wfn.org | The Board of Pensions Fitness Event: A Near-Death Experience

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18-June1998 
GA98102 
 
   The Board of Pensions Fitness Event: A Near-Death Experience 
 
                       by Jerry Van Marter 
 
CHARLOTTE, N.C.--"I will lift up my eyes unto the hills from whence cometh 
my help." 
   NOT! 
   Heartless race route planners cruelly punished the 150 runners, walkers 
and rollers who braved the dawn to participate in the Board of Pensions 
annual 5K event June 17. 
   The start was deceptively encouraging.  Starting on a lovely tree-lined 
street behind the Charlotte YMCA, the course early on wended its way down a 
picturesque gentle hill.  With a song in my heart and adequate spring in my 
legs, I settled into a comfortable pace to enjoy the cool Charlotte 
morning. 
   My first warning sign came within 200 yards of the start.  John 
Detterick, who I have learned from the confirmation materials is 57, blew 
by me like I was standing still.  Okay, I can live with that.  But last 
year in Syracuse I managed to stay with Bill Henning, who makes Detterick 
look like a spring chicken, for the most of the race.  By the bottom of the 
hill, Henning was out of sight. 
   Then, not even 1K into the race, I found myself wondering if I had 
wandered onto a roller-coaster track at Six Flags rather than a race 
course.  Now, I know that for every downhill stretch there has to be an 
equal uphill stretch.  But this course defied the laws of physics -- by the 
4K mark, I'm sure I had already run 3.5K uphill. 
   At the 2K mark, a fresh-faced runner breezed by -- this guy hadn't even 
broken a sweat -- smiled warmly and said, "Beautiful place, huh?"  He was 
long gone before he could hear my reply: "Gee, all pavement looks the same 
to me." 
   At about the 3K mark, we turned onto Templeton Avenue and I thought, "At 
least I'll blow by Judy Freyer (the intrepid investment whiz of the Board 
of Pensions) because she'll be pausing here to erect a shrine."  Little did 
I know that not only is Judy an investment guru, she's a very sane woman -- 
she was back with the walkers. 
   At the 3.5K mark, Paul Stavrakos pulled up alongside, ran with us for a 
few hundred yards, and then said he was running ahead to catch the elusive 
Henning.  At the 4K mark, Paul was only about 10 yards in front of us and I 
thought, "Well, if he's catching up with Henning, I must be doing pretty 
well."  Wrong again, bucko -- Paul never came close to Henning (he claimed 
the last brutal hill to the finish line slowed him down "just enough" to 
fail in his Henning quest.) 
   The highlight of my quixotic folly occurred just past the 4K mark, when 
I wheezed past a Charlotte police officer, who was directing traffic while 
singing an African American spiritual, "Keep on running, don't stop now." 
That saint in blue got me to the finish line. 
   Because the course retraced some of its steps -- finishing at the same 
point at which it had started -- we concluded the race by running back up 
the same "picturesque, gentle hill" that began the race.  Only now it 
looked like Everest.  I now understood why the Board was so insistent that 
I sign a medical release form well in advance of the race. 
   Last year, the 5K followed a lovely, level lakefront path along the 
shore of Lake Onondaga in Syracuse.  I am resolved to continue to run this 
race as long as God gives me breath, but from now on I think I'll run it in 
Syracuse. 
   The winners: women runners: Sarah Mellander; men runners: Jim Watkins; 
men walkers: Stephen Smith; women walkers: Joy Henning. 

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