Love of running grows for PU graduate
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Chris Sallade will be among the more than 25,000 runners to start the 26.2 miles of the Boston Marathon on Monday, something that might have seemed quite a stretch for the one-time middle distance runner at Princeton University.
”When I was training as a half-miler, if Coach told me you’re going to run nine miles, I thought it was the end of the world,” Sallade said. “But on the other hand, it made sense because I feel like I am most myself when I’m running. It’s enjoyable. To run for an hour or two, it’s a gift that I really, really enjoy. It feels natural to me.”
Sallade wasn’t too surprised when he found himself drawn to longer distances after graduation from Princeton.
”I went from that 400/800 mentality to wanting to try the marathon,” Sallade said. “A lot of it stems from I’ve loved running since I was a little kid.”
Sallade, 40, wasn’t even 10 years old when he would go outside just to run.
”Sometimes I’d just jog around the house, or I’d dribble a soccer ball,” Sallade said. “I’d come back in and tell my mom, I ran 75 laps. She always thought it was great. She would tell me, try to run 100 next time.”
Sallade developed into an outstanding high school runner after he moved to South Jersey on top of being a standout soccer player. He was named the top male athlete at Shawnee High in 1990, and just three years ago, Sallade was inducted into the Shawnee Athletic Hall of Fame. He won the Group IV 1,600 meters as a senior, and was also named the “South Jersey Soccer Player of the Year” by the “Philadelphia Inquirer.”
When Sallade came to Princeton, he started playing soccer under recent United States national team coach Bob Bradley.
”I was playing soccer on the soccer team and also going to track practice,” Sallade said. “I was overwhelmed athletically, academically, socially. Everything was so different. I don’t remember all the rationale that went into me picking track over soccer. I chose to run, so I left the soccer team and focused on track my four years there.”
Sallade was part of the distance medley relay that won the Ivy League’s Heptagonals title in 1994 in 9:54.64, a time that is the yards record still, and when converted from yards to meters is eighth all-time in meet history.
”I was like a utility guy,” said Sallade, who trained for his first two years with PU legend Larry Ellis before Mike Brady took over the distance duties. “My best event probably consistently was the 800. On a good day, I’d run 1:52 or 1:53. There were three guys on the team that could run faster than me in the 800. If we needed points in the 400 hurdles, my coach would put me in the hurdles.”
Sallade’s greatest achievement on the track may have been a sub-50 second clocking for a 400-meter split in another distance medley relay.
”That was one of my better races,” Sallade said. “All my cross country buddies were mystified after the race that I had that much leg speed.”
Sallade took time away from running after his college career ended, but the break didn’t last long.
”Having competed at such a high intensity for so many years through high school and college,” Sallade said, “I took three to six months off to do nothing but eat fast food and ice cream, but I missed running so much. I’ve loved running since I was a little kid.”
Sallade was living in Oklahoma City, where he taught middle school algebra and high school economics and coached soccer and track, when he got back into running and first caught the bug to run marathons.
”A young teacher said, why don’t you try to do some marathon training?” Sallade recalled. “I was reluctant. I did a two-hour run with him, and it felt horrible. The next weekend I tried to do it again and I liked it and I was hooked.”
His first marathon was the Dallas White Rock Marathon, and he finished in 2:56:14, a time good enough to qualify him for his first Boston Marathon.
”It was awesome for 24 miles, and then the great slow-down occurred,” Sallade said. “All I wanted was to find some sugar — cookies, donuts, anything with sugar and fat. I couldn’t find anything. I think was weaving. I ran 2:56, but the last two miles were 9- or 10-minute pace.
”My second marathon was Boston that spring and I think I ran 2:46 or 2:42. Those are my first two Boston times. I started to figure out the race. I was better prepared mentally to handle the distance of the marathon.”
After six years in Oklahoma City, he and his wife Danielle, a fellow PU graduate, went to seminary, then came to live in Princeton and are in their 11th years as pastor and chaplain for the Princeton Evangelical Fellowship at Princeton University. Danielle recently found Chris a shirt with the quote, “When I run, I feel His pleasure,” from Eric Liddell in the movie “Chariots of Fire.”
”I feel like God has given me a great gift to run well,” Sallade said, “and more than that, I really enjoy it.”
The couple has three children, and they are looking forward to seeing Chris’s parents, who have since relocated from New Jersey to Hopkinton, Mass., only three miles from the Boston starting line, and to hang out and cheer on the runners along the course.
”They do like to run,” Sallade said of his children. “It remains to be seen if they’ll be as smitten us I am. It’s likely, but they’re their own kids. My guess is probably.”
Sallade’s pleasure is evident on runs, whether it’s the mile and a half run to work with a backpack on, or a long-distance training run, or the marathon. Sallade missed last year’s Boston Marathon when he got sick in the days leading up to it, but is ready for this year’s race.
”My training has been very good,” said Sallade, who ran 2:44:11 in 2011 at Boston and whose top recent time of 2:40:55 came in the Philadelphia Marathon in 2009. “I’ve run 2:42, 2:42, 2:46 at Boston. My training is consistent with those times, so I’d hope to be somewhere in there. It’d be a dream if I crossed the finish line and it said 2:39, but more reasonably, it’d be somewhere in the 2:40s on a good day.”
A veteran of somewhere around 20 marathons, he estimates, Sallade holds Boston in special esteem.
”I always look forward to the challenge of every marathon,” he said. “You never know how it will be until you start running the race. Boston as a race, I think it’s one of the most special venues I’ve run in — to run through one town after another, rolling hills, people who are very enthusiastic, whether it’s Wellesley or one of the towns. Usually I see my family – my parents, Danielle and my kids –— around the base of Heartbreak. It’s a special race. I’ve —ever had any other race like it.”