Fox Chapel basketball alumnus scratches competitive itch in Pittsburgh Marathon

Russell Fenton felt the void when his time playing high school basketball at Fox Chapel ended. When he moved on to the Georgia Institute of Technology, playing on the club basketball team didn’t fully satisfy what he was looking for.

Fenton, despite never running track or cross country, chose to pick up running. While initially starting with 5K distances, Fenton decided to build up to running marathons.

What that meant was that he knew he needed help to figure things out. So Fenton, 21, had plenty of questions for friend Ethan Napolitan, who ran cross country for the Foxes.

“I started leaning on him,” Fenton said. “I didn’t know what I was doing. I asked a million questions to figure out what I was supposed to do.”

Fenton’s quest for knowledge extended to a network that has helped him make substantial progress. During the Pittsburgh Marathon on May 4, Fenton placed 15th with a time of 2 hours, 38 minutes and 25 seconds. He was the 12th male runner to finish the race and finished second in the 20-24 male age group.

Mulgeta Birhanu Feyissa won the race with a time of 2:14.28.

“The thing I realized from a couple sources was that it’s about trial and error,” Fenton said. “When you aren’t a runner, you think the best way to improve is to go out there 100 percent and try to fly as fast as you can. In basketball, you are running suicides, sprints and go full out. That’s counterintuitive to running longer distances. You have to run slower to get faster.”

Running has helped Fenton maintain a structured environment while he’s off at school. Fenton likes to have a plan for his day. In high school, Fenton could count on having things to do from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Once he made it home, there was time to eat and do homework. The adjustment to higher education doesn’t provide those kinds of guardrails to many students who don’t seek them.

“I don’t like floating around and doing things aimlessly,” Fenton said. “I like to be regimented.”

Fenton ran his first marathon last year in Pittsburgh. He hit his goal of finishing in less than three hours.

What Fenton found about running is that he enjoys seeing the progress he makes.

“The success you have on race day is proportional to the work you put in,” Fenton said. “You can put in a lot of work for basketball and not play well. If you do the right things in terms of preparation, you can be successful. There are still things you can’t control and you don’t know how it’s going to go, but when you compete, it’s gratifying.”

Fenton qualified for the Boston Marathon, but isn’t sure if he will compete in it next year. It is difficult to run that race and in Pittsburgh because of how close the dates are.

But Fenton’s obsession with playing basketball has been replaced with marathon running. He would like to know how far he can push himself.

“I’ve only been running seriously for a year and a half,” Fenton said. “I’m scratching the surface with what I can do. The way I was with basketball, I was never satisfied. Now, I’ve set the bar high with this. I don’t have a goal in mind.”