Jay Jacob Wind, a well-known, well-liked and longtime stalwart on the running scene in the metro area, is retiring as a race director.
He will direct his final race, the Potomac River Run Marathon and Half, on Saturday, Oct. 17.
Dating back to 1981, Wind has directed hundreds of different races, including nearly 60 marathons. Wind estimates some 200,000 runners have crossed finish lines of races he has directed, and thinks he may have directed more marathons than anyone else in the D.C. area.
He originally got involved in race directing to make the process and races better and more efficient. But the intervening decades have taken their toll.
“I have two bad hips and Parkinson’s, so it’s getting hard to direct races,” the 76-year-old Wind said. “I still might fill a role helping with races like doing registrations that I can do from home if anyone needs me.”
Directing races was just one of Wind’s numerous involvements in running. Until recent years, he was a successful runner at many different distances.
Wind ran in 213 marathons, winning two. He participated in the Boston Marathon 28 times, the New York race seven times and the Marine Corps Marathon 42 times.
Wind also participated in five ultra-marathons, which are longer than a standard 26.2-mile distance. The longest race he ever ran was 51 miles. The first race he ran in the metro area was the Washington Monument 20K in 1970.
In addition to marathons, he was a regular age-group winner in shorter races, has coached for the Arlington’s Hershey Youth Track and Field program and was a co-founder and coach of the Potomac Valley Track Club Young Flyers.
His fastest regular marathon time was 2:27.25 in the infamous 1980 Boston race, the same year Rosie Ruiz initially was declared the top female finisher. Eight days later, Ruiz was disqualified when it was discovered she cheated by jumping onto the course about a mile from the finish line.
Wind ran his final marathon in 2021, and doesn’t run at all anymore because of health issues.
“I miss running and competing and I will miss directing races,” he told RunWashington.
Over the years, Wind has been honored by a number of organizations for his involvement in local running, which includes being a longtime officer in the Potomac Valley Track Club. He wrote a weekly running column for the Sun Gazette Newspaper.
Wind was inducted into the Arlington Sports Hall of Fame in 2007, was named the Better Sports Club of Arlington’s 2003 Sportsman of the Year, is a member of multiple running clubs and loves the sport so much the one novel he wrote, “The Man Who Stole the Run,” involved the Marine Corp Marathon.
Wind grew up in Illinois. That’s where his fascination for running began in high school when he found he could get to school faster by running than riding the school bus. Wind was a track runner for his high school team, then ran in college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Chances are runners who regularly participate in metro-area races know Wind and he knows them. Plus, he’s an encyclopedia when it comes to details about local races.
