In his usual deprecating style, Mark has downplayed his performance. I still find it admirable as a return to the hills and dales after nearly 30 years. His 26th place 20:05 in his age group will be a springboard to some good performances in the upcoming indoor and outdoor track season.
That's him in the photo with Joan Benoit Samuelson, 1984 Olympic Marathon Champion who placed 2nd in her age group. The photo gives me another opportunity to tell one of my "stories" which is a tertiary point of this whole blog thing, so tough luck people, you're getting another one.
Following my wedding with Rob Whiteside as my Best Man, my wife and I headed off for Freeport, Maine for our honeymoon. I know it's not quite paradise but they do have the L.L. Bean store that is open 24 hours daily every day of the year. A 2:00 A.M visit there is an eye opening experience.
After several days at a Bed and Breakfast in bucolic Freeport we decided to head over to a State Park where ospreys were supposedly nesting on the shoreline. As we drove there a torrential downpour ensued and we were forced to pull over due to nearly zero visibility on the roads. We were lost and decided to ask someone for directions if we could find someone in the gathering gloom.
And then in the foggy distance appeared a lone figure making her way toward us on the road. A rather small figure, she seemed not affected by the most horrid of conditions we had encountered in many years. I readied to roll down the window (yes young things, car windows used to have handles!) to ask the stranger for some help. As I rolled it down and began to speak, I realized it was Joan Benoit in the middle of a run, unfazed by anything other than her preparation for her next race. I took the blast of cold rain in the face, kept silent, and rolled the window back up. That is the extent of my meeting of the first Olympic Marathon Champion. I just didn't have the guts to interrupt her run. (Was she in the 1988 Olympics, anyone?)
When I was living in Eugene in '84, sharing a house with a couple of AW teammates, Joan stayed with us for several weeks before the Oly Trials during her rehab from knee surgery. She couldn't run so she decided to follow all kinds of culinary pursuits, one of which was to make some homemade jelly. We had jelly and powdered sugar all over the place, prompting me to grumble that I hoped her knee would heal quickly. It certainly did because later that summer she won the first ever women's Oly Marathon in stirring fashion. Bob Sevene, my former AW coach, called her the toughest athlete he ever coached. LTM
ReplyDeleteCoach Groves says the same thing about Kathy Mills Parker.
ReplyDelete(Even though he didn't coach her!)
ReplyDelete