I can't remember the first time that I met Don Paul. It was, most likely, sometime in the early 1980s when he was running 130-mile weeks and tearing up distances from 5Ks to ultra-marathons. I know it was after 1982, the year Paul ran a 50K in New York City's Central Park in a sizzling 2:50:55--quite possibly the fastest 50K ever run by an American on the roads. Unfortunately, the mark was never ratified--but many ultramarathon insiders say the course was long. A year earlier, Don ran 2:16:04 at the Boston Marathon, his all-time personal best. Paul is a two- time U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier (1980 and 1988).

Paul--a notable competitor on the national and California racing scenes for two-and-a-half decades--recently retired from racing. The demands on his body finally took too exacting a toll. The announcement, which came in a brief, personal e-mail, reminded me that I never grabbed the opportunity to interview an old friend. Better late than never.

I roomed with Don at the 1992 Houston Marathon. I was there to cover the U.S. Women's Olympic Marathon Trials. Don was there to compete. In fact, he ran superbly, topping the men's masters race in 2:26:56. In Houston, my appreciation for Paul's immense multi-talents as a writer, musician, and an advocate for change grew. The best way to describe Paul: a cultural and social renaissance man with a flair for athletics and an irreverent streak.

Paul displayed young athletic talent as a 1:59 half-miler at Meridian High School in Bellingham, Washington. He made it to the Washington state finals as a senior, but fell on the backstretch, crushing his hopes for victory--but, perhaps, handing him a blessing in disguise. Paul turned intently to his writing which in 1971 earned him a highly regarded Wallace Stegner Creative Writing Fellowship at Stanford University.

Following the fellowship, through the balance of the 1970s, Paul worked at blue-collar jobs, which included logging in Alaska, offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, and cannery work in San Jose. He also wrote 8 to 12 hours a day, and smoked 20 cigarettes a day.

"I tried to get to know the working class experience," Paul says, which fueled both his art and his passion for social responsibility and change.

During this period--almost 10 years--Don didn't run, except for an occasional race, usually on a whim. He jumped into the 1975 Bay to Breakers without a step of training. Wearing basketball shoes, he ran 43 minutes, then could barely walk for 3 days.

More significantly, he pursued his writing endeavors which now total over 20 books, including poems, essays, short stories, and novels. His writing has received acclaim by notable progressive writers such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Tillie Olsen. His most recent book is "9/11:" Facing our Fascist State. Paul has also led or produced more than 20 musical recordings.

Paul's activities in LDR include a long stint as an athlete manager/ agent. He has represented top distance runners John Campbell, Don Choy, Bill Donakowski, Ivan Huff, Jerry Lawson, Rick Sayre, Maria Trujillo, and Gidamus Shahanga, among others. He also directs San Francisco's Zippy 5K race.

I interviewed Paul, 55, in late January [2006]. He had just moved from San Francisco to New Orleans, where he was working for the Common Ground Collective, a local nonprofit organization that provides relief to hurricane victims.

California Track & Running News: So, you're back in Louisiana where your experiences, I'm sure, have fueled your writing and music over the years.

Don Paul: Yes, in a big sense, they did. Living in Louisiana in the 1970s helped to unlock a lot for me as it did for Walt Whitman and others. Also, doing the work prompted me to write more poetry. There's such an absence of poetical expression about labor. It became the subject of my first couple books of poetry, AmeriModern and Just Like You.

CTRN: What brought you back to running after your long layoff in the '70s?

DP: It's a spark that I think, for most serious runners, never dies. I settled in San Francisco in 1978, got back into it, and started running with the Pamakids Runners. After 7 weeks of training, I ran the 1979 West Valley Marathon in 2:22:16. That really hyped me. From there on, I was pretty committed.

CTRN: You, obviously, were blessed with a natural gift.

DP: Yes. I'd have to say that I've squandered a large part of it. I could run the 220 [yards] in 23.7 as a high schooler. And working as a logger for 9-hour shifts and as a roughneck for 12-hour shifts built a lot of endurance.

CTRN: You became an athlete's agent relatively early in your running career, when you yourself were still very competitive. Why?

DP:My whole intention was to empower the worker. That grew out of the American Association for Road Racing Athletes (ARRA), which broke through the cover of amateurism in both road racing and track & field in 1981. It was kind of a socio-economic and racial thing, because road racers were white, middle class, and so on. When we demanded that the sport become openly professional--with above-board prize money--it was a step towards opening up these barriers here and in Europe.

Then there were people in and around the San Francisco Bay Area-- John Mansoor, Peanut Harms, the Aggie group--who were all intent on helping the excellent runners who were living in the Pacific Association to earn a living. That was a primary reason for starting the Pacific Association/USATF [road racing] Grand Prix in the early 1980s.

CTRN: At the height of the first running boom in the 1980s, there were so many highly competitive runners--from the front to the mid- packers. Today, general fitness and health, charity fundraising, or just the experience of completing a marathon seem like higher priorities among many runners. Any thoughts?

DP: I think there's a lot less recognition among road race entrants of today's leading U.S. athletes. There are fewer connections between the masses and the so-called "elite." I think that's regrettable in every way. I'd like to see USATF and the other bodies who are working to promote the development of excellent U.S. athletes to address it--to bring today's top runners more to the public's attention in a way that they can embrace. We now have elite training centers for distance runners around the U.S., but there are no competitive markers for the public to identify with.

In the 1980s, when ARRA was developing, there was an idea to have teams representing, say, Boulder, Atlanta, or the Pacific Northwest compete against each other in the major road races to help the public identify with top runners. It's one thing that I think USATF could do now. The money is there. Shoe companies are making millions and billions of dollars from the sport. I don't see why we can't have a mini NASCAR[- like] circuit for road running. To me, watching teams of runners competing against each other on a multi-loop course around San Francisco's Embarcadero would be a lot more interesting than watching race cars going around an oval.

CTRN: Technology, of course, has had a huge impact on both distance runners and their events in the past 20 years. What are your observations?

DP: My views reflect, I guess, a generational response to all kinds of technology. For example, I don't think that in most races you need a chip to keep time. It's a good thing for the big-city marathons, but I don't think a 5K with a couple of hundred runners needs it.

The more significant breakthroughs in technology are the technologies that help athletes [legally] improve their performances. It's all for the good. The critical thing, though, is the inspiration, as well as genetics. The best athletes over the last 10 years in North America are the athletes like Deena [Kastor] who have just said, "I'm going to do it; I don't care what it takes." Then, they find a support network, a camaraderie, that helps them develop. But it takes an intense spiritual commitment without a lot of material incentives. It's a long, long shot to make it to the top--a lot longer than making it to the NBA or the NFL, for example.

We need to work on this in the U.S., so that more potential distance running talents can express themselves to the fullest.

CTRN: Don, have you felt that your talents as a writer and musician have complemented or enhanced your running, or vice versa?

DP: I've always felt that distance runners have a lot in common with artists. Kenny Moore [two-time Olympic marathoner and writer for Sports Illustrated] told me that we all have a burr inside us--a psychological drive that gets us out the door at 6:30 a.m. and has us run 24 times 400 meters. That's the art.

CTRN: The artistic expression, no matter what your art, comes from commitment and work.

DP: Exactly.

CTRN: Do you think that today's top U.S. distance runners are as committed to the sport as they have been in the past?

DP: The competitive environment has changed. You can be a 2:14 or 2:15 marathoner, a 28:20 10K runner, and by picking your races, you can survive and earn $15,000 or $20,000 a year. That wasn't possible for my generation. You had to excel more. With that said, the U.S. athletes who are really excelling today--like Deena and Meb [Keflezighi] and Alan Webb--are just as committed as any athlete in the world at any time in history. So, while there is more overall support today for distance runners at the non-international level, the athletes who are achieving international excellence are doing it with, maybe, even more attention to regimen than ever before. Runners of my generation were kind of wild and loose. We didn't know as much. We didn't have the support and the monitoring that are available to athletes at Mammoth Lakes and the other training centers today.

CTRN: Before wrapping up, can you briefly touch upon a subject that we've discussed in the past--runners as a force for social action and change?

DP: Sure. For example, I think runners are especially aware and concerned about the environment. It goes with the territory. If you're out in it every day, you're a lot more conscious of it. My feeling is that the Sierra Club or Greenpeace could reach out to runners and connect with a very large demographic that is sympathetic to their efforts.

In politics, I've always thought that runners, if they chose to unite, say, within their running clubs or any other group, could be a very large political and social force in their communities.

CTRN: Any final thoughts in closing?

DP: Just that my recent years in running, in particular, have been very special--seeing old friends like Domingo Tibaduiza, and finding new ones like Jim Gorman, Mike Dove, and Lloyd Stephenson. It's a different level of intensity than when you're competing internationally or tying to excel in national races. But the same themes occur. The folks in running circles are, in large part, very, very nice people. That's what has made it so extremely rewarding.

Mark Winitz welcomes your comments and contributions for this column. Contact him via e-mail at winitz@earthlink.net. Mark has written for CTRN since the mid-1980s and has been running, writing about running, and organizing programs for runners for almost 30 years. He is a longtime activist within USA Track & Field. He also assists road racing events through his company, Win It!z Sports Public Relations and Promotions, in Los Altos.