Pat Porter

Running career Early career Porter had a personal record of 4:29 in the mile while running for Evergreen High School in Evergreen, Colorado. He was not heavily recruited to run in college. He is a 1982 alumnus Adams State College in Alamosa, Colorado, and flourished under the training of coach Joe Vigil. At Adams State, Porter won 6 RMAC championships, and 3 national NAIA championships.

Post collegiate Porter was best known for his cross country running accomplishments. He won a record eight consecutive USA Cross Country Championships from 1982 to 1989. Porter also represented the United States at the World Cross Country Championships each of these years. His best finish at the World Championships was 4th in 1984, followed by 6th, 7th, 9th and 10th-place finishes throughout his career.

1984 Porter finished 15th in 28:34.59 at the Athletics at the 1984 Summer Olympics - 10000 metres.

1988 Porter did not advance to the Athletics at the 1988 Summer Olympics - 10000 metres final after finishing 11th in 28:45.04 in the 1st round, ranking him 23rd in the Olympics that year, but only 20 qualified to the final. His time would have ranked 17th as several runners ran slower in the final, still almost 1:25 (almost a lap and a half) behind the winner.

In 1998 Porter played Finnish distance runner Lasse Virén in Without Limits, a biographical film about American distance legend Steve Prefontaine. He was married to fellow U.S. 1988 Olympic Team member high jumper Trish King.

Honor Porter was inducted in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame in 1987. Porter was inducted in the RMAC Hall of Fame in July 2012. Only days before his death, on July 20, Porter had been inducted into the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs and was also inducted into the Adams State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2000 in Alamosa, Colorado.

Death

On July 26, 2012, at approximately 8:30 a.m., Porter was killed in an airplane crash along with his 15-year-old son Connor and his son's friend, 14-year-old Connor Mantsch. Porter, an avid pilot, on takeoff hit a boundary fence at the southbound end of the Sedona Airport runway in Sedona, Arizona, then went down a steep mesa and burst into flames upon impact at the bottom of the hill. He was 53 years old.

Competition record

Cross country

Track and field