Doug Ingram knew he had to find some sort of exercise about 16 years ago just before his son, Dimitri, was born.
Ingram, a Newport Coast resident, took a bit of an extreme route, but discovered running could become a way of life for him.
"I realized that during my wife's pregnancy I had developed more pregnancy-related weight than I think she had," said Ingram, co-chairman of the OC Marathon. "I realized that it was time to get active again."
Ingram, also the executive vice president and chief administrative officer of Allergan, joined a marathon training group and never looked back. He has ran in 22 marathons and countless half-marathons. Today, for the fifth straight year, he'll run in the half-marathon (roughly 13 miles), part of the OC Marathon that starts at Fashion Island in Newport Beach and ends at the OC Fair in Costa Mesa.
Ingram, 46, was among the founders of the OC Marathon and is delighted to see the race continue to grow.
He took time out to speak with the Daily Pilot Saturday morning.
Question: When did you complete your first marathon and what was that like?
Answer: It ended up being the Tucson Marathon in Arizona. It was an extraordinary experience, an amazing feeling of accomplishment. But I'll tell you, it took a little bit of time, about an hour after the race, to really feel that accomplishment. It is a really tough experience, regardless of your level of fitness. The wonderful thing about long-distance running and marathon running is that it bodes something very elite and something egalitarian. The people who have run a marathon are in a very elite club of human beings. However, really almost any person, regardless of where you are starting from a fitness level can train and run a marathon. That's the amazing thing about it. It really doesn't take a natural runner to run a marathon.
Q: How do you prepare for a marathon?
A: I've run 22 marathons and I started as a person who really had never ran, maybe about a couple of miles. I thought a 5K was an ultra-marathon. You start with a very slow, methodical process. You begin to increase the volume of running you do. Six days a week at moderate distances and one day a week you start doing the long runs. The long-runs concept becomes the backbone of training for a marathon.
