Matthew Jacob Paullin was born on February 5th, 1982 to Lane Paullin and Kristal Paullin. Matt was involved in sports his entire life since age four and grew up playing soccer and baseball. It wasn’t until middle school that Matt found his love for distance running. Matt Paullin began running in 7th grade at age 13 and at age 42, passed the 100,000 mile mark on his body. This was a huge goal and a great journey. Matt would like to thank his family, friends, and coaches for all of the support over the years!

Matt ran cross country and track in junior high and high school for Ashland under the coaching of Dave Potter and Ron Whitehill. He set many records including the freshman 5-K record of 16:26 and the freshman 3200 meter record of 9:57. Matt Paullin was a 2000 graduate from Ashland High School. Matt made it to the State Cross Country Meet four years in a row individually and twice with a team making him the 1st athlete from Ashland, in any sport, to go to state four years in a row. Matt made the varsity cross country team and varsity track team all four years of high school. In cross country Matt was on the Ohio Heartland Conference champion team four years in a row and took 1st place in the conference individually his senior year. Matt earned All-Conference honors all four years, All-District honors all four years, All-Regional honors all four years and All-State honors twice. In track Paullin earned All-Conference honors four years in a row in the 3200 meter and 1600 meter events and was conference champ in the 1600 meter and 3200 meter events his senior year. Paullin earned All-District Honors and All-Regional honors in the 1600 meter and 3200 meter events his senior year and individually got 1st place in the 3200 meter at the District Meet. Paullin also made it to the State Track Meet as the anchor leg to the 4 X 800m relay team. Paullin ran a 9:29 in the 3200 meter his senior year. Paullin was named Athlete of the Year and was given the Archie Griffin Award his senior Year.

Matt Paullin ran cross country and track for Youngstown State University where he graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration Degree. There he lead the team at the Regional Meet in Terre Haute, Indiana and ran the 2nd fastest 10-K time in Youngstown State’s history on grass 32:25.

After college, Paullin switched his focus to marathon training. As of Spring 2024 Paullin has completed 26 full marathons and has placed in the top 1% of the field at the Boston Marathon seven times. Paullin has a PR of 2:35. Some of Paullin’s proudest moments were placing 4th over-all in the Columbus Marathon out of 10,000 in 2007 with a 2:37, winning 1st place overall in the Marquette Marathon in 2012, and winning 1st place over-all in the Gasparilla Michelob Ultra Challenge (a challenge of four races in two days) held in Tampa, in 2019. Paullin ran a 40 mile run on his 40th birthday to celebrate. In 2022 Paullin placed 209th over-all out of over 50,000 in the London Marathon with a 2:36. In 2023 Paullin placed 12th over-all out of 8,000 in the Virginia Beach Shamrock Marathon. From 2015 to 2024 Paullin and his wife Jamie, have been competing in The World Marathon Majors tournament consisting of 6 full marathons: Chicago, New York, Boston, Berlin, London, and Tokyo. Paullin has finished all of these 26.2 mile races in the top 1% of the field and in March of 2024 got his “6th star” in Tokyo and finished the tournament in the top 1% of the world at age 42. This is part of Paullin’s over-all goal of running a marathon on all seven continents.

Matt Paullin lives in Strongsville, OH with his wife Jamie, his daughter Matilyn and his dog “Miles”. Paullin enjoys spending time with his family and coaching his daughter’s soccer team. Matt enjoys camping, fishing and running with his dog. He owns and works hard at 2 businesses: Paullin Sealcoating in Ashland and Paullin Housing in Cleveland. Matt enjoys training and doing long runs on country roads in Ashland County and also in the Cleveland Metro Parks. Matt Paullin is proud to call himself an Ashland Arrow!