How Did Doug And Helene Sharples Influenced My Life

As referenced throughout many of the earlier chapters, Doug and Helene Sharples have had an incredible influence on my life.What began as a neighborhood rapport between people interested in the same activity, ultimately grew in time into a strong and lasting friendship, which has lasted for over a half-century.

While providing me with my first opportunity in coaching, without a doubt, the greatest thing that Doug and Helene would do for me would occur early in our friendship - they believed in me before I believed in me.

Besides providing me with opportunities that would ultimately propel me to an unbelievable coaching career, he and I would eventually become allied together in a business venture that, even though it is now dormant, lives

on in the folklore of small business ventures in southeastern Connecticut.
Back when I was working my summers at Electric Boat, while I was able to make more money, one of the drawbacks were the hours that I worked.

Being stuck at work from 5:00 P.M. until 1:30 A.M. had a major drawback. I never saw my friends and more importantly, never was able to run at, what I felt, was a normal time. Needless to say, when Doug asked if I was willing to start up a house painting business, I was more than willing to take him up on his offer. Thus in June of 1974, was born the now infamous, “G & D Painters.” While it did indeed provide me with new working hours and a normal training time, it also put me into a few precarious situations, usually hanging from a ladder or inferior piece of rope, high above the Groton Long Point in the summer

heat.
Over the years, many of his former runners and coaches would join our business conglomerate for the summer, and help expand our business empire throughout southeastern Connecticut. It was a good time to be a Capitalist. But, with all respect to Donald S. Trump, and his book entitled “The Art Of The Deal,” Douglas B. Sharples was wheeling and dealing long before that idea was popular.
Somehow, and unbelievably, he would find a way to “maneuver his way,”along with his entourage into a situation that, for anyone else, would be nearly impossible to do. For example, on a number of occasions, we were able to talk our way onto the floor during the National Indoor Track and Field Championships in Madison Square Garden in New York City. The rule was “only athletes and coaches allowed” and each year we convinced the security personnel that “our athlete needed to speak with us immediately.” And each year, there we were standing alongside the track, along with being part of the NBC Sports coverage of the meet. To me, It was a lot like those “Opportunities in life” that my college coach had talked about.
However, the greatest feat he ever pulled off occurred in Montreal, Canada during the World Cup Track and Field Championships in 1978. During the running of the meet, there was also a Running Exposition being held along with it. At this gathering, there were numerous tents set up to advertise, and possible sell different products, all of which were related to distance running.
As we approached one tent, we determined it was the name of a running shoe from South Korea that none of us had ever heard of before, or since for that matter. As Doug entered the tent, the rest of us remained outside waiting patiently. In a few minutes, he stuck his head outside the tent and motioned us all in. We were then asked for our shoe sizes and when we did, we were handed a shoe with a design that, to say the least, was very unique. The bottoms were rippled and designed in such a way that both sides of the bottom were higher than the middle of the soles. In effect, they looked like an upside “V.”
Apparently, in his conversations with the shoe personnel, he convinced them that he was, indeed, interested in the shoe for his team.

He then went on to explain that “his assistants” would need a pair also. He explained that they could provide an even better selling point for runners on his team because they were the ones that ran with the kids all the time. A few minutes later we all walked out of the area with a new pair of unconventional running shoes. Regrettably, after we all arrived back home and tried out the shoes, we unanimously decided that they were not conducive to proper running form. While none of us ever heard of the shoe name or the company ever again, we did find one very good use for those shoes. They would come in handy while painting houses, as they provided no-slip traction while walking around on the slanted roofs that we sometimes encountered while

painting.
All during my early years of coaching, he and I would become sounding boards for each other with new training ideas and racing techniques. We even began doing 2-man coaching clinics together and trying to spread our ideas on training. However, in addition to being my first mentor in coaching, he became one of my best friends. So much so, that he was my Best Man at my wedding in July of 1987.
But as the saying goes: Behind every great man is a woman” and Doug was no exception to that adage. Of course, neither was I.
His wife, Helene, who also was very much involved in my early development, especially when it came to my well-being. More like a big sister to me, she was, if nothing else, brutally honest. Sometimes, even if you didn’t ask a question.