Around the time of the founding of Pike Creek Valley Running Club, this editor was nowhere near running. In fact 1983 was the year I got my third bout of pneumonia, which finally forced me to quit my twenty year habit of smoking.
Before that time, which now seems like a previous existence, I was not very healthy. When I got out of the hospital, I had hit bottom with my weight down to 135 on my 6'5" frame. An operation for a deviated septum and impacted sinuses (caused by a broken nose in my late 20s) prevented any recurrence of my respiratory ailments.
For the next nine years I was fulfilling the things I needed to do to raise a family, including lots of overtime at the Postal Service. By the time I was approaching my 48th birthday, my weight had gone up to 177. On the surface that sounds good for my size. But the truth is that a lot of the weight was around my middle. I noticed that for the first time in my life, I didn't have to work hard to stay afloat while swimming. I had to buy larger summer shorts and they did not look good on me with my skinny legs. I realized I had to lose some fat and for a solid month I cut out every thing that was not part of my three basic meals.
After a month, with my weight in the 150s, I realized I had to do something in order to keep the weight off if I wanted to resume some snacking and at least having a beer now and then. My doctor had asked me what I did for exercise. When I replied that I had an active job, he said that wasn't enough. So I decided to walk at Delcastle, but by the second time, I started to run a bit. Within a month I could run continuously, but that asphalt felt hard. So I'd run around the soccer field behind the school on the grass.
For two years I would run three miles three times a week. In the last six months of that time, I had gotten tired of twisting my ankles in the grass and tried running on the path at Delcastle. It seemed easier, but it still hurt. No wonder! I had been running in the same pair of cross training shoes with worn out cushioning since I started. I finally bought a real pair of running shoes. What a difference! I realized I could go farther and started do one more lap one day a week.
As I was approaching the age of 50, I had seen race results in the paper. Then I became aware there was going to be a race at Delcastle, put on by the county, the Harvest Harrier Five Miler. I figured once I turned 50, it would be easier competition(ha!). So I started "training", which consisted of going out the door and just trying to run that three miles faster than I had the previous time. I did this for a month and a half and it worked as I apparently pushed my aerobic capacity.
Race day came, I towed the line and went with everyone on the "outer loop" on the roads and an "inner loop" on the path, finishing at the ball field. As the awards were presented by the race director, some county employee named Doug White, I anticipated the 50 year group. When it was announced, some guy named Richard Webb won, a full eight or nine minutes ahead of me. But I was second! I was hooked and started running races every weekend. At first the PRs came every time I raced. The thrill of running against whomever was near me became peak moments. I still remember that cold early December Chili's 5K when I raced for several miles against a young women, who had a kick that I couldn't match. That person was someone named Carole Feole.
And so it went. Not only was I running and racing, which was enjoyable, but I was meeting people and starting to emerge from my insularity. I was making friends. I met that guy with all the race forms in the trunk of his Cadillac named Ralph McKinney. I learned about Pike Creek Valley Running Club and I joined it. But I discovered that even though I had joined a club, nobody from the club contacted me. I did get a couple newsletters.
After a year went by a club meeting was scheduled at the old Schweizer's in New Castle Commons. The club was in transition and the meeting had only about a dozen in attendance. The Bixlers were at the end of their time running the club and Lois Johnson became President. At the meeting it was mentioned that Hall of Fame member Doug Walker was no longer going to be the editor of the newsletter and a new editor was being sought. Having done some editing in the late 1960s of an "underground newspaper" (The Heterodoxical Voice, archived at the U. of DE), I figured this was a good time to get back to something I enjoyed doing. So I volunteered.
After one session at Doug's place, showing me what he knew, I was on my own. The only problem was that although I had a computer, I didn't know my way around it as far as creating files and documents. I will be eternally grateful to Lois Johnson for taking the time on several occasions to come over and basically tutor me on how to use various programs.
I begin working with Mark Deshon, who would do the layout once I had all the material for an issue. He'd e-mail back the finished product and I'd print out a copy, go to a local printing place, run off the copies, print labels, get stamps, fold, seal, label, stamp and mail. Rather labor intensive.
My old postal and running buddy Stew Whisenant joined the club. He was a good photographer, who had once produced a slick newsletter for the regional Baltimore area of the USPS called The Skipjack. Over the years we produced a couple of slick newsletters featuring the Delaware Distance Classic 15K(a number of copies of which I still have if anyone is interested).
But as the years went on, it eventually became obvious with more and more club members having e-mail accounts and with the lag between the races and the reporting of results in a printed newsletter, that the printed version had to go. So we started the E-Bulletin concept. It's worked well with timely bulletins almost every week. Fortunately, I retired five years ago, which allowed me more time to devote to this labor of love. The one change that some may not have liked was that when I went to the Bulletin format, I cut out reporting the times of people in local 5K, unless they were among the top finishers. There are just too many events to report.
I spent all these years doing the newsletter and e-bulletins because I like the idea of a running club and wanted to do my part to help it survive. That was in my skill set. At times when participation in the club was at a low, a few people urged me to seek a term as club president. I always thought that being in control of the newsletter and the e-mail list AND president at the same time would have been giving too much control to one person. Besides I'm a better writer than a leader.
After some lean years, the club seemed to start on the upswing during Vince McIntosh's terms as president. The idea of forming a Half-Marathon training group has been the most successful outreach program that the club has done in all the years I've been in it. That group eventually formed a younger core of the club and those people are just starting to get to the age I was when I joined the club.
In the past few years, with Ray Christensen at the helm, the club has grown even more. The enthusiastic recruitment efforts of Rich Szymanski and now also Tom Steenkamer for the club's competitive efforts in USATF have provided another injection of newer members and the start of an even younger generation of club runners.
The recent awards banquet to which the club founders were invited and where some other former club members attended suddenly made it clear to me that those people were of my generation. The thing is I just happened to get into running later in life and joined the club late. But I realized that my generation represents the past of the club.
I've put in 16 years as an editor, first just helping to keep the club afloat, and later reporting on the increased participation. I've made some mistakes, not in intention, but in style - responding in a curt manner, which is subject to misunderstanding over e-mail; or projecting an abrasive or negative tone. I'm sorry for that. I hope at times people understood that some of these things were attempts at humor.
However, while someone with a lot of experience can have knowledge which makes things easier, becoming comfortable with that person holding a position for a long time can stifle the growth of others and, thus, possibly hold back the growth of the club. While I've long pondered why more people don't participate in actively growing the club, part of the answer may be that having an old-timer staying a position for too long may be holding others back from using their talents.
So I'll be stepping down as editor of the E-Bulletins. Here's the deal, If anyone has the time and the inclination to be editor, I'll be glad to provide all the help I can to get you up to speed. I won't stop doing bulletins until you think you can do them without my help. If no one comes forward, I'll keep being editor until the end of 2012, but will definitely resign at that point.
I'm also ending the hosting of McCorq's Fun Run at my house. However, I've got a measuring wheel that Tony Chelpaty gave me. I'll pass it on for the measuring of a new 5K challenge course if anyone wants to continue this tradition for late August. I've also got the start for prizes, consisting mostly of what wasn't grabbed the last time when Ray hosted the run because of a death in our family.
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