Issue 14

Interview with Marc Hunter

Some things to know about Marc — he’s currently an assistant coach for Tinman Elite. Before taking the position on TME, Marc was an accomplished (which is a hell of an understatement) high school coach in Virginia while also working for the U.S. government. Before all of that, Marc was a great runner in his own right, but I won’t spoil anything. So let’s dive in!

Hey, Marc, how's it going today?

Today was a good day because I got to see most of the team, or at least those who are in town after returning from Thanksgiving with their families.

Since our readers may be unfamiliar with you, please give some background on your running and coaching resume!

Running - I was a total jock growing up.  I played something every day in the summer. Once I started high school, I played basketball, football, and baseball and dabbled in wrestling. I did freshman track (there was no freshman cross country).  In my sophomore year, I decided to try cross country instead of football and I was hooked.  During the winter of my sophomore year, I was doing three sports at once; indoor track (mainly conditioning for outdoor track), wrestling, and basketball.  The practices were back-to-back-to-back so I could do them all.  However, I was so exhausted that my parents said I had to drop one.  I regrettably dropped wrestling because it was the most physically demanding of the three, plus I was the captain of the basketball team, and I was very good at running.  By my Junior year, I quit all but track and cross country.  It was the right move.  In cross country, I was 2nd in the state my Junior year, won my senior year, and won back-to-back mile titles. I received many full scholarship offers but chose Kent St. University because my best friend was going there and it was close to home.  I ran at Kent St. for 2 years and qualified individually for the NCAA Div. 1 cross and track champs both years.  I did not have a good experience at Kent and eventually transferred to Cleveland State.  The thought was to drop running and become a full-time commuting student.  The head coach at Cleveland State caught wind of me attending classes and offered me a full scholarship to run with the team.  I was like, duh!!  So I ran with the team, fell in love with running (and the members of the team), and became eligible to race a year later.  I placed 4th and 6th, in NCAA cross my junior and senior years, respectively.  My college track PBs were 4:01, 13:36, and 28:40.  A year later (1979) I joined Athletics West, a Nike-based attempt at supporting post-collegiate athletes.  This was a unique endeavor that is more ubiquitous today; hence Tinman Elite. I qualified for the 1980 Olympic Trials in the 1500, 5k and 10k.  I chose to run the 5k at the Olympic Trials but did not perform well because of infected wisdom teeth several days before and during the trials.  I had my first of 7, below the waist, surgeries in March of 1981, and my running career was over before the age of 24.

Coaching - Had my first coaching stint as a masters club coach in Virginia.  I eventually found myself coaching the 4 top post-collegiate women in the Washington DC area.  One eventually went on to qualify for the 1988 Olympic Trials in the marathon.  That limited success earned me the head cross-country position at South Lakes High School in Reston, VA.  I eventually became the head indoor and outdoor coach as well. I coached at South Lakes for 10 years (1989-1998).  I was blessed enough to marry Joan in 1994 and together we coached the 1994 Cross Country team to a 2nd place finish at the VA State meet.  We lost to the winning team by 5 points without our 4th runner.  That team that beatus finished as the #10 team in the nation.  We also introduced Alan Webb to the sports of cross country and track.  Together, Joan and I started building a family that would eventually reach 11, so we took a brief hiatus from coaching until 2006.  That year we started a youth club called NOVA AC.  We wanted to expose some of our kids to running and noticed the need for a youth running club in the area.  The team grew to 100 strong; the 9-10 girls won the AAU national track team championship in 2011 and the 11-12 boys were 3rd.  While still coaching the youth club, Joan and I began coaching at Loudoun Valley High School in 2013.  I became the head coach of track and cross country in 2014, convinced the County school board to add indoor track as a varsity sport in 2016, and was sent on our way to unprecedented success.  In 7 years, our teams won 18 state titles, broke 7 national HS records, and won 8 national titles, including back-to-back NXN titles.  We resigned from our 2nd HS coaching stint in 2021.  I wanted to pursue a college coaching position but later in 2021, Joan and I received an offer from Tinman Elite to take over the coaching duties for the team. 

What was your best race/favorite memory as an athlete and why?

The best race and best memory was definitely the 1977 NCAA cross-country championship.  I finished as the top American in 4th place, the only American in the top 7. Our team, made up of guys from a 40-mile radius around Cleveland, finished 11th.

Does anything come close to matching the thrill of racing? I know that's one thing I worry about as an athlete that's growing older.

Nothing compares to the thrill of an athletic endeavor!   As a track athlete, I could not wait until the next race!  I was not a big fan of the training part of becoming a national-class runner, but I lived to race.  Racing, and the thrill of winning, was the carrot that kept me training.  When you can't compete anymore, coaching becomes the vicarious way to compensate for the loss of racing.

What was different about training back then and training now? What goes through your mind when you see an athlete sucking down a Maurten Carbohydrate Gel or wearing super shoes during a workout?

Hah!  So much different. I had no structure, was my own coach for a large part of my career, and had a philosophy of "run how you feel."  In preparation for the 1980 Olympic Trials, I ran the trails in the foothills of Boulder, mainly Mesa Trail.  I ran one workout on the track in the preceding months before the Oly Trials.   I never worried about nutrition, hydration, etc.  I ate and drank what was put in front of me or what was in the refrigerator, cupboard, or cookie jar.  I never hydrated on a run.  The only linked comparison I can make from then to now would be the importance of a group of like-minded training partners, which I had in college and post-collegiately.

What do/did you love about high school running, and why did you and Joan coach that for so long?

Easy answer...several things: 1) The kids are like an open book with no words and no story.  We got to build a team from scratch and we got to help every kid write their story. 2) High school running is so raw.  Very few kids had an opportunity to run as youths (6-14), so they were wide-eyed and completely new to the sport.  It allowed us to do things right from the moment a freshman girl or boy stepped into our first practice.  We did not have to redo things done wrong by a previous coach as with other youth sports. 3) I loved watching a 5-2, 100-pound freshman boy, or a 4-11, 80-pound freshman girl turn into an all-state athlete and then get into the college of their dreams.  4) Finally, we were often the last attempt at a sport for a lot of kids.  Most had tried other sports and it just was not a good fit for the kid. Running, and cross country specifically, offered them a safe and welcoming environment, where they could grow at their own pace as an athlete.  Our sport at the schools we coached changed the lives of many kids for the better.  If you include all three sports, about 25% of the kids at Loudoun Valley High School ran for at least one of our teams.  Pretty darn rewarding!

Your son Drew was incredibly successful as a high school runner. As one of Drew's HS coaches, what do you think stood him apart from the other HS runners at the time?

Drew played a variety of sports before he settled on running.  That made him stronger than most high school runners.  He was also gifted with an incredible aerobic engine.  He was willing to give up things that most high school athletes were not willing to give up to excel in his sport.  Finally, and you will see this in many of his race videos, he had this incredible will to win.

What are some of your goals for Tinman Elite in the years to come?

Grow the women's team, start competing for podium finishes, set at least 25 PBs per season, get back into team cross country and win a national title or two, compete for relay national and world records, break sales records for our gear, recruit A-level athletes, and get everyone on the team a livable wage.

What is your favorite event to watch in the sport of running?

The hardest question you have asked...4X400 probably, although a good 4x800 is fun as well.  My favorite field event is the triple jump.

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