Oct 22, 2007 Gordon Minty - EMU's Marathon Star By Doug Kurtis

Gordon Minty, a professor of technical management at Indiana State University in Terre Haute for the past twenty two years, won to the Free Press Marathon in 1979 as well as its precursor, the Motor City Marathon in 1976.

A 14-time All-American at Eastern Michigan University, Minty ran the second fastest marathon in Michigan history in the ’79 race. His 2:15:42 defeated defending champion Bob McOmber and another Michigan standout Duane Spitz.

His impressions of the marathon: “A: Seemingly minor problems which can be ignored in shorter races (small blisters, aches and pains, minor injuries) become magnified in a marathon and can become big, big problems before the end of the race.”
B) “Even at the front of a marathon the race requires more personal drive to do well, whereas in shorter races the fun of competition can often carry you through a bad patch during a race.”
C) “Prize money may motivate some individuals to run a marathon and even to train for it but I don’t think it enables anyone to run faster during a marathon. This is why times are no faster now than they were 30 years ago.”

Minty remembers doing most of his marathon running while in East Lansing. “When it comes to marathon memories, as opposed to other distances I remember solo workouts. Such as doing 15 times 1mile, all under 5 minutes, with a two minute ¼ mile jog between, in the park by the zoo in East Lansing early one morning, (maybe it’s because it took me two years to go from 5.08 to under 5 minutes on the track when I was in high school).”

“When I look back I find it interesting that 5 or 6 times my solo long run was 26 miles and I gave absolutely no thought about going an extra 385 yards to say I ran a marathon. I can’t forget some of the18-24 mile runs with Duane Spitz early Wednesday mornings when we decided to try two long runs a week rather than just one. We needed to run them fast so we could get to work.”

Minty said he really didn’t like much about the marathon. “I don’t regard running the distance as much of a challenge. I do regard running the distance as fast as you can to be a big challenge. When I ran a hard marathon even seeing the finish line only signaled the beginning of a week long recovery from aches and pains (I envied Doug Kurtis who seemed to suffer little after effects from the race).”

Commenting on his running career overall Minty said he was proud of the effort he put in and the results of it. He truly enjoyed all the good times and friends he made along the way. “In the whole scheme of things I think I’ve had a great ride.”

Currently, Minty helps out at the big cross country meets as well as the NCAA and regional meets that are held in Terre Haute. He has been married for 33 years and they have two girls.