Member Spotlight: Rohit Grover

1. How long have you been running and why did you start running? I started running in Jan 2015, so it’s been a little over 10 years. I had just turned 39, and decided to get in shape and lose weight instead of buying new clothes to fit my burgeoning waistline. That plan worked a little too well and I ended up buying clothes anyway because I dropped so many sizes! I started by trying to walk 10,000 steps with a Fitbit, but quickly realized that walking takes too long, and switched to running. I started with run/walk intervals, then trained enough to do the Shamrock 15k, then the Hop Hop Half, and haven’t stopped since.

2. How long have you been part of TRL, and what drew you to the club in the first place? I stupidly decided to run two marathons two weeks apart in 2015. The first was the Rogue Run, a “practice race” two weeks before the main event, the Portland Marathon. The practice race went mostly okay and I met my goal time of running sub-4 hours. Then (in retrospect, predictably) I completely bombed at the Portland Marathon – I showed up tired and unprepared to run in the warm conditions, and suffered through the last 8 or 9 miles with cramps.

I spotted the TRL pacers at the start of the Portland Marathon, and Raghav was in one of the pace teams, so I knew the club existed and an Indian-type person was part of it. I had separately sought out a work colleague (Len Neiberg) for tips on running, and he turned out to be a club member, and encouraged me to join…so I did. I enjoyed being at the group runs, the track workouts, and social events, though as work responsibilities have increased I’ve found myself unable to attend as many as I’d like to. Being in the club (and having served as membership director) has exposed me to a much more diverse (age, educational, and professional background) group of people than before, when I was in a bubble of fellow engineers at work, and the camaraderie and friendship has made it truly worthwhile.

3. What do you do when you’re not running (job, family, school…whatever it is you’d use to introduce yourself outside of running)? I describe myself as an engineer, though I’m really a technical program manager. I’ve worked at Intel for nearly 22 years. It was my first job after grad school and I’ve had many assignments over the years. I’d like to be able to do more gardening. When I was membership director, I learned Python to automate the membership reports, then switched the club to RunSignUp to make it even easier. That means I forgot my Python skills very quickly and hope to relearn Python coding some day. My wife and I are coming up on our 25th anniversary, and we’re enjoying being empty nesters now that the kids are away at college (grad school in the case of our older one). A few years ago, I started coaching a some friends, whose performances I love to boast about, especially the women athletes I’ve coached to multiple sub-3’s or marathon PBs (including one whose goal was to beat their dad’s marathon time).

4. What’s your favorite distance/type of run (5K, half-marathon, marathon, ultras, relays, track, trail, etc.)? I started off telling myself that I would run mostly half-marathons and sample the marathon but I fell in love with training for and running the marathon. I’ve now run all six of the traditional Majors, plus Sydney when it was a candidate race for the Majors, so I’m at seven stars on the Abbott World Marathon Majors list. I haven’t yet decided whether to run Cape Town and Shanghai when they become majors.

5. Where is your favorite place to run in the greater Portland area? Fairmount Blvd around Council Crest! I love running Fairmount loops. Each loop is 3.5 miles, so you are back at the car every 3.5 miles for a gel or water, not too different from running in a major race where aid stations are usually around 3 miles apart. It’s easy for friends to jump in for a lap or two or more at the beginning/end/middle of a long run depending on their schedules. It also has plenty of rolling hills and makes for a good training course for marathons. For marathon training blocks I do my long runs at Fairmount, maxing out at two 21 milers (6 loops) in each of the two 4-week training blocks before the taper. And a post-run coffee and pastry at Baker and Spice provides the perfect post-run reward.

6. What’s your most memorable running experience (or experiences)? Running – and talking – with Shalane Flanagan at Berlin during the marathon (where I was ahead at halfway only to finish 10 minutes behind her), becoming friends afterwards, doing many training runs, and training for Boston 2023 with her when she paced many of my workouts. On one of our runs we took a selfie with Janne Heinonen in front of a massive billboard of Shalane’s photo across from Lloyd Center. Although Shalane had just retired, she remains one of the most elegant runners I’ve run with.

Steven Short and I also got to run alongside Joan Benoit at Boston earlier this year. I got a chance to be a fanboy and tell her how I loved watching her Olympic race on YouTube, and how I tell all my athletes to watch it. It has taken many years of training, but I think I can finally keep up with Joanie.

Also Des Linden waved at me in the Fairmont Hotel restaurant in Boston. She may have been waving at someone else though.

The best experiences are the ones I renew every week — running with friends. I am forever grateful to all my friends for running with me and all the dad jokes (even if the dad joke exchange is decidedly one-sided at times).

7. What’s the best running advice you’ve ever received? I probably heard a version of this from Coach Rick: One of the reasons to get a coach is to have someone who can tell you when to do less. Too often we get caught up in following a training plan from a book and making sure we hit 100% on each run and end up ignoring signs of fatigue and injury. A coach will not just push you when you’re slacking off, but also rein you in when you’re doing too much and help you reach the start line mentally and physically healthy.

8. Tell us one fun fact, hidden talent, or something we don’t know about you, but should? I grew up with a lazy eye which wasn’t detected till I was in 3rd grade. It took many years to be corrected and I struggled with sports growing up. Although running doesn’t require the hand-eye coordination of racquet sports, it’s still a sport. I didn’t think I would ever be able to run as well as I am in middle age, though I am now – at nearly 50 – definitely past the age of setting PBs.