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Former elite runner Matt Lane has moved on from the days of running 100 miles a week, focusing on his law studies, including work as a summer associate with a Portland firm.

enlarge Associated Press File

Matt Lane was an 11-time All-American while at William & Mary.

MATT LANE FILE

• Eleven-time NCAA All-American in cross country, indoor track and outdoor track at William & Mary (Williamsburg, Va.).
• Three-time Class C cross country champion at Yarmouth High School.
• Ran a 3:57.57 in the mile in Eugene, Ore., on May 26, 2002.
• Ran the Chicago Marathon in 2005 in 2:17.32.

In the grind of training as an elite distance runner, Matt Lane had forgotten what it was like to experience a runner's high -- a rush of endorphins and euphoria that come together once a runner reaches a physical and mental state where everything just feels right.

But for Lane, that rush had disappeared amid the long workouts, which had gone on for years and years.

"The daily grind of double runs and 100 miles a week is not that glamorous," Lane said. "It wasn't what I enjoyed. When you run that many miles a week, you get convinced that there isn't such a thing as a runner's high or a benefit to your health, because you feel that all the time."

He had run in two United States Olympic Trials, run a sub-four-minute mile -- considered one of competitive running's greatest accomplishments -- and had a professional contract with Nike. But in 2006, Lane decided to end his professional running career. He reckoned with himself and saw what kind of life he wanted to have, away from pounding the pavement to prepare himself for the highest levels of competition.

He wanted to marry his girlfriend, Erin Sullivan, a former Stanford University runner.

He wanted to practice law.

He wanted to return to New England after living and training on the West Coast.

He wanted to be far away from competitive running.

Lane has returned to running, but not at the elite level. Instead, he has made the transition to the work world and prepares for his third year at the University of Maine School of Law. Lane, 31, is a summer associate at Preti Flaherty in Portland and will be the executive editor of the Maine Law Review when the school year starts in September.

For the first time, Lane will compete in the Maine men's category of the TD Banknorth Beach to Beacon on Saturday in Cape Elizabeth. He has run in three prior Beach to Beacons, twice as an elite runner and once with his wife.

"It's great to have a race where that many people can run in it," Lane said. "The fact that entries went so quickly, a lot of people just get jealous of the fact that you have a number. But from another standpoint, I think it's great to have all of the elite athletes there. Having the Kenyan athletes and some of the great European athletes and some of the great American athletes, that's a nice thing to have and to bring to Maine."

A 1996 Yarmouth High School graduate, Lane was the poster child for scholastic running in Maine. In the fall of 1995, Lane finished fourth in the nation at the Foot Locker National Cross Country Championships in San Diego, a day after he was featured in a New York Times story on high school cross country. It capped off a high school career in which he won three Class C boys' cross country titles.

At Yarmouth, track and cross country coach Bob Morse regarded Lane on three levels -- as a competitor who willed himself to win, as a teammate who demanded the best from his others and as a renaissance student who was a thespian and a budding musician.

"One of the things I remember asking Matt after his first high school race was, 'what are your goals?' " Morse said. "He told me, 'I want to run in college. What he did in high school, it wasn't going to be the end of Matt's running career. I wanted Matt to love to run and still be able to run for a long time."

Lane was an 11-time college All-American in cross country, indoor and outdoor track who qualified for 2000 U.S. Olympic trials as a redshirt junior at William & Mary. He finished fourth in the 5,000-meter run at the U.S. Olympic trials in 2000 and 2004, just missing the U.S. Olympic team both years.

"When I left running and retired from the really big competition and all of that training, I was just at the end of my rope with it all," Lane said. "To have the disappointment of (the 2004 Olympic Trials), I did some other things but I never really managed to get back what I lost, mentally."

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