RIP Dr. Litrenta

He was a doctor in my hometown before moving on to bigger things in the medical field.  I ran against his son, Daniel back in the day.  At the time, photography was his hobby of choice.  But he had many of those.  Numismatics, travel, wine just to name a few.  But he always kept things in perspective.  Family, Friends, God and Country always came first. He was a friend and a mentor even if he never knew about the last part.

When he first became a patient of mine, I was thrilled.  Back in my early days, a thing called professional courtesy was common.  That's not true anymore.  In fact, it can get you into a lot of trouble today.  But then again I could never charge him for my services like I did for everyone else.  He decided on his own to rely on the barter system.  This usually entailed something involving his many hobbies.  I have been paid in Roman coins from Herod's era, comical coins and  bills about President Clinton and lately bottles of wine.  There's a merlot on my desk right now from several years ago called "Running With Scissors". He always thought of my assistants and brought 3 bottles.  The "best" was reserved for me and the other two were given out based on a numbers guessing game by everyone else.  I'm sure he way overpaid me every time for my services, but I enjoyed every single visit I ever had with him.  Without trying, I always learned something new, and the proper way to behave in this increasingly crazy world was drilled into this thick skull of mine.

Dr. David Litrenta passed away on Monday from cardiomyopathy.  That's literally a heart that's too big, for those who don't know.  My condolences to all his family and friends will be delivered at his viewing in just a few hours, after a little run on my treadmill.  Dr. Litrenta knows I'll never be late though.  He knows that being late bothers me more than it does the patients.  RIP

One of his last actions was accumulating some photos of me he took at a dual meet on May 3, 1977 between my high school (Dover) and York Catholic.  His family delivered them to me at my office on Tuesday.  This is me with Daniel Litrenta before the mile that day.  These are the only photos of me that I know of in my high school uniform not of faded newspaper vintage.  It's a priceless gift for me even though I didn't get to see him one more time in the office to earn them.

Dan Litrenta and I after the mile. (4:27 that day)

Dan and I warm up before the race.

Notice the pom-pom socks I always wore.  I always left the balls on the back so they wouldn't slip.  Many people made fun of me before races because of them.  I beat every one of them that year.  But then I ripped the balls off when I arrived at PSU.  There's no way I could have backed them up then! My socks started slipping right away.

Addendum:  Dan points out that he beat me in our first 2 years but I turned the tables on him the second 2.  He reports he ran 4:35 in the race for 2nd.  And he has aged much better than I...