"In the News"
Peter Magill
by Peter Gambaccini
 Runner's World Magazine

Peter Magill, 42, of South Pasadena, CA and Team Runners High was the men's master's titleist at the USA Cross Country Championships in Indianapolis on February 7, covering the frozen 6K course in 18:40  

Peter Magill, 42, of South Pasadena, CA and Team Runners High was the men's master's titleist at the USA Cross Country Championships in Indianapolis on February 7, covering the frozen 6K course in 18:40 to beat runnerup Mike Scannell of Front Line Racing by 24 seconds. Magill's teammate David Olds, the USA masters champ in 2003, took fifth in 19:43. In December, Magill was second in the masters competition at the USA Club Cross Country in Greensboro, NC with a 33:17 for 10K that left him one-and-a-half seconds behind Bob Winn of the Greater Lowell (MA) Road Runners. In his best masters track season in 2002, Magill clocked a 8:31.08 in the 3000 and 3:56.42 in the 1500. Flu-ridden in the aftermath of his Indianapolis win, Magill returned Runner's World's call declaring "I had to drink a couple of cups of coffee just to dial the darn phone this morning."

Runner's World Daily: When did you turn 40?
Peter Magill: In June of 2001. I didn't exactly race when I turned 40 because I started training right before that. I thought I was going to get right back in shape after years off, and it took me a year to even to get in shape to get in shape, you know? At 39, I was 195 pounds, smoking a couple of packs of cigarettes a day, and drinking a couple of six packs of beer a day.

RWD: What a fine citizen!
PM: Yeah. And I thought "this really isn't good." And my job at the time, as a screenwriter, was extremely stressful, and I thought "I just need to get back in shape," and I'd always intended to run as a master. It took me almost three months before I could even run five miles. I'm 165 pounds now.

RWD: What was your running like when you were younger?
PM: I ran back in my 20s, but like a lot of runners who work hard when they hit the masters ranks, I had one of those "on and off again" running careers when I was young. I'd run a couple of years, take a couple of years off. I was far more interested in partying and having a good time. I was off entirely for six years, but that's only because I ran for four months when I was 34. Before that, I was off another five years. So I was off, pretty much, for 11 years.

RWD: You came very close to beating Bob Winn at the Club Championships 10K in December.
PM: I got sick a couple of days before the race. I was gasping for breath the whole way. It was really painful. David (Olds) also wasn't feeling 100 percent there and we decided before the race we were going to run nice and conservatively and help each other finish. We had no regrets about that at all because our prime motivation there was to win the club championship, to have our club, Team Runners High, from Southern California take down the Northern California club, the Reebok Aggies. And we did, by four-and-a-half (aggregate) minutes

RWD: Did you think you'd progressed enough that you had a shot at winning the USA masters race in Indianapolis?
PM: I had great cross country season in the fall. I had a 24:39 8K in the Riverside (CA) Cross Country Invitational. I was consistently running in the high 14:40s, low 14:50s for 5K, which for us masters guys is pretty good. Honest to God, I figured, if Eddy Hellebuyck doesn't show up for the race, there's not another masters guy who's going to take me. But you never know. The day before, I felt very strong, and I was so motivated to win after getting nipped in Greensboro that I went into it (Indianapolis) fairly confident - the only caveat being that Mike Egle, who ended up taking eighth place, had beaten me three times in the mile previously. So there's a little mental thing going on there. You have to overcome that. And I hadn't run against Mike Scannell, who ended up taking second, and I know he just got Michigan Runner of the Year. So when you haven't faced people, you don't know what they're going to have, which is why I played it a little conservatively over the first 4K of the race and then picked it up over the last 2K.

RWD: Is the rivalry between Team Runner's High and the Reebok Aggies a heated one?
PM: We really wanted to beat them in Greensboro. But with most masters, your opponents are your best friends as soon as the races are over. There's a camaraderie to the whole sport that wasn't necessarily there when we were all younger. You take the wins, they're fun, you go for them, but what's most important is just competing and having everybody out there.

RWD: Right. The anomalies, the exceptions, are the guys who are nasty or try and hit you with elbows out on the road.
PM: That just doesn't work for me. When you run into somebody like that as a master, it kind of takes you back, because you're wondering "what haven't they learned that the rest of us have learned?" Most people by the time they turn 40 have gone through enough in their own lives so that they're just ready to have a hobby and an outlet that's a positive experience, and not this insane competition anymore.

RWD: Have you improved on your 2002 masters times of 8:31 for 3000 and 3:56 for 1500?
PM: I haven't, because last year, I didn't train at all having the fall (of 2002). One of the reasons I did cross country now is because I decided I'd actually bring a base into the track season, so I'm hoping to improve significantly on those this year. I'm looking for a sub-4:10 in the mile, to get me a little bit closer to Tony Young. To be perfectly honest, I still think of myself as an 800 and 1500-meter runner. This season, I intend to focus pretty much on those two. I'd like to do one 5000 and put a time down closer to what the top guys in masters are doing right now, 14:20 or under. But I really want to get my 800 back. Masters running is about fun as much as it's about anything. To me, the 800 and the 1500 are that combination of that speed and endurance. There's a sense or freedom when you're moving fast and moving far enough to at least make a little bit of a race out of it. In the 800, I'd like to do at least 1:55. If I can't do at least that, the 800 will be put on the back burner.