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I ran my first marathon in Florida in 1985. I had never run more than nine miles.

Yes, my dad's a marathoner. He used to do sprint distances and then started marathoning. My mom is an endurance animal. She does three-day events like the Susan G. Komen three-day walk.

I've been a runner a long time. When I first got into it, I started doing small triathlons in Chicago, and I just did it to get in shape. When I got out of college, I put on a few pounds like everybody does. I did it when I was in my early 20s, but I never really did any long runs.

My brother was a big marathoner. He was a great collegiate runner at Beloit College. He won his conference's races, and he did tons of marathons. I would go out and run with him every once in a while just to hang out with him.

I used to run a full marathon in three hours and 25 or 26 minutes. Not any more.

My father, though, could run very much faster. It was impossible to compete with him on the grass. But it was astonishing how slow old people were. Some of them could not run up a hill and called it trying to climb stairs.

In my younger days, I loved to run. Although it may be hard for you to believe it, I did. And I did win a few races.

Prior to the 1976 Olympics, I was a 5,000m runner.

I thought about running a marathon a long time ago, but I'm just not a runner.

When I was a kid, I was a pretty good runner, and there was nothing like winning a race.