Former football player Craig Sowash goes the ultra-distance in running

When the former football player switched to running, he really switched – to marathons and even longer races

By Kristen Forbes

The Times, Sep 24, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Kristen Forbes / Times Newspapers

This weekend, Craig Sowash will face the ultimate endurance test as he runs 100 miles at the Hundred in the ’Hood trail race.

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After completing five or six marathons, a 32-mile run and a 50-miler, what’s next? For Craig Sowash, it’s Hundred in the ’Hood on Sept. 26 and 27: a 100-mile single-track trail race with an elevation gain of 10,000 feet.

“I know, it’s quite disturbing, isn’t it?” Sowash jokes.

What’s even more disturbing is the fact that Sowash only recently became a runner. He grew up a football player, the son of a football coach. He played football in high school and college (Sowash attended Oregon State University). As a college player, he was weighing in around 220 pounds. During a partial season in Canada, he was up to 235.

“I never ran track or did any endurance training,” Sowash says of his football days.

Five years ago, Sowash had a shoulder injury that required surgery. Afterward, when he couldn’t lift weights, Sowash started going stir crazy.

“I went out and I ran two days,” Sowash recalls. “And on the third day, I entered a 10K, which was painful, because I wasn’t ready for it. And that inspired me to do three or four more. And then I came up with the brilliant idea to do a marathon. And if I’m going to do a marathon, then I’m going to qualify for the Boston marathon. So, it just kept going. I’m like my own worst enemy, because I just keep taking more and more challenges. At some point, I’ll have to stop.”

Sowash lives in Newberg and does the majority of his training in Forest Park. He has a unique training partner, a horse named Hot Spot who rides with his wife during his long weekend runs. The Saturday and Sunday runs, which typically last four to five hours, give husband, wife and one of the couple’s four horses a chance to bond.

To train for the long run, Sowash has been doing up to 70 miles a week, regardless of the weather. He runs in the dark with a headlamp during winter. He ran during last year’s snowstorm; he ran during this summer’s heat wave. He runs in rain, wind, snow, heat or whatever else is thrown his way.

Since Sowash’s wife does similar 50- to 75-mile races with her horse, they adapted some of the horse training techniques to his running.

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