Tyler Pennel, the longest tenured athlete in ZAP’s 23 year history, has announced his retirement from the sport of professional distance running. A native of Golden, CO Tyler joined the ZAP team in 2012 as an NCAA Champion while at Western State University. In his dozen years here in Blowing Rock he saw great success on both the track and especially the road circuit where he made a name for himself with his fearless racing style.
Tyler was the 2014 USATF National Marathon Champion (Twin Cities) in his debut marathon. He was runner up at the Peachtree Road Race twice, including this epic duel to the line in 2015. Later in 2015, Tyler won the Pittsburgh 10 mile in a course record 46:49.
Between 2013 and 2018 Tyler finished on the podium at 6 US Championships. He qualified for the 2014 World Half Marathon Team and the U.S. Ekiden to Japan. He also qualified for a spot on the 2015 World Championship team in Beijing, but elected to forgo his spot to focus on the 2016 Olympic Marathon Trials.
At the 2016 Marathon Trials Tyler delivered one of the most inspiring runs of his life, placing 5th after making a break at the 16 mile mark. Following the heat break of the Trials Tyler Tyler bounced back with an 8th place finish at the New York City Marathon that fall.
After New York Tyler battled injuries for over a year, but made a triumphant return with perhaps the finest performance of his career, a 4th place finish at the Boston Marathon in 2018. Tyler would go on to place 11th in 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials. In 2023 at the age of 35, Tyler clocked his lifetime personal best of 2:12:16 with a 5th place finish at the Houston Marathon.
Here at ZAP we like to call Tyler “DL Pennel” for his low key quiet approach; however, his passion was anything but low key. Tyler played an integral role in raising the bar for not just ZAP but for US distance running as a whole. We are all better here at ZAP for having Tyler here the last dozen years, and wish him all the best as he moves forward on the next chapter. Congrats on a great career!