Annual Meeting And Party Report

February 27, 1999 marked another annual meeting and party at the Galbraith's house. As is customary, the excellent cooking of our members and their families made the dining a culinary triumph. Alex announced that a large turnout also avoided the necessity for ballot stuffing and other schemes to affect the outcome of our club's elections (alleged to have tainted results in previous years' elections). Your 1999 officers are Bill Cizek, captain of men's open teams; Sarah Hatch-Wright, captain of women's open teams; Gail Sabanosh, captain of women's masters teams; Roger Boak, captain of men's masters teams and vice-president; Judy Psenda, treasurer; Stan Timmer, VP of trails and equine affairs; Debra Dishberger, VP of communications; and Alex Galbraith, president. As always, Terlingua's officers are in need of volunteer assistance from other all other club members on topics ranging from everything to nothing.

Meet Bernie Weber - a New Terlinguan

Editor's Note: The ink wasn't dry on Bernie Weber's Terlingua membership application, and he was pressed into service to write a little something for the newsletter.

I am busy in the late afternoons this spring volunteering as a track coach for junior high kids at John Paul II Catholic School. After casually mentioning to a PE teacher at the school that I ran in college, I ended up as the coach. I'm assisted by my wife, who doesn't run, but is great at handling the kids (that's half the battle). It has been a great learning experience. I found out that track and field is truly a sport for adults. It's not like the other games, where kids can learn the fundamentals early and participate. The key ingredient, especially at the distances, is discipline. It's great to watch the kids improve from week-to-week, and they learn that they get out of it exactly what they put into it. I also never really appreciated how social track is, especially at the meets. The kids love the chance to socialize during warmups and stretching. I don't think they get that in other sports. My main objective is for the kids to have fun. Based on the numbers we get participating (about one-third of the students run track) I think we are succeeding.

If you have any experiences coaching at the junior high level, and know some fun things to help the kids improve, drop me a line at bernie.weber@dnv.com.

MEMBER NOTES

Dave Adkins is on the mend from severe Achilles' tendonitis in his left heel. He hopes to be back in serious training by the end of the year.

Mike Doyle has been notching up some impressive victories this spring, giving many runners his age and younger a good view of the soles of his feet at the LP Run (1st 40-44) and at the Trolley Run 5k (1st 40-44).

It was a family affair at the Road Relay as we had five sets of wives and husbands (with each wife and husband on separate teams) contributing to our team's success, including Jill and David Washburn, Debbie and Mike Dishberger, Chrissie and Bill Stone, Sarah Hatch Wright and Fred Wright, and Patti and Dennis Leary. Dennis pulled a hamstring shortly after getting the baton after having driven all the way from the Woodlands to the race. We wish him a speedy recovery. We also had two sets of fathers and sons at the Road Relay including Danny and Mike Kleinhenz and Jack and John Lippincott. Although John did not run he was available in the valuable role as an alternate and as a cheerleader along with Serai Abraham and Bill Cizek. Danny, who handed off to his Dad, was our youngest competitor at age 11 and is already beating a lot of adults. Stan Timmer was seen sporting an aerodynamic short hairdo which undoubtedly contributed to his swift run.

Tosone Harbin reports that he has overcome all of his nagging injuries having been seen running smoothly at Memorial Park. He credits his successful recovery in part to his workouts on the elliptical trainer on which he runs forwards and backwards without using the handlebars.

Bill Duer has embarked on the ambitious goal of running a marathon a month in order to ultimately complete the greater goal of running a marathon in every state in the U.S.A. by the time he reaches age 70. He is in Nebraska running one there now! Beckie Duer is on the injured reserve list nursing a sore foot and hopes to recover soon.

Doug Storey recently got some great news. He has been given an exciting new geologist job offer and, best of all, his prospective new employer is located near the hike and bike trail on Allen Parkway so Doug can squeeze in those running workouts. Doug is looking slim and has been diligent in doing his challenging Jack Daniels workouts on the Memorial Park Track without skipping a beat in this hot weather.

Next TTC Party!

Gail Sabanosh has bravely (foolishly?) offered to host a gathering to kick off the fall racing season. The festivities are tentatively set for Sunday, September 19 from 2pm - 5pm at 540 West 18th Street. If you want to offer help or moral support, contact Gail at 713-862-9829.

Marathons and Soymilk?
By Ann Ferguson

The good news is that I won my age group. The bad news is that I thought I would die...no I hoped I would die...before I crossed the finish line.

It all started innocently enough last September when I read on the UTMB Bulletin Board that volunteers were needed. All I had to do was to drink soymilk every day for 16 weeks and $500 would be mine. Well, you know the old saying...if it sounds too good to be true... Anyway, I arranged to meet the researchers. I should have left when they turned up with a sheaf of papers open at the signature page and an uncapped pen.

Apparently chemicals in soybeans have a prophylactic and maybe even a therapeutic effect on breast cancer. However, since these chemicals are weak estrogens, could they cause cancer in other parts of the female anatomy? This is what this experiment was designed to check. Well, maybe I would get $500, but would I also get cancer? No, I was assured, the experiment also involved taking biopsies and ultrasound of the said parts of my anatomy and making sure that there were no changes. Now, I really don't think soy can cause cancer because there would not be a billion or so Chinese if it did.

Among other things involved were six two-day stays in the Clinical Research Center at which times they would extract 150 milliliters of blood from me. Quite a bit I thought, but not too much. My main concern was how to fit in my long runs around weekends in the hospital. On the other hand spending two days lying around reading, sleeping and watching television, with someone else doing the work, did hold a certain attraction. So, I signed up.

Unfortunately, their math was not too good, and I found myself giving more than 300 milliliters of blood at each admission. This took place two weeks before the Austin Marathon, and two weeks before that, and two weeks before that. So by the time the marathon took place, I was running about a quart low. Well, that is a slight exaggeration. My body, no doubt, was busy manufacturing lots of corpuscles...it certainly acted like it was using a lot of energy to do so. I did give some thought to not running the marathon. But then, I had told everyone that I would run, so I did feel some obligation.

Marathon day dawned exactly as advertised...cool and dry. No excuses for a pitiful performance. I was ready to go, feeling good. I decided that I would run with one of the pace groups. Only problem was that I had not signed up and I couldn't find the group. I did, however, manage to get too far back. I knew I was in trouble when I found myself surrounded by people in tights, jackets, caps, gloves and headsets. But...too late. The horn went off. Actually I did not hear it. Next mistake. However I shuffled forward and finally got to the first mile marker: 9:30. Better get going! Missed the next mile marker. Asked a nearby runner. Third mistake. Never believe anything anyone tells you. She said we just passed it. Glanced at my watch .... another 9:30. Get some speed, Ann! At about the fourth mile, I finally figured out that I was going at a 7:40 pace. Too fast! But I slowed down and ran a series of 8:00 minute miles.

At the halfway mark I felt terrific, increased my pace. At fifteen miles, I started to wonder. By eighteen, I knew I was in trouble. At 23, I was concentrating really hard on staying upright. Finally, I reached Zilker Park and the beginning of the "final approach." The map said that mile 26 was at the entrance to the park. Wrong! Mile 26 was about 10 miles inside the park. I couldn't believe that I still had 0.2 miles to go when I eventually reached the marker. Finally, finally, I approached the finish line. People were passing me in droves. I didn't care. How I managed to stop my watch, I do not know. In the chute anxious voices were asking me if I was O.K. "Yes!" I lied. It was over. I had finished and I had the most unique running excuse that I have ever heard. Long live soybeans!

Iron- Pawed Terlinguans

The following tough Terlinguans have been awarded the coveted HARRA "Iron Foot" award for running in each of the Spring Series races (runners may volunteer in one race in lieu of running): Serai Abraham, Ino Cantu, Tracy Ciota, Sarah Hatch-Wright, Bob Hoekman, Roger Hunt, Jack Lippincott, Mick Midkiff, Judy Psenda, Gail Sabanosh, Bill Stone, Fred Wright, and Rich Yanacek.

New Terlinguans

Terlingua Track Club congratulates Angelina Felsing, Cate Meredith, Doug Martin and Gus Caesar on their wise decisions to join "The Club". You are each now destined to become a part of Rabbit Lore (whether you like it or not)!

A Running Milestone Achieved

Alex Galbraith recently celebrated his 10,000th consecutive day of running. The historic run took place at Memorial Park with many Terlinguans and other friends joining Alex for his run. We hereby bestow Alex with membership into the Order of the Iron Rabbit. Congratulations to Alex on this achievement, and best wishes for the next 10,000 days!

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