Expert
Posts: 28020
  
Location: Back home again in Indiana | Saturday, July 28:
Road/Trail Revisited
Steve's Run revives old memories of times gone by As I drove down the main street in Dowagiac, Michigan en route to Steve's Run, I spotted Groner's Funeral Home. And there was Dave Groner standing in front of it. He waved me into the parking lot, and I took advantage of this opportunity to park and greet an old friend. I stopped the car, rolled down the window and we chatted a bit before I excused myself to prepare for the race, a 5-K and 10-K Road and Trail race that I have been running off and on since its founding several decades ago. Dave Groner was a charter member of the Monday Night Club, a group of runners coached and inspired by Ron Gunn, the Dean of Sports at Southwestern Michigan College. Ron was coach of a very successful track and cross-country program at the Dowagiac junior college. His teams won several national JUCO cross-country championships, including one that my son Kevin ran on. At one point, Ron spoke to the Rotary Club about his program and one of the Rotarians asked if he would organize a running class for them. Ron wasn't too eager to comply, because he didn't think these middle-aged men were serious. He picked Monday night, figuring that in competition with Monday Night Football, the class would never fly. It did, and soon he was training them (with my assistance) to run the 1980 Honolulu Marathon. I eventually wrote an article about the Monday Night Class that appeared in The Runner magazine after our return from Hawaii. That return was not without hazards, not the race itself which everybody completed, but the flight home from the race. During our time in Hawaii, John Lennon was assassinated by an individual who (if my memory is correct) lived in Hawaii. Supposedly, the assassin's wife was on our plane, so someone phoned in a bomb threat. Two hours out from Hawaii, the pilot slowly turned the plane around so nobody in the cabin would notice and returned to Honolulu. The first we learned that we were back in Honolulu was on our descent. The pilot finally told us. We looked out and saw fire engines and police cars lining the runway; they followed as we landed and taxied to a halt. Right after the pilot had informed us that we were landing, funeral director Dave stood up and said, "I guess I should be passing out my cards." And nobody laughed. We survived that incident, although during our brief chat in the parking lot, I didn't have time to remind Dave of his bad joke. Too many memories and too much time to replay them. Dave headed to his house across the street, while I headed to the railroad station in downtown Dowagiac to pick up my number. Returning to my car to change shirts and shoes, I asked a worker watering the lawn in front of the funeral home if I could use the bathroom. He let me in. One of the perks of knowing people in Dowagiac is being able to use a toilet with a carpeted floor. Steve's Run is one of my favorites. It is named in honor of the late Steve Briegel, a former athlete on the SMC track team and also the son of a past President of the college. The race begins on Dowagiac's main street, then heads out of town, a small town so soon you are running past comfy cottages and across a golf course. After 2 miles, the 5-K runners turn back, and the 10-K runners continue on a wide trail that winds up and down through the woods. There are barriers to hurdle: one stone wall and two hay bales, although you can detour around them should you choose. (I didn't.). Soon after 4 miles, runners emerge from the woods onto a country road, and it is mostly downhill from there. I was counting on the descent to make up for time lost on the ascent, but didn't quite achieve that goal even though my 5th and 6th miles were faster than 3rd and 4th in the woods. I finished with honor, feeling good, although don't ask me my time. When I was in running prime, I figured that the road/trail course was about 2 minutes slower than a flat road 10-K. That plus hot weather probably caused a much greater loss, but you don't go to Dowagiac looking for PRs. You go to have fun. My plan, after collecting my finisher T-shirt, was to walk back to my car parked in the Groner Funeral Home lot and change into some drier clothes, then return to the awards ceremony. Ron Gunn wanted to introduce me to the crowd. I wasn't too enthusiastic about that happening, but V-Teamer Meg Zapalowski and her husband from Kalamazoo were doing Steve's Run. (Meg is also one of the individuals who is helping to organize our V-Team Party on Friday before the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon.) Even though I was wearing my V-Team 26.2-K singlet and yellow V-Team cap, they failed to spot me at the start. I figured maybe we'd see each other afterwards, but after returning my car, I asked myself, "Do I really want to walk a mile back to the awards ceremony when I could climb into an air conditioned car and head home early?" The temperature had been 74 at the 9:00 start and 88 by the time I finished. I weakened and headed home. Sorry, Meg. I never did get a chance to talk to Dave Groner or anybody from the Monday Night Club. We're all getting older. I hope Dave is still handing out his cards. Addendum: Friday night, we went with friends to Eat at Moe's, a Lebanese restaurant in Michigan City. "Eat at Moe's" is the full name of the restaurant, Moe being for Mohammed. One of our favorite restaurants because of a cuisine you don't encounter except in larger-population areas. What many people do not recognize is that Michigan City has a large Lebanese population, many of the families having come nearly a century ago to work in factories that utilized their sewing ability. Of course, now they are bank presidents and car dealership owners, not to mention restaurant owners. Moe spotted me when I came in, and said, "Don't you have a website?" He said that he had gone surfing through the Internet for mentions of his restaurant and encountered comments I had made after a previous visit. And now, if Moe goes surfing again, he'll learn all about Steve's Run. |
ROAD/TRAIL REDUX: Steve's Run
