Paul is the 2020 recipient of the Ed Thompson Memorial Scholarship.
LVRR: What college will you attend and what is your intended major of study? Do you plan to run while at college?
PP: I will be attending Moravian College and I will be studying Chemistry. I also plan to run on the cross country and track team.
LVRR: What age did you start running and why?
PP: I first started running in 4th grade when our school made a club called Kids in Motion. I decided to join it to do it with my friends.
LVRR: What is your greatest accomplishment in your running career?
PP: I’d say my greatest accomplishment in my running career so far would be when I anchored my 4×800 meter relay and was able to help lead them to the league title.
LVRR: Describe an experience where you had to “sink or swim.” What did you learn from it?
PP: As I mentioned before I anchored my 4×800 meter relay at leagues. When I first got the baton I was in first but as the race progressed I gave up some ground and found myself in third place with just a little over 100 meter left in the race. At this moment I decided to swim rather than sink and I pushed that final 100 meters and was able to out-lean rival Parkland’s relay by seven hundredths of a second to secure the league title. What I was able to take away from this was to never give up.
LVRR: Who has been your most influential role model and why?
PP: I’d say my most influential role model would be my father. As a kid I also looked up to him both figuratively and literally, He’s achieved many things in his early years and is now the father of three kids and is a partial owner of a successful business. He’s not only achieved the American Dream but he also added some flare in doing so. I hope one day I could have a life similar to what he has.
LVRR: What would most people be surprised to learn about you?
PP: One thing most people may not know about me is that I almost didn’t run in high school. In middle school my two main sports were lacrosse and soccer, but it wasn’t until I got my repeated concussions that I decided to switch to non-contact sports and chose running and swimming as my two sports.
LVRR: What is one word you would say to someone who has just started running, whether it be a youth in the LVRR Kids Series or an older individual, about why running is worth it?
PP: If I had to say one thing to someone about running I’d say “fun”. That should be the reason why you do running, because it’s fun and you enjoy it. I first got into running to do it with my friends because it would be fun, over eight years later and it’s one of my favorite things to do.
LVRR: What events did you run in high school?
PP: In high school I ran cross country which was just a 5k and then in track I ran the 400, 800, and mile.
LVRR: What is your favorite event to watch that you don’t do yourself and why?
PP: My favorite even to watch that I don’t do is the 4×100 meter relay and that’s because personally I’m not fast enough to be a sprinter so it’s cool to watch so many people run that fast and then the fact that it’s a relay makes it that much better.
LVRR: What cross-training do you incorporate into your running routine, if any? Do you focus more on cross-training in the off-season (if there is an off-season for you!), or do you tend to cross train throughout the entire training cycle?
PP: For my cross-training I’m both a swimmer and a runner, so in the off-season of running you can find me in the pool swimming and during the summer I could also be on my bike, as I also do triathlons.
LVRR: What injuries are you susceptible to?
PP: One thing I always tend to experience is shin splints. As I switch from in and out of the pool the transition of putting all my weight on my legs also tends to cause shin splints to appear every season of track and cross country.
LVRR: What are three activities you enjoy doing apart from running?
PP: I’m always a very busy person with all my sports but outside of that I’m pretty simple with what I do in my spare time. I like to try and hangout with my friends as much as possible, I also find myself playing video games whether it’s with or without my friends, and most importantly I consider eating another one of my hobbies as I burn thousands of calories everyday I definitely enjoy trying to compete with my fast metabolism with large amounts of both healthy and junk food.
