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SALT LAKE CITY — It was just too much rejection, too much humiliation.
Woody Whitlock lost the career he'd built for himself — twice.
"Both jobs were where I thought I'd be there the rest of my career," said the 81-year-old father of four. "I loved them. I didn't have a suspicion it would end."
Once was discouraging. Twice was almost unbearable.
"After two times, I didn't have the heart to try and sell myself again," he said. "I said, 'I don't have as much control over my life as I thought I did.' But there is one thing I can do, and no one can take it from me."
That one thing was running.
He'd run in high school a little, and so, in his early 50s, he began running again.
"I just know when I was running I was happy," he said. "I started to get into shape."
Then he got curious about just how far he could push himself. One day he ran 10 miles.
"I thought, 'That was hard,’ ” he said laughing. "But then I started to wonder what was around the next curve, what's over the next hill. The next thing I knew, I was talking about running marathons."
Even after he started training for his first 26.2-mile race, he found refuge in running.
"It was my therapy," said Whitlock, who started out as a minister in Uruguay, but then had to find a new profession once he converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He then became a mental health counselor for many years.
Running became the way he coped with loss, but also the way he regained his confidence.
Then in 1988, at age 57, he ran his first marathon, the Deseret News Marathon.
"My daughter and I trained for it together," he said. "We didn't know anything about (the Deseret News Marathon). We built up to that and felt confident."
On the bus ride to the start, someone asked if they'd run the race previously. They said it was their first marathon.
The other runner, who had run the course, was obviously shocked that they'd chosen such a challenging course.
"Right away we wanted to get off the bus," he said laughing. "But we did it. We made it; it was painful."
After the race, he thought he'd developed damage in his spine or legs. He gave up running.
"I thought running was the cause, and that was the end of that," he said.
Until, at age 70, he went out to the garage to ride his bike one day.
"My tires were flat," he said. "So I ran." It was like reacquainting himself with an old friend. He continued running every day and then, at 76 years old, decided "I was ready to try again."
If I am persistent in putting out the effort, I can count on God being consistent in putting in the strength.
–- Woody Whitlock
He signed up for another marathon.
"It wasn't much easier, frankly," he said. "I walked a big part of it."
He kept training, through aches and pains and sore muscles. What he discovered was that the more he ran, the better he felt. Maybe he was in pain because he didn't run, not because he did.
"I found if I did it right, I felt better," he said. At his peak, he did six marathons in one summer.
"To my delight, I didn't know if I'd end up with damaged knees or what, but it was quite the opposite. And I felt stronger at the end than I did at the beginning."
He is careful to rest between long runs, and he's cut back to two marathons per summer. He also runs a couple of 26.2-mile courses "of my own devising because that doesn't cost anything."
His wife, who doesn't run marathons, is "fully supportive" of his habit.
"She said it makes me a little easier to live with," he said. Without running, "My waist would be a lot larger, I wouldn't be as calm, I wouldn't have as much joy. I'm focused on the present, and I'm not sure I would be if I wasn't a runner."
Whitlock turns 82 in November, and he has no plans to give up marathons. He points out his hero who runs marathons at 92.
He cites "the law of divine cooperation" when it comes to continuing his running as long as he can, and he's smart about his training as he only runs every other day.
"If I am persistent in putting out the effort, I can count on God being consistent in putting in the strength. At the end of each month, I give a little thanks."
Twitter: adonsports email: adonaldson@desnews.com
