The Concord

Issue date: 10/31/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: ING

Media Credit: Stephanie Clouser

By Stephanie Clouser

Despite losing his luggage (which included his running shoes) and getting little sleep the night before, Bellarmine history professor Dr. Eric Roorda said the rest of the Amsterdam marathon, which he ran for the first time Oct. 21, went "fine."

"That was a rookie mistake not to bring my shoes in my carry-on," Roorda said.

The airline he flew into Amsterdam on misplaced his luggage. Roorda, who wears size 15 shoes, said he couldn't find anyone with extra shoes in his size. Luckily he recovered his luggage in time for the race, though it disrupted his plans for preparing the couple of days before the race.

"I couldn't do my last little training run. I was going to do like 4 miles on Friday and take it easy on Saturday. I stayed up watching a soccer match instead of getting a good night's sleep. I only got like six hours of sleep," Roorda said. "I really planned poorly; I was going to get up and go to the grocery store and get some bananas. And the grocery store that I scoped out was like a little mini-mart kind of thing and it didn't even have a produce section, so I started this thing on an empty stomach and I got six hours of sleep."

Roorda completed the marathon in four hours, five minutes, and 31 seconds, about a 10 minute improvement from his first marathon, which he ran in April. Although he started off slower than he wanted, he improved as the race went on.

"I started picking up more and more momentum. And it's a beautiful course, and that helped," he said.

The Amsterdam marathon has been held every October since 1975 (except for 1978), and last year there were participants from 63 countries. The marathon finishes at the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam. This year there were 6,527 runners competing; Roorda finished 4,839.

"In the Olympic stadium it was such a carnival atmosphere. There were 6,500 plus [runners], a very international crowd. All over Europe, Brazil, people from everywhere," Roorda said of the race.

Since he began running just a little more than two years ago, Roorda has run two marathons: the Kentucky Derby Festival marathon in April and the Amsterdam marathon less than two weeks ago. Roorda picked up his running career after being faced with a medical decision.

"I got in a big car accident a few years ago and I did some major damage to my left foot. The doctor was giving me the options, saying 'well, we can leave this alone, because the surgery is really complicated, and you'll be able to walk fine, but you won't be able to run on it probably. Or we could do the complicated surgery and you still might not be able to run on it because it's really messed up."Roorda said.

"And that was just kind of scary to think, here I'm in my early 40s and I won't be able to run with my kids. So I went ahead with the surgery and it turned out pretty well."

So Roorda began recreational running by himself. Then representatives from the Frazier Rehab Institute visited Bellarmine in January with tips for training for a marathon.

"Frazier rehab had an organizational meeting on campus last January to train for the half marathon and full marathon," Roorda said. "A 16-week program. They had this really cool book with a very systematic training schedule for 16 weeks to take a relative beginner, someone who just ran a few miles at a time up to that level, and I followed that religiously."

Roorda used the exact same program to train for the Amsterdam race.

"It's just something so recognized about the marathon as a benchmark to strive for, that puts you kind of into a subset of people in the world. Although there's a huge number, 600,000, of Americans I guess someplace have run a marathon," he said.

"Definitely long-distance running is a fad in this country, and I just got swept up in it."

Now, Roorda wants to organize a running club for students at Bellarmine.

"When I got into [running], I realized that having some guidance was a really good thing," Roorda said.

However, because of the rising competitiveness in the cross country and track teams at Bellarmine, it is getting more difficult for students who just want to run recreationally to walk on the teams.

"I mentioned the idea of having a running club to [head cross country and track coach] Jim Vargo and he said that there are a lot of people on campus who like to run, but the teams are getting so good that they can't really accept people who just kind of want to stay in shape and have some fun with some people," Roorda said. "And NCAA rules make it hard to mix up who's actually on the team and who isn't, and that [a running club] would be sort of a nice in-between the actual athletes who are actually on the team, and just the general student population."

Roorda said he doesn't have a specific format for the club, but stressed the club would be ideal for all skill and experience levels, with different members bringing ideas to the table.

"It's an instant community. Everyone's in this positive mood, and you're all out there on the road together," he said.

Roorda is also entertaining the idea of giving the running club an international focus, and bringing running into a global perspective.

"I also really like the idea of also maybe doing a trip. Do something in the U.S., and maybe do something internationally," Roorda said. "At the runner's expo in Amsterdam, they had people from marathons from all over the world handing out information, so what a cool thing that would be. It's a global phenomenon. You're instantly part of a community when you do these organized runs."

Roorda has mentioned the idea of a running club to students several times, and he says that there is "interest out there. So it's just a matter of getting the word out."

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