurture. “We’re talking about a person’s ability to move themselves forward efficiently. Use it or lose it. I run because I can, and I can because I run!”