Jake, John, Rich, Dave

When we all trained together Jake and John would run in front and Dave and I would run behind them. Generally the noise (chat) came from John, Jake and I with David remaining silent except for a well placed incisive comment now and then.

It is amazing that we trained and raced together for ten long years. The only real interruption was John's moving to Phoenix for 4 years but he would still come up to the Bay Area on business trips or we would travel down there and so we kept the string alive.

At the beginning Jake was the fastest but John came on to become the quickest and literally dominated 1976-1979. Jake remained in second place and I was usually in third with Dave bringing up the rear. That all changed in the late 1970's when Dave suddenly seemed to speed up and began running times much faster than we had seen him do before. Of course it was the fact that he simply was training more and harder and the combination of miles and quality workouts began to take effect.

By the time John returned from Phoenix I had moved up so that I was usually competing with all 3 runners. The gap closed. John got a bit slower, I got a bit faster and in 1983-85 we were all the closest we had been in ability and race times. After that Dave really dominated as John and Jake began to slow. My last good year was 1985 and then I began to fall off too.

Fast forward to 2007. John no longer runs (his knee), Jake is slow but still runs hard, Dave is still running but is dealing with chronic health problems and now I am finally the fastest.

And who cares. As far as racing is concerned, we all had our day but it is over (O-V-E-R). I really retired from competition in 1995 and since then, when I race, I run tempo, not all out. That flame is extinguished. I still enjoy getting out there running with the ghosts of the 4 of us. But it isn't the same as those years. The best running years. That is where the gold was and is. In our minds in that tightly held past.