Tom Whitehurst

Marathons give CEOs challenges

Today, Stewart Title executive Nelda Martinez will achieve a milestone shared by several leaders of this city's financial institutions. She will run her first marathon, in New York City.
   Not part of the MBA curriculum, completion of a marathon nevertheless is a badge among local CEOs, shared by Mike Carrell of Frost Bank, Al Jones of American Bank, Bill Dodge, formerly of Pacific Southwest, and construction contractor Jim Barnette of Coastcon, to name a few.
   How important a badge? Well, Jones' marathoning exploits were included in his introduction last year as the G. Russell Kirkland Distinguished Visitor in Business Administration at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.
   Challenge a clear parallel
   The personality traits that drove these people to become CEOs, drove them to run a 26-mile, 385-yard race. Ask them where's the parallel, and they'll tell you that they love challenge.
   "Anything in life that is going to be an incredible sense of accomplishment has to do with a great deal of hard work," said Martinez, president of the company's Holly Road Division. "It's real easy to talk yourself out of something. But to consistently have an internal voice in you believing that you can accomplish something that's within your reach is a great sense of self-actualization."
   That inner voice is important because, no matter how much support she was offered, today she'll have to do it herself, said Jones, who mentored Martinez during her training, as did Dodge.
   Jones sees a clear parallel between marathon running and rising to the CEO level.
   "A CEO has a tremendous amount of support, but when you come down to it, the CEO has the ultimate responsibility and accountability. And it's very similar to taking on the challenge of a marathon. Nobody can do it for you."
   Driven to achieve
   CEOs who run marathons are people who need to achieve, at work and at play, said Mary Louise Holt, a practicing psychologist and professor of education at A&M-Corpus Christi.
   "They may have a difficult time with leisure time. They can't just sit and watch television. Leisure time has to be as productive as work time.
   "Simple pastimes like playing golf or hitting a tennis ball may not be sufficient. They have to meet really high standards and, gosh, a marathon, that's as high a standard as you can meet. They probably have the same high standards for themselves in leisure time as they do in work time.
   "There's possibly a need to be in control, and a marathon, you're not dependent on someone else. It's yourself doing that, and people in power positions, I would think that's very important for them - to be in control. And in this, they are.
   "I would love to study marathoners, their sleep patterns and how they unwind - if they do unwind."
   If she were hiring a CEO and saw marathon running on the resume, "I would think that would mean that this person would have the qualities I'd be looking for."
   Plenty of miles remaining
   Martinez is 40, the same age as Jones when he ran his first marathon.
   "When I ran my first marathon, I'm pretty much a goal-oriented person and I picked the most improbable goal I could. It was such a tortuous experience that I decided there has got to be a better way to do this. So I ran another."
   He ran 15. The highlight, at age 45, was winning the master's division of the Austin marathon.
   Which suggests that Martinez has her whole marathon-running life ahead of her.
  
  

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