- April 9, 2025
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Paul Shuler is known for zipping in front of the lanes on his hands after his Seabreeze High School bowling teams win a state championship. The 59-year-old teacher and coach is pretty fast on his feet too.
Shuler has only been running seriously for three years. On March 23-29, he competed in his first world competition and won a team gold medal. Shuler ran two events at the World Masters Athletics Indoor Championships at the Alachua County Sports & Events Center in Gainesville and ran personal-record times in both.
The competition drew 3,700 track and field athletes from 97 countries, including 1,400 from the United States.
Competing in the men's 55-59 age division, Shuler placed 14th overall and fourth among U.S. runners in the 3,000-meter race with a time of 10:44.44 on March 23.
On March 29, he placed fifth overall and third among U.S. runners in the 10,000-meter road race with a time of 38:58.95. As one of the top three Americans in the race, he shared the team gold medal in the event for the U.S. It was just the second time Shuler ran a 10K in competition.
U.S. athletes collected 557 medals including 185 gold medals at the championships. Americans set 21 world age-division records. Flo Meiler of Vermont set four world records in the women's 90-94 division.
Shuler said he was fortunate to be able to compete in a world masters event so close to home. He ran the 3,000 meters on Tuesday, March 25, drove home and then returned on Friday, March 28, and stayed over one night before running the road race on Saturday.
"It was my first ever world world event. I felt proud wearing that USA uniform," he said. "There was a lot of talent there. It was a good experience seeing my old friends and meeting new people from around the world."
Shuler is the head wrestling and bowling coach and an assistant track coach at Seabreeze. He ran track for two years at Carter High School in Strawberry Plains, Tennessee, and wrestled in high school and college at Carson-Newman University. He ran a lot as a wrestler, he said, but took the sport up as a past time just three years ago.
At 59, and setting personal records, he feels like he's just getting started. He said he would like to try another world event. If he wins a world individual gold medal, he just might do a handstand.
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