THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 17, 1995 TAG: 9509170159
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C16 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
You'd think John Dill would get bored tinkering with carburetors. After all, he's put in 10-hour days for five-day weeks for the last 12 years at Carburetor Clinics on Little Creek Road.
``To be able to solve problems no one else can solve,'' says Dill, a fair-haired, slender guy in familiar work clothes - blue shorts and shirt with his name printed on a white patch - ``I enjoy it.''
Routine is fine at work, he says, but Dill would get bored pursuing the same old kind of recreation. He'd tire of running every single day. Same with biking. Never did much swimming.
But put them all together and Dill, 32, relishes the challenge. Today he'll compete in his eighth consecutive Sandman Triathlon starting at 8 a.m. on Atlantic Avenue and 31st Street. Participants begin with a 1K ocean swim, followed by a 14-mile bike ride through Fort Story and ending with a 5K run along the Boardwalk. Dill, who won last weekend's Outer Banks Triathlon in Manteo in 1 hour, 8 minutes, finished first in his age group at last year's Sandman and was seventh overall.
Coming on the heels of last weekend's victory, he's thought about a win in the Sandman. ``Yeah, the double dips would be nice,'' he says. ``Of course, if you get too good, you get to the point where everybody guns for you and the whole thing isn't much fun anymore.''
A 1982 Norview grad, Dill was never much for hobbies and save for two years as a defensive back, never much for athletics. He admits he just ``fell into triathlons. Running is pretty lonely. Triathlons are more laid back than running, more social.''
He's not a stickler for training either. If he heads out the door feeling tired, he'll turn back around and postpone until the next day. Usually he swims two days a week at Mount Trashmore, runs seven miles or so another day and bikes 20 miles the next day.
His first triathlon was the Old Ocean View event, and he finished 70th in his age group, 200-and-something overall. ``I remember my legs being dead,'' he recalls with a groan. ``It wasn't as easy as I thought.''
Then he trained the rest of the summer for his first Sandman, which was double the distance.
``After that, I got hooked,'' he says. ``It was a different high than anything I'd ever done.''
In addition to the triathlons, Dill competes in a few biathlons and a handful of local road races. But he doesn't get bogged down worrying about splits and times and everything else that consumes hard-core runners.
``I don't wear a watch,'' he says proudly. ``You'll see people in these triathlons getting out of the water and looking at their watches. . . . If they wanted to go 16 minutes and instead they went 17 minutes, that's the first thing on their mind.''
Instead, Dill says, for that hour-plus, he loses himself in his thoughts as he tries to push his body to achieve to the max. But the one detail he is a stickler about is his diet the night before.
``It's gotta be pizza,'' he says with a grin. ``The biggest cheese pizza I can find.''
That's one routine, he confesses, he'll never give up. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
BILL TIERNAN/Staff
``Running is pretty lonely. Triathlons are more laid back than
running, more social,'' John Dill says.
by CNB