After five years of retirement, Rich Hanna ran in the 2006 Mayor’s Marathon and came out with the victory. Rich Hanna is in a group called Team in Training, which raises money for leukemia and lymphoma research by training people to run in marathons. Rich is a coach for this group, and helps his team members prepare for their big race. This year the group broke a record in runners with 4,543 runners, which is a big difference when the group started in 1974 with a mere 71 runners. Ever since that year, the group has been increasing in extraordinary amounts. I sat down and asked Rich Hanna a couple of questions after his excruciating and exciting marathon run.

Q. What in inspired you to start running?
A. When I was 12 and I changed into Middle School into 7th and 8th grade and the 9th graders were moved up to high school and they got rid of all of the sports programs like baseball, football, and basketball and that is all that I wanted to play. The only sports that we had were track and cross country and I wanted to compete so I just started running so I could compete and I have been running ever since.

Q. So you ran a lot when you were younger?
A. Yeah. I ran in cross country, track, and then I started running for doubles marathons

Q. How many races have you competed in?
A. I have run in about 80 marathons since I ran my first marathon as a 13 year-old and I’ve been running since then. The last marathon I ran in was five years ago though. The last marathon I ran in was this same one that I ran in today, the Mayor’s Marathon.

Q. What’s the biggest marathon you have ever competed in?
A. The biggest race I’ve ever competed in was a Chicago marathon, but I don’t like the really big marathons, I like the smaller ones like the one I competed in today.

Q. Where are you from?
A. Sacramento, California. I’m actually one of the head coaches of Team in Training in Sacramento.

Q. What is Team in Training?
A. Team in Training is a program for first time marathon runners to raise money for cancer research. I have raised over $10,000 for this program.

Rich’s story inspires others to choose a goal in life, work hard and become successful at those goals that you choose. Rich is very extraordinary man who has used his passion for running to accomplish amazing things – and is probably going to be very tired for the next few days.