Marathoner: If I Have a Problem, I Take it for a run

Randy Leeder will run the Atlanta Half Marathon for the 13th consecutive year on Thanksgiving Day. The 53-year-old’s goal is to qualify for the 2015 Boston Marathon, but no doubt he could run a full marathon today.

Leeder told Patch that his weekly long run is about 17 miles, and he already has three full marathons on his resume. The last one was about three years ago, he said.

“I’ve trained for a number of them, and was going about it the wrong way,” Leeder said. “For whatever reason, I’ve gotten injured in the training process.”

The Sandy Springs resident operates Leeder Advisory Group, where he sometimes serves as a Chief Financial Officer for client companies. He got serious about running 10 years ago and now it’s more than a passion. It can be a spiritual experience when he runs through the Chattahoochee River Recreation Area beside the water, he said.

“Also because in the beginning of the day, I work out problems. If I have a problem, I will say 'I'm going to take it for a run.' I don’t listen to music. I just make sure I have fluids depending how far I run,” Leeder said.

Four years ago he signed up with North Carolina-based Zap Fitness and got on a running schedule his age group. He currently runs a total of 50 miles a week.

“And that will start to go up, and the workouts will get more intense. You're always kind of varying what the coach advises, and not doing the same thing day in and day out, which is how you get injured,” Leeder said.

The Boston Marathon is something he set his sights on a few years ago. “As a runner, usually you want to run the Boston. "I wrote out a couple of years ago what I wanted to do in life, and I said it would be great to qualify and run the Boston Marathon,” Leeder said.