REFLECTIONS: Runnin' Before I Even Knew What It Was.

I first started running in St. Francis Prep, back in 1979. I was 14 then (and I am only 27 now?) and I felt the need to do something after school. I was kicking everyone's ass in ping pong, and that's because Jorge Armengol was kicking in my ass in ping pong every day.





Jorge, the son of Oscar, was from Argentina. Oscar was a friend of my Dad's. One day he mentioned that his son was coming to New York, and was wondering if my Dad could put him up for a few days at our connected brick Tudor home at 130-38 229th Street in Laurelton. Those few days lasted 9 months.

Anyway, I was interested in doing track simply for a couple of reasons. One, there were no "tryouts". There were some kids plump as a wrecking ball, running around Franny Lew with a donut sticking out of their mouth. The second reason was that I was white. What does that have anything to do with it you say? Well my house was in an all black neighborhood, and I stood out like a light bulb. However, Carmen (stepmom) always brought me to school late (and of course, I can imagine the comments I expect to draw now...). Finally, I decided to take 2 busses (the Q5 and the Q76) to school. Coming home, was difficult. Everyone that was my age, were black. And of course, me being me, I was not only white but a geek as well. Solving a rubix cube on the bus made me a definite target (ps. i used to spray WD40 in the cube, and I could solve it within 90 seconds!).

So I decided to run after school, and that allowed this honky to miss all my homeys later on in the bus rides home.

I will be posting these non-sanctioned walk/run adventures shortly because the truth must be told....