Colorado State University Athletics
Running Strong: Jon Sinclair
9/12/2013 12:00:00 AM | General
Sept. 12, 2013
The rich athletic history at Colorado State University includes track & field, one of the oldest sports at CSU. Many great athletes have competed on the local, national and world stage. One of those athletes is twotime 1979 All-American and CSU Hall of Fame long-distance runner Jon Sinclair (1980).
Sinclair is a two-time state champion (miler and two miler) from Arvada West High School (1975) who had his early training under Coach Lee Courkamp and was recruited to run at CSU by legendary Coach Del Hessel. Following his freshman year at CSU, Hessel left and Coach Jerry Quiller (fondly known as “Q”) took over the men’s track team. Sinclair said of his CSU coach, “I was very motivated to continue and I think that was due to Q’s coaching style and personality.”
Jon Sinclair’s motivation and a strong group of teammates helped build an excellent group of athletes at CSU in the late 1970s. He ran with fellow CSU Hall of Famer Richie Harris (all-American 1979 and 1980), Steve Lohman, John Alseike and Bill McGrath. Although long-distance running is an individual sport, Sinclair said of his team, “The training and preparation, even the day to day motivation to train, is highly affected by the society of the team…the culture that exists on the team.”
While at CSU Jon Sinclair set several long distance records and competed on two NCAA Cross Country teams along with the NCAA indoor nationals in Detroit. In 1979 he won two all-American awards, one for the indoor mile and the other for cross country. He narrowly missed a triple, finishing one place from All-American honors during the outdoor season. After graduation, and with help from his coaches and teammates, Sinclair won the 1980 USA National Cross Country Championship in Pocatello, Idaho.
After winning the 1980 National Championship, Sinclair’s resume of major road wins began to stack up year after year. From 1981 to 1993, Jon Sinclair won 25 long distance road races. In 1984 he was the USA National 10,000 meter track champion and a finalist for the 5,000 meters in the 1984 Olympic Trials along with being a finalist in the in the 1988 and 1992 Olympic Trials Marathon. He is the current U.S. record holder for the 12K on the roads and former world record holder at that distance. Among numerous international team racing achievements, Jon Sinclair is the all-time cumulative men’s point leader in the Runner’s World Road Race Rankings.
With so much of his life dedicated to long distance running, it only makes sense that Jon Sinclair has remained close to the sport he has participated in for nearly 40 years. In the fall of 1995, he and partner, Kent Oglesby started Anaerobic Management, the first internet coaching service for distance runners.
Anaerobic Management is an internet based coaching business that allows long distance runners from all over the country and world to communicate with a running coach. Sinclair said of his business, “We (Oglesby) both had been doing some local coaching, but we wanted to build a website and work with people through email. Until then, I had been using fax and phone to work with athletes outside of Fort Collins.”
Sinclair and Oglesby co-authored the book Training to Achieve Peak Running Performance in 2003 and use it in their online coaching. In their business they will conduct a fitness assessment on each client, schedule their personal needs and goals for training and keep in close contact with their clients via phone, fax and email. It may have been the first online coaching business in America and now Sinclair’s wife, former world class marathoner Kim Jones has joined the business.
Besides operating his online coaching, Jon Sinclair operated the Colorado Marathon during the race’s first 11 years of existence. He continues his involvement as a volunteer in the race, which is run from Old Town Fort Collins every May. The number of race participants continues to grow annually and draws runners from all 50 states and internationally as well. Race entries usually sell out months in advance.
Jon and his wife Kim continue to run every day and operate Anaerobic Management from their homes in Boulder and Fort Collins. He credits his experience at Colorado State University as a major contributor to his success in professional running thanks to the coaches and teammates he had. He said, “I’ll forever be grateful to those guys for the many miles and workouts we put in together. None of my success as a road racer would have been possible if my years at CSU had been different.”
