Hah! I was a twinkle in my mama’s eye in 1951.

Athletics can be a funny thing. The sprinter at my school I spoke of was something of a natural. By his own admission, he rarely worked out. He did a lot of running in his youth of course but by high school, he was just coasting.

I’ll never forget the half mile relay in the 1969 district meet somewhere south of Olympia. One of my buddies had a fast start, he led off, the second leg was the weakest, the third guy halfway good, our main guy Bantz got the baton in fourth place, they only have the lane splits on the first lap. He ran wide around the leaders on the turn, passed them from the outside, and then in the homestretch turned it on, and won by I don’t know, 10 yards maybe. Something to see.

And that same guy in his freshman year at college was playing some stupid drunken soccer game in the dormitory hallway, spun out of control, broke some glass in a freak accident and cut the hell out of his leg. Never ran the same again. I liked the guy, but he was a slacker. Kind of heartbreaking.

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K