Christmas photo, second grade, age 7 1/2 March 7, 2016: My father passed away ten years ago today. A week before he died we talked and reminisced about so much, a continuation of our walks and talks over the many years together. Between the horrifying pain of late stage cancer and morphine-induced hallucinations, he spoke with …
We were privileged to attend the video-chat interview last night at Macky Auditorium of Edward Snowden (moderated by Ron Suskind) sponsored by the CU Boulder Distinguished Speakers Bureau. Regardless of your position on Snowden’s leak of classified documents to reveal the truth underlying what the American public was told by executive officials at organizations such …
We were only spectators but I was glued to the stories behind the women running 26.2 miles in the blazing hot sun on Saturday February 13, 2016. The women’s 2016 US Olympic marathon trials began precisely at 10:22 a.m., twenty minutes behind the men’s starting gun. We arrived at the first corner of the starting …
Mission Bay, New Zealand The events of this year amazed me by their fullness, complexity, and heart-exploding love. To begin is to be grateful, first and foremost, for my family and their support of me through my running travails and my quest for a real home after too many moves in too few years. We …
Running is a fickle mistress. These past two months confirm the volatility of running. They also reveal that my training has been less than it should have been. This is what’s really happening with running and me. I was so excited to run the Portland Half Marathon, my first in almost six years, in October; …
Early mornings, late evenings: running in the dark has permeated my running life. As a neophyte in the late 1970s, I ran before dawn (and work) at the local high school track in a small town in northern California. My dog was my companion, barking at any strange smell or movement, pulling at his leash. …
My father served in the Pacific Theatre aboard a destroyer during WWII. After the war, he became a coach, with the majority of his career spent as Director of Athletics, basketball, tennis, and sometimes swimming coach at Whitman College. Like so many of his generation and the veterans of other wars and conflicts, he spoke …
We drove from Boulder to Indian Peaks Wilderness area’s Brainard Lake; we intended to hike for a few hours then return on the Peak to Peak Highway to view the typically stunningly golden quaking aspen trees. Except: the entrance leading to the Lake was closed for the winter; there was snow on the ground, covering …
I last ran a half marathon in February 2010 (F (55-59); third place; net time: 1:50:03) in Austin, Texas. Shortly thereafter, I tore my left hamstring at the attachment point. Running came to an abrupt halt. I’ve written about my more than five-year attempt to run with the concomitant frustrations, medical diagnoses, and tears. My …
Sr. Marion Irvine with Dominican Sisters. Photo courtesy of Orbis. When you think of the Olympic Trials, you probably don’t picture a fifty-something nun lining up on the starting line, yet in the first U.S. Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials in 1984, there was Sister Marion Irvine anxiously awaiting the gun in the crowd with Joan …