Sports - Sports News

POSTED: Tuesday, Dec. 09, 2008

COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT: Grichel reconnects with running

Steve Grichel can't forget the exact date he resumed his chase for self-improvement and his love affair with running.

What he didn't realize on Dec. 1, 2003, was that his childhood love for the camaraderie of team sports could also be fulfilled as a runner.

The result is the Fairhaven Runners men's open team, which will participate in the USATF National Club Cross Country Championships on Saturday, Dec. 13, in Spokane.

Grichel, a 34-year-old Bellingham resident, just grins when asked if he's the team's star runner.

"I put the team together, but I'm probably the slowest of the open guys on our Fairhaven Runners team," he said. "We'll also have a master's men's 40-plus team."

Nobody on either team, however, may love running more than Grichel, who was actually a pretty fair runner at Western Washington University and Redmond High School.

"When Cami (his wife of seven years) and I moved back to Bellingham, I saw all those trails where I used to run when I was a student at Western, and I was absolutely hooked on running again," he said.

Since that fateful day, he has run an estimated 40 road races of different lengths, up to a marathon.

"When I discovered Fairhaven Runners (a running and walking store founded and owned by Steve Roguski), I also realized how supportive the running community had become in Bellingham while Cami and I lived in Oregon," Grichel said.

"Now, running in Bellingham is more fun than ever, and I love the team aspect of Fairhaven Runners This is a fabulous running community."

For the competition at Spokane's Plantes Ferry Recreation Park, Grichel will run with Jason Gulley, Peter Ellis, Sam Brancheau and Chad Portwood.

The men's master's 40-plus team will include Tony Cava, Kendall Townsend, Chuck Dooley, Steve Wade, Dean Taylor and Roguski. Amber Morrison will compete in the women's open division.

Fairhaven Runners also competed in 2004 in Portland, but this is the first time the competition has returned to the Northwest since then.

When Grichel - who looks like a basketball player - entered high school, he had hoop dreams of playing varsity and perhaps college basketball. But that was before he realized, as a Redmond sophomore, that he was a better college prospect as a runner.

"I had always loved the team aspects of basketball and soccer, but I really enjoyed track and cross country in high school," he said. "We went to state all three years in the 4-by-400 relay during track season and we were second at state my senior year in cross country."

He was Redmond's No. 2 runner on that strong cross country team, having long since given up hoops. He also was seventh in the state 800 meters during track season.

"I ran everything at least once my senior year, from the 100 meters to the 3,200 meters, plus doing the high jump," said Grichel, who qualified for the National Junior Olympics at age 13 in the high jump. Now, my favorite distance is 5K. I also have a Level One coaching certificate."

Grichel attended Air Force Academy in Colorado for one semester as a freshman, but severe bouts with bronchitis brought him back home and he wound up at Western.

"Those were great days at Western," he said. "I ran for Pee Wee Halsell and Bill Roe. Looking back, I still keep track of all my running friends from college and high school, and I realize how much they have meant to me."

At Western, he competed twice in the Penn Relays and qualified for the NAIA outdoor nationals in the 800 meters after winning a conference title.

Grichel, a land-use planner for a surveying and engineering firm, returned to Bellingham because Cami wanted to open Whimsey, a Fairhaven store that primarily sells jewelry made from sterling silver, along with a variety of wall art and other gift items.

Since the store isn't far from Fairhaven Runners, Grichel figures he was just fated to resume running.

"I had loved running since my dad and I used to watch the Olympics on television, and the Boston and New York marathons," he said. "Dad was a track and field guy and we were both absolutely fascinated by the competition."

He dreamed of competing for Air Force until he got sick.

"I think I was misdiagnosed," he said. "They kept telling me I just had a cold. I actually got into a couple of arguments with the doctor, who was a captain. I enjoyed my time at the academy, but it was just the wrong place at the wrong time."

He and Cami both got heavily into martial arts during their time in Oregon, but now they're both into running.

"I'd like to run forever," he said. "My goals are to run a sub 16-minute 5K and a sub four-minute, 1,500. Both would be faster than I was in college. I don't feel I came close to what I was capable of in college, and now I train harder than I did then, typically 70 to 80 miles per week.

"When I see guys in their 80s and 90s running in master's meets, I feel that's really awesome."