Paul Pilkington
From WikiRun
| Paul Pilkington | |
| Event | marathon |
|---|---|
| College | Weber State '81 |
Paul Pilkington is an American marathon runner who is Head Cross Country Coach at Weber State University.
Contents |
Running career
Pilkington, a native of Blackfoot, Idaho, ran track and field at the College of Southern Idaho where he was coached by Jim Blaisdell. At Southern Idaho he was a NJCAA All-American in the steeplechase. Pilkington then ran track at Weber State, where he graduated in 1981. At Weber State he earned All-American honors in the steeplechase from the United States Track and Field Federation.
In 1994 he won the USA Track and Field marathon national championship. He was also a four-time Olympic Trials qualifier, in 1988, 1992, 1996 and 2000. and in 1995 he was a member of the US World Championship team. In 1993 he was the USA Track and Field 20-kilometer national champion and won the Houston Marathon in 1990. He also has top ten finishes in marathons in London, Berlin, Moscow, Venice, San Francisco, and Minneapolis.
At the 1994 Los Angeles Marathon, Pilkington was hired to be a "rabbit" to pace a group of runners through the halfway point in 1:05. At that point, no runner was near him and he felt so good that he stayed in the race and went on to win it in 2:12:13, causing an amount of controversy.[1]
Pilkington continues to be a competitive master runner. He formerly held the U.S. 10 mile masters record of 49:34.[2] For example, at the age of 45, he was overall winner (in 31:13.4) of the Ogen UT Standard Examiner Classic Heart Walk 10K.[3]
Coaching career
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He began his coaching career as the head cross country coach at Ben Lomond High School in Ogden from 1982-83. He received his Master’s Degree from Utah State in 1992.
From 1988 until 2003, Pilkington has served as a personal cross country coach in Roy, Utah where he coached five female U.S. Olympic Trials qualifiers, three Foot Locker cross country national finalists and over twenty Utah high school champions, six state record holders and two high school All-Americans.[4] Pilkington was an assistant coach at Weber State from 2001-03. |
From 2003-05 he served as the head cross country coach at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. There he coached two athletes to the NCAA Championship and helped one athlete qualify for the US national team for the World Cross Country Championships.
Pilkington was an the assistant coach for the WSU men’s and women’s cross country and track and field teams for the 2005 and 2006 seasons and helped the men’s and women’s teams win the Big Sky Cross Country Championship in 2006.
Pilkington was named the head cross country coach for the men's and women's teams at Weber State December 2006. In addition, he will also serve as an assistant coach for the men’s and women’s track and field teams, working specifically with the distance runners.
Pilkington also coaches the Mormon Times running team.[5]
He and his wife Darby have three children, Jake (23), Seth (21) and Erin, (18).[4]
External links
References
- ↑ Huebner, Barbara. "Pilkington a true pace setter", 4/14/2000. Retrieved on 2008-12-31.
- ↑ http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/3/3_4/1140.shtml Retrieved 2008-12-31.
- ↑ http://www.runnercard.com/runner/data/4508/296/result/M10.TXT Retrieved 2008-12-31,
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 http://fightingillini.cstv.com/sports/m-track/mtt/pilkington_paul00.html Retrieved 2008-12-31.
- ↑ http://www.mormontimes.com/people_news/sports/?id=2711 Retrieved 2008-12-31.