1975
Charles R.H. Miers
C
harles Miers began his Andover athletic career by failing the notorious Physical Aptitude Test (PAT) in 1972–1973, a requirement for all entering juniors. As a result, Miers was not able to play sports until he “graduated” from a semester-long remedial gym program. Miers’s love for running started with laps around the Cage’s raised track—although the love of competing remained a distant dream. His senior year, Miers was asked to try out for the cross-country team; he went on to earn varsity letters in cross-country, indoor track, and outdoor track as well as Athlete of the Week honors from The Phillipian. Miers also finished second in New England interscholastic competition his senior year. Miers continued his track career at Columbia University, earning nine varsity letters in cross-country and indoor and outdoor track. He paced the Columbia Lions to their first-ever
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Ivy League Cross Country championship in 1979, was honored with the coach’s Outstanding Athlete of the Year award for cross-country and track that same year, and then captained the 1980 Columbia cross-country team. Some 40 years later, Miers still remains in the Columbia University record books as eighth on the all-time performance list for 10,000 meters. After college, he represented the New York Athletic Club and Adidas and posted a 2:16.37 marathon (No. 13 all-USA time for that year) to qualify for the 1988 U.S. Olympic Trials. Professionally, Miers’s career combined work as a full-time book editor and publisher while simultaneously competing on a national level in his sport during his twenties and early thirties. Since 2001, Miers has been a publisher for Rizzoli New York, which is internationally recognized for its excellence in publications in the arts and culture, particularly in fashion, interior design, architecture, fine art, and photography.
1975 boys’ cross-country team. Miers is front row, third from left.
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