Short Biography: In brief, I was one of the top distance runners in the country at distances 10,000 meters and up. Joseph Bernard LeMay was born in White Plains, NY; 5 December 1966. Grew up in Ridgewood, NJ and graduated from high school there in 1985. Attended Princeton University, and received a BSE in Aerospace Engineering in 1989. Was a mediocre student, but got better at it towards my senior year. Thesis Title: "Data Acquisition via Pulse Width Modulation for an Airborne Telemetry Unit using a 6502 based Microprocessor." Was kicked out of Air Force ROTC after two years for "lack of leadership potential." Attended Penn State University and received an MS in Mechanical Engineering in 1991 (wasn't cut out for Ph.D. and he's glad about that). Published MS thesis in conference proceedings for Intelligent Robots and Systems, 1992. Thesis Title: "Error Minimization and Redundancy Management for Three Dimensional Ultrasonic Measurement System." Howard Stern begins TV show on WWOR in NJ. Ends it two year later. Took a year off "to train for the Olympics." In reality, couldn't find a job. Didn't make the 1992 team. Was DFL in the 10,000m finals in New Orleans that year as about 5 guys lapped me. Was hit with exercise induced asthma that year, but personally I think it was allergies. Doesn't bother me in the winter. Was diagnosed as having a hypoactive thyroid in February of 1993. Was tired and had no appetite. Father has same condition. Very common. Now, and for the rest of my life, I take Synthroid every day. Current dosage is 0.175 mg per day. Found a job temping at KPMG Peat Marwick in Mahwah, NJ in 1993. Trained for and ran in the 1993 NYC Marathon. Couldn't get a number for the starting line. Rushed the fence and got on the line after being tackled by some volunteers. Didn't get anything to drink for 45 minutes prior to start. Indian Summer that day. Hit the wall and walked it in with a 2:43. Found an actual engineering job at a small company in Springfield, NJ in 1993. Got fired from it in 1994. Boss was, um, not a nice guy. However he did introduce me to Lotus Notes, which is what my meal ticket is today, so, for that, I have him to thank. Go see his web site, although I wouldn't recommend sending in a resume. Took the first job I could get, and that happened to be in Danbury, CT with a company named Computer Task Group. Listened to Howard Stern on 92.3 when I was within range. They put me to work on a help desk at IBM. I answered calls from IBMers at the Somers, NY site. Nice easy job, but aggravating at times. Isolated myself from most social life on account of I didn't know anyone in Danbury, and started training more. Big breakthroughs in 1995 were the 47:25 for 10 miles and the 59:30 for 20K. Got sick of the IBM job (working tech support is a pain, but you can leave your job at work), and was hired by MECA Software managing their Lotus Notes environment in 1996. We've been bought, and we're now Harland Financial Solutions Finally Howard Stern has come to Hartford, CT on 106.9 WCCC - the second radio station in his career. Nice Company. I also managed the firewall there. We switched to Microsoft Exchange for email, which, of course, is bad, but what can you do? 1999 Got married to Ellen. We bought a house. Ran a marathon in 2:13:55 for my first marathon win. I'm still not there. I think I can run two minutes faster. 2000 Finished 61st in the US Olympic Trials Marathon. Still, was one of only two with qualifying time for Olympic Games, so under ordinary circumstances would have been placed on US Olympic Team. Was not named to said team due to last-minute rule changes by USATF which cut size of team from three men to just one. Named "unluckiest man alive" by one reader in a letter to Track and Field News. Jan 2001 - Got laid off by Netzee - The name of the company that bought us. They're closing down our site in CT, so that's the end of MECA Software. Jan 2002 - Started working for E.M. Rose Building Company as their I.T. Director. Summer 2002 - Ran the Pittsburgh Marathon in May and pulled a hamstring about 2.5 miles into it. Took me most of the summer to recover, during which time I "retired." Between working, my commute (over an hour each way), and the frequency with which I get injured at the age of 35, it just didn't make sense to continue. The word "retire" is in quotes because I still run about 50 miles a week, and can still run around 25 minutes for 5 miles. I write this November 2004.
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