Photo by Robert Burgess of Rep. Bart Gordon (holding plaque) and his ACLI Capital Challenge 5K team.

Among the many runners flying past me at the 2005 ACLI Capital Challenge was U.S. Representative Bart Gordon. Despite running with an injury-he'd fractured an elbow and wore a splint-the Democratic congressman from Mur-freesboro, TN, finished in 18:17.

The Washington insider event, sponsored by the American Council of Life Insurers, pits the press and the legisla-tive, executive, and judicial branches of government against each other in a friendly 3-mile race on the banks of the Anacostia River each May.

This past spring, fully recovered, Gordon ran faster, finishing in 18:05. That makes it the 17th year straight that he can claim bragging rights as Congress's fastest runner. In fact, he's out- kicked former Olympian and mile record-holder U.S. Rep. Jim Ryun and has held the course record for a U.S. representative (16:59) since 1995.

Not bad for a guy who probably logs fewer miles than many recreational runners. And who doesn't run in the win-ter.

A moderate Democrat, Gordon is the ranking member on the House Science Committee, and is known for his work on NASA-related and math and science education issues. He also serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and in the Health, Telecommunications, and Internet subcommittees.

Gordon has also been involved in passing sports and recreation- related legislation: He was the primary sponsor of the Sports Agent Responsibility and Trust Act, which bars sports agents from using unscrupulous recruitment tactics to lure college student-athletes to go pro. Gordon also helped push the expansion of the 4 1/2-mile Murfreesboro Greenway, a system of nature trails that links several cultural and historical sites in middle Tennessee.

I sat down with him in his capacious office in the Rayburn House Building one sweltering late July afternoon. Dressed in a blue and white striped shirt and khakis, he looked trim, relaxed, and younger than his 57 years. He talked easily, his soft Southern accent tempered by his 22 years in Washington.

At the time, Gordon was taking a short break from running, as he was recovering from minor surgery. Also, married and the father of a five-year-old girl, he has more responsibility and not as much time for running as he used to.

But he aimed to get back on the trails soon. After all, he has to defend his Capital Challenge title, as well as further shave his finishing time.

"Next year," Gordon said with a grin, "I'm going back under 18 minutes."

WRR: What's your training regimen?

BG: You know, I'm not a model for anybody. My running is very irregular. It's just when I can. And there's no one place, there's no [set] time of day. It's just, get out two or three times a week. During the winter, I rarely run. If I go for two weeks without a run, I'll try to go in on the treadmill just so things don't fall completely apart. But that's just miserable, you know. What happens after a while is that you learn your body. And what you can do. If I'm on concrete, that really wrecks my legs. Now, if I run for more than two days in a row, that really wears me down. I'm afraid I may be getting to the point where two days may be even a bit much. So I really try to do quality runs.

The Capital Challenge used to be in the fall. So it's more difficult [for me] now because I don't run in the winter. So in March, I start trying to be a little more serious about running. I try to go out for at least 45 minutes, and then I'll go up to an hour or a bit more. I do speed work about a week or so before the race. My difficulty is that running as irregularly as I do, I need to get my base mileage. I don't have a problem with the speed. So what I'll do then is do some speed work for purposes of pace. Once I do that a couple of times, I'm pretty good about pace. I'll do some quarter and some half-miles.

WRR: Anyone get near you from the House or the Senate in the Capital Challenge?

BG: That's depending on what close is--within a couple of minutes. When you're running against Jim Ryun, there's always a little bit of concern. The first time I ran with him I was very nervous, and I thought, well, coming in second to an Olympian is not that big a deal. We went out together and he was faster than I was, but I could still see him in that first mile. This was probably 10 to 12 years ago. [Gordon ended up beating Sen. Ryun in that race. Since then, the congressman has finished ahead of Ryun--as well as his two sons-a number of times.]

I'm always nervous the first mile, because I don't want to run it too fast. And once I get the first mile and know that I'm on my pace, then you take it on the second mile, and then the last quarter, you really pick it up. But you've got to start catching people before that. You have to get yourself in a position to think, 'Well, if I'm hurting, they've got to be hurting too.' And so you have to revel in the more you hurt, the more they hurt.

WRR: You have must have good genes.

BG: Well, part of it is keeping your weight down. You have to be mentally prepared, and then get a base amount of conditioning in. And then you see what you can do.

The other thing is that you have to remember the pain. You have to get out there and get some pain so that when it hits you [in the race], you remember. I get enough miles for my endurance, try to get my pace, and then psychologi-cally get ready. You just have to determine that you'd rather die of pain than to lose. For me, winning is not the thrill. It's the fear of losing. I hate to lose.

WRR: Did you run in high school or college?

BG: No, I used to play tennis. And I had to run a little bit for that. Again, I've always irregularly run. It may be once a month, or once a week. I used to go down to Peachtree [a 10K in Atlanta] a long time ago . . . so I ran more regularly at that time. And then I ran for Congress and got out of it. I didn't even know about [the Capital Challenge] the first two or three years I was up here. Then I learned about, ran it, and won. Somewhere along the way, I determined that the 5K just fits me.

WRR: What do you think about when you run?

BG: Part of [why I run] is mental health. I start off thinking about pleasant things. Then I think a little bit about a problem that I'm dealing with. And then I zone out. And it's funny, when I finish up, subconsciously this problem I was thinking about, it starts popping up again in my mind. You're running through these things and your mind just clears out. So when I get through the run, I have all kinds of good, positive thoughts [to tackle the prob-lem]. I go and get a piece of paper and start writing things down.

WRR: Where do you like to run in Washington?

BG: When I'm here [in the office], I go to the Mall. And when I'm home, I go to Rock Creek. And that's great, particularly on the weekends, when Beach Drive is open. Back when I was more fun and had more fun, it was just so nice to go to Georgetown and run the [C & O Canal] Towpath. That's a special place. I would try to do that at least one day a week. I would run anywhere from 6 to 12 miles, probably.

WRR: Do you have any advice for runners?

BG: Stay off concrete. Learn what your body can tolerate. Again, I'm a believer in less running and more quality. Rest is important. I don't very often run with someone, but when you are with someone, it does get easier. And it's good to have goals. If you want to be halfway serious, you have to have a goal.

Other advice that comes to mind is that you see these people out running in the middle of the day in this horrible [heat]. And I remember doing that too, because maybe you don't have much time or you haven't run in a week. But that's a killer. It can really beat you down. Running in hot weather is so hard on you that it undermines your condi-tioning and undermines what you're trying to accomplish.

WRR: Is the Capital Challenge one of the few times that all the players here in Washington get together and just have some fun?

BG: The race probably is the most bi-partisan, bi- cameral get-together. Things are so partisan here now. Maybe taking off the suit makes people less hostile.

It's really a very good camaraderie. [Sen.] John Sununu and [Sen. John] Ensign from Nevada-one of them won it one year, and another won the next year. So they sort of trash-talk each other in getting ready for this race. It's all in fun. And you'll find many of the same folks running each year. It's almost like a family reunion.

A member of the D.C. Road Runners Club, Rhea lives and runs in Alexandria. She can be reached at borjar@yahoo.com.