NOVA Team Profile: David Bernard

PRs

1600m: 4:42

3k: 9:08

5k: 15:58

10k: 33:06

10 Mile: 55:08

Marathon: 3:48:57

David Barnard after running
the Marine Corps Shadow Marathon,
Camp Victory, Iraq
photo courtesy David Barnard 

 

David Bernard has been running for nearly 35 years.  A native of Maine, he started out running in a summer recreational track program and enjoyed it enough that he ran cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track throughout junior high, high school and college.  He garnered all-state honors during his senior year at Greely High School with his fifth place finish in the State of Maine Cross Country Championship Meet. During his senior year at the University of Maine he earned his varsity letter for track; his PRs for 1600m thru 10k came during his last year of college. His 10 Mile PR came a few months after he graduated from UMaine in 1992. Dave’s performance in his only marathon occurred in 2010, during a year-long deployment to Iraq where he ran the Marine Corps shadow marathon at Camp Victory near Baghdad. 

 

Since college, Dave has run mainly for fitness.  Every few years he strings together a few months of “real” training, logging 40-50 miles per week and getting his times for the 5k and 10k down to 20min and 40min, but running for time has not been his focus—it’s been enough of a reward to maintain a healthy body composition and to stay off blood pressure medication. Aside from general fitness, Dave’s current focus is preparing for the JFK50 next fall, which will be his first ultra.   

 

Dave is married with two kids. He works at the Pentagon and lives in Alexandria. The short commute allows him to run home from work most nights which accounts for half of the mileage he runs. Besides helping him be consistent in his training, it allows him to clear his head at the end of the day and avoid spending the $4.75 he would otherwise spend on parking. As for other interests, Dave and his wife are developing a working homestead in North Carolina, where his wife lives fulltime and which Dave visits on weekends and vacations. They maintain a flock of laying hens and a handful of dairy goats and cultivate fruit trees and blueberries in addition to managing a sizeable vegetable garden. Eventually they hope to be self-employed as farmers and as teachers of self-sufficient living skills.