Oct 10, 2000

My recent set of newsletter articles on the National Masters track meet hit a slightly sour note with Tim Zbikowski. I wrote first about the enjoyable "endurance test" of watching six hours of 10,000s, then penned a note that "I don't belong on the track with runners my age."

Tim ran in the Eugene meet. He commented first on the "endurance" item:

"Multiply your endurance of one day watching the National Masters by four times, and the result equals the effort put forth by the multitude of volunteers who made the meet a terrific success and highly enjoyable for the athletes. That's a feat of endurance worthy of recognition."

He added, in response to my "belonging" piece, "Fortunately I don't apply your competitive standard, or I wouldn't have experienced the joy of competing in this meet. My 16th place out of 19 entrants in my heat of the 1500 meters certainly wasn't competitive with the top runners. However, I ran my best time in years thanks to the atmosphere, the cheering, the volunteers and the Hayward Field magic."

Tim urged me to "encourage more people of all ages and abilities to compete in fun track events" instead of telling them to sit back and watch. He added, "Perhaps we might generate a broader base of support for track and field on a national level."

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