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Focus on ... John Whitfield
Musician / Software Engineer / Runner
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i Flyers, John Whitfield here. When I see you all on training runs and at races, we usually talk about running. Here's a little more about the rest of my life. I grew up in State College, Pennsylvania, home of Penn State University. My father was a professor of physics at the University, but my passion, from an early age, was music. I went to North Carolina School of the Arts and after graduating, decided that my career would be in music. In my youth I dabbled in a few sports, including motorcycle racing, but I never got involved in running. That came much later.
My career as a musician
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went to grad school at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston which was where I met my future wife, Muneko. I finished my studies in 1990 at SUNY Stony Brook, where I got a DMA (Doctor of Musical Arts) in performance.
We got married and moved to New York and both pursued our music careers. She as a violinist and I as a cellist. She has continued her career and now plays on the Cassatt String Quartet. For my part, I worked for 10 years as a cellist , mostly as a chamber musician. I was very active in the New York new music scene, and taught cello at Princeton for a number of years.
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A career change comes with family
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hortly before my son George was born in 2000, I decided to make a career change and went back to school to study programming at Columbia. I had become interested in programming and the software industry was booming at the time with the growth of the internet. It was at Columbia that I met Tim Hadel, who later became instrumental in inspiring me to become a runner. After one year at Columbia, I got a job at a small company (my resume: “Cellist, studied programming for a year.
”), and I recruited Tim and we worked together for 7 years. After that, I went on to work at
Travelocity and most recently joined a start-up which was just bought by BNYMellon.
My Introduction to running
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owards the end of our time working together, I learned that Tim was a runner and had been running for a number of years. So I went out to cheer him on in the New York City Marathon in 2005. I was at Mile 24 (behind the Metropolitan Museum in Central Park) and I was amazed by the experience. Seeing all these people doing it, I realized that it was something I could aspire to, although before that I never would have contemplated it.
So when Tim was training for his next marathon, I joined him at the end of his long runs and we would do a loop or two around the reservoir together. With Tim’s encouragement, I entered my first race in 2006 — the Poland Spring 5 miler — while he was training for the 2006 Marathon. I was afraid I would be last and everyone would have gone home by the time I finished. To my surprise, I finished surrounded by other runners. I was immediately addicted to the positive energy that they radiated. I've run more than 70 races since then.
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I join the Flyers
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im had the idea that we should find a running club and he found the Flyers on the internet. My first race as a Flyer was the Manhattan Half in January 2007.
I am now an early morning runner. It's the right time for me, both for practical reasons and psychological reasons. The Flyers morning group runs have been a godsend. They have made it possible for me to really become a runner. When the alarm goes off at 5:05 in the morning, there are times when I ask myself “do I really want to do this?” But then I remember that the group will be meeting at 6:00, and I'm out of bed with no hesitation. It's almost 2 miles from my place to the meeting place, and I run it, often in the dark, looking forward to seeing everyone. I'm never disappointed when I get there. The group is bursting with positive energy.
As in my non-running life, my biggest influences are the people that I actually know, not top professionals or stars. I am inspired by many of the people I run with, but Vida Beaven, Francine Alfandary, David Wackman and Jim Nicholas come to mind. In my age group, Pat Duffy has always been an inspiration. I admire these folks not only for their athleticism, but for the great spirit that they bring to our runs.
Fitness runs in the family
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fter her retirement from Penn State, my mother became very active in outdoor activities like climbing mountains, ice climbing and kayaking, and she works out all the time. She doesn’t run regularly, but will enter a race once in a while and last year she won her age group in a local race.
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I’ve been training very hard for Boston and just finished the National Marathon in D.C. as a training run, and it’s been going pretty well. I qualified last November in New York where I felt all my training and hard work finally came together. I am extremely excited about doing Boston. Check back in a couple of weeks and see how I did.
But I think my biggest running accomplishment is not my improved times or even my qualifying for Boston — it has to be my weight loss. At my annual physical in January of 2006, I weighed in at 220 pounds. I toed the starting line at my first marathon, NYC Nov 2007, at 162 pounds. I've kept the weight off ever since, staying at around 165. True, my diet has improved, but only to support my running habit. It's all about the running.
A few odds and ends
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guess the best thing in my life is being surrounded by wonderful people. My family, my friends – running and otherwise. They make it impossible to feel down for long.
As for what I would love to do this year – I would love to finish a race before Pat Duffy has time to get home and finish breakfast
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