Greczyn was a state cross country and 3,200-meter champion in high school
It had been a while, but Max Greczyn is back in the winners’ circle with another victory in a big race.
The Arlington resident and Bishop O’Connell High School graduate, now 23, recently won the One City Marathon in Newport News in a time of 2:32.30. The marathon was the first for Greczyn.
Prior to that 26-miler, Greczyn’s last victory came when he was a senior at O’Connell, winning state and conference cross country and 3,200-meter [outdoor] races his senior year. He also won each as a junior, and placed first in many other races, including the Arlington County cross country meet.
After high school, Greczyn ran for the cross country and track teams in college at Virginia Tech, but didn’t win a race there.
“I did win one heat in track at Tech,” Greczyn said. “So it’s nice to win another big race.”
After participating for the Tech teams, Greczyn stopped training and running for some 18 months because of work responsibilities. He missed the routine. With encouragement from O’Connell head cross country and track and field coach Jim Connor, Greczyn resumed running and eventually training for a marathon.
“I found my love again for running and it’s back to stay, and I missed it a lot,” Greczyn said. “It was like a breakup, but my bug for running is stronger than ever with a fresh perspective. Jim Connor gets a ton of that credit for helping me.”
Once his training was back up to speed, Greczyn set his sights on running a marathon and finishing in 2:30 or faster. The longest race he had previously run was a 10K.
“The marathon is the ultimate test of endurance for a runner, so that box is now checked,” Greczyn said. “I can see myself running another marathon, but there are no plans right now.”
Marathon runners often talk of “hitting the wall” in the race. Instead, Greczyn said the wall hit him.
“I died so hard the last 10K. The wall hit me. I wasn’t running fast enough at that point to hit any wall or anything,” Greczyn said.
Greczyn pulled away in the final six to seven miles to win by more than a minute.
“I am extremely pleased to have finished,” Greczyn said.
Greczyn said future plans may have him joining a running club at some point, entering other races or training on his own.
