“I just run. She really does the total workouts and is in great condition,” admits Agnew. “That showed at the Flying Pig Race in Cincinnati.”
Agnew, 49, is probably best known as the boys cross country coach at Carroll High School. He has built the Patriots into one of the top programs in southwest Ohio with his runners making 16 trips to the state meet.
An engineer at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Agnew was a cross country/track runner at Carroll, where he was a 1980 graduate. He went on to run for Ohio State, graduating in 1985.
It was after graduation that he began to run longer distances. For more than a decade, he was the area’s top runner in distances from the 10k (6.2 miles) to the marathon (26.2 miles).
He and his wife, the former Christine Peterson, met through some running friends. A former personal trainer, she was a competitive distance runner at Greenon High School. She also got into the longer distances after college with a best time of 3:33.00 at the Chicago Marathon.
They were married 11 years ago and have two boys: 8-year-old Kevin and 6-year-old Jack.
John gets in his mileage during lunch hour sessions with fellow runners at Wright-Patt or with the Carroll cross country runners.
Christine, 42, a stay-at-home mom, gets in cardio and strength training during sessions at the Five Seasons sports club.
With most of John’s fall weekends taken up with cross country meets, the pair runs races together in the spring and summer.
One of their favorites is the Flying Pig held the first weekend in May. They usually run the half-marathon (13.1 miles).
Christine has added a different dimension by entering the Pump and Run portion of the competition. She had to bench press 60 percent of her body weight 30 times. For each rep completed an individual gets 30 seconds taken off his or her time in the race.
There also was an overall competition with a series of lifts. Christine set an event record with 62 reps on the bench press. She also was No. 1 among all females in total weight lifted with 3,935 pounds.
In the half-marathon her time was 1:47.03. That put her in 137th place overall out of 6,873 entries and 16th out of 891 in the 40-44 age group.
Among the more than 500 Pump and Run competitors, she was first overall by nearly 14 minutes.
John had an equally good day. He covered the hilly course in 1:17.27, which put him fifth out of 4,024 runners in the overall field and first out of 434 bodies in the 45-49 age group.
“Really great day for us,” John said. “Really great day.”
The next big race for the Agnews as a couple will be the Chicago Marathon on Oct. 9. They get in training mileage for that race running together with Kevin and Jack alongside on their bikes.
“Both boys are old enough now they can keep pace with us,” said John. “It’s a great way to spend time with the boys and actually see them. They’re going all the time in the summer with baseball and swimming and this and that.
“You’ve got to be in shape as a parent just to keep up with them.”
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