Boyd "Tom" Sigler Mini-Marathon Runner, Age 62

From Courier-Journal. 1978. Speaking of People Page. by Joan Kay

Mini-Marathon goal of runner, 62, is to beat his own best time

"I know I can't compete against the rabbits," says Boyd C. "Tom" Sigler, referring to the thin, rangy runners. "So I'm hoping I can better my own time" Monday in the fifth annual Kentucky Derby Festival Mini-Marathon.
Sigler was "elated" 10 days ago when he beat his usual 10-minute-mile pace in a prep race at Iroquois Park. He ran the 9.6 mile course in 94 minutes and 29 seconds, or 9.84 minutes per mile. "That's my best time to date," he said.
The 62-year old Sigler, an insurance man, will be competing Monday for the fifth time in the Mini-Marathon, a 13-mile course from Iroquois Park to the Belvedere.
His interest in the sport started about eight years ago when a friend of his daughter, Sue, got a bid for the 1972 Olympics girls' basketball team. The two girls wanted to get in shape by running on Shawnee High School's track, so Sigler went along to keep an eye on them.
"They went back to Eastern Kentucky University, and I just kept running," he said.
Later Sigler began taking part in the Saturday races sponsored about once a month in various parks by the Metropolitan Park and Recreation Board.
"It's really more fun to run with a group," he said. "You get lazy running by yourself".
"Although I'm not much competition, I think I win the booby prize more than anything else," he said with a laugh. "Someone has to be last."
On Saturdays he is usually the only runner older than 60. "There was some old codger of 64 who beat the socks off me last year in the Mini-Marathon."
Sigler did "miserably" in a race this winter at Iroquois Park and decided he needed more practice for the Derby event. "I figured the best way to do it was to run back and forth to work."
The insurance firm he works for, Nahm, Turner, Vaughan & Landrum, maintains a membership at the Louisville Athletic Club, so Sigler arranged to change clothing there.
Since mid-February he has been running the 35 blocks each way from Fifth and Walnut to his home on Michigan Drive. His best time to date going homeward was 34 minutes, 45 seconds.
The reactions of the people he passes by are generally "favorable," he said. "I think everyone really wants to get out and jog, but they just don't do it."
He enjoys the regimen because "You can run off a lot of frustrations. It gives you time to think and enjoy nature. I saw a couple of crows one morning."
At first he felt better physically. "But you get used to feeling better. Then it's just habit-forming, and you don't feel right if you don't do it."
"I got Sue out in the rain the other morning, and I told her 'You're hooked now.' " Sue, assistant coach at Sacred Heart Academy, will be running in her first Mini-Marathon this year.
Sigler goes to bed at 9 p.m. because his day starts early. "The insurance business is one of continual study," and he gets up at 5 a.m. to read for an hour before going to the park.
Sigler's wife, Ethel, is not a runner. When he ran last July in a 10,000-meter race in Lexington, "She got a blister from standing and watching the race," joked Sigler. But "she kind of encourages me because she packs my pack (of clothes) every day."
In last year's Mini-Marathon Sigler was 818th out of th 942 people who finished the race, and his time was 2 hours, 24 minutes, and 44 seconds.
As of Monday, there were 1,016 paid entries in this year's event. Gil Clark, recreational services manager for Metropolitan Parks, has been responsible for all the Mini-Marathons, and he is expecting 1,500 to 2,000 entrants this year.
"The Mini has a very festive atmosphere, heightened by the numbers of spectators who turn out," said Sigler.
He remembered that last year by the time he reached a fruit-drink stand station on Southern Parkway, there were no liquids left. But a kind woman on the parkway was out with a pitcher and glasses, offering a cool drink to all of the runners.
Sigler is convinced he'll never be a serious contender as a runner. "I'm a fatty. A runner should only weigh twice as much as his height," he said. "I'm 72 inches tall, and I'd have to get down to 144 pounds."
"I'm like the bumblebee. Aerodynamically he can't fly, but doesn't know it." But Sigler is determined to hit only 195 pounds on the scale by Monday.