John Dimoff finishing in 26th place, 2004 Marathon Olympic Marathon Trials

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with 3-time Olympic Marathon Trials Qualifier (1996,2000,2004) John Dimoff to talk about; longetivity, 140 mile weeks and face-planting on finish lines.

Runners like black and white numbers; so what was your progression from high school, college and post collegiate mileage and P.R. wise?

Well in high school I was a mileage hog (laughs), I topped out at about 30 miles a week and I hit about 2:00 for the 800, 4:00 for the 1500 and 9:00 for the 3000, pretty standard across the board. My senior year in cross country I was 7th in state (back when Oregon was 3 State Classes, John's an Oregon guy for life). Actually, I kind of topped out in the 3k at 9:00 flat both years (junior and senior) so I didn't even entertain the thought of running in college.

When you say “not running” do you mean competitively or running all together?

My senior year I had a bad track season and my family is a bunch of tennis players to I went to University of Washington after not running a step that summer, so not running at all, most likely to play tennis.

So what caused the change in your mindset?

When I got to U of Washington, Mike Johnson some how tracked me down and called me before school started to come up early for cross country camp. I'll never forget it; so we had this workout where the slower guys started out first on this tempo run and the older faster guys had to catch us. So I'm out there just running as hard as I can, not knowing anything and right at the end this varsity guy catches me. I'm just exhausted and he (Adam Lahey) turns to me and says, "Damn you were hard to catch," then I found out he was a 13:45 5k guy.

But that entire year, XC and track season I only ran one race, a 1500 that I DNF'd because I wasn't going to win, and that scared me.

Then I decided to transfer to Oregon, with the intention of running.

How was the transition to Oregon?

Well, I missed my first practice and Bill Delinger told me; "John you either come to every practice or don't come on any." This was serious. But, the first pratice I did make (laughs) was a supposed to be either a 3,4,or 5 mile tempo run at only 5:20 pace. I made it about 3 miles and almost passed out! Needless to say I wasn't in good shape.

So by the end of the season, it was a frozen November morning, clear blue sky, on the iced Amazon trail and I did the 4 mile tempo in 19:48. I was a redshirt at the time because the interconference transfer rule, but that's when I had an idea that I could compete at this level and be a reasonably decent athlete.

My junior year I finally started racing and it went ok, we won PAC 10's, we made NCAA's, I got to travel, it was great. But for some reason track never panned out on the same level as XC did.

Where you All-American ever?

(Laughing), Academically I was! Nope, the highest I finished in XC was 78th and in track I finished with a 31 min something 10k, 14:50 5k, and a few seconds under 4:00 in the 1500. For some reason I never got the benefit of training on the track.

So you could kind of see your strength possibly being in the marathon even back then?

John Gellepsee, the assistant coach at the time, told me I was going to be a solid marathoner. I told him he was nuts….. I had never more than 13 miles once in college. Weird thing was, I ran 100 miles a week, but I ran twice a day everyday, nothing was in big chunks. If I did have a talent, it would be that I never got hurt, not once. Even post-collegiate when I was running 140 miles a week, I got no injuries.

When did you start training for the marathon?

When I was grad school, when I was 23 years old I had a little training group down in Eugene that had Steve Plasencia, Mark McMonagel, Brad Hudson and we were training for Twin Cities at the time. Even back then Brad Hudson kind of put the training together and sort of coaching. We would workout Tuesday doing short repeats, like 400,800 or mile repeats, Thursday I would do 4 or 8 mile tempo and Sunday long. I would a 10 mile run every morning, and the long run was 20-24 miles. It’s really easy to get 140 miles a week that way. I only ran with those guys were on the hard days for the most part, solo on the rest.

How did you do in your first marathon?

I ran 2:19:28 (1994) for 14^th place, Steve and Mark both did pretty well, then Brad won Columbus. Our group was tough at the time. That 2:19, qualified me for my first Olympic Trails in 1996.

Who sponsored you guys?

We all had different sponsors; I was running for Finish Line Sports which was sponsored by Brooks.

So what did you do between that 1^st marathon and the Trials?

So I moved home to Portland, then I got a regular coach named Bob Williams, whom was my coach up until I retired. Bob is a Jack Daniels follower.

Did you periodize, or segment, your training over the years?

My goal was only to run one marathon a year, I didn’t want to make running my life. I had a job and other things that I enjoyed to do going on. But, I was always in reasonable fitness and ran 60,70 miles a week until I started training hard for the marathon each year. If I had one huge regret, it was not running an XC season, I think I had a chance to do pretty well and it would’ve been fun.

Did you run track at all over these years?

One year; 1995 I decided to train for track 14:20 in 5k, and ran a 30 flat 10k, but I only ran 3 races that whole year. So it wasn’t a huge season or anything!

So you really take some down time after your marathons?

I’ve done a lot of fall marathons, minus the Trials, so yeah I don’t really think about much serious racing unless I was motivated to train in the nicest time of the year weather wise. I think you only have 5 great marathons in you for a lifetime, so you have to take that down time. Since I wasn’t making a living out of it I could be very specific in which races I choose to run. For me I wanted to make the Olympic Trials and be as competitive as I could in those races at that level.

How did you do in 1996?

It was in Charlotte, I was the youngest guy in the field that year. I was 24 years old, and got 20t^h. And that’s where I ran 2:18:02, which is still my P.R. So I was pretty happy with the result that time.

So being 24 yrs old and 18^th in that race did you ever consider quitting your job and training full on to make an Olympic Team?

I don’t look back with any regrets you know. But, back then the resources weren’t available, like the Hanson’s, Zap, Team Minnesota etc. So my options were limited.

Would you have joined a team like the Hanson’s?

Yeah I probably would, I could have a job, a reason to train etc etc. It would have been a nice way to spend my 20’s too!

Did you intend on going again in 2000?

Oh yeah, running was my hobby so I didn’t stress much about why or what I wanted to do. I wanted to make the Trails, which is a huge challenge, but I liked that challenge. I worked a 40 work week; it’s not that hard to get in 2 hours of training in a day, most people waste that time anyway. It wasn’t a horrific burden for me, I really enjoyed it.

How did you approach little things like plyo’s, weights, nutrition back when you were training?

(laughs) I was an idiot! I stretched, and I biked to work, so there’s the extent of my cross training. I didn’t get a drivers license till I was 25 years old. I would actually ride 20 miles a day to get to work (A running store in Oregon) and back on top of my running mileage.

So let’s hear the story about your famous face plant in the 2000 Olympic Trails?

Oh man, Pittsburgh was a death march! I ran about 2:25, and got 26^th. Only one guy PR’ed from the entire field. The big news was I actually got front page of the paper because I did a header at the finish line and clasped at the finish line. Jeez, that was a rough one………

Then at the 2004 Olympic Trials in Birmingham, I ran a better time of 2:21:10 and got 25^th in much cooler conditions. I kinda went out a little easy, and I was in 50^th with 5 miles to go and just started passing guys.

Did you do anything in other distances and hit some fast P.Rs during this time?

I consistently ran about 1:05:30 in the half marathon, I never had the breakthough. It’s funny if you look at Jack Daniels’ book all my PR’s kind of match up. I didn’t have any races that stuck out. I was a journeyman, I did the most with the talent and time I had.

What happened in your effort to make the 2008 Olympic Trials Race?

I tried twice, Twin Cities in 2006, and it was awful that year. Then I got Gout which put me out for a bit and I tried LA in 2007 and again it was hot weather. So I didn’t make it, it was frustrating. But I didn’t want to take a shot at Chicago in 2007. I think I had too many distractions in training too. That Gout hurt my chances.

How do you feel know about running in general?

You know I’m happy with my career; I am in a perfect transition from racing to coaching. I have a very talented athlete (Carrie Strickland, recent qualifier for US Indoor champs) and enjoy helping her. I think I might have the coaching bug! I feel like I might get more gratification from this then I did with my own running. I will always run everyday, but coaching is great, I hope to continue doing this. I hope I can make a greater mark as a coach, then as an athlete.

Does it matter what event you coach?

I don’t think it matters, the specific athlete is most important. I would coaching anything from the 1500 to the marathon, if that athlete is excited and knows what he/she wants I think I could do a good job and try to offer as much as I can.

So lastly what was it about the marathon drew you to it for so long?

I think it worked well with my personality. It can be a work-horse event, I just tried to out work anyone that I thought was running more than me, that’s what got me up on those hard days. I just loved the idea of the training style and the day to day challenge.

Well, John thanks for your time, you have an interesting story…..so now good luck with your coaching!

Oh you’re very welcome, take care.