August / September 2003
Juice e-mail: Pacers@LincolnParkPacers.org _______________ We all know that after Labor Day, anything can happen weather-wise. Let’s hope that because Labor Day is so early this year, the day will sort of slip by the guy upstairs without notice, and summer will go on and on and on into October!!…Some super adventure trips were taken by some of the Pacers over the summer. Stuart Schulman, his girlfriend Diane, and another couple hiked the strenuous 33-mile Klondike Gold Rush Trail from Skagway, Alaska into the Yukon Territories in Canada. They then boarded an old steam engine train, which took them back to their starting point. Stuart’s tales and his photos of the hike are stupendous. Kudos to Stuart for achieving this long time goal he’s had since the early 90”s…Cary Adams spent a week in Switzerland mountain climbing with ex-Pacer Gabe Williams, who now lives and works in Germany. Gabe, his girlfriend, and Cary then drove to Switzerland where they met up with Gabe’s parents to begin their climbs. The 3rd and last mountain they climbed, the Jungfrau, took 14 hours, and at one point, Cary found himself literally dangling by his rope over a large crevasse. Outside of a few hair-raising close calls, and having to spend $8 on a bottle of water, this mountain climbing adventure is one Cary will remember for a long time. Cary now claims he has reconsidered his future as a mountain climber??! (That is until the next opportunity comes along!!!)…Jim DeJardins also fulfilled his goal of completing the climb up Longs Peak in Colorado. He tried this climb a year ago but failed due to a bout of altitude sickness. This year he completed the climb to the top, along with a good friend, and has some amazing stories to tell about his experience… Don Crosbie headed to Colorado for the Bolder Boulder 10K, which is run on Memorial Day each year. He met up with ex-Pacers John Parisi (who lives and works in Colorado)and Amy Pietras (who was out in Colorado with her brother) for some hiking, a visit to Red rocks Park, and of course the Bolder Boulder…If you haven’t ordered John Parisi’s book, “Choices” yet, it is a great read. You can order it online at www.trafford.com. John has dedicated his book to “runners”. For those of you who may not remember John, he was in Chicago the year before last and ran the Chicago Marathon, attending the Pacer pizza party afterwards…..Eric Miller put together a river-rafting/camping trip on the Peshtigo and Wolf Rivers in Wisconsin. Other Pacers besides Eric and a couple friends “running the rapids” were John Turchen, Jack and Amy Euske, Don Crosbie, and Julie Song. There were some spills in the rapids but the good news is--everyone made it over Big Smokey Falls, the grand-daddy of all the rapids on the Wolf River… Pacers getting together for summer family reunions were Jennifer Leslie, Janet Omer, Kate Handley, and Joanne Kaeding…Jennifer traveled the furthest, going all the way to the west coast Ireland to meet up with her family.... Diane Graham Henry Hall traveled to Scotland this summer for her daughter’s wedding. They spent several weeks traveling around Scotland, daughter in tow! How many daughters spend their honeymoon vacationing with their mom!!?? Diane must have done something right!!…. Heather Ludlum spent a weekend in New York visiting Lori Soderholm and Urs Weber. It was Heather’s first trip to the “big apple”, and Urs and Lori were great tour guides. Everything was perfect except for getting locked out of Urs and Lori’s apartment on Saturday night. It was just pure luck that the three of them didn’t have to spend the night camping out in Central Park!!….Athletic accomplishments over the summer include Aziz Uras, who ran 33 miles in the Howl at the Moon, an 8 hour ultra-marathon; Kristen Horvat, who ran the Hood to Coast Relay Race in Oregon; and Corina Schusheim who biked the “Ride the Rockies out in Colorado. Mary Kay Blaschke completed her first triathlon, the Fleet Feet Super Sprint on Saturday, August 23rd, and Gabe Minc and Dave Dent did the Accenture International Triathlon the next day, Sunday the 24th.….Jennifer Leslie now has her sights set on a triathlon in the near future. She has been practicing her swimming skills all summer, and finally swam a whole mile nonstop. Jennifer was further enticed when she volunteered for the triathlon at the Fleet Feet 10K turn around, and saw all the hard bodied males running by!!!…Hal Olin reminds us of some important facts to practice before running a race. He signed up for the Distance Classic this year, his longest race in quite a few years. He did some long runs in preparation, however, on race day, he forgot to eat anything or drink sufficiently before the race, and ended up cramping up at mile 12, right before the finish line. He had been feeling really proud of himself until that point, running right behind Matt Knoop and Kelly O’Conner. The race officials had to cut off his chip, and Hal was unable to complete the race. Our own “Dr. Dave (Dent)” was there to help Hal out of pain, and Hal was reminded to consume more salt in his diet, and eat something with potassium, like a banana, before running that kind of distance. That was a hard lesson for Hal who really wanted to cross that finish line… Pacer summer fun included celebrating the engagement of Lori Soderholm and Urs Weber when they were in town, spending a stormy late July afternoon with Hal and Joan Olin in the Indiana Dunes, dining on Mid-Eastern, Indian and Oriental cuisine’s at the monthly ethnic dinners, Bar-B-Qing at Jim DeJardines and Deb Bear’s on July 4th, and Matt Knoop’s on August 2nd, the annual Pacer picnic at Monica O’Hara’s on August 30th, and the last hoorah of August, attending a Cubs/Brewers game on the 31st . Some of the hot topics at the Pacer get-togethers included “metro sexuals”, what constitues a date with Bill Clinton and what Pacer chicks would go, and the “burning bush”! If you missed these discussions then you missed it all! Bob Fencl took one topic to heart. He transformed into a true “metro sexual”, replacing his “pulled up to the knees” white socks and tennies for some “stylin’ sandals”. However, Bob refuses to get rid of his hot red pants, and proclaims that he may as well lay over and die if ever forced to give those suckers up!!!……… Some of the Pacer girls plan on doing a bike ride to the Botanical Gardens on Labor Day…Sorry once again guys—I know you all wish you were one of the girls!!…Dean Battistella will kick off the Fall marathon season by running the Medoc Marathon in France on September 6th , with plans to take advantage of the many wine stops throughout the course. The course winds through small French villages and 59 vineyards and Chateaus of the fabled Medoc wine region, with wine served at every mile in addition to water and electrolyte refreshments, oysters at mile 25 plus entertainment from 25 musical groups along the way......come on, is this thing really a marathon for athletes ?? or ? maybe the right answer to new PR ? Hopefully Dean will sober up enough to tell us about it when he returns!!… Ron Weber’s weight loss program has definitely improved his race times as predicted in the last Juice. He just ran a 5K PR of 19:06, and by the time you read this, he will most certainly be under 19 minutes. Watch out Bob Fencl and Calvin Ma!!!. The only concern is, Ron hasn’t been seen hanging around the Pacers as of late; wonder what or who is keeping him away???!!! We miss you Ron!!!…. Cary Adams is once again organizing a Pacer team to run the Aid’s Race on September 20th. So that team members won’t feel left out from not being at the Pacer breakfast at Panera’s that morning, there will be a breakfast in Greektown following the run. Where ? After the Aides Race on September 20th, the Pacer team will go to Zorba's Restaurant on the SE corner of Jackson and Halstead for breakfast...Thanks! To be part of the team, contact Cary Adams ASAP to sign up…. Barbara Burgraff experienced a few adventures of her own this summer. While her friends were bringing Barb home from dinner on Sunday, August 3rd, they got hit with a horrendous downpour, leaving everyone, including Barbara, soaked to the skin. One week later, while Ken Luurs was pushing Barbara in the Elvis 5K, she fell out of her chair and into the mud. Ken, with the help of race officials, quickly got her back in the chair, and they finished the race in a pretty darned good time. Barbara was actually rather excited over the spill, and it certainly didn’t seem to stop her from enjoying the post race festivities. Thanks to Kathy Schubert who got Barbara to the race, Ken Luurs who pushed her, Fleet Feet for providing Barb with an application, and to all her friends who showed up to support her…….Colleen Fahey has a new method of healing from running injuries. Colleen had been sidelined for several weeks this summer when she fell down some stairs. When she got up from the fall, the pain had disappeared, and she was able to run again. Wow, now that is magic!! Colleen’s method of recovery sure beats hours of PT, continuous visits to the chiropractor, and swallowing mouthfuls of anti-flamitories!!! How bout it??!!!…….While taking a short but sweet camping trip in the Dunes, Reva Bauch remembered quickly why she had refrained from camping all her life. Reva happens to be allergic to bug bites, and is allergic to trees and plants as well. Needless to say, the heat brought all Reva’s allergies to a head, and the camping trip was cut short to get her back to civilization. While Joanne Kaeding and Reva set their tent up as far away from bugs and trees as possible, to hopefully avoid the inevitable, Janet Omer set her tent up out in the walk-in campsites ALL BY HERSELF. It was mid-week, and there wasn’t another soul out there except Janet, and a park ranger who came through for a check in the middle of the night. Janet was relieved it was the ranger she heard—and not an uninvited 2 or 4-legged visitor!!. Janet is one macho lady!!! To add to the camping experience, Cary Adams showed up in the next campsite-complete with his squirt gun in hopes of terrorizing the girls. Fortunately, it didn’t appear that Reva was allergic to water!!!……It was nice seeing former Pacer Dana Maurer and her two boys at Panera’s while she was back in Chicago for a visit. Dana and husband Brian are expecting baby # 3 in September. Also due in September are Michelle and Randy Flores. Michelle, Randy and Miranda, former Pacers, now live in Hawaii on the beach. Also anxiously awaiting arrival of baby #2 are Mark and Mary Weilandt…. Big milestone birthdays--Marty Portnoy turned 60 this month while Cary Adams and Tom McNichols turn 50 in September. Another milestone is being able to collect social security—and that lucky elderly gentleman would be Stuart Hale Schulman—wonder what age he will be on his October birthday???!!!……Michigan Pacer, Kirk Messmer will add politics to his law career. He is running for the Owosso City Council, still practicing law and raising his young son. Let us know how the elections turn out Kirk!!……Kathy Schubert was photographed and quoted for an article on dating for senior singles, “Clicking With Hope”, featured in the July 23rd issue of Inside Prime Time... One online service for age 50 and above is sassyseniors.com. How appropriate is that?!! As more of the baby boomers turn 50 and above, there will supposedly be more opportunity to meet older singles online. Good news for the oldsters!!!….Seen on the path a few weeks ago was ex-Pacer “5k Bob” Phillips. Bob was accompanied by his daughter Alexandria (Allie), who favors her dad in a big way! Bob also has a younger son, Nicholas, with his ex-wife and ex-Pacer Andrea Notturno Phillips. Bob is having some knee surgery, but then hopes to get back out and run with the Pacers ….Last but not least, good luck to all the fall marathoners!!!!!! Those of us not running will be out there cheering you on!!! ____________________ |
