Andy Jones.

Andy Jones 

ENGINEERING FELLOW

RECOVERY BOILER SPECIALIST

INTERNATIONAL PAPER COMPANY

If you know anything about ultramarathon running, you've probably heard the name Andy Jones. If your specialty is recovery boilers, you've probably heard of Andy Jones, too. Jones is an engineering fellow for International Paper Co., and he's also a record-holding ultramarathon runner. For him, the two worlds are not that far apart.

"I earned my undergraduate and masters degrees at the University of Toronto, in pulp and paper related topics. I got my Ph.D. from the Institute of Paper Chemistry in 1989. I worked for ABB Combustion Engineering for eight years, and I've worked for International Paper now for five years. While I was working on my Ph.D., I went to my first TAPPI Conference, in Chicago, so rye been involved with TAPPI for quite a few years. I started ultramarathoning at about the same time.

"Ultramarathons are any race longer than a marathon. A standard marathon distance is 42 kilometers, so 50 kilometers would be the shortest ultramarathon, and they go all the way up to multiday races. I got interested because I bad run lots of marathons, and I felt that I had done all I could. I was looking for additional challenges.

"An ultramarathon is really a mental challenge, rather than a physical challenge. Physically, you're able to do it; but if mentally you've convinced yourself that you're not, that is where you have a problem.

"Training for an ultramarathon is not that different from training for a marathon, but it's quite a time commitment--that's one of the reasons I don't run them as much anymore. You almost have to build your life around your training. It's not something you can keep up for an extended period of time.

"Balancing training with work can be a challenge. My job often involves traveling to mills to help with operational problems. International Paper has mills in France, Russia, Poland, New Zealand, Canada, and spread throughout the U. S., so I've run in a lot of strange places when traveling. When I was training for the 100-mile race, IP gave me some extra time off, and management was very supportive, so that really helped.

"The 100-mile world record I have is for the road; my time was 12 hours, 5 minutes, and 43 seconds. There have been faster times on the track and a couple of times that may have been faster on the road, but the races weren't properly certified. I set the 100-mile record in 1897. I had two other records when I did that; I bad the 12 hour record and then the 150 kilometer record I set in the same race. I also still have the record for 40 miles; I set that in 1991 with a time of 3 hours, 45 minutes, and 38 seconds. Sometimes I look back and wonder how I did them. I certainly couldn't do them anymore, There was a lot of hard work involved and some luck as well.

"Ultrarunning is a sport where you get out of it what you put into it. The more focused you are, the harder you train, the better your rewards. That's very similar to the schedule of my job, which sometimes requires lots of patience and lots of work for quite a long time before the actual payoff. My ultramarathon experiences also help me in certain work situations, such as when I'm nervous about giving a big presentation. Compared to standing on the starting line of a 100 mile race, where you know you've put so much effort in ... well, it's a lot less nerve-wracking doing most anything else."

Thanks to TAPPI Member Frank Sutman of Hercules for suggesting this month's First Person subject. If you knew anyone in the pulp, paper, converting or allied industries with an unusual hobby or interest, we would enjoy sharing that person's story with our readers. Contact: Jan Bottiglieri at Solutions!, [phone] or [e-mail]