He laces up his running shoes every morning at 5a.m. and hits the dewy pavement for his daily jog.Rain or shine, his dedication keeps his feet moving each day for training, twice a day, five times a week.Ryan Sheehan, 27, a native of North Baldwin, Pa. and 2010 overall winner of the Pittsburgh half marathon is a committed runner who continues to strive for excellence.It all started when Sheehan was just 8-years-old, accompanying his uncle in the Annual Great Race of Pittsburgh, where Sheehan took 3rd place in his age group for the 5k race.The sport of running seems to be a trend in his family as his sister competed in junior Olympic track and field while Sheehan was in middle school.Sheehan ran in middle school but participated in other activities as well, so the commitment wasn’t fully there yet.”I played baseball for about 10 years until high school when I started to get into running a lot more,” Sheehan said. “I played basically every sport growing up though; running was the one that I was by far the best at though.”Sheehan attended Baldwin High School and was one of the top runners for the cross country and track and field team. Sheehan was not only a Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL) star in high school, but was also aPennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) track champion for the 3,200 meters as well.”He was an outstanding young man and was very dedicated to the sport,” Richard Wright, Baldwin High School’s cross country coach said. “He was a real asset to the team and a true disciple of running because he really understood the sport.”In Sheehan’s senior year of high school, he took second at the Erie-McDowell race and invited the winner to his own Baldwin Invitational to take revenge. Sheehan went on to win his home event, which sent him to the WPIAL championships.”That [the Baldwin race] was my most memorable moment with him,” Wright said. “It was such beauty to watch him do it so precisely and to a ‘T’, such beauty to watch him run to perfection.”Wright still keeps track of Sheehan’s running accomplishments and always uses Sheehan as an example when teaching his high school athletes how to compete.”When I watched him cross the finish line in first place for the Pittsburgh Half Marathon, that was a proud moment for me,” Wright said.After high school, Sheehan continued his education and running career at Saint Francis University (SFU)in Loretto, Pa. At SFU, not only was Sheehan an All-American on the track and cross country team, but also in the classroom.Sheehan graduated with a Bachelor of the Arts degree in Biology and currently is continuing his education in graduate school at Western Michigan University for his masters in Biology.Sheehan juggles his studies, his newlywed relationship as of 2009 and his training with the Hanson-Brooks distance project.The Hanson-Brooks distance project is an Olympic-level training team for cross country that offers the opportunity to recent, talented graduates to further their running career after their eligibility for college is finished.”I have been lucky enough to be a part of three national teams, one for an under-23 North American Championship where I competed against other top runners from countries in North America,” Sheehan said. “The other two teams I was able to be a part of for the International Chiba Ekiden, which is a marathon relay race.”Sheehan hopes to continue to place high on the racing charts, especially at the national championships. He would also like to remain threatening to his opponents in the 5k and half marathon distances.Placing for the Olympic trials in 2012 is also a huge goal for Sheehan.”For the Olympic trials it is the top three finishers that get to go to the Olympics,” Sheehan said. “For some other races, there is the ability to qualify for some other National teams for World Championships by placing well.”Sheehan ran his best half-marathon at the Dallas White Rock Half Marathon in 2007 with a time of 1:03:36, just one minute and 37 seconds less than his winning time at the Pittsburgh half marathon in May of 2010.”He is a great young man, a class individual in every aspect,” Wright said.