The Usual Prospects - Tyrone Sklaren

When he was asked to come up with some highlights of his running experiences, Tyrone Sklaren had no difficulty at all. He has had some experiences which would be considered memorable by any standards, including one that brought him to the hospital, and one that resulted in marriage. Sklaren, a 66-year-old Brooklyn native, initially ran for "fun" and general fitness. He even completed the marathon distance (in Atlantic City) without any strategic training. Then, when he placed third in his age group (55-59) at the 2004 Cherry Tree Ten Miler, he realized that he could indeed be age-group competitive, and running took on a new dimenstion. He bought Bob Glover's book on running and trained more seriously for the Jersey Waterfront Marathon.

His time in that race, about 3:50 as he recalls, did not qualify Tyrone for Boston, but did indicate to him that the 3:45 qualifying time might be within his reach. His sprint to the finish at the Ocean Drive Marathon in Cape May, New Jersey brought him in at 3:44:57, and a Boston qualification. It also brought him an even larger triumph: a marriage acceptance by Gina. That does sound rather romantic for a guy his age!

Labor Day weekend of 2011 proved memorable in a totally different way. While running outside Prospect Park, Tyrone fell and actually broke his hip. Though he fortunately received assistance from people at the scene, and the doctor was reassuring about recovery, Tyrone could not run for six months. As he healed, Tyrone turned to such lower-impact excercises as spinning and core-training. Ultimately, the doctor's prognosis that Tyrone would be able to return to running proved correct. He qualified once again for Boston, and competed in this year's running of the race. He was on Boylston Street, a quarter-mile from the finish, when the bombs went off and the race was stopped.

He has an automatic re-entry to the 2014 race, which he believes will have a finish line that is "the safest place in the world."

This year, Tyrone has been running somewhat shorter races, and is considering the New York City Marathon for 2014. He also looks forward to the Staten Island Half.

Tyrone has actually paid attention to the "age-graded performance" statistics that are available on the NYRR website. His highest was about 73%, and he hopes to stay around 70% in races,though as he says, he "doesn't always hit it."

Tyrone credits PPTC with fine support for running improvement. He suggests Coach Tony's classes for those who want to run faster, and praises the services the Club has provided, including a counseling session for those who ran Boston which was arranged by Club President Tom Meany. The Club has also been the source of several close friendships for Tyrone and his wife.

For 22 years, Tyrone has been employed by the Conway Stores chain. He is currently their lingerie expert. Anyone interested in adding such a line to our PPTC clothing?

If you run early, you might just see Tyrone in the park, working out for what could be the next memorable race.