Photo: Laurie Decker trains on Cadillac's Vo-Ed trail.

You would never know, to visit Laurie Decker's home in Cadillac, she is one of the most-successful runners in Michigan. You see no trophies, plaques nor any sign she has won dozens of age-group and overall titles at top state and U.S. road races. The awards are in boxes in the basement, Laurie says.

When I called to tell her she was Michigan Runner magazine's 2004 Runner of the Year, she assumed she had repeated as top master. When I told her no, she was overall Runner of the Year (as she was in 2002), she quietly said, "Oh."

You see, although Laurie goes to ROY series point races, she does not keep track of her totals. She rarely records anything about running - no logs, lists of race results or press clippings. The only exceptions are marathon-training logs, which she kept because I asked her to do it. I met Laurie and her husband, Kevin, eight years ago when their son, Eric, ran for my Cadillac High cross country team. She and Kevin became inspired to try running too.

Laurie discovered she had a competitive spirit, plus the toughness to endure the pain of hard training. She was self-motivated too.

When it was suggested weekly 10-mile runs would help her, Laurie took to the Vo-Ed Trail, a local cross country ski course known for its screaming downhills. She ran the Vo-Ed in reverse, to get top benefit from the uphills. For pre-marathon 20-milers, she ran it twice.

To make sure her pace doesn't slack, she does some long runs on a treadmill. Recently, Laurie ran a 23-miler on the treadmill while listening to a tape of Guns N' Roses, Motley Crue and AC/DC on a Walkman. Although she doesn't wear a Walkman during races, she confides, "Sometimes I think about Motley Crue's 'Kick Start My Heart' to help me run faster."

A typical week includes nine to 12 charges up a quarter-mile hill on Monday; a session of 10 two-minute surges, with a minute cool down, on a treadmill set to its maximum speed of six-minutes-per-mile on Tuesday; and a long run on the weekend. Laurie usually runs about 40 miles a week, building to 60 when training for a marathon.

Laurie has few peers, among the elite runners I have known, in her ability to endure grueling training sessions month after month.

She feels running helps her as a teacher assistant for emotionally- impaired elementary school students. "Everyone is amazed at how patient I am with the kids," she says. "I think running helps that."

Her sometimes-volatile students have boundless energy. "If they get tense, I may ask them to run around the building with me a couple times," Laurie says. "Most of the time they do it, then return to the classroom ready to work again."

Although Laurie, who turned 45 three days after Christmas, wants to keep doing well in races, she would also like to do more with the EI kids at her school.

"I'd like to get something going for them," she says. "Maybe help them with training, and take them to races. Running seems good for these kids. I'd like to give something back.

"Running has done a lot for me," Laurie adds. "It has given me confidence; I can get up in front of a group and talk now.

"Kevin and I have made so many friends through running that races are like reunions. Seeing our friends is as important as the competing,"

Writer Dave Foley, MR editor from 1985-99, retired in 2003 after 29 years as a Cadillac coach and teacher, and entered his first triathlon. He entered his second, the Cadillac Labor Day Triathlon, Sept. 6, and beat all comers, including several one-third his age. MR