Life of Wry

So, I got back late Monday night, and on Tuesday early afternoon we welcomed a house guest! The timing was a wee challenging, but it’s just how it worked out with Kath’s schedule. And, in fact, it was just fine. It gave me an incentive to make quick work of unpacking, laundering, mailing, settling far faster than I would have otherwise. And, she was here for less than 24 hours.. a blur, but a good blur. We had time for a long walk, a nice lunch out, a nice dinner in, a nice breakfast in.. and then she was gone.

A couple pics of my old track buddy…

In our heyday, which spanned our high school years (but hit peak prowess in our last two years) we were the fastest two on our track team. She started the 440 relay, I anchored it. We were sprinting rivals (friendly) on our team, trading off between first and second in the 100 and 220. I had the slight edge on speed, but she had a quicker start. In our junior year, our high school relay team placed 3rd in the state in two sprint relays (the 440 and 880 medley). In our senior year, we placed 5th in both, if I recall. We were invited to run in a couple of exhibition races, one at the LA Forum (Sunkist Invitational) and one other whose name I’m forgetting (unbelievably!) in the mid-70s because we were so fast. Participating in these meets and hobnobbing with the world’s highest level Olympic track athletes was def one of the highlights of my athletic career. Over those years, our sprinting team worked out a LOT together (6:00am workouts plus afternoon workouts), traveled a lot, competed in hundreds of races, won most, and bonded deeply.

I think one of the funnest parts of our track history was the time we competed against one another in college… she ran for Chico and I ran for UC Davis and we faced off at the Woody Wilson meet on Picnic Day in 1979 (maybe 1978). I have a vivid memory of our relay teams lining up at the starting line, before being sent off to our zones and feeling so ecstatic to be competing together after 4 or 5 years.. even if on different teams. Not remembering the outcome, funnily. But, how cool was that?

I’m proud of us.