Maine-native Mark Deshon grew up in Salisbury, Md., the son of a college baseball coach. He gave up playing baseball for the track as a 15-year-old in high school. He ran one season of outdoor track and one season of indoor track in college, running the two- and three-mile distances for Salisbury State College (now Salisbury University).
Mark transferred to the University of Delaware, where in 1978 he completed his undergraduate degree with a concentration in graphic design. After college, Mark began running local road races. In 1980, he moved to Newark and began working for the University of Delaware, from which he retired in 2012.
In the mid-1980s, Mark met then–club member Jo Anne Pryor and joined PCVRC when they began dating steadily. They married in 1987, and together they have a 30-year-old son, Jordan. Using his design skills, Mark has served the club over the years. In 1986, he designed posters as unique age-group awards for the Pike Creek Classic 15K. For several years in the late ’90s, he designed the club’s monthly (then in paper form) newsletter, The Pacer. He worked with race directors Doug White and Dave Farren to create shirt designs for the Delaware Distance Classic during the late 1990s and into the 2000s. When the club desired new branding in 2007, Mark designed the PCVRC logo that is being used today, taking elements from the original 1970s logo and working it into the current crest. One year, he received PCVRC’s Outstanding Volunteer of the Year award.
Mark’s career PRs include a 33:53 Turkey Trot 10K (1982), 26:54 Brandywine River (5-mi.) Run (1984, overall winner), 16:19 Run for Bruce 5K (1985), 4:53 Main Street Mile (1986), 55:23 Pike Creek Classic 15K (1986), 1:14:18 Philadelphia Distance Run (1987), 56:00 Broad Street Run (1991), and 2:59:47 Marine Corps Marathon (1991). In 1991, Mark was honored with PCVRC’s Outstanding Running Achievement award. Mark credits coach and friend Jim Fischer with helping him prepare for races during Tuesday evening track workouts in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
While over the years he has garnered 48 age-group first-place finishes, competed in three triathlons and two biathlons, and consistently age-graded in the upper 70s, Mark now enjoys bicycling and low-mileage running, aiming just to stay in good health.
