Political races aren’t the only type Mayor Steve Tate enjoys doing. He loves pounding the pavement for miles like any other avid marathoner.
Before heading to city hall, Tate, 68, laces his shoes for a morning jog. He squeezes his workouts in his hectic schedule whenever possible.
What caused the amicable mayor to run in the first place?
“I had started smoking when I was 12 or 13 years old, and I finally quit for good when I was 36,” he said. “And I immediately gained 15 to 20 pounds. I was on a beach in Maui one morning and just decided to try running because I’ve never done it before. I fell in love with it immediately.”
As a newbie jogger, Tate didn’t face any hardship while building up his endurance. In two weeks, he already logged 2-mile workouts. He eventually signed up for his first 10K race near Salinas and did well. He became hooked and did more 10Ks followed by his first half marathon.
“I did the San Francisco Half Marathon through Golden Gate Park,” he said. Obviously, 13.1-milers weren’t enough to satiate the running bug in Tate.
He even aimed for something farther and hilly.
“I did Big Sur Marathon three times, my first one in 1987.” This was his favorite marathon. By then he carbo-loaded for his long distance training.
Tate tucked 25 marathons under his belt and two ultras – that’s right he did two ultra marathons.
His first, Run To The Sun in Maui, consisted of 37 miles but was not on a flat course. Competitors began at sea level and climbed more than 10 thousand feet to the summit of Haleakala, otherwise known as the legendary “House of the Sun.”
Unfortunately, the race organizers decided to cancel the race that year in 1988, but nothing could deter Tate from flying across the Pacific to set foot on the steep, mountainous racecourse in Maui.
“I went over to Maui and started running,” he recalled. “I talked to the people who were in charge of the race, and they said, ‘We are canceling this year.’ I told them I’m doing it anyway.
“Another guy, who is an ultra marathoner, ran with me for the first 20 miles, and he took off because I was too slow. Five other people from Honolulu ran it. My wife was my support … she drove the car and fed me and helped some of those other people, too. We had a great time. We all met at the top of the hill.”
Of course, no medals, T-shirts or postrace festivities awaited the stalwarts after crossing the unofficial finish line. Subsequently, the race organizers offered Tate a free entry for the ’89 Run To The Sun. He turned it down.
“Once you done it, you done it,” Tate said matter-of-factly.
For Tate, reaching the half-century mark on earth, he ran the American River 50.
“It opened your eyes when you got to the mark that said this is 26.2 miles, and, if you’re just doing a marathon, you’d be done. You still got 24 miles to go,” he said with a chuckle. “They insisted that you carry water, and I decided not to and got dehydrated. I had to spend a little extra time at some stations to get rehydrated and get going again.”
Asthma ended Tate’s marathon streak several years ago. His last 26.2-mile race was in 2005.
“I quit running for a while and mentally I couldn’t handle not running. I went back to it but, I’m very slow because I have no lung capacity. I can’t get winded at all. The most I’m doing now are half marathons.”
He doesn’t follow a special diet, nor does he carbo-load. Tate doesn’t get mental about what he eats. When he runs in the early morning hours, he prefers to do it alone so that he can have his downtime. Although he values his solitude while running, he is pleased to be among the athletes who run in the south valley city he governs. His eyes light up when he speaks about Morgan Hill’s own 26-miler in the fall.
“I really like that Morgan Hill’s got the marathon and half marathon now. I just love that,” he said. “When I was doing marathons on a regular basis, the course they used for the full marathon was the course I trained on all the time near Uvas Reservoir.
“I thought they did a fantastic job producing the race and making it very friendly to the runners,” he added. “I think it will get a lot of people back and grow in popularity.”
He gave a pep talk to the runners before last year’s Morgan Hill Marathon + Half. He then joined the ranks on the scenic 13.1-mile course. He plans to tackle the hilly route again in late October.
“I think one of Morgan Hill’s basic community values is health and fitness. That’s why the marathon did so well here,” he said. “When we did the whole visioning process on how do we spend our redeveloped dollars 15 years ago, there was a heavy push toward health. That’s why we built the CRC [Centennial Recreation Center], and that’s why we built the Aquatics Center. Morgan Hill values fitness and health and exercise and supports running.”
