Masters Milers Podcast Episode 7: Todd Straka

My guest for episode 7 of the Masters Milers podcast is Todd Straka. Unlike the first several guests on the podcast, Todd came to running later in life. He didn’t run competitively in high school or college. He played football for the first two years of high school then first got excited about running by taking a jogging class in college! In Todd’s initial years as a Masters competitor, he focused mainly on road races, including marathons. He eventually felt burned out on marathon training and in 2015 at age 47, he decided to focus on the mile. Todd never raced on the track when he was younger, so he was in the interesting position of setting lifetime PRs in his late 40’s and early 50s. Todd eventually set the lofty goal of trying to break Nolan Shaheed’s outdoor mile WR in the 50-54 age group, which is 4:25. He ultimately ended up missing the record by just over 1 second. We had a fun conversation and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Show Links:

Todd’s (really old) blog: https://1boulderrunning.blogspot.com/

Masterstrack.com article on Todd: http://masterstrack.com/meet-todd-straka-threat-beat-nolan-shaheeds-m50-mile-wr/

Interview after just missing M50 mile WR: https://www.flotrack.org/video/5848294-todd-straka-now-just-a-second-off-masters-mile-wr

Pearl Street Mile (Boulder, CO): https://www.boulderdowntown.com/do/pearl-street-mile

State Street Mile (Santa Barbara, CA): https://www.sbmile.com/

Dave Albo Photos: https://www.lane1photos.com/

Rob D’Avellar photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rjdavellar

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