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FUMA's Own, Howard Nippert, Places 5th at World 100K
Fork Union Military Academy's faculty, staff and cadets are waiting eagerly for Howard Nippert's return on Wednesday, October 11th. Nippert, Director of Maintenance at FUMA, traveled to Seoul, Korea to compete in the Ultramarathon 100km World Championship and it was a journey worth taking. Howard came in 5th in the IAU (International Association of Ultra Runners) 100km event. This is the most competitive event in the world bringing together athletes from 22 countries. The race is 62 miles in length. Howard Nippert finished 5th with a time of 6:53.
Todd Giszack, FUMA's Assistant to the President, sent an email earlier this morning to faculty and staff announcing Howard's success in Seoul. He notes, "It's one of the top 10 ever run by an American (with this performance, Howard holds 3 of the top 11) US times ever."
In a recent interview, Howard tells about his training leading up to the race: "I've placed in the top 8 the past 2 years and had a goal of finishing in the top 5 today. The race went out fast. I told my teammates to be patient and stick to the race plan. I did what I wanted and I am very happy to finish 5th wearing this USA singlet. My goal for the past 30 years has been to represent USA and I have been fortunate to make 8 consecutive US teams. This World Championship race is what I train for. The 100K distance defines who I am."
When asked about his training leading up to this year's race Nippert remarked, "From my workouts I knew I was fit and ready to roll. I moved to Fork Union, Virginia this past year to work at Fork Union Military Academy and although the area is not as mountainous as where I used to live, I have used this time to become more efficient at faster paces. I knew from my shorter intervals...the mile repeats and 1000M repeats - that I was much faster than the previous 2 years. At the same time my 4 hour runs were still at a very high level. I felt I could convert that efficiency at faster paces into speed in a road 100K. I knew I was ready. My taper over the past two weeks was right on target. I just needed to get to the starting line because I was beginning to feel like a caged animal that was being poked by a stick." Full results can be viewed at www.iau.org.
Howard has been in the position of Director of Maintenance at the Academy for over a year and he describes it best in his quote above. He cannot be contained for very long - so Howard, where do you go from here?
Posted by Elizabeth Liles, Monday, October 9, 2006 10:01 AM
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