Steve Smucker is a personal injury attorney when he's in the office. The rest of the time — when he's not involved in his two sons' sports and recreational activities—he's a runner. He's been running in long distance endurance races for over 20 years. While he's run the Boston Marathon and the Portland Marathon, Smucker most enjoys races that fall in the category of ultramarathon. These are races that cover distances ranging from 50 to 100 miles—generally over rough terrain on forest trails or worse—and go up and down mountains, covering changes in altitude measuring thousands of feet.

Smucker does more than just show up. He's generally among the top finishers and is often number one in his age group. In 1995, at the age of 41, he set course records at all three Pacific Northwest 50 mile trail races. These were the White River 50 Mile Trail Run at Crystal Mountain, Washington; the Winterhawk Trail 50 Mile Run in Portland; and the McKenzie River 50 Mile Trail Run outside McKenzie Bridge, Oregon. This triple crown feat drew the attention of Sports Illustrated, which wrote about Smucker in its “Faces In The Crowd" feature on September 11 of that year.

In 2002, at age 48, he won the Oregon ultra series based on total points accumulated over seven participating races—the Hagg Lake 50K Trail Run, the McDonald Forest 50K Ultramarathon, the Winterhawk Ultramarathon, the Siskiyou Out Back 50K Trail Run, the Mt Hood Pacific Crest Trail 50 Mile Ultramarathon, the McKenzie River 50K Trail Run, and the Where's Waldo 100K Ultramarathon. Smucker often finishes among the top three in the Master's division (over 40 years old) at the United States Track and Field (USATF) 50 Mile Championships. See Smucker's race records.

Why would anyone want to pursue a sport with such grueling endurance tests built into it? "I run because I love competition and I love the sensation of being outdoors running trails," Smucker says. "My home is less than a quarter mile from Wildwood Trail (in Portland). I run the trail nearly every day to work. It's great exercise for the six mile commute."

Running fits his schedule, "I used to play tennis but it got harder and harder to coordinate times and find people to play with. Running is convenient. I can do it almost anytime I want."

He now finds that running enhances his law practice. "After 25 years, running is nearly automatic," he explains. "Instead of concentrating on where my feet go, I can look for solutions to problems facing my clients. In a recent trial, I broke a stick, which I found on the trail, to show jurors what an oblique fracture looked like."

Smucker plans to keep pursuing this unusual sport until his body forces him to take up something a little less strenuous.