Hitting the wall —
and running right past it
After years of running, Doc Weiss finally figured out how to keep running, even when his mind told him he couldn't take another step.
DUBLIN - The defining moment of Doc Weiss' running career wasn't competing in the Boston Marathon, although he's done that twice.
It wasn't winding his way up a dormant volcano on the Hawaiian island of Maui, although that was a scenic change of pace.
It wasn't scoring yet another grand master's victory in The Blacksburg Classic 10-mile road race two weeks ago, although he'd certainly rather win than lose.
("Grand masters" means runners over 50, but Doc was in fact was the first Masters finisher, so he beat all those young 40-year-olds as well.)
No, the defining moment of Weiss' career was when he finally discovered he could keep running - even when his mind told him he couldn't. All of his achievements, and there are many, stem from that moment.
It happened about a dozen years ago. Weiss, a former football player at West Virginia University who had taken up running solely to manage his weight, began entering competitive races with his wife, Diane. Through racing, he befriended Tom Davis, an experienced distance runner from West Virginia.
Davis gave Weiss advice on how to maintain his pace, but Weiss had trouble following it. He would keep up with Davis for much of the race but fade near the end. For more than two years, this happened.
Then it clicked.
"There was that one time when I was able to maintain and keep going and he kind of fell off," said Weiss, a Pembroke resident. "I beat him that day. It was really an inspiration, a breakthrough, because I finally knew what he was talking about.
"Before, I'd get tired, and I figured when you get tired, you slow down. But at some point, you've got to try to get through it."
No worries there anymore. At 54, Weiss now has to force himself to take a day off from running. Time-wise, he hasn't fallen far from where he was in his late 40s, when he set personal records in the 5K (16:45), 5-mile (28:11), 10K (36:03) the 10-mile (59{40), the half-marathon (1 hour, 20 minutes) and the marathon (2 hours, 55 minutes).
In 1996, he finished 1,699th out of more than 38,000 competitors at the 100th running of the Boston Marathon.
He was in the top 300 for his age group, which included about 10,000 runners.
"I feel really good about that, particularly with all the people, working the traffic," he said. "It's just a two-lane road and there's people as far as the eye can see. It's just a mass of people."
He's been a dominant fixture at road races in Shawsville, Blacksburg, Roanoke, Wytheville, Galax and beyond. On Saturday mornings, you'll find him training - usually with local coaching legend Joel Hicks and two other buddies, Jack Gill and Rodney Landreth - at Bisset Park in Radford. During the week, he works on his speed at the Pulaski County High School track.
It wasn't easy maintaining his five- to six-day routine this winter, but he did it. He tiptoed around the ice patches at the Dedmon Center, blitzed through the wind gusts in Dublin, soldiered through the sleet in Blacksburg.
"Once you've been in it for a while, you know that you're going to feel better when you're done," Weiss said. "I think that's the biggest motivator for me, just know that if I go out there - even if I don't do but three miles, but just go out there and do something - then I'm going to feel better. And I do."
Weiss' given name is Richard. A neighbor gave him the nickname "Doc" as a child, and it stuck. It suits him now, considering he's a professor of criminal justice at Wytheville Community College.
Just for fun, he also teaches a running class at the school.
"I try to tell them it's not about speed or anything like that," Weiss said. "It's about personal fulfillment. If you want to lose weight, it's one of the best things you can do. It burns calories about as good or better than anything you can do."
Weiss is living proof. At WVU, where he played both running back and linebacker, he was listed at 6 feet, 215 pounds. He now weighs 168 despite eating whatever he wants.
"If I quit running, I'd probably weigh 250," he joked.
Quitting, however, has never been what Weiss is about.
Just ask Tom Davis.
Published on pages 14–15 of the New River Current section of the 9 March 2003 Roanoke Times. Written by Aaron McFarling.
