wfn.org | Huffing and Puffing to Jerusalem

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

18-June-1997 
GA97069 
 
                  HUFFING AND PUFFING TO JERUSALEM 
 
                         by Jane Hines 
 
SYRACUSE--Wednesday morning at 6 a.m. looked like I felt: cold, gray and 
hazy.  As I laced up my Nikes for the Board of Pensions 5K fitness event, 
competitive thoughts raced through my brain faster than I knew I would race 
around the course: Will I break 30 minutes?  Will I finish in the top three 
of my age group?  Will I be able to keep up with my wife? 
 
    The bus from the Hotel Syracuse pulled up a few hundred yards from the 
starting line.  Great, I thought -- my legs will be shot before the race 
even starts.  The two hundred runners, walkers and one extraordinarily 
brave wheelchairer huddled on the shore of Lake Onondaga dressed mostly in 
bright yellow BOP tee-shirts looked like a flock of seagulls lost on their 
way to Florida or some other place warm.  I was greatly encouraged by the 
sight of a Syracuse EMS ambulance parked by the start/finish line with 
lights flashing. 
 
    I kissed a medal good-bye as the runners lined up -- some of these guys 
were in a Michael Johnson (he's a Presbyterian, you know) style crouch like 
they were taking dead aim on the General Assembly record!  The gun sounded 
and off they sprinted, leaving me to wistfully hope against hope that the 
tortoise and the hare story was fact, not fiction.  One hopelessly cheerful 
runner breezed by with the greeting, "Isn't this a beautiful spot?"  I 
gasped in trudging reply, "Yes, the cracks in the blacktop at my feet are 
quite interesting." 
 
    Around the halfway marker and heading back toward the finish line the 
way we had come, I spotted John Buchanan, strolling leisurely in 
former-moderatorial splendor.  "Not bad for a guy that has just had 300 
chicken dinners," I thought.  Up ahead of me I spied Bill Henning, former 
Assembly vice-moderator who is now retired.  Private assurances that surely 
I could catch and pass an old retired guy quickly proved folly as Bill 
kicked into another gear for the last half-mile while I struggled to keep 
my transmission out of neutral. 
 
    I told Eva Stimson, whose husband I am, that I was sure the finish line 
was just up around the bend.  I was half-right -- it was up around two 
bends.  I had managed to stay with Eva, but in the last hundred yards, she 
put on an awesome finishing kick, entering the finish line cones one second 
ahead of me.  But we had blistered the course -- she in 29:29, me in 29:30. 
The winner only beat me by eight and a half minutes!  More importantly, I 
thwarted the EMS ambulance. 
 
    I hope Assembly preacher Jim Costen will excuse my absence from worship 
later Wednesday morning.  After all, I didn't see him at the race. 
 
    Board of Pensions 5K Fitness Event Winners: 
 
    Male runners: 1-Jim Watkins; 2-John Britton; 3-Enright Bighorn 
    Female runners: 1-Elaine Maccio; 2-Melissa Weimer; 3-Michelle Curtis 
    Male walkers: 1-Robert Friley; 2-John Bailey; 3-Art DeYoung 
    Female walkers: 1-Kathleen Banaszak; 2-Joy Henning; 3-Debbie Sachs  

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