02 Feb 2006 PTCRC HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE DAVE OLSON
Dave Olson is also one of the two newest inductees into the PTC Running Club Hall of Fame. A native of South Dakota, raised in Washington, and college educated in Ohio, Dave and his wife Cathy have called PTC home for the last 21 years and have been members of the running club for 20 of those years.
With a chemistry degree from Bowling Green State University, Dave is a Six Sigma expert at Cooper Lighting, where he teaches statistics and design of experiments. Dave and Cathy have two children, Rachel (27) and Erik (24).
During his college days at Bowling Green, Dave was good enough to run in the rarified atmosphere of national and world class athletes. “I got to run in the NCAA National Championship Cross Country Meet where we finished 9th. I feel very fortunate to have been able to run with that caliber of runner.” My teammates included Sid Sink, the 3,000-meter steeplechase American record holder at 8:26, and Dave Wottle, 800-meter world record holder at 1:44.3 and Olympic gold medalist at 800 meters in Munich.
Since joining the club, Dave served as Classic Race Director in 1990. He has worked the race results of the Classic every year since. He also started the club website in 1995 and managed it as the webmaster for the next ten years. But Dave says, “I think my biggest contribution to the PTCRC was doing the timing and scoring for the PTCRC Classic for 10 years and then convincing the club to go chip timing.”
Dave enjoys running because “I guess I am good at it and I can’t deny that beating other people is very nice for the ego, but it is more than that. It’s hard to explain but I really do get into a zone. I get serious runners high where I enjoy pushing myself and, dare I say, enjoy the pain. I don’t think enjoy is the right word but I certainly get serious satisfaction from it.” And he has the PRs to prove it: 4:34 in the mile; 9:35 for two miles; 14:56 in the 5K; 33:29 in the 10K; 1:21 for the half marathon; and 3:08 for the full marathon.
Besides running, Dave loves hiking and backpacking in the mountains. He has done several mountain climbing trips in Washington and Colorado with PTCRC members. He also owns a sailboat and loves sailing. He also plays a little guitar. When asked about an interesting or unknown fact about himself, Dave replies, “After 20 years I don’t think there is anything that no one knows. However, let me just say I was — and guess I still am — a hippie.”