If you lost a road race in Charlotte recently, it was probably to this guy
Most of the runners in road races battle the clock. There’s only a few, those runners who line up right at the front, who even think they could win the entire race.
That front of the line position is where you will find Charlotte’s Bert Rodriguez. And it seems like, most of the time, he’s the one who is going to win.
Although he brushes off such comments, consider his 2015 race calendar:
– He won the Shamrock 4-miler, the CPPC Skyline Run, the American 4-miler, the OrthoCarolina 10K.
– And forget about taking the men’s mile in the Summer Track Series from him. He won in weeks two, three, four, five, the championship qualifier and championship race. He didn’t take part in week one.
– Most recently, he won Race 13.1.
“I don’t necessarily love running miles after miles. I like to race,” said Rodriguez, 36, who by day is a business consultant at Perficient in Charlotte.
From a 2015 blog post about the Summer Track Series.
Rodriguez has been racing in Charlotte since 2009, not always winning but often enough that to beat him was notable.
He placed second at GreekFest, among a couple of other races this year. He lost to his training partner, Jesse McEntire.
“When we line up, we both want beat each other,” said McEntire, 29. “If I run Bert’s race, he’ll beat me in the end because he has a faster kick than me.”
That kick is something the two practice whenever they can during speed work at the Johnson C. Smith University track, usually before dawn.
Those runs are part of the 60 miles a week he runs, scheduled around his job and time with his wife Susan and 2 1/2-year-old Caroline and 5-month-old Reid.
So what’s his secret for winning? There isn’t one. Lots of training along with 24 years of running experience has gotten Rodriguez the consistency to maintain a steady race pace in the 5-minute-per-mile range no matter the distance, from the 3.1-mile 5K to the 26.2-mile marathon.
“If you put in the hard work and training, whether I come in first or not first, win or lose, I’m going to get out there and lay it all on the line,” he said. “And you can do that at any age. I don’t think I’ll ever stop. I’ll get slower as I get older, but, God willing, I’ll be able to run for the rest of my life.”
His speed has earned him a place on the Charlotte Running Club’s invitation-only team at the Blue Ridge Relay for the past two years. Both years the team came in second.
“Our intent is to get the fastest guys in the club on that team,” said Mike Beigay, 37, of Concord who is the competition committee director with the Charlotte Running Club. “Obviously he’s one of the faster guys in Charlotte.”
His times are good enough to get the win in Charlotte, but wouldn’t in bigger cities.
Consider Rodriguez’s proudest race. In 2011 he ran a 5:03 minute mile pace in the Cherry Blosom Ten Mile Run in Washington. That performance, which is faster than what he runs at most Charlotte races, won him his age division and 17th of 7,009 men.
“I don’t have the time in my day and my body is older. It would take more work for me to get down to personal record times,” he said.
But he doesn’t plan to stop competing. He’s looking forward to racing in the Big South 5K Oct. 17, a Ballantyne race that in the past has featured elite racers. He’s hoping to run the race in fewer than 15 minutes.
He also plans to return to the Thunder Road marathon this year after what he calls a disappointing showing last year. And by disappointing, he means second place.
With temperatures in the mid-20s, and tired legs after the Blue Ridge Relay, Rodriguez experienced another first.
“I had to walk in that race,” he said. “For the first time since starting competitive running in the seventh grade, I had to walk.”
He crossed the finish line in 2:35:43, and went straight to the hospital with hyperthermia and dehydration.
That was his second time running the marathon. His first resulted in, you guessed it, the win.
He and his wife had been living in Arlington and Charlotte for a few years and they made the move to Dilworth permanent in 2012. After moving here, he entered the Run for Your Life Grand Prix series in 2012 and the Signature Series in 2013. The Signature Series that year comprised of eight races from March to November with races in distances from 5Ks to a marathon.
He won all eight of those races.
“There can be that expectation that I’m going to win and in my head, I can worry if I don’t I’ll disappoint my family and friends, but that’s all in my head,” he said. “You have to keep in it in perspective. It’s for fun.”
Photo: Todd Sumlin/Charlotte Observer
Elizabeth Foster is a veteran journalist who once came in third place of three in her age group. Reach her at efoster@charlotteobserver.com or @ByLizFoster on Twitter.
This story was originally published October 6, 2015 at 12:13 AM with the headline "If you lost a road race in Charlotte recently, it was probably to this guy."