The next meeting will be held in conjunction with the WRC picnic at Tris Kruger’s house on SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, starting at 12 Noon and ending at 4:00 p.m. Please note the ending time – we’ve had some people abuse Tris’s hospitality by staying much later.
Please bring your preferred beverage, favorite side dish or dessert to share. Club will
provide burgers and hot-dogs. Everyone is welcome – bring a friend or the kids – there will
be activities for all, including swimming.
DIRECTIONS
: Tris’s address is 9641 Accord Drive, Potomac, MD. From the Beltway, take
the River Road exit toward Potomac. Go approximately 3 miles, past the Potomac
Nursery & Garden Center, house is on the left at the corner of Accord Drive and River Road.
MINUTES FROM THE JUNE MEETING
by Secretary O’Donnell
The June meeting was held at Pizzeria Uno on Connecticut Avenue on June 11. Attending the meeting were: Norm Brand, James Scarborough, John O’Donnell, Jim Hage, Liz Hosford, Dave Keating, Ed Doheny, Gerry Ives, Jodie Buenning, Jack Pozo-Olano, Jon Gardner, Henry Grossmann, Steven Myers, Dan Wallace and Jon Thoren. The meeting was a huge success – the best attendance in years. The new leadership of the Club, particularly Dave and Jodie, deserve much credit. In fact, the meeting was so well attended that the Secretary, who was seated at the far end of the table, had difficulty hearing what was going on at the other end of the table where business was being conducted. The Secretary can report that he sat by Gardner, Brand and Hage; and that the following items were discussed: O’Donnell’s recent attendance at the NCAA meet in Buffalo, Norm’s upcoming attendance at the USATF meet in New Orleans, and Hage’s upcoming 5K in Harrisburg (oh yeah, he also talked a little “masters trash”). Other mind-numbing topics like PMVS (post-marathon-vomit-syndrome) and whether soccer/hockey were sports that should be played without goalies (editor’s note: whew! Glad I missed that one!!) were discussed. O’Donnell had a general announcement that he lunched with WRC’s Kevin Burke in downtown Buffalo and that the chap looks great in a suit and his table manners are acceptable for eating in restaurants with starched white table clothes. (note to Burke’s fiancee Kathy – Do not settle for less when he resumes the starving law student lifestyle.)
Treasurer Scarborough
gave his usual outstanding report, but with an added twist featuring bar graphs instead of the traditional pie charts. Hage updated us on the DCRRC summer race series and Keating announced the commencement of a Tuesday night run leaving from Key Bridge in Georgetown at 6:30 p.m. A traditional WRC welcome was extended to new members – some of them absent – Dan Wallace and Monica Robbers, while peer pressure was applied to Myers, who recently clocked a 3:44 for a 1,500, for his application and dues! Pozo-Olano reported on team races. He announced that the WRC had swept both co-ed team competitions in the Race Against Racism 5K (team members were Grossmann, Ives, Pozo-Olano, Burke and Buenning) and the Pennsylvania Avenue Mile (team members were Grossmann, Wallace, O’Cadiz, Moore and Buenning). The club will have team entries in the Rockville Rotary Twighlight 8K. Grossmann unveiled a couple of new WRC logos – more details on this at the next meeting.
Plans for the annual picnic will be forthcoming after consultations with Tris Kruger, who must have gotten stuck on the Beltway in his Cadillac mobile home and missed the meeting.
Keating wrapped-up the meeting with the announcement that Sunday morning runs would move to 7:30 a.m. from the Kruger Estates in Potomac.
FEATURE ARTICLE
by Jackie McDonald
To my fellow WRC members:
The following piece was originally published the July Issue of Runner’sWorld. It is written by Jackie McDonald, Jackie is a recent WRC member who works at the National Academy of Sciences on Wisconsin Avenue.
Jackie and Joe are friends from College. Joe was a team mate for three years at Haverford College in Pennsylvania. Jackie attended Bry Mawr, Haverford’s sister college. They have lived in the DC area for the past ten years and have two boys, Eliot age 6 and Jonathan, age 3.
El Presidente Keating
I am struggling up the steepest hill on my favorite trail. Leaves crunch under my feet. The air is crisp with fall — Joe’s favorite running season, I think to myself. I am slowing, slowing, slowing up the hill,
thinking, “Maybe I wont’ run hard today, after all.”
Suddenly, Joe appears in front of me. He is two steps ahead, charging the hill but smiling despite the exertion, as always. He is wearing his favorite red-and-white singlet, the one with Second Wind, our former running club’s name, emblazoned across the front.
In my mind, I hear him tell me, as his high school coach once admonished, “You’re going to hurt even if you slow down, so you might as well run as hard as you can.”
I charge the hill, running after Joe. Then, poof! He is gone. I am alone.
I first met Joe on the bus on the way back to Haverford College after our first cross-country meet of the college season. Joe, a senior and varsity member of one of the top Division III cross-country teams in the nation, had run strong and won a medal, which he carried with him on the
bus. I, a freshman, had dropped out half-way through the race, having made
the typical freshman blunder of charging out at the head of the pack in the
first mile. On the bus en route home, my face was tear-streaked and dirt-smeared, and I was staring out the window to avoid making eye contact with anyone. To my dismay, Joe sat down next to me. He was exuberant as ever and dragged a conversation out of me. I was immediately infatuated.
Two months later, soon after he returned from the Division III national championships, Joe asked me out on a date. The rest, as they say of ordinary lives, is history — or, it almost was an ordinary history.
In a few days we celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of that first date — but our lives are not what we expected.
Joe and I became steady running partners after college. We ran through the long years of our courtship and engagement, through graduate school, through the births of our two children and after. We ran everywhere we went: England, Ireland, France, Thailand, states across the country. Running was an opportunity to explore new places at close-up view. Through running, we connected daily and shared stories of our experiences of the
world. We joined running clubs and made new friends. After our first son, Elliott, was born, we continued our daily runs. Joe pushed Elliott in the purple jog stroller as I ran alongside and enjoyed the scenery.
We pushed and inspired each other, and both of us got faster and faster even as we entered our thirties. We won races together and collected a closet full of trophies. I thought we would continue running together for our whole lives.
I am running that trail again, this time an easy run. My mind is churning; I worry about whether I’ll be able to finish a project at work on time, about the increasing rivalry between our sons, the gutters needing cleaning, the paint on the kitchen ceiling peeling, whether I should repaint or whether I’ll sell the house and move on when this is all over, but most of all, about how I will fill the emptiness in my life when Joe is gone . . . . Poof! There is Joe again, running two steps ahead. “You’re
amazing,” he says. “You can do anything. And if the next person doesn’t treat you like a queen, then dump him. You’re too special.” My mind is at ease.
Joe’s running career ended in December 1995, when he was 34 years old. Now, he runs with me in spirit, but while I traverse the trails he remains inside, seated in his wheel chair, in front of his computer. He types a memoir of his life for our two boys, now ages 5 and 2. He writes farewell
letters to friends.
Joe was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease in June 1995, two weeks before the birth of our second son. We had been planning which color and model double jog stroller to buy after the baby’s birth, anxious to resume running together after the baby was born.
Joe’s symptoms prior to his diagnosis seemed harmless: a slight slurring of his speech, a slight numbness in one finger. We had noticed that his running times had slowed a bit in the prior few months, but we attributed this to a demanding work schedule.
Two-and-half years later, Joe is completely paralyzed. The disease will eventually kill him because his diaphragm muscles, once so strong from his training, will become too weak to breathe. This could happen tomorrow, or it could happen several months from now. Meanwhile, we must live one day at a time and enjoy what we still have.
My running career almost ended along with Joe’s. For many, many months after Joe stopped running, each run was agony. Two miles into the run, I would start sobbing, deep sobs, right from the gut, as if someone had punched me in the stomach. I would stop and walk and then talk myself into going again. “He’s still here. He’s still here,” I would repeat over
and over, until I was calm enough to run. I would stop running altogether for two weeks at a time and think of taking up another sport, such as swimming, or cycling. But then the stress in my life would become unbearable and I would find myself lacing up my shoes and out on the trail again.
Slowly, slowly, in fits and starts, with encouragement from Joe, I recovered from my loss of Joe as a running partner. I now run six days a week, a half hour to an hour each day, without crying. Joe will sometimes say to me as I head out the door, “I’ll be with you.” And he is.
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RACE RESULTS
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ROCKVILLE ROTARY 8K
July 18, 1998
It was great night to run and WRC team members were ready to race. Jim Hage led the team with his 9th place finish (25:17); Dan Wallace was next in 27:02 (37th); Kurt Kromer ran 27:16 (40th); Henry Grossmann wasn’t far behind in 27:23 (43rd), and James Scarborough completed the course in 34:38. For the women, Donna Moore paced out the WRC women with an impressive 29:30 (7th); Patty Turney finished in 30:04 (13th), and Monica Robbers rounded out the team with her 31:37 (22nd). Other WRC finishers included Sergio O’Cadiz in 30:10 and Kelly O’Cadiz in 33:33.
Under MCRRC’s cross-country scoring, the WRC team took 3rd place with 82 points. A great effort by everyone – thanks for running for the Club.
BASTILLE DAY 4-MILER
July 14, 1998
WRC’s masters runners celebrated Gerry Ives’s birthday with a strong showing at this annual race. WRC’s Roberto Rodriguez led the club with his 10th place finish in 23:09; WRC’s Jay Wind was right behind in 23:15 (11th); Gerry Ives was 14th finishing in 23:57. Club Treasurer James Scarborough rounded out the celebration with his 27:25 finish.
UTICA BOILERMAKER 15K
July 12, 1998
In this national class race, Jim Hage’s sometime-training-partner Khalid Khannouchi outkicked him by 6:32 to win the race in 42:57. However, Hage held his own in the masters competition finishing in a time of 49:29 – good for 4th place and 50 seconds up on Bill Rodgers. All kidding aside, Hage was the 10th finisher with a U.S. address. 29 runners – mostly Africans – finished before Jerry Lawson crossed the line. Jim’s efforts are remarkable as he takes on the world’s best.
Winning the women’s race was Kenya’s Lornah Kiplagat with a 50:06. WRC’s Senoria Clarke was the 2nd American woman to cross the line and took 14th place finishing in 53:51.
AVON RUNNING BALTIMORE 10K
June 27, 1998
Nearly 800 female runners turned out for this event, but no one as prepared as Alisa Harvey-Hill who blasted to the finish line in35:44, nearly 40 seconds in front of second place finisher WRC’s Senoria Clarke (36:20). WRC’s Donna Moore held on for 10th in a time of 38:47.
HUGH JASCOURT 4-MILER
May 23, 1998
On a scenic course through Ft. McNair, Manuel Joseph maintained a 5:23 minute per mile pace to win the race in 21:33, with Ted Poulos (21:39) in close pursuit. But Poulos had his own problems and had to out-lean Paul Ryan (21:40) for second place. WRC finishers included Roberto Rodriguez who took 5th place with his 22:39, Jay Wind was 8th in 22:54, Gerry Ives covered the course in 23:56 for 15th place, and James Scarborough finished in 27:39. Fiona Branton handily won the women’s’ race in 24:21.
GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
The WRC will once again be helping with the Georgetown 10K. This is a major source of revenue for the club, so everyone should try to help out – plus, you’ll get the free T-shirt without the pain of the Georgetown hills! Please contact John O’Donnell (202-208-3040) if you are able to volunteer some time either on Saturday, October 2 or early Sunday October 3. Please try to keep some time available on one of these dates in order to volunteer because O’Donnell will be calling.
UPCOMING RACES
WRC Teams are being organized for the Army Ten Miler (Oct. 11) , Philadelphia Distance Run (Sept. 27), and Fair Lakes 8K (Sept. 20?)
If there are any other races where a WRC team should be present, please contact Jodie Buenning or Jack Pozo-Olano at (703) 516-4517. Please remember to wear your club jerseys when racing for the club… all sponsored runners are exempt. If you need a jersey please contact Jack at (703) 527-4653.
SEEN & HEARD ON THE TRAILS….
Georgetowner, former WRC president and general bon vivant John O’Donnell seems to be stepping up his social activity. How he combines jetting to his summer place in Buffalo, taking in a Braves game as a guest of Ted Turner, a heavy dating schedule in D.C. and logging mega miles on the towpath is beyond us. Rumor is that he’s also planning on heading to “the coast” in the fall. So, if you are seeking his company – you better ask soon.
A big WRC welcome to new members Sergio and Kelly O’Cadiz. Both are former track stars from UCLA – we’ll be tapping into their talents for those shorter, faster races!
O’Donnell visited an old friend in Atlanta and had a brisk ten mile run at Stone Mountain Park. They were joined by former WRC member Amy Durham who is very fit – although not racing – and doing well otherwise. She sends greetings to all.
Unconfirmed race results from the Bay area show a Michael Regan finishing 14th overall at the San Francisco Marathon. Regan ran out of the “luck o’ the Irish” as a rare heat wave engulfed the area… coupled with the hills the times were reportedly 8-10 minutes slow. Another “sketchy” report shows this same runner finishing 54th overall at the Bay to Breakers. Unfortunately, it has yet to be confirmed whether he beat the centipede and the “naked man”, or was that the naked centipede? It is great to see Mike running again.
Dan Wallace
has been spotted at several locations in the company of different women. Studies have shown that training hard suppresses one’s appetite for extra-curriculars; therefore, in the interest of public safety we must ask Dan to train harder!
EDITOR’S NOTE
In reading through the various race results, there were a few races that didn’t meet the standards for publishing (i.e., no WRC finishers to be found). The most noticeable of these was the once-prestigious Lawyers Have a Heart 10K on June 8th in which no WRC members laced-up their flats to run. Rumor has it that this is a race at which the WRC has previously dominated. What’s happening? And while leafing through the Age Handicapped 4 Mile race, no clear interpretation could be made to what exactly happened at this race. Sorry to everyone who expected seeing these results in print – better check the newsletter next year!
Please feel free to submit any written materials for publication in the newsletter to: WRC Editor, 1023 15th Street, NW, Suite 200, Washington, D.C., 20005, or call the Editor at (703) 516-4517, or e-mail the editor at: jbuenni@slcfund.org