Paul Piplani 1947?-2009
I met Paul briefly at Across The Years. He was an interesting guy who loved to run. He ran over 800 marathons or marathon type distances.
Posted on the Ultralist:
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 2009 21:33:35 -0400
From: Reid Delman
Subject: Paul Piplani
I’ve been asked about my source. Charlie Alewine and Paul ran a number of our races including our Boulder 100. Here is his email to me.
Dear Friends of Paul Piplani:
It saddens me to report that my friend, Paul Piplani, with whom I ran side by side with in 90-100 races, including my first and most of my 100 Milers, passed away this afternoon of liver cancer. Another good friend of Paul’s and mine, Todd Byers, and I spent the day with Paul yesterday. He passed knowing he had many friends in the running community that were thinking of him and praying for him. As many of you know, Paul was an accomplished runner who was closing in on 1000 marathons run since his first in 1993. His first marathon was Pike’s Peak. Had it been my first, I may not have run another one. He talked me into doing it once, and I can honestly say that was one of the hardest runs I’ve ever done. I haven’t been back. He ran it 14 times.
If you come across anyone that knows him while running in upcoming events, please let them know about Paul, because he has so many friends across the country that will be wondering where he is, as he usually does two marathons every weekend.
Thank, everyone. Please take care.
Charlie
Paul was a part of my first 100 miler as well! He had such great spirits and knew all the things to say to keep me going. He was so positive and friendly and spread that joy to everyone around him. I am sure he is smiling down on us!
I met Paul back in 2002. He was already an accomplished runner, but one thing he’d never taken the time to do was get a good pair of running shoes. I was that someone who had the pleasure of fitting Paul for the first time @ Performance Footwear (see his shirt). He was an extremely positive soul, who simply just wanted to run. I knew he struggled to make ends meet just on a daily basis and I did what I could to support him on his continued quest. I am both sad for this loss and happy to have met such an inspirational man. I remember one thing he told me that always stuck in the back of my mind. “I don’t do this(running) for anyone, but me…I just run. I keep putting one foot in front of the other and it happens…I enjoy it. It makes me feel great.” I’m doing an Ironman in 12 days (Arizona)…I’ll must certainly have him in my thoughts.