Winter 2005
Juice e-mail: Pacers@LincolnParkPacers.org CONGRATULATIONS to Jim DesJardins and Debora Bear, who got engaged in December. Deb is living and working in Guatemala, and Jim will be heading in that direction to live with Deb soon. Wow—one more couple added to the long list of successful Pacer matches!!! A “Pacer Couple” is when two people meet in the Pacers, and then marry….I have lost track of the exact #; there are soooo many!!!!… December was a busy month, with races, travel, and of course, our Pacer holiday party on December 10th. This year during the party, the Ben Squires Award was presented to Heather Ludlum, for her outstanding contributions to the club as an outstanding social chairman for many years. Ben Squires, the club’s founding father, presented Heather’s award. As usual, this event brings out all the Pacers who want to enjoy the holiday spirit with friends and great food!….In December, Jim Otto organized a work party of volunteer Pacers to help make Su Casa’s Soup Kitchen, where hot meals are served to the needy, a more attractive place to hang out. The workers included Jim of course, “Little Joe” Hausfield, Cary Adams, Steve Helfrich, Stuart Schulman, Gordon McIntosh, Mary Kay Blaschke, Lyn Sue Kahng, Azis Uras and wife Junko. They built shelves, hung pictures on the bare walls, and generally made the place look A-OK!!… Jim Otto and Steve Helfrich have been participating in something other than volunteering and running…They have been playing on a volleyball team for the Four Moon Tavern in Roscoe Village. It sounds like the team wins a few and loses a few, but they have lots of fun playing the game! The really rewarding part for them is going out afterwards with team members to the Four Moon Tavern to celebrate their wins and losses!!… Janet Omer went to Peru the end of November/December for two weeks. Her trip included the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu and a side trip to the Amazon jungle. While in the jungle, the only relief Janet got from the numerous biting bugs was when she was sleeping, as her bed was surrounded by netting. Unfortunately, Janet picked up some other kind of Peruvian bug by eating something questionable, and was not feeling her best throughout a good part of her trip. She took some outstanding photos though, and managed to have a great trip in spite of those nasty bugs!!…. Lots of Pacers traveled over the Christmas holiday. Jennifer Leslie, Debbie Hoegemeyer, Denise DeBo, and Tara Pollack (otta-be Pacer!!) spent the holiday in Costa Rica and Panama, enjoying an active trip of hiking, kayaking, river rafting, swinging through the jungle, and soaking in hot spring baths. At the beginning of the trip they got the last bus of the day out of San Jose going south to their destination, and had to stand for the duration of the bus trip(all day). For not much more money, they could have flown, but guess that would be too easy!!….New Years Eve was celebrated in different ways, but some of the Pacers made it to Hyde Park to bring in the new year at David Farley’s. David made a special family recipe, a very rich and fattening mac and cheese casserole, while Joanne Kaeding brought her “One of Each” soup. There was plenty of champagne to wash the food down…. On New Year’s Day, those not partied out from New Years Eve, went to Monica O’Hara and Brian Noonan’s home in Oak Park. This event may have started what hopefully will be a new annual tradition at the Oak Park party home?? A game table monopolized those wanting to do something other than chat with friends and eat fattening snacks. It was nice seeing Calvin Ma (Boston) and ex-Pacer Gabe Williams (Germany) at Monica and Brians..….. This winter already seems loooonngg, and it’s only January!! We lucked out for awhile with, fairly mild weather for Chicago. Come on now----how happy would we be if Chicago didn’t have any really cold snowy days; we might start worrying about immediate global warming??!! We even got a real blizzard on January 21st/22nd, bringing 8-12 inches of snow to Chicago; enough snow so that some of the Pacers grabbed their cross country skis and hit the golf course….. Many Pacers ran autumn marathons, but a few crazy runners are still out there training hard for a spring marathon. Rick Kennedy finally qualified for Boston at Rock and Roll Arizona on January 9th—to run Boston in the year 2006…Why 2006?….Rick missed the 2005 qualifying time for his age by 5 minutes, but he has a birthday soon, and his 3:15 time will qualify him for 2006 in his new age group. (NOTE: Rick has not given up for 2005 though; he has plans to run the New Orleans Marathon the end of February and try for that illusive 3:10. Good luck Rick.) At Arizona, Rick had the support of Carol Tebbe, who went along to cheer. Why was Carol cheering rather than running? She has been nursing a back injury since the Chicago Marathon. Carol spread herself all over the course that day, cheering on Rick and friends for the marathon, and running the last 4 miles with Joanne Kaeding, who was at Rock and Roll to run the half-marathon. Because of Carol’s support during those last tiring miles, Joanne ended up with a third place age-group finish. While in Arizona, Joanne spent a night with Kate Fitzgerald and Marshall Craig, who have a splendid home in Scottsdale, complete with pool and jacuzzi. Marshall has started his own medical practice and it is up and running successfully. In December, Kate accepted a super job offer to be editor of Arizona Woman, an interesting and informative women’s magazine, the highlight being successful Arizona women. This is a job with Kate’s name written all over it, and she is enjoying the challenge!!!…A HUGE congratulations to another Kate…Kate Handley who ran the Houston Marathon on January 16th in a time of 3:44, her first time qualifying for Boston, and also to another first time qualifyer, Johann Lustenberger, who ran Chicago in less than 3:30. For some of us, qualifying for Boston takes several to many marathons, and the thrill of finally making “THE time” is exhilarating….You don’t have to qualify for Boston to have a successful race however…Congratulations to all those completing fall marathons, ultras, or any other race distance. (Check out race times by going to the Pacer website).…Cary Adams always qualifies for Boston, but is not interested in running it again at the present time. However, he did have a race goal last fall, and that was to break 40 minutes in a 10K. Cary accomplished his goal only a few weeks after Chicago, out at Westchester, a CARA Circuit race, running a 39 minute 10K, and placing 1st in his age group…not shabby for someone who is, let’s say, aging better than gracefully!!…The Pacer ultra-marathoners are still putting in the long miles through the winter. A group of hardy long distance runners head for the suburban trails to run every Sunday. The usual group includes Mike Ward, David Farley, David Altshuler, Jennifer Leslie, and Melissa Neal. They are running on icy paths, through freezing water sometimes up to their knees, and on rough hilly terrain. The Fat Ass 50K in Wisconsin attracted Mike Ward, David Farley, Aziz Uras, and Jennifer Leslie (who did 21 miles)....Mike, David, and Jennifer went up the day before and stayed in Mike’s trailer.. It was not all fun and games, as there was a problem with the running water in the trailer! NO AGUA-PERO-NO PROBLEMA??!! They all had a good race and a fun time anyway!!!!…… ….Frank Nicholson held up the front for the Pacers at the S“NO”W Fun Run in Wisconsin on Saturday, January 8th. Usually the Pacers have a fairly large group that runs this 5 miler, then they spend the night so they can party afterwards, however, this year there were no Pacers there besides Frank. This annual Wisconsin race gives an award for the winner of every single age rather than the whole age group. Frank did win his age (age not mentioned!!), and in a super time of 38 minutes. Way to go Frank!…One of our happily retired Pacers, Hal Olin, is again out in Colorado living at his condo with wife Joan, and skiing almost every day. Hal and one of our other happily retired Pacer’s, Gordon McIntosh, drove together out to Colorado the beginning of January. Alas, poor Gordon had to return to Chicago after a week so that he and wife Meredyth could prepare for their 3 month stay in Australia this winter. Hopefully we will get occasional updates from Gordon throughout the winter. He is planning to meet up with Keith and Jeanelle Burns, past Pacers who now live in Australia and raising a family… John Turchan, has headed for the slopes of Colorado for a LONG winter. He left in late October, will live, work, and ski in Vail until later this spring. The local and visiting ski bunnies will hold no interest for John at all, as he will be too busy working and skiing—WRONG!!!????….We have missed Tim Marsh at club events for at least the past year or so…He and S.O., Debbie, moved to Beverly Shores in the Indiana Dunes, and have been renovating the home they bought last year. Many Pacers know the Dunes area from visiting Hal and Joan Olin for their “almost” annual summer Pacer party, and from camping, hiking, and biking there…..It is almost 1 year ago that Tom McNicholls and wife Suzanne surprised everyone when they got married in Las Vegas after the marathon. Congratulations to them for making it through the difficult first year of marriage!!!….. Some “BABY” news—Russ Ramaswamy is expecting!!!!…Well, his wife of 5 months is part of the effort!!!! This new life style could mean Russ’s adventure travels will be curtailed somewhat for the next few (??) years??!!!….Two Pacers have had back surgery for spinal stenosis in the past few months. Ben Squires was first, and is recuperating well from his surgery by doing lots of PT. Stuart Schulman followed Ben’s lead with surgery right after the holiday. Unfortunately, Stuart suffered a bit of a setback, when 6 days following his surgery, he developed a herniated disc, and ended back in the hospital with severe pains shooting down his leg (sciatica). Hopefully within several weeks, Stuart will be healed, back doing his 1 mile walks, and maybe we’ll someday see him on the running path like days of old??!!!…. Lorraine Morgan will be having knee surgery next month, and hopefully she will have a successful operation…..Condolences to Colleen Fahey, whose mother recently passed away....Pacer, Ted McClelland (formerly Kleine) has published a book called, “Horseplayers; Life at the Track”. The book is being published this May by Chicago Review Press, just in time for the Kentucky Derby. Ted describes his year writing the book as “the year he spent trying to beat the races, and all the characters he met along the way”. Ted will be doing a reading on June 7th at 7pm at 57th Street Books…… Cary Adams not only attempts speedy running goals, but also put together a DVD of he and Gordon McIntosh’s bike trip through Spain last May. He and Gordon presented their DVD at an ethnic dinner at Bachino’s on Sunday, January 16th. There were over 42 Pacers who showed up to eat pizza and watch Gordon and Cary’s biking adventure. Cary is also presenting a classical piano recital at the People's School of Music on Sunday, March 19, at 2pm. Check the Pacer website at a later date for more details…… Happy
winter running, stay warm, and we’ll touch base with “ya all” in the
spring. ____________________ |
