After finishing 2nd as a team (again) at the NCAA National Division II cross-country nationals on November 11, 1978. Dick and I, along with Randy Fischer and Bob Bartling, drove to Kansas City, MO to run in a 25k (15.5mile) hilly road race on Saturday, November 18th. The results speak for themselves (see results and newspaper article). After not running well at the national meet a week earlier (we finished in 55th (Dick) and 56th (me) one second apart, we crushed it at this race. Dick outdueled a really strong racer from Nebraska to win the race and I picked off runners one by one to finish 3rd. It was so cool in the last 1-2 miles I could look across the lake (see map below) and see Dick in the lead. As I was alone in third, runners heading back out on the course (it was a double out and back loop) would reach out and "high five" me. That totally pumped me up!! Randy Fischer was 10th out of 604 runners. Bob Bartling finished in 2nd place in the 50 and over age division. Dick got the biggest trophy I had ever seen and $500 for the SDSU athletic department. Lets just say that the ride back to Brookings was a lot of fun!! Bob Bartling just loved going out of state with a group of runners and kicking butt!!
I was always analyzing my splits times (if I could remember them) and I would calculate my pace for different parts of the race. If only I would have put that much effort into my school work!!
