Runner Tim Meigs Proves It’s Never Too Late To Start

As we prepare to celebrate and explore wellness at NCBA Annual Meeting June 20-23, we’d like to introduce some NCBA members who are excelling at living healthy lives in the categories of our meeting theme: Work, Mind, Body and Life. Tim Meigs has a straightfoward approach to physical wellness that has taken him impressive places.

By Russell Rawlings

Tim Meigs wanted to lose some weight before he turned 40, so he started running. By his early 50s, he was winning his age group at the Boston Marathon.

“I started out walking and jogging, mostly on a treadmill, and at some point I did lose a bunch of weight,” said Meigs, who serves as Assistant General Counsel-IP with Becton Dickinson and Co. (BD) in the Research Triangle Park. “But running a marathon was initially just a bucket list thing.
“I had a friend, Dave Beatty, a law school classmate, who had run a marathon. I figured if he could run a marathon then I could too, so I started training for a marathon.”

Find this and more in the May edition of North Carolina Lawyer magazine.

In the summer of 2007, shortly after he turned 40, Meigs ran his first marathon in Anchorage, Alaska.

“I didn’t know what I was doing when I ran that race,” Meigs admitted. “I found some training program online, but when I ran that race, I was eight minutes away from qualifying for Boston. It wasn’t a fast course – very hilly – so I got it in my mind that if I took it more seriously I could come up with eight minutes and qualify for Boston.

“The next go-around was in Myrtle Beach in 2008, and I easily ran a Boston qualifying time of 3:07 or 3:08. The qualifying time then for 40-year-olds was 3:20. My third marathon was the Boston Marathon in 2009, and I have stuck with it ever since.”

Meigs continued running Boston and other marathons through his 40s, and shortly after turning 50 won the Boston Marathon’s 50-54 age group in 2017 with a time of 2:41. For those who may be unfamiliar with the sport or how times are reported, that’s a time of two hours and 41 minutes over a course of 26.2 miles on an exceedingly hot day. The overall winning men’s time that day was 2:09:37, which was more than 6½ minutes higher than the current course record for men.

Meigs has since added a win in Houston in the 50-54 age group and ran his 10th Boston Marathon in April.

Tim’s Tips For Living Your Best Life

It’s never too late to start.

Find a healthy outlet for socializing.

Keep it fun and in perspective.

Aside from the occasional hamstring issue, Meigs’ body has held up well since he became a serious runner. His weight remains under control and his cholesterol is good, as one would expect for someone who typically runs 80 miles a week — even more when he is training for a marathon.

“I try to eat better and drink less beer,” Meigs said. “I don’t have a super strict diet. I just try not to let it get out of control.”

Meigs has also reaped the benefits of being a member of the running community.

“I have always been a real social person and needed social outlets,” Meigs said. “And this is a healthy way to have a social life. In the past that may have revolved around beers after work or something that didn’t lend itself as much to fitness. This way I can have a social life and fitness too.

“There are several different groups that I run with here and there. It’s a great way to meet new people and also a good way to stay in touch with people whom I would not interact with otherwise because they have different jobs and different lifestyles. And a lot of them are a lot younger than me, which is great, because
it’s like being an educator who is always meeting new people with new ideas.”

Meigs has been with Becton Dickinson for 14 years, and also serves on the board of directors of
the American Intellectual Property Law Association. He earned a degree in biology from East Carolina
University in 1989 and graduated from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 1993.

Meigs also received a master’s degree in biotechnology from The Johns Hopkins University in 2006. He is married to attorney and fellow NCBA member Julie Meigs of Womble Bond Dickinson.

They have two children who are both in elementary school, which is yet another good reason to take up running.