Then & Now! Looking Back!

Throughout this blog I have tried to look back and share things from the past while at the same time sharing what's going on now. In this post I am going to do both. I got back to racing in California the weekend that I returned from my trip to New Jersey. The first race back was probably the worst race I've run since I started back racing in 2008. While it was only a mile I felt so weak at the halfway point I actually walked a lot in the second half. Everyone wanted to attribute it to the fact that I was still worn out from my cross country travel. When I raced again the next weekend, also a mile race, and ran as good as I ran there last year I decided that I had simply gone out to fast and that I put myself into oxygen debt and never recovered. The irony is, despite the fact that it was the slowest I have raced a mile, I still won my the 60-69 age group. If there is a lesson here it is to not quit because you never know what anyone else is going through.

Manteca, California

 My next race was the "Run for Health" 1 mile in Modesto, a really well run event.

What I didn't know on Saturday was that I would be back at the same park in Modesto the following Tuesday to run in a "Boston Strong" Tribute run. It was a really powerful event with over 300 people showing up to "Run for Boston". Being a Boston native made it even more personal for me. I enjoyed the fellowship of the running community. The next morning there was a picture on the front page of The Modesto Bee of my feet. It was a cool picture.

My next race was special because it was at Mount San Antonio Junior College in Walnut, California, a school that I ran for during cross country and track during the 1966-1967 school year and received my Associates degree in 1973 after serving in the Navy. When I first returned to California I went online and tried to find a race at MSAC simply for nostalgic reasons. There were no races that I could find. Earlier this year I saw on Twitter that they were bringing a 5K to the Mt. SAC Relays weekend and I jumped at the chance to sign up and run the race. One of the things that made the race special is that part of it was run on the same cross country course I raced in both high school and college, additionally the race finished on the track.

MSAC "Where the world's best athletes" and a few old men "compete"

THEN & NOW

While I was in Southern California I took the opportunity to visit some places from my past.

My Parent's Home - I lived here from 8th grade until I went into the Navy

Los Altos High School - Hacienda Heights - Class of '66

The first home we owned and the last home we lived in in California, Valinda.
This is the realtor's photo when we sold it in 1975.

Our home in Valinda now - 2014

Rimgrove Park in 2014. Where my sons started sports and I started coaching.

Coaching at Rimgrove Park in 1975

I've been blessed to still be able to travel and run races and in the process see family, visit the past and visit new places. Hopefully there will be more opportunities in the future.