Sports

Balancing work, training makes Chugiak runner happy heading into Olympic marathon trials

When Jesse Cherry ran in the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials four years ago, he had never before raced 26.2 miles, so he wasn't quite sure how things would unfold.

Still, all the literature, all the confessionals and all the runners' anecdotes told Cherry he likely would encounter the excruciating at some point in the late stages of the race in Houston, Texas.

"I remember waiting and waiting – 'When is the pain going to come?' '' Cherry recalled.

Turned out his race went splendidly, particularly for a debut. The former Chugiak High standout finished 29th, clocking 2 hours, 16 minutes, 31 seconds.

That was back when Cherry was a full-time runner. Saturday, he takes a second crack at the Trials, this time in Los Angeles, where race-day temperatures are forecast in the high 70s to low 80s.

And though Cherry has three marathons of experience, he is uncertain what to expect now that he is coupling marathon training with a full-time job as a product manager for Zombot Studio, which makes video games.

"I'd like to do better,'' Cherry said in a telephone interview this week. "We'll see. It's kind of hard to tell four years later, at least until you're in the race.

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"I'm sure there's some benefit (to experience). The biggest thing is I've got a few marathons under my belt. There are people who are going to go out too fast. There are people who are going to bonk.''

Cherry, 30, who lives in Oakland, California, said he's found balance between work and training. He banged out some work weeks of 50-plus hours recently, even during a 10-week training build-up when his high-mileage week was 118 miles.

Cherry, who ran collegiately at High Point University in North Carolina, said he's gained a measure of composure about these Trials because he has a career, and his life is no longer solely focused on running.

"I don't think I'm putting the same weight on things,'' he said. "That's probably part of being older too. It's not do or die. Maybe if I was running for a (shoe-company or sponsor) contract, it would be different.''

Cherry said he trains before work – he's usually out the door between 6 a.m. and 6:30.

Maintaining a demanding full-time job while still training at the level of an elite marathoner recently landed Cherry on the cover of Runner's World magazine.

In his marathon debut at the 2012 Trials, Cherry went out conservatively – he said he was in last place at one point.

He intends to go out conservatively again Saturday. That tactic served him well last year, when he ran a negative split –1:08:54 for the opening 13.1 miles, 1:07:40 for the closing 13.1 miles – and clocked 2:16:34 at the Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota. That race qualified him for Saturday's Trials.

Cherry said he's been trying to fight a bug going around his office. And he's dealt with some food allergy issues recently. Yet he didn't sound stressed about any of it.

"I'm feeling all right,'' he said. "It hasn't been the best build-up, but it's one of those things where you can't do anything about it.''

And no matter how Cherry fares Saturday, he's got a job he loves, and he said that furnishes him equilibrium.

"Part of running well is being mentally happy,'' Cherry said. "I'm totally happy.''

Doyle Woody

Doyle Woody covered hockey and other sports for the Anchorage Daily News for 34 years.

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