Paul J. Miniter
First Marathon: Atlantic City Marathon, 1984

I was 16 years old and ran the Atlantic City marathon, finishing in a respectable 3:37 time. I don’t recall a lot of gritty details, just that at the end I was extremely tired and after eating a few yogurts, fell asleep against one of the casinos. The most memorable part was that my dad was there, as always. He was my first baseball coach, my first teacher, and again, the first to see me complete 26.2 miles. I have run 8 additional marathons, and my dad has not seen me finish another, but he was there for the first.