PUBLISHED 04/01/2008
Occupation: Host, ESPN's Baseball Tonight
Age: 43
Residence: Avon, Connecticut
Runner's World: When did you start running?
Karl Ravech: In May of 1993, I had managed to do well professionally but on a personal level I had put on a significant amount of weight. I was generally 140, 150 pounds as kid growing up. By November of 1998, which was five years after I took the job at ESPN, I had managed to get up to a whopping 175. I wasn't doing anything to stay in any particular shape at that point. I wasn't running. I was playing pick-up games with ESPN friends—that's what I was doing to stay in shape.
My wife had nagged me to get into running. I was always of the mind that if I was an athlete, I didn't need to go do that stuff. I was in good enough shape so that stuff was not for me. Then in November of 1998, following the World Series, I came home and suffered a heart attack at the age of 33. That ultimately led me to the running revolution in my life. That changed everything.
I was playing basketball and a friend of mine drove me to the hospital because I didn't believe it was a heart attack. I just thought it was indigestion or something else. Pain in the chest. Pain in the arm. They gave me an angioplasty and told me I was having a heart attack. They did a great job and within a couple of days I was back at home and within a couple of weeks I was walking.
Over the past 10 years, I became addicted to and married to running and exercising. I started out by walking a mile. Within a month I was beginning to realize the benefits of running and exercise and became addicted to that runner's high that people talk about, which I previously could never associate with. Before my high came from scoring goals on a soccer field or making a good pass on a basketball court. That was my athletic high. It had nothing to do with running or being in great shape. That led to a real joy of running. Running outside, running on treadmills, running anywhere I could run.
Have you done races?
My wife and I both ran a half marathon a couple of years later and did quite well. Running 13 miles in an hour and 37 minutes. She had always been in shape and I had become a runner. So I could participate with her. We each finished in an hour and 37 minutes. We had a pretty good clip. I think we were a 7:30 mile. We were bussing along.
What kind of weight have you since lost?
From 1998 to 2002, I dropped all sorts of weight. People were looking at me like I was ill, like I was sick, like something was wrong with me—all because I was getting back in shape. In fact, I was actually getting healthier than I had been in a long, long time.
What's your normal running routine?
I generally run between four to five miles a day.
Do you usually run inside or outside?
Obviously in the winter here in Connecticut, it's on a treadmill. To be honest, I find treadmills are a little more forgiving, believe it or not, on my knees than running on cement. I know a lot of people run on either grass or paths. I am afraid that because my knee has no ACL or MCL stability that I'd step in a hole and blow it open. I've run outside on the street but if I'm going to run on a dirt path, I'm afraid there would be a misstep and the knee would go. I live everyday thanking God that I still have a knee that allows me to run because it's something I never want to give up.
Do you still run with your wife?
When she I have the same schedule, we'll go out on a path and run.
Have you run any more races?
She's done a couple more half marathons. Because of my knee I don't think I could do 13 miles anymore. I don't push it. I have no problem running 4 or 5 miles a day. I still do the 7:25, 7:30 mile. The speed hasn't changed. That runner's high people talk about I still get it.
Do you run in the morning or night?
I get up with my wife and two boys, age 13 and 8, and once they're off to school I go to the gym. I am at the gym at around 8:40 every morning and I usually run for 30 minutes or 40 minutes depending on the mood I'm in. I'll mix in elliptical. I'll mix in rowing. Then I usually lift weights for an hour to an hour and a half. The great part of the job is that it allows me to exercise during the day when most people are at work. And I clearly have no excuse not to be in decent shape because I do have the time to do it. I take full advantage of it.
