Pete Gaytan is the LocoRunner. I'm a San Antonio native. My heart is in San Antonio but I live in the Houston area. I've been running pretty much since junior high school. So I can say that I have over 35 years of running experience.

I did my first marathon in Houston in 2001 and ran a 3:16 and qualiified for Boston. I joined the Tornados Running Club while training for my first marathon. Victor Aguirre, the club president was a big inspiration in staying motivated and getting to the finish line in a decent time.  My "slowest" marathon to date is 3:19 at New York City (had to do some sight seeing along the course - see my NYC Marathon report for the photos and the article). My PR marathon time is 2:54 at Houston. My new future PR marathon time will also be at Houston again.

I got into triathlons after watching a couple of local sprint distance tris and thought it was so cool that I had to try one. First, I had to learn how to swim the right way. My first triathlon was COMBAT in Texas City in 2002. When I finished COMBAT, I felt the same way as when I finished my first marathon. WOW! What a sense of accomplishment. A few more triathlons later and one half ironman distance tri and I decided to move up to the "BIG ONE". I took my first shot at the Ironman distance in 2007 at Coeur D'Alene and finished just under 12 hours at 11:53. Read my blog of my training leading up to my Ironman on this website.

I am a very low mileage marathon runner. My average mileage for my PR marathon was approximately 52 miles per week. Last couple of years my average weekly mileage has averaged about 35 miles per week for the Houston Marathon. I firmly believe that to get my new marathon PR I will consistently have to run about 55 miles per week - injury free. I also firmly believe that positive thinking is the key to my marathon success more than anything else. I learned this in high school track and I still use this today in all my fitness goals.