PAMAKID RUNNERS HIGH SCHOOL MEMORIES

1. Frank Alupay, McAteer HS 2. Danielle Bisho, St. Ignatius 3. Andy Chan, Lowell HS 4. Patrick Cunneen, Sacred Heart 5. Merick Dang, Carlmont HS 6. Brent Daniel, Harvard School 7. Kenley Gaffke, Port Hope HS 8. John Gieng, Lowell HS 9. Gino Giusti, Sacred Heart Cathedral 10. Stella Hall, St. Ignatius 11. Mark Hermano, Benet Academy 12. Steve Holcombe, Lincoln HS, Stockton 13. Peter Hoskow, La Follette HS 14. Keith Johnson, San Mateo HS 15. Anna Kurtz, Maine South HS 16. David Kurtz, Bonita HS 17. Christina Lay, Mission San Jose 18. Adam Lucas, Brookline HS 19. Justin Mikecz, Waukesha West HS 20. Simon Novich, Town School 21. Tomas Palermo, St. Francis HS 22. George Rehmet, St. Ignatius 23. Ashley Rodwick, Mary Institute & Country Day School 24. John Spriggs, El Cerrito HS 25. Malinda Walker, South Bay School Running Club 26. Paul Zager, Monterey Peninsula College

Edited by Andy Chan, August 30, 2010

FRANK ALUPAY 1991 varsity pole‐vault champ (don't ask for the height, it's a little embarrassing)...SF public school champs go directly to the state meet.

1990 4 x 400 meter relay state meet alternate.

Most valuable runner sophomore and senior year XC

Most inspirational track sophomore, junior, and senior year (?)

Favorite reason to go to the state meet was to go to Disneyland.

HS track favorite events: pole vault, 300 meter hurdles, 800 meters also did: 65 meter hurdles, 4 x 100 meter relay, 4 x 400 meter relay, 400 meters, 3200 meters, long jump.

Ran XC 4 years, wrestled 10‐12 grade, T&F 4 years, student council athletic VP

I ran a lot in HS. Had to run 1‐2 hours before each wrestling match to make weight and I was already super‐skinny from XC. For some reason the coach thought I was more reliable at losing 15 pounds than for this other guy to lose one pound... I made weight every time, but barely.

Times? I don't remember any.

Editor’s Note: Frank’s high school, McAteer High School, sadly no longer exists.

1 DANIELLE BISHO

I couldn't imagine my life if my high school, St. Ignatius had had tap dancing. See, I had tap danced since I was in kindergarten and was set on continuing this hobby in high school. So, I went to the first day of try‐outs only to discover thate th dance program was mostly jazz. I hated jazz dance. Very disappointed, I called a good friend who informed me that she went out for cross country that day and loved it. She strongly encouraged me to join.

The very next day, I was running on Sunset Boulevard and although I'm sure it was painful (as I had never "just run" outside of other sports), I distinctly remember how fun it was: just chatting away with girls I knew from before and also quickly getting to know new girls.

One memory that stands out vividly, no not to me, but to my dad, is the first time I ran Crystal Springs. Apparently, after the race I threw up and within minutes, looked at my dad and said "That was fun; I want to do it again!”

Four years, a 19:23 (I think, Editor’s Note: 19:23 is correct) PR for Crystal Springs, and an 11:52 PR for the 3200 meters later, took me to the starting line at one of the cross country Girls Private School League (GPSL) races at the Polo Fields in Golden Gate Park (see picture). Notice the expressions on our faces. These intense looks accompanied a purpose. We were anticipating the intense competition we knew we would have with the Sacred Heart Cathedral Team, headed by their new Coach, Andy Chan. Oh yeah, and Shannon Rowbury was there too.

Editor’s Note: The second picture is actually from Andy Chan’s SHC scrapbook. It’s more a photo of SHC runner, Francesca Cannata‐Bowman. But to Francesca’s right is a runner from SI named Danielle Bisho!

2 ANDY CHAN

High School PR’s:

440 yards on a relay: 53.7 800: 2:05 1600: 4:43 5K (XC): 17:17

My favorite Lowell High School track team memory is from my senior year. The same four of us ran all the relays together – 4X400, 4X800, Distance Medley, and even some random ones like 4X330 yd relay and 4X660 yd relay. We were known as the Four Horsemen (John Polony, Kelsey Siegel, Dixon Ly, and me). The other three all started out as sprinters and moved up to distance. Our best event was the 4X800. The 1989 track season was amazing….I absolutely loved Saturday meet days when we got to compete. Every Monday, I would go to practice and say to myself, “If I can get through this workout, there will only be four more days until Saturday.”

My best high school cross country race was All‐City 1988. Most of the season I was our team’s #3‐5 runner. The battle for the top 3 spots (there were trophies for top 3) was between me, a kid from McAteer, and three underclassmen teammates. I really wanted to end my Lowell cross country career with a trophy from All‐City. For weeks leading up to the race I nwould liste to Whitney Houston’s “One Moment in Time” before I went to sleep and visualize the race. When race day came it was pouring rain but I was in the “zone.” I ended up running the race of my life…maybe the wind, mud, rain, and cold were my advantage. There was a pack of seven of us after about 1.5 miles. Slowly people started dropping off. With ¾ miles to go, I was in 3rd place. It all seemed to happen in slow motion. I remember a teammate jumping up and down and pointing to the McAteer runner in 2nd place and telling me I could catch him. As I entered the Polo Fields I started kicking and moved up one place to come in 2nd. To this day when I hear “One Moment In Time”, I see Speedway Meadow with the rain falling diagonally as I approach the entrance to the Polo Fields.

3 PATRICK CUNNEEN

When I attended Sacred Heart ('51) (now Sacred Heart Cathedral) we had no track team let alone a cross country team. Our 120 lb. basketball team did win the City AAA Championship under the legendary coach "China" (never call him Elwood) Lang. But that is not running per se.

Approaching "Geezerhood" after running a few years I picked up four golds in the Senior Division (40 yrs.+) CA Fire Fighters Olympics held in Newport Beach, CA in 1975. At 42 years old my times were: 880 yards‐2:19:06, 1 mile‐4:56:04, 2 mile‐11:20:02, 10,000 meters‐36:28:06. On the track at that time they didn't use meters except for the 10,000. One nice thing is that I will always hold the CA Senior Fire Fighters mile record because they don't use the mile distance anymore. In the first World Police and Fire Games held in San Jose, CA in 1985, at 52 years old, I picked up a gold in the Grand Master Division (50 yrs+) in the 1500 meters (4:58:00).

But you know, there were so many other foot races, swims and triathlons where I won or lost to anyone (young, old, male, female) that are also great memories. Racing is the icing on the cake. Now I shuffle along at 13 minute miles but am grateful.

4 MERICK DANG

Hi, to those who don’t know me, my name is Merick Dang. I am 16 years old and I have been running with Pamakids for 8 years. Pamakids is the reason I have been running competitively, since I joined, I was encouraged to join my middle school XC team, and now rI run fo my high school cross country team (Carlmont High School). Though difficult at first, now I find running to be very fun.

I think running is a great reliever, running outside and seeing the outdoors really allows me to find the beauty in nature, which many people have strived throughout the years to preserve. Seeing the occasional squirrel or the shocking snake by the roadside or trail really helps me relieve my stress. So I, as they say knock two birds with one stone, relieve and strengthen myself. After the first or second mile, I find my groove and it feels like I can go for miles; the feeling of nothing in my mind coincides with the action going on around me and my heart races for more. The feeling of euphoria and awe blows my mind and tingles my being.

Running wasn’t something that I just decided to do, my mom was always yelling at me to get out and run. I found her form of encouragement frightening yet efficient, because it worked and it still does. Though now I don’t get the yelling too much, now it has transformed to a foreboding warning of being a couch potato with no strength to run 100 yards. My youth told me that I didn’t need to heed these warnings, and I suffered. Come cross country season, I would sometimes find myself straggling and struggling behind my peers. I would have to play catch up, and I wouldn’t find running so fun then, but it would remind to stay in shape for next season.

Running didn’t come to me; I had to work to catch up to it. Though some may find running easy, I will always be one that has to work for it; it being the ability to get into my groove. Look at the time! Seems I have to go catch up to it again, see ya! And have a great running season, whenever that is for you.

5 BRENT DANIEL

I ran four years of cross country and two years of track when I was in high school, and cross country was my preferred running sport. I followed my older brother onto the cross country team. Our team, Harvard High School in North Hollywood, generally had some success in our "Pioneer League" in Los Angeles. As was much of my high school experience, being on the cross country team was a competitive and machismo‐demanding experience. We'd share a locker room with the football players, sliding in there with our skinny frames between these bulky guys with pads and helmets and clods of dirt on their cleats. We had to puff up and mention our nine mile runs to compete. My junior year, I had broken onto the varsity, and projected to run 6th or 7th for our team. I had such a horrible race one time that I got bumped back to junior varsity. In the next race, I knew I had to run faster than the last guy on the varsity (who had yet to run their race). The biggest problem would be that I might not have anyone to guide my pace against, so I'd be running against the clock, while the guy I was hoping to beat could be dragged along by all the faster runners in the varsity race. At the start of my race, I was surprised to find one small kid who was really fast out of the gate. He seemed a bit too dyoung, an our opponent was not known to have a fast team. I immediately assumed he was a rabbit (an unflattering term applied to someone who goes out too quickly, assumed to be a tactic to throw the pace off of unsuspecting opponents so his teammates can run a smarter race and win). But his pace didn't seem too fast for me, so I kept with him. Sure enough, within a mile, he started to flag. We were significantly ahead of the rest of the runners at this point, and as I continued, the rabbit fell back. I was alone. Me against the clock. I saw no one else for the rest of the race. I may have glanced back to see no one behind me, but since I was running against a clock, I just needed to keep my head down and move it. I won the race by a lot, and never saw the rabbit finish. I also had a better time than the 7th place Varsity runner, so I earned back my Varsity spot with that race. Phew!

6 KENLEY GAFFKE

It was the fall of 1996 and I was nearing the end of my first and only cross country season. As a senior at Port Hope High School in Port Hope, Michigan, I was recruited by a rival track coach my junior year during track season. Since my Port Hope didn't offer cross country, I could run for North Huron High School in Kinde, Michigan. I was excited to finally be able to run cross country and was enjoying practice and going to the meets. Even though I ran a 4:57 mile my sophomore year of high school and usually ran under 5:07 for the mile most of the time during my junior year when it came to cross country season I was learning cross country was a different animal altogether. I was having a hard time running a sub‐ 19:00 5K on these trail courses that were never really truly flat. It was during my 5th cross country meet, I was wearing my Nike Zooms a pair of red, white and blue track shoes with 1/4 inch spikes that I had a breakthrough. There was only one hill in the race, which lasted for about 1/4 mile before it came to a ridge and flattened out and began a rocky descent at mile two. Well, when I began my descent down this rocky trail I felt a sharp pain in my right foot. The faster I was running the more intense it became. I thought I had a sharp rock in my foot, but I ignored it and trudged on. These were the days I ran without a watch, I just looked for runners close to my pace and tried to pick them off or stop them from picking me off. I knew I was running well when this kid from a rival team I had not beat yet but always came close to was in sight. At this point I could hear faint screaming at the finish line which was about a half mile away. Then the pain became almost intolerable like a nail went through my foot. This was one sharp rock. I had to pass this guy. If I could break 19 minutes it would be icing on the cake. Just when the pain became intense, I had closed the gap and was right behind this guy, he ran the mile during track season and I always beatm hi but for the life of me he finished ahead me every cross country race. Now was the time to surge. The finish line may have been 100 meters away but I went for it, forgot about the pain in my right foot and threw down the hammer. I passed thim, bu he came back at me with a monster kick. I held on and somehow picked up more speed to pull away again and cross the finish line steps ahead of him all the while I saw one glimpse of the clock reading 18:?? something. I was overjoyed to finally run a fast cross country race. It was a race of many breakthroughs. I ran a high school cross country PR that day with a time of 19:01, beat my rival and lastly to my surprise one of my spikes on my shoe almost came off and somehow reversed itself with the spike going through the bottom of my shoe. The bottom of my foot was all bloody and hurt, but it was my most memorable cross country race in high school. I wrote Nike a letter and sent them my shoe with the spike going through the bottom of it and even though I owned those shoes for two years they sent me a brand new pair of shoes along with my old shoe. It wasn't until 2008 at the age of 29 that I ran a sub‐19:00 5K. All it took was one year of cross country to make me realize that if I really pushed myself I could reach my goals, ones that I thought were once impossible. Years later when my former cross country coach heard I had qualified to run Boston in 2009 he sent me a message on athlinks.com, saying he still tells that story to his cross country team.

7 JOHN GIENG

“Stick together! Stick together! Stick together! Don’t fall apart!” (A pre‐race cheer my Lowell JV team did before every cross country race in high school) The impetus for my running was developed during my middle school days, watching good friends do very well in track & field. I wasn’t a stranger to running however because of a love‐mostly‐hate relationship to this once‐ weekly ritual I had to endure for physical education class. Despite this, going to track meets and feeling the energy and nervous excitement of the competitors lead to a pact with one of my close friends to join the track & field team once we entered high school. We wanted to be part of this. We wanted in. I thought I was a sprinter (and I didn’t know of the existence of cross country or what long distance running really was), so racing anything further than 800 meters seemed foreign and potentially painful. Ironically, it was during training runs at this time that I realized (with a lot of help from one particular teammate), that I was much better at running longer distances (relatively speaking). Still not aware of cross country, I decided to join the distance group the following season and was introduced to the 800, 1600, and 3200 meter distances. It was a better fit. Cross country seemed to be the next logical step. The team aspect of this fall sport together with the “teaminess” of all the runners and coaches was exciting to see and to be a part of. It was a great experience. In hindsight, I wished I’d known about and joined cross country my freshman year. Although I was always a JV runner on the team, I enjoyed training and competing nonetheless and I felt that I could contribute to my team in other ways. Assistant coach Andy “AC” Chan always inspired us and I took it to heart. “Ten quick steps” was a mantra ingrained in me and I still use it to this day. There were a few races that stand out. One was a meet during cross country called the Mariner Invitational somewhere in the East Bay and my one‐time stint as a varsity runner. I remember running up a hill, seeing a teammate struggling, and literally pushing him up the hill (FYI, pushing at the hips seems the most effective in this scenario). In the remainder of the race, we worked together and he helped me to a strong finish. Another that sticks out is the SF section All‐City cross country meet my senior year. It was a rainy day and although winning as a team was great, what I remember the most was the expression that everyone had (through mud‐covered faces and bodies) that through the thick and thin (i.e. mud and water) they were truly competing for themselves and the entire team. The camaraderie was there and we were a proud bunch. Stick together and don’t fall apart indeed. In lieu of the mediocre times I accomplished in high school (2:19 800 m; 5:19 1600 m; 11:50 3200 m; and 19:48 5 km; don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished), I keep striving to get faster and to push myself more than most people think I’m capable of. I’m glad I had such a positive experience in high school and this most likely is the reason I run now and am glad that I’m part of a running club that recapitulates those fond memories. Editor’s Note: The group picture above is from the 1995 Rites of Spring. I was an assistant coach at Lowell and I brought 28 Lowell track distance runners to the Rites of Spring. If you look closely you can see me (at 24 years old) holding an envelope in the middle and John (then 16 years old) standing behind me at his first, but not last Pamakid event. John and I have been going to road races together for years as evidenced in the picture above of us displaying our trophies from the 1998 Leprechaun Lope. 8 GINO GIUSTI

Well I have a lot of memories but not really a good story. One thing I remember was my first cross country race in Santa Cruz. I did not really know my teammates that well before the race, but I finished closely between Tristan Arcelona and Brian Clark. Then we went to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk after the race and hung out. That was the start of our three‐way friendship which lasted the rest of high school. Essentially cross country gave me my two best friends at Sacred Heart Cathedral and of course the three of continued to do cross country all four years with many good times at practices and races.

Editor’s Note: Since I was there for Gino’s four years of high school running, I can tell you that that first meet was the Early Bird Invitational in Salinas. The picture above is a photo from that meet. Gino (if you can’t tell) is #573. To his left are his two teammates from the class of 2004 who became great friends, Tristan (#565) and Brian (#569).

Gino’s HS PR’s:

800: 2:21 1600: 5:03 3200: 11:00 (we argued a lot whether it was 10:59.9 or 11:00.0) Cross Country (Crystal Springs): 17:31

9 STELLA HALL

My first experience at competitive running dates back to the yearly CYO youth race in grammar school; probably 4th or 5th grade. We would race around the Polo Fields, and depending on your age you would run a half mile to two miles. For the majority of my youth, I was a soccer player first and a runner second, and used my speed to help me race down the field. After realizing that I had no aim and my hand‐eye coordination was less than par, I hung up the soccer cleats and focused on what always came naturally easy to me: sprinting. I took up competitive track at age 15, and shadowed my older brothers in their hurdle practices. A few spills and tumbles later, I found my niche on the St. Ignatius track and field team. Little known fact: My lead legs were different between my sprint hurdles and my long hurdle races. Editor’s Note: Stella modestly left out a lot of her accomplishments from her terrific hurdling career at St. Ignatius, but since I just happen to know them I will share them here. Stella’s best times were 15.43 in the 100 hurdles and 45.62 in the 300 hurdles. She was a State Meet qualifier in the 300 hurdles in 2002. She qualified for the section finals in both hurdle races as a sophomore, junior, and senior, earning four medals at the section meet. She was double league champion in the 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles as a junior and senior. In fact, her time in the 300 hurdles as a senior stood as the league championship record until the 2010 season. The photo of Stella below is actually from the SHC track & field scrapbook. Cropped out of the photo is an SHC hurdler named Ahimsa Hodari, who gave Stella a run for her money in the 2001 season.

10 MARK HERMANO

I am not sure why I became a runner. Like any normal kid growing up, I would race my friends from time to time while playing outside. This translated right into high school at Benet Academy when I chose to run track just to be with my friends. At the time, I was definitely a sprinter; I had the fast twitch muscles and racing for longer than a mile might as well have been a marathon for me. That's why I resisted running cross country with their immensely long 3 mile races and opted for the sprints of track and field. As a freshman, I started by running the 100 meter and 200 meter races, but as the years progressed, I consistently moved up in distance, from the 100 and 200 to the 400, then to the 800, and eventually even to the mile. Throughout my high school running career, I was never the fastest nor the slowest, and I was satisfied with that. This was reflected in my one and only running goal: Never come in last. For me, I wasn't running to win or to be the fastest. I am not even sure if I ran because I enjoyed it. The one reason I can remember for running was because I loved being part of a team. And so my high school running story is not really about running, at least not directly. It took place at my first track meet. It was a Midwestern spring, but it felt more like fall. When we got to the track, I was nervous, but not because I was about to run my first race. No, I was nervous because of my uniform. The short shorts and tight singlet left little to the imagination, and to say that as an adolescent boy I was self‐conscious about my appearance would be an understatement. As I walked onto the track and pulled off my sweats, the cool spring breeze felt all too close. As I warmed up, my "high knees" were conspicuously not that high. And as the start of the race approached, I felt less worried about the potential outcome of the race than having to bend over and kneel into the starting blocks. Honestly, I don't remember how that race ended, but I do remember that I was relieved when it was over so that I could "get dressed." I remember those feelings well. It seems so strange now how such an insignificant thing can stand out so largely in the teenage mind. I never became all that comfortable racing in my high school uniform, and maybe that's just symbolic of who I was back then, a young kid uncomfortable in his own skin. Little did I know that I would be reminded of that awkwardness years later when I watched a movie written by a girl with whom I went to high school. Diablo Cody, or Brooke Busey as I knew her, was a year younger than me, and much of her breakthrough movie Juno, including the iconic racing uniform of her character Paulie Bleeker, was based on our high school. The red and gold of the fictional Condors was taken from the red and gold of our true‐life Redwings. Looking back on it all now, I realize that how I looked in that uniform didn't matter. No one ever made fun of me, my teammates cheered me on just as hard, and my coaches congratulated me at the end of each race. And as time separated me from my high school persona, the feelings of awkwardness from wearing that uniform were replaced with feelings of pride. I'm proud to have trained and competed with my friends. I'm proud to have worn the red and gold and represented my school. And I even like to think that maybe in the same way that Juno thought about Paulie Bleeker, someone thought that in those short shorts, I was "like, the coolest person [they've] ever met, and [I didn't] even have to try, you know..." even though, truth be told, I tried really hard, actually. 11 STEVE HOLCOMBE

P.R.’s from my competitive days are 1 mile 4:36, 2 mile 9:41, and 5k 15:44.

My big brother was a lost freshman on the large Lincoln High School (Stockton) campus, he and his friend wanted to join a sports team but they were both pre pubescent 5 foot nothing0 and 10 pounds. Eventually they found cross‐country and it was a perfect fit. Since I did everything my older brother did, I started running to stay in shape for basketball.

By sophomore year I was beating my brother and basketball was a thing of the past. I was hooked on running and I trained year round. I have plenty of great memories training and bonding with teammates at running camps at the Y.M.C.A. in Marin and the R‐ranch on the border of California and Oregon. The only large invitational I won came sophomore year. I won the S.J.A.A. invitationalo with a tw ‐mile time of 9:56, while competing against about 15 teams. Other high school achievements were finishing 9th, 2nd, and 4th sophomore through senior year respectively at league championships.

My only running nightmare came senior year when two Del Campo High runners passed me at the finish line of the San Joaquin Section Championships and it ended up costing me and my team a trip to the state championships.

I ran two years at Delta College in Stockton before I transferred to UC Davis. I was then faced with the decision to train 110% just for a chance at making the UC Davis XC team, so I chose not to tryout and ended up joining a fraternity with my extra time…a decision I obviously regret now.

12 PETER HOSKOW

At that time it was the be all, end all. Soccer. For me, it was all about soccer. As a freshman in high school my fantasy was clear. I would play soccer, quickly ascent to the ranks of the varsity team, sport the way‐cool unis and have fun competing. That vision was abruptly interrupted during my first track meet in the spring of my freshman year. It was elevating to run and I was able to compete at a relatively high level. Even more importantly, it was fun to win. No way did I think I would ever be contemplating leaving behind soccer ‐ the sport that meant so much to me – to run. I mean, really? And so it was, Coach Tom Sisulak succeeded to convince me to forgo my sophomore year as a soccer player at La Follette High School in Madison, Wisconsin and instead join the cross country team in the fall. That fall season was fun. It spawned life‐long friendships, earned me a seat on the all‐city squad, shaped mental toughness that I’m convinced gets put to use to this day and paved a new path to a sport that I hope will play some part for the balance of my able‐bodied life. When the page turned from high school to college I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to consider running as a part of my college experience. By the hair of my chinny chin chin, I was able to eke my way onto the Marquette University cross country team as a walk‐on. Two years competing as a division I athlete was beyond cool. The commitment was steep and the payback was undeniable. After two great years I choose to leave track and cross country behind and delve move fully einto th Marquette college experience. While this was a choice I’ve never second guessed it began what played out to be a 10+ year stretch of no consistent training. The streak was broken this past January 2010 when one Saturday morning I forced myself to Crepes on Cole to connect withe th K‐Stars group for a run. It has been great over the last eight months or so to get back out there, feel my legs again and every so often get infected by a runner’s high. This fall I eagerly anticipate competing with the Pamakids racing team in as many cross country races as I’m able. That, and oh yeah, I’ll be playing my fourth season of SF adult, co‐ed intramural soccer… Go Green!

13 KEITH JOHNSON

My family moved from Dallas a town beginning to be known for its thriving rotund population. From the home of seat belt extenders I made my first appearance at San Mateo High School where the PE instructor said you "kinda look like a runner so you're welcome to so show up after school for a meet." This appeared like fun, certainly more so than previous Texas ROTC experience so they found some shoes and tee shirt for me and I rode the bus with team to Burlingame High where I got to see the nice track and others running on it. Sprints, 220's and 440's looked like reasonably fast distances and my grand entrance to track and fieldom was close to the last event, the two mile relay. I was first runner, really got off to spectacular lead and went for the finish but alas ‐ no one told me it was twice around. Steps became memorable events and a great deal of silence and an agonizing exchange sent off the next runner. Local press people sometimes attend high school events and a few are good at making cartoon drawings. Next day the locker room had a few of these little gems from the Burlingame paper. Two lanky runners on the track ‐ one with glasses somewhat like mine and all the others way on the other side with a little cloud of dust behind them. "Hey Johnson, they're coming around again." Later we had fun jokes about "that" meet and though I got much better than the 2:26 of that day, I also enjoyed biking along Skyline and so began more serious running later with a team of really fun masters.

14 ANNA KURTZ

When I was in grade school I dreaded gym class‐‐no exaggeration, I truly hated doing anything that would reveal how uncoordinated I was, and I tried anything and everything to get out of it. Running the mile was a rare exception because if I hadn't been able tot pu one foot in front of the other I would've really been in trouble. But I still walked or jogged parts of it (like all the girls did.) When the mile came around in seventh grade, I actually decided to run it (maybe something to do with the teacher making clear he didn't expect the girls to run, which rubbed my twelve‐year‐old feminist self the wrong way.) I ran "so fast", probably a 7:45 minute mile or so, that one of my shoes fell off‐‐but that's what you get for going to PE in low top chucks. The teacher was pretty surprised that I actually did anything, and I was surprised by how much I liked it. I even double‐knotted my shoes the next time around. In the last months of eighth grade I quit band and choir; moped around with my "headbanger" friends listening to Nirvana and Nine Inch Nails, kicking fences and talking about how harsh the world was; and dyed my hair neon pink. My dad didn't have much to say to his third teenager other than "don't let that rub off on the pillowcases"‐‐and that I NEEDED to get involved in something in high school (Maine South High School in Park Ridge, IL). Cross country didn't involve balls, sticks or nets and it seemed marginally less dorky than band. And hey, I still liked running and was decent enough at it to run with JV much of that first year of cross country and track, and varsity for the next three. I highly recommend pounding out teen angst through the soles of your feet; it's hard to feel down when you're running through the woods with your friends.

.

__,_._,___

15 DAVID KURTZ

Bests/honors: LJ: 23'0" 100m: 10.88 (yay AccuTrack!) TJ: 45' 1" 200m: 21.9 4x100: 42.?? something 400m: 49.2 4x400: 3:19.?? Valle Vista League Champion 1994: 100, 200, 4x100, 4x400 (also 1993 for the relays) Valle Vista League MVP (shared with Matt Heverly) Bonita High School Athlete of the Year 1994

I'm not sure where my leg speed came from, but when I showed up my freshman year, I was a fast enough sprinter that I could work out with the really fast guys. I had a pretty good leap too, so my freshman year I was mostly doing 4x100 relay, 4x400 relay, long jump, triple jump, occasionally 200. The other freshman who ran varsity with me was Matt Heverly, and we ran on just about every relay together for four years. He tended to go 400‐800, and I was 100‐400. Matt did cross country all four years as well, and did really well in that.

My sophomore year, the track coach tried to get me to run cross country and I was like "nuh UH!" Distance running didn't appeal to me at all. I thought immediately of marathon runners, who looked unhealthy and emaciated to me compared to the supermen sprinters, who I wanted to emulate. In retrospect, I probably would have enjoyed it, and it might have led me towards middle distance running, for which I think whatever talents and biomechanics I had were better suited. Towards the end of the track season that year I had a really bad hip pointer, to the point where I had to use a makeshift cane to get out of the car, and limped everywhere. I didn't finish that season.

My junior year was really fun. We had a group of pretty good sprinters, almost all of them football players just trying to keep in shape. I think sprinters are the second laziest track and field athletes, after the pole vaulters. We spent a lot of time goofing off in the infield, at practice or at meets. The whole year I was #2 to Gerald Hall, who had an incredible springy‐stiff bounding run. He ehad th same running style as that double‐amputee from New Zealand ‐‐ all hips.

My senior year, Gerald had graduated which meant I was the fast guy. Matt Heverly and I dominated our little suburban league, and even did reasonably well in invitationals. He'd win the 400 and 800, I'd win0 the 10 and 200. And then we'd win the relays. At some invitational at Azusa Pacific, someone from our team dropped out of the long jump, which I hadn't done in a year. I entered and ended up winning it. Our relay teams were the same people for 4x100 and 4x400, just different order. I had a really good block start, so I always led the 4x100, even though I was the fastest. Then I'd hand off to Matt who was plenty fast, then he'd hand off to Jeremy Abad, and then N'Namdi Hamilton who was also our football running back. For the 4x4, N'Namdi and Jeremy led off, both 51‐52 sec splits, and then I'd try to make up the gap and Matt would clean up. It pretty much worked that way for the entire season until CIF, when we got smoked in the Southern Section finals by Morningside (Inglewood I think?) and two other schools that I can't remember. I also got smmmmoked in the 100 and 200 by a bunch of dudes who were almost certainly bound for running careers. I was still skinny, lanky and a little bit loping, and these guys were beefy and cut. I was watching these guys finish, high five each other, and take a cool down lap before I had crossed the line. There's a huge difference between 10.9 and 10.5. Out of my league. Still, good times. My junior and senior years our sprinters went undefeated in league competition. Not saying tmuch, bu it's important when you're 17. Other random Bonita High School track stuff: I just expected to throw up every Monday at the end of the week's hardest workout. It would happen maybe half of the time. Hard to imagine now, but I thought it was normal. I wore the same pair of spikes all four years, a $15 pair of Ponys I bought from Big 5. From Junior year on, the rule for sprinters was "no socks!" All of our league meets were on dirt tracks, so when we ran on all‐weather tracks we felt extra fast. I hung out on the infield with a pre‐doping‐scandal Marian Jones at CIF prelims in 1991. I was a freshman. She was a sophomore and had trained in the off season with my teammate Shalynn Carr. She was tall and cute and I could barely speak.

16 CHRISTINA LAY

PR’s: 400: 68 800: 2:28 3200: 11:43 3 mile (XC): 21:28

Cross‐country and track were an integral part of my high school experience at Mission San Jose in Fremont, but I can't seem to recall which races I PR‐ed in; they all seem to blend together in my mind other than Mt. Sac, NCS (North Coast Section Finals), and the cross country state meet. My fondest memories of running in high school were all the times that I spent with my teammates: the 4.5 mile all‐uphill Mill Creek runs we dreaded every Monday, getting together for meals before or after races, TP‐ing our coach's house, singing and being silly during long runs. During one cross country race, there were 5 of us running together and when we realized we had the race in the bag, we picked up this huge tree branch and sang songs until we crossed the finish line together (including our little tree). At the end of the day, it didn't matter how fast or how far we'd run in the season ‐‐ we had done it together and had fun in the process.

Editor’s Note: While surfing around the internet I found this result from the 1998 Cross Country State Meet Division I Girls race

131. Danielle Bisho CCS SO ST. IGNATIUS 21:22

132. Carrie Louie SFS SR LOWELL 21:23

133. Christina Lay NCS JR MISSION SAN JOSE 21:24

So 11 yeas before becoming Pamakid teammates, Christina and Danielle finished two seconds apart at the State Meet!

17 ADAM LUCAS

I ran cross country at Brookline High School (Brookline MA, just outside of Boston), starting in my sophomore year as rehabilitation for a downhill skiing injury. I remember the feeling of making it all the way around my block (1 mile) for the first time. It felt so far and I couldn't believe that I made it all the way around. I ran cross country that fall and remember a sense of accomplishment being able to not just run 2.5 miles but racing it. A highlight during cross country was pool hopping with teammates along our training route. Our coach was the gym teacher. I remember he looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger on steroids but he actually was a laid back guy, a decent runner and a supportive coach. Each year I progressed and got more enthusiastic about running. In the summer of my junior year I went to a runningp cam in upper state New York where I did nothing but eat, sleep and run (or talking about running). I think I ran close to 70 miles that week and came into cross country in my senior year quite fit. In that year I ran a bunch of PRs including a sub 17 minute 5K which I believe is still my best 5K time. Most importantly I made a lot of life long friends.

18 JUSTIN MIKECZ

High School PR's:

400: 55 800: 2:02 1600: 4:38 Cross Country 5K: 16:30

My first experience on a running team was track my freshman year at Waukesha West High School (in Waukesha, WI, about 20 miles west of Milwaukee). I didn't do cross country that year because A) at that point I didn't like running and B) I thought I would have more fun playing soccer (was I wrong!). Along with my twin brother, I showed up for my first track practice with basketball shoes and no training. I couldn't believe that we had to run 4 miles to train for an 800! A fellow freshman and I started walking as soon as we were out of sight. That was the first and last time I ever dogged a practice. Even though I spent most of the season injured, I was able to run a 2:15 800 meters in the last race of the tseason. Tha did it, I was hooked.

Sophomore year I took on the new challenge of cross country. Mostly because I didn't know how to pace myself in the beginning, I dropped over 3 minutes in my 5K time over the course of the season. I was never good enough to make it to State as an individual, but I was fortunate to go both as part of the cross country team and 4x800 meter relay teams as a junior and a senior.

My best and worst memories from high school running belong to my senior year in cross country. We lost four very talented runners from the year before, but in their place we put together one of those rare teams that truly exemplified the saying that “the team is greater than the sum of its parts”. To the surprise of the other local teams, we just started winning despite not having a star runner. The typical article in the local newspaper became a running joke among our team because it always seemed to start with “Despite not having a runner in the top 10…” As an example had a 1‐8 pack that often had a gap of less than 60 seconds.

The season took a sad turn when our coach collapsed at our conference meet and later passed away. That was really tough on my brother and I because not only was he our beloved coach, but also our favorite teacher. Not surprisingly, while our coach was being rushed to the hospital I ran my worst race of the season at Conference. The following week at Sectionals, I ran the best race of my high school career. I ran an 18‐second P.R. and helped our team qualify for State. I believe our pack that day finished with all 7 guys finishing between 8th and 20th places. We finished 5th at State that year—not as well as I hoped, but not bad for a team with no stars.

Editor’s Note: Justin was unable to come up with a high school running picture, so the above photo is actually from his college days at Washington University in St. Louis. Apparently they had “pool parties” in the steeplechase water pit after meets.

19 SIMON NOVICH

Editor’s Note: Simon Novich ran cross country at Town School in San Francisco. He twice qualified for the Junior Olympics Cross Country Championships. I distinctly remember sitting down in the summer of 2008 with Simon and his dad, Lee, to talk about Simon’s training. I was quite hesitant to coach Simon because I didn’t have a lot of experience coaching 11 year olds and I wasn’t sure how well Simon would fit in with the adults at Thursday night track workouts. Well, two years later, we all know what a great fit Simon has been with Pamakids. Good luck to Simon as he departs for The Thacher School in Ojai, CA to start freshman year.

20 TOMAS PALERMO

“On hot days we would run into people’s yards and borrow their hoses. It was fun because we got away with a lot.” – Tomas A. Palermo The above quote appeared with my photo in the 1986 Saint Francis High School yearbook Boys Cross Country section. Obviously, it sheds light on our boys’ team’s motivations that year. Needless to say, we played it “loose” and had adventures along with all the running. That same year, our girls’ varsity squad placed second at Central Coast Section, while the boys did no better than seventh. But what we lacked in running success we more than made up for in fun and camaraderie. The team was comprised of mostly misfits, class clowns, punks, skaters and science nerds. It’s what you might expect from a school that was both a perennial football power and also lacked a significant arts curriculum. The “different kids” matriculated to cross country. I was one of them, joining freshman year and running junior and senior year after an ill‐fated sophomore year attempt at JV football. We were an eclectic bunch. As a result, newcomers were welcomed and there was little animosity between grade levels. If you were a freshman and could run 5:30’s, you might make varsity. Our coach was Brian Curley, a laid‐back young religious studies teacher who was not a runner himself. His lack of supervision during our training runs lead to much improvisation on our parts but more often then not, we put in the road miles and got the job done. The fun element was derived from our mix of personalities. There was Ralph Lewis, the party boy and fastest senior runner on the team; Joe McGee, a lanky working class kid with a swift quarter mile kick; Stephen Wynn, the star freshman running record times for us on the Crystal Springs course; and me, see‐sawing between fifth and sixth man status on the team. I was also one of the skateboarders and also a music fanatic working on the campus radio station. But on our runs, everyone contributed equally to the mischief. The Saint Francis High School campus is on the Los Altos‐Mountain View border, nestled under the Santa Cruz foothills. Our team training runs routinely took in the surrounding trails and open spaces, including many off‐road routes. A typical day would involve four laps on a dirt track at school and stretching followed by a three mile run to Rancho San Antonio open space preserve where we’d attack one or more hilly loop trails. The Wildcat Loop and PG&E paths are forever etched into my brain. Then there were runs that took us up over the horse trails of Los Altos Hills, behind many an overgrown grassy backyard and unattended swimming pool, sometimes as far out as Palo Alto Foothills Park – a 14‐ mile round‐trip journey. Running in our groups of three to six, we looked for anything to make it more fun. A basketball court along the way, stray shopping carts, cardboard slides down grassy hills – you name it, we probably did it, including the above quoted use of hoses. Why? Its 90 degrees out, you’re lost on some rural corridor high atop Page Mill Road, you’re thirsty. We never though twice about using any available source of water: hose, sprinkler, pool or side tap. Somehow, we got away with it. Coach Curley still heads the men’s cross country coach 20 years later; he coached a team to the State Championship in 1998 and groomed a star runner in Princeton’s Ben Sitler. Running in hot weather is still a personal preference, although these days I wait to catch a refreshing sip after I’m back in my own yard.

21 GEORGE REHMET

On my first day of high school at Saint Ignatius in 1981, I did not have the best positive experience. I couldn’t get my locker open, a sophomore slammed me against the wall, and I lost a blank check to purchase textbooks. During announcements, there was a meeting for cross country. Being into skiing, I thought it was cross country skiing. So after school, I went to the meeting and realized that it was about running. I decided to join because the two sophomores from my previous school were geeks and I was a geek. So I figure cross country was the sport of geeks.

It was tough in the beginning. I remember my first days I would be sort and hobble off the bus. Then there was the time trial around Lake Merced. My fellow freshmen and I shoot out in front and died by mile 1 with the older runners passing us. In later years, it was fun to watch each freshmen class dash and crash. In my first year, I finished near the end of the races.

I went on to do track with a focus in the mile and 2 mile. In my sophomore year, I finished in the middle of the pack. More importantly, I was the only one from last’s year group to continue on.

In my junior year, I competed in the junior varsity and was finishing near the front. I won my first medal at the Lowell Invitational. A couple of weeks later, our team won medals at Westmoor. I got to go up and collect the medals. The best part was the cheerleader giving me a kiss on the cheek. At the end of the season for the last meet, I got to be on varsity. I was awarded “Most Improved Runner” eat th team’s dinner.

At track, I could never break 11 minutes for the 2 mile and the closest I got was 11:08. There was a new coach and he had me focus on the mile. He started a sub 5 mile club. Everyone else was getting in and this top runner who was a sophomore kept bugging me. At the last meet at the CCS Championships, I finally broke 5 minutes with a 4:55. Moreover, I beat that annoying sophomore who had a really bad day since his times were in the 4:20s.

In my senior year, being on varsity depended on your time so I was going back and forth between JV and varsity. I was also the only senior on the cross country team. At the team dinner, I was awarded “Most Inspirational Runner.” [Amazingly, almost exactly 25 years later, I would get “Most Inspirational Runner” for Pamakid Runners.]

As I look back, I may not have been the fastest, but I realized that I could tough it out and hang in there. I learned never to give up and that attitude has helped me in years ahead.

22 ASHLEY RODWICK

I started running at the urging of my parents because I was a pudgy kid. At 5th grade, worried that I might enter high school overweight and lacking coordination, my parents enrolled me in all kinds of sports— gymnastics, swim team, dance class – and I hated them all. But they discovered I could be convinced to run as a way to earn my allowance (they paid me $1 per mile).

By the time I was in high school, I had earned enough allowance that I was actually good! I wasn’t fast, but I could run for miles and miles. I realized this during my first day of track & field trials when I found I could outlast most teammates in the "how many times can you run around campus" game. That is how I became a distance runner. Most of my teammates equated the 2‐mile race to torture, and our coaches used it as punishment for being tardy to practice, but I liked the discipline of distance.

Running is an individual sport, but it was the team aspect of track and cross country that made it enjoyable and memorable for me. Personal bests were fun to strive for, but it was the group warm‐ups, family‐style dinners and team trips to meets that I remember most.

The 4x800 relay was my favorite event because it required true teamwork. The four of us knew each others’ PR’s and personal goals, followed each other’s pre‐race rituals and could tell when someone was having an off day. My freshman year was the first time Mary Institute & Country Day School (MICDS) had ever entered a girls’ relay team in the state meet, and by the time I was a senior, we were ranked in the top five and placed third. Our coaches probably thought it was because of their training regimen and inspirational words. We knew it was because we counted on each other (and because of the nicknames we gave our competition). Editor’s Note: In the picture on the right below, Ashley is anchoring her team to a 3rd place finish in the Girls 4X800 relay at the Missouri state meet.

23 JOHN SPRIGGS

My favorite running memory actually happened a year before high school and lasted around 7 minutes. Then it took me at least 20 years to recognize what a life changing 7 minutes that was. It started on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving when I was in the 8th grade. I tagged along with some friends who were planning to run our junior high school's 1 mile Turkey Trot that afternoon. I had always been an outdoorsy kid and I loved going on long bike rides in the Berkeley hills on my beloved Peugeot 10‐speed, but I was totally disinterested in organized sports. I tried little league baseball, but always ended up on the bench or in the outfield for the less important games. I had a batting average of around .000, having never actually hit a baseball with a bat. I still remember the absolute look of despair on thet adul coaches’ faces when it was my turn to bat. So you can imagine my expectations were fairly low for that afternoon's race. The race consisted of a paved loop, a hilly trail and road loop, then a short loop on grass. Gun went off, ran along, then I noticed that I started to pass a few kids, whatever. On the first downhill I passed one of the school jocks, okay, bad day for him. Then on the uphill I passed another, who seemed to be having a tough time breathing. Odd, it didn't seem that hard. Running down the dirt hill out of the trees and onto the grassy last loop of the track I realized that there was no on ahead of me. "Oh, great, this is embarrassing", I remember thinking, "I must have taken a wrong turn because there's no way I could be leading this race". So I stopped. Suddenly I heard my P.E. coach, Mr. Williams, shout "Sprint! Sprint! You're first!" So I dutifully sprinted to the finish and won the race. Even then I had my doubts that I had actually run the entire course, it took several minutes of reassurance before I realized I had actually won. When I returned to school after Thanksgiving my coach asked me if I wanted to join the school track team he was putting together. If I joined, he told me, I might be able to get out of PE class. That was all the incentive I needed! Before too long I was regularly running DSE races, and I still remember how positive and supportive Walt Stack and all the other adult runners were when I showed up for the weekly races. The complete opposite of the stupid grownups at little league games, that's for sure. From that point on I never stopped running, through high school, college and on to masters. It took me many years, thousands of miles and hundreds of races later, to realize how 7 minutes of running and the encouragement of a few prescient adults had sent me down a path that I'm forever grateful to run. Editor’s Note: There were no pictures from John’s 8th grade Turkey Trot victory so all the photos here are from his high school days at El Cerrito High School.

24 MALINDA WALKER

Running has been part of my life for a long time, but it must not have been a big priority or a big deal for me and my family. My mother and I spent hours digging through photos and yearbooks trying to find something from the season I ran track in junior high school, and to remember if I competed at all in high school; we found 4‐H photos of me showing my dairy cow, swimming photos, sailing photos – but even though we’re both certain there is one photo of me running on a team at some point in my youth – neither one of us could find a print to scan.

I did find something from the infancy of my running career in my archives. Ribbons and bumper‐stickers from a major grade school running accomplishment. In 1979‐80 South Bay Elementary felt the running boom and started a running club. As a 10 year old grade schooler I took up running laps around the playground. Each day I would spend my recess running in whatever I happened to be wearing that day around the blacktop playground. Back in the classroom I’d log the laps on a chart, and as they added up I would be rewarded with a ribbon, 10 miles, 20 miles, 30 miles – on and on. My goal was to reach 100 miles before anyone else. Why? Because the first kid to reach 100 miles would be rewarded with a Nike duffle bag. 40 miles, 50 miles, 60 miles, my pencil marks far exceeded those of most of my classmates. 70 miles, 80 miles, 90 miles, somewhere in there a girl was rewarded with a black leather bag emblazoned with a red “Nike” and the famous swoosh. How is that possible? I hadn’t seen her running, did she cheat? If my memory is correct, yes. This was based on an honor system – and anyone could add a hash mark after their name. 100 miles, Nike bag or no, I did it!

This I do recall. There was another kid named Daren who also ran, and he and I made it, 100 miles by circling the blacktop day after day, lap after lap. This kid was unique – his dad was the playground monitor – his dad was paying attention to who was running. My memory is hazy (I was only 10 after all) but, at a school assembly I was rewarded for my efforts, Mr. Rowley, the playground monitor either bought the bags or gave them to us, or both. In front of the other students I was presented with the fashionable much coveted bag.

I used that bag all the way through college. I used it for at least 15 years, maybe twenty. After many moves, from apartment to apartment, long after the leather had disintegrated, the zipper finally quit working and I threw it out. Honestly, I’d become so attached to the bag, I had forgotten why I was attached to it. It wasn’t until I’d talked about how I’d become a runner in my twenties that I remembered the real story.

I was hooked as a runner in my 20’s after the elation of my first half marathon, but I’d been interested in running in college and had taken a running class and sometimes ran on my own… No that wasn’t the start, I’d run in junior high on the track team – I just wasn’t very good at it… No that wasn’t the start of it, my god, I ran 100 miles as a 10 year old!

Recently I acquired a new duffel bag, one I really love. I got this white Nike bag by competing in the games at Shannon’s twenty‐fifth birthday party, and then remembering to ask her if I won (after most everyone was gone). She couldn’t have known how extra special this prize was to me, not only was it cool to have something from Shannon, the shape and look of this bag very closely resemble that black leather bag I’d earned so long ago. Nike must have used their archives to design this bag. When you see me toting it to races you’ll know that I’m carrying more than a bag, I’m carrying my running history too.

25 PAUL ZAGER

I'll never forget my first conversation with the Monterey Peninsula College (MPC) track and field coach (though I have forgotten his name, but maybe it was Ken). He was a young (in his late twenties?), tall, athletic man with a relaxed attitude and an infectious smile. I remember that smile when I first came up to him and said I was interested in running track but had never done it before. The coach’s eyes shined and his smile spread as he looked at me and said, “you look like you could run the half”, yeah, you’re a half miler”. I didn’t even know what he meant, but it sounded ominous; something big, hard, and important that he had in mind for me, and it seemed he was already visualizing it. I was nervous and intrigued at how he could know what type of runner (racer) I already was, but he was the type of guy that I trusted from the start, and I knew he had my best interests at heart. With this coach (my first real one), I felt understood and welcomed from the very beginning.

The dirt track at MPC, along with the football field grass area and adjacent grass areas, became my home away from home. I spent long afternoons there, lounging around with other team members and coaches long after our workouts. There was a great peace at the track, when everything slowed down (except the workouts) and all the pressures of life dwindled away. You could tell thed coach (an many of the other track and field athletes) loved this sport so much, and I fell in love too, a love that has stayed with me throughout my life. I could not name all the things I learned that first season of track at MPC, but the love of the sport (and the relationships with people who also felt that pull) had to be tops. Learning what training was, feeling what it was to be part of a team, and finally, the actual racing, were experiences that have stayed and have grown along with me all through my life.

At a meet in Santa Clara, I ran the 800 meters. I lead the race all the way through the first lap, and half way through the second until about the 600 meter mark. The video shows me bursting into the lead off the stagger as our number one guy, y(the gu routinely won races with about a 2:00 800 meter time), seems genuinely shocked to be running just behind me, and for a moment my ponytailed hair flew into his face! I continued in the lead around the track and as the single file line of racers settled in behinde me, no on seemed to want to take me on (or maybe they all wanted me to have my moment of glory!).

It was really a wonderful minute and a half, as I felt strong and focused (and chased), being the leader and knowing everybody was focusing on me. In the background I heard the cries of, “Go Paul!” from Coach Ken and others and that helped me to sustain my pace. It was good pace (the best all season for me), but not good enough to hold off the best of the kickers that day. I was not physically ready for a two minute 800 meters yet. At the 600 meter mark along the back straight away, as the reality of fatigue and inexperience set in, our number one guy who had been able to come up along side me off the third curve as I fought for my lead, slowly passed me up, but seemed to acknowledge my “coming of age” moment with a new sense of respect. As we came into the final curve, a racer from another team came up along side of me and we fought together all the way around the curve before he too yedged awa at the beginning of the final straight away. It was a long, final 100 meters as I fought hard to sustain what pace I had left, determined to try to hold on to what I had accomplished so far.

There may have been one other runner who challenged med as we close on the finish line but I don’t remember what happened, whether I finished third or fourth, only that I finished as strong as I could, and that Coach Ken was so excited to show me that I had run a 2:04! I was a bit disappointed that tI was no able to finish as strong as I would have liked but I was excited about my breakthrough overall. I looked down at my knee to see blood trickling from a spike mark that must have occurred during the battle around the last curve. It sure was a gutsy race (that’s how the 800 meters should be) and all the finishers congratulated me on how I ran. Again my self esteem grew. 26