(Several people lately have been asking me when I was going to write again.)

    They implied that while the newsletter is a fine publication it could be a bit more varied. I thought, why not write every year or so. Here goes for this year.

    One of those asking me to write again was Barry Jones. I recently spoke with him and asked him how his van was. His van has a television and VCR. I remember being on a relay and in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere watching the John Tesh concert at Red Rocks.

    He said it was better than ever and he had put in a new TV. I got to thinking that this might be good for a cheap date. You rent a movie and popcorn and you are set. Perhaps I was remembering my youth when we used to go to the drive-in theater. Back then we called it the passion pit. For me the passion was either on the screen or in the car next to me. My parents wouldn't let me date any of the friendly girls. There were always two movies. The girls used the intermission to get snacks and powder their noses. The guys used it like half time. They got to rest and check the score.

    Speaking of passion, it is nice when I hear that there is till fire in our senior runners. Eb Engelmann. is a fine runner and seems to enjoy life to the fullest. He appears to have an appreciation for those of the fairer sex. He ran Rose City Relay this year with a team that included Debbie Hagen. After Debbie had completed a run she told Eb to look straight ahead (he was driving) as she was going to change her bra top. He weaved down the road. A couple of minutes later she said Eb could stop peeking as she was done. After a brief pause she said she guessed she would now change her underwear. Poor Eb almost ran off the road. Could Debbie be teasing this old man? Eb also said he was most enthralled with Liz Hendrie. and Sandy Skinner. whom he had just met and were running on another Strider team. Way to go Eb.

    Liz and Sandy were on a team with Barry Jones, Francis Kessler, and Bill Walters. While waiting for runners at one of the exchanges the two teams talked about the newsletter, specifically the profile on Susan Gallagher. In the profile Susan reportedly spoke of running au natural in the woods. Because of the family nature of our newsletter I cannot repeat what was said but can only say the group reached a consensus that some support would be a good thing.

Part II

    Even though I wasn't planning on running Hood to Coast this year, Rob Rickard somehow talked me into it. I think he and the others were looking for some good yuks when they invited me to join their elite team. As the run progressed they became like sharks who smelled blood in the water. One small nick and I became dead meat.

    The lack of respect began on my first run when Eb Englemann yelled to me from the van that a young lady was about to overtake me. She did to his satisfaction. She was a member of the Bend Babes, a team we would get to know well.

    A few minutes later I actually passed another young woman. She initially said "Looking good". Then she yelled "Hey, you must be twice my age". I asked her how old she was (I'm thinking she will say about 25 at most). She said 34. Maybe its time to use Grecian Formula. Is that what my hero Eb uses?

    On my second run I got passed again by the same Bend Babe. It appeared that they had some very fast and some not as fast runners. I said to her "This is the second time you have passed me". She didn't respond.

    During the relay we had a lot of conversations with a group from Atlanta, Georgia. We had the same starting time. They had a very difficult time handling the notion that men and women their parents' age were matching them stride for stride. This provided wonderful repartee between the two groups and opportunities for comments. This seemed like a good thing until one of their runners passed me on my second run. When I got to the exchange 30 seconds after their runner I found that one of these Georgia crackers had said "We have found their weak link".

    The sharks on my team picked up on this so fast I couldn't believe it. From that point on I was referred to as the weak link. (I did run faster than six of my team mates - really) Somehow in the next rotation, our van 1 passed their runner. When it became time for me to run again we were slightly ahead. As I was waiting for Rob to arrive and hand off to me, their van drove by. The side door slid open and someone called out your worst nightmare is here. These boys were obviously motivated. One last word of advice to whomever replaces me. Wear warm clothing. When the hormone-less women on the team get in the van after a run they start crying out for the air conditioner. You get to play freeze out for awhile.