It occurs to me that this year was 50 years since I started track.
I tried cross country in 7th grade which was 51 yrs ago, didn't do real well. I think in the spring of my 7th grade yr, I was still playing Little League baseball, since I was 12 until July that summer. That year I hit my first over the fence home run.
In 8th grade (1974), I ran Jr. High track and won my first significant award: the STAC Jr High Pole Vault Championship. I think I was 'straight poling' about 10'.
The following year was my last year of wrestling and the beginning of shoulder problems. I had surgery in '75 and '76. I also picked up the guitar in earnest about that time.
I returned to both indoor and outdoor track in my Junior year, beginning fall of '76. We had a helluva group of sprinters ... the Norris brothers, Hollenbeck, C. Davis, and others. We won the Sec. IV title in the 4x220 relay and set a Sectional record of 1:31.6. I basically just ran the 100 yd dash, long jumped and ran relays. My pole vaulting days were over. We went to the State meet indoor with the relay team but was DQ'd due to a handoff issue involving C. Davis. By my Senior year, our relay team was broken up by injuries and we didn't make the state meet. But I had a good indoor season, winning the Sec IV 60 yd dash title. I was an inconsistent sprinter outdoor. Ran usually about a 10.4 100. I did run an 11.1 100m on a blacktop track at MacArther school in the annual 'metric meet'. Most races were still yards then. It was a time of transition from yds to meters.
The very last thing I did in high school was my long jump in the Sec IV meet at Harper College. Miserable day and raining. On the very last jump of my HS career, I jumped a lifetime best of 20'10.5". I was certain that I had won the Sec IV title, but some guy in his final jump beat me by 1/4". I got the Silver. I went to the state meet and jumped, but didn't make the final.
I ran a season of indoor track at SUNY Cortland. I recall being the fastest 60m sprinter on the team. I probably reached my lifetime peak of speed at that time, age 18. I increased my long jump PR to 21'3" and ran a number of short races although I don't remember any of my times. The winter of '79 was weird because the short indoor sprint was sometimes metric, sometimes yards, and seemed to vary anywhere from 50yds to 60m depending on the venue.
After that, I never ran track again except for a summer all comers meet I went to with my brother who was a state champ polevaulter. I remember racing a 220, and finishing second in a prelim race, but was so tired and out of shape, I didn't run the final. I went to one outdoor track practice at Cortland and then quit. I just didn't want to do it.
Then 29 yrs later I started running 5k races. And a year after that, ran my first sprint race as a masters, an indoor 60m. Then in 2011, my first full season as a masters sprinter. I started running the indoor 60m, them got hurt in an outdoor 100m, ran my first 400m race of my life that year in a college meet at Vanderbilt. 56.71
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Here's a collection of photos:
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| Racing a 100 yd dash on a dirt track -1978 Winning the 200m final - USATF Masters Championships - 2023 |
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| Medal Ceremonies: NY State Sec IV 60 yd dash - 1978, Cornell, Ithaca, NY World Masters Indoor Championship 200m - 2017, Daegu, S. Korea |
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| Winning the Sec IV 60yd dash title - 1978 Racing a 400m in a college meet - 2023  Age 25 - music student in Tallahassee, no competitive athletics Age 62 - training in Sewanee for World Masters Indoor championships |
So at the race you claimed you never did, but I witnessed, you showed your long sprint potential. You were bitching that Baker put you in the 200 (or 220?) as Hollenbech was hurt and he wanted points. You drove your moms car I think it was at SUNY Binghamton and I sat on a hill on west side, which is now tree’s. In the 100 you were ahead of the field early even at looked like you faded in the last third. In the 200, which you were untrained for, it was the same for the first 100 but the last 50 meters the field was coming back to you. My conclusion then was that they slowed more than you and you’d be better at longer sprints. You didn’t pay much attention to my conclusion at the time you were just doing what the coach told you kind of under protest, or complaints.
ReplyDeleteSo it should have read “for the 100 you were ahead of the field early, even with the field around 50 to 60 meters then faded over the last third” as it looked like your competitors had higher top speed.
DeleteMaybe you were thinking of the 4x220 relay. Baker has dementia and is in a facility I was told.
DeleteSorry to hear about Baker. I remember it as I stated, including your complaints. Was that a sectional meet? If it wasn’t sectional it was an invitational with multiple schools. I think it was 11th grade. Your Dad was away so you had to drive yourself. I have a weak memory as to why. I kind of remember Tom was at a camp for vaulting and your Dad was there or took him there. I guess Tom would have been in 9th grade and wasn’t competing varsity? I don’t think Tom was at this meet so that would fit. Or your Dad was getting the cottage ready for the season? Not sure.
DeleteThe only time we ran at Harper was for Sec IV I think. I really wish i could remember some of the times I ran in that first year of college at my peak speed.
DeleteIt wasn’t important to you then. I remember talking to you on the phone and you had just completed a practice and said you were so exhausted you had no motivation to study, and you were going to quit as your course work was challenging. Chemistry major or some science field at the time.
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