An interview (long!) with Peter Van Aken

Hello! If you are looking for the “War and Peace” version of the Pandemic Papers (for those of you who don’t get that reference … “War and Peace” was a REALLY LONG Tolstoy novel that many people refer to but few have actually read), you have come to the right place. Or the “write” place. Other than Marty McGowan, there is perhaps no more avid – and meticulous! – blog follower than Marist Track Alum Peter Van Aken. Peter reads my posts. Thoroughly. With a fine-toothed comb, as they say. He points out typos (as a former editor, current proofreader and alleged curator of proper syntax, I actually appreciate that), factual errors or inconsistencies (often to the point of minutia, in excruciatingly long emails … which, again, I do appreciate!) and even random changes in font size! Thankfully, he doesn’t critique the clumsy layout and placement of pictures (hey, I’m a Word Guy).

Peter remains one of the greatest throwers in school history (still owns the school record in the hammer throw). And, other than his coach, the late Len Olson, perhaps no one contributed to the small but significant legacy of Marist Throwing than Peter. Most notably, he graciously volunteered his time with three-time school record holder Adam Waterbury. He taught him the technique for the indoor 35-pound weight, well enough that Adam would go on to break Peter’s record in the event! How selfless is THAT? Adam’s indoor and outdoor shot put records, which also still stand, were honed under the watchful, volunteer eyes of Peter.

Peter was also a colleague of mine at the Poughkeepsie Journal for my entire tenure there, which for me started in 1985 as a college intern and continued until my unceremonious departure in 2009 during the Great Recession (the same culprit that ended his long career at the Journal … as you’ll read). We worked in different departments, but our paths would cross frequently – especially in the second-floor break room, where I would frequently fetch junk food and cans of Dr. Pepper (this was my pre-coffee drinking days). He would often corner me, and next thing I knew, 15 minutes would go by with endless chatter about all things track and field. Although I would joke with my colleagues in the sports department about this, secretly I would often go out of my way to cross paths with him so I could hear his stories of past and present track meets, running events, etc. Peter has a unique way of talking, in which is seems like he is narrating a riveting mystery novel. It’s enchanting … mostly because, the subject matter (track, running, journalism, etc.) is of great interest to me. Although I believe we are similarly aligned, I’m not sure I’d want to go down that rabbit hole of political conversations with Peter. Those could be endless, especially in this day and age!

Anyway, of course an interview of this length and detail requires a lengthy introduction. Why not? As you sift through it – likely in multiple sittings – you’ll find some nuggets of historical information about the latter-day Marist College. Peter attended and graduated from Marist in the mid-1970s. That’s a LONG time ago! As this Pandemic Papers series continues into the later spring and hopefully summer, I will attempt to include some “old-time” men (yes, just men, women’s track/XC didn’t start till the mid-1980s) from the Dark Ages of the 1960s and 1970s and early 1980s – basically, before my time at Marist (I enrolled as a freshman in the late summer of 1982). If this proves to be an oral history of our program, the nascent era of Marist Running and Marist Track is vital to the representation of the body of work. Besides, it’s interesting and important to know our roots.    

OK. According to my word counter, this post will be a bit more than 7,700 words. Not quite “War and Peace.” But still really long. Take your time. Skim it. Read the whole thing. Enjoy and appreciate it, if you can. But know this: Peter Van Aken’s contributions to Marist Track and to the mid-Hudson Valley track scene have been numerous and they have been great. And so, they should noted and appreciated here in the Pandemic Papers. And, Peter being Peter, he actually wrote his OWN intro paragraph before answering my questions. Here it is, and here is the rest of the very long and very entertaining discussion with Peter Van Aken.

Peter Van Aken intro: My connection to Marist College, the sport of track and field, and my life situation- is TOTALLY DIFFERENT from everyone else who has been kind enough to respond and contributed to the Pandemic Papers so far-- I am in no way saying that my way is "less than" or "better than" everyone else- just stating upfront, that my account will be extremely different. And why not? We are all individuals. Here is my story.

When did you start getting involved in track and field? Were you always interested in the throwing events or did you do any track-related events?

I got involved in the sport of track and field beginning with my senior year in high school.

During my entire life I have always been naturally strong and muscular, because of good genes, and my childhood environment. I either still have, or used to have, a first-place ribbon from age 9, or around there, from a sleepover summer camp in the Berkshires owned by the Poughkeepsie YMCA - Camp Wa Wa Segowea, for a camp "Olympics," where I finished first in a "throwing event" - I don't know where the ribbon is currently or how it actually specifically labelled the event, but I do recall I "threw" a "heavy" object, and the distance was marked. The camp also offered team play in softball and soccer, and I did well in those organized camper team games. Soccer involved a lot of running and constant movement, and while I did not define it as "endurance," I was a good athlete, and did better than some of the other boys, at being able to run and run and run.

In 1972, at the end of my junior year at F.D. Roosevelt High School in Hyde Park, New York, I entered something the high school track coach, Rich Stevens, had organized, called the "Rafer Johnson Decathlon." This was a two-day competition of 10 track and field events, but adapted to make it safer for novice and inexperienced non-specialty athletes - eliminated from the two-day affair were the normal men's decathlon events of pole vault, hurdles, and javelin - and in their place was substituted extra running events- the 2-mile, 880-yard run, and 220-yard dash. (HAH- have you heard about "yards" for track race distances?) Rich Stevens had started this postseason springtime competition in 1969, but when he became the Marist College cross country and track and field coach, he didn't continue the "Rafer Johnson Decathlon" for the high school athletes anymore. I was in high school at the right time!

There were two divisions - athletes who had participated in the just completed school track and field team season, and another division for any school athletes from any other varsity sport, from the entire school year. I had just finished up my third year on the crew team, and the crew team athletes always convinced themselves that they were highly fit and capable of managing endurance, sprinting, and strength activities - the "most fit" of any of the school sports teams, is what we thought about ourselves.

One of the five first-day events was the shot put. I had no experience or knowledge of this event, and neither did anyone else - I just stepped into the actual SP circle when it was my turn, hopped forward within the 7-foot diameter - probably didn't do much with the toe board- and heaved the 12-pound implement out into the sector. Two attempts each.

In the Open Division, I tied for first in distance with another boy, 35 feet, 10 inches, but the final event of day one was the 2-mile run, and that kid I tied with, did just one lap and dropped out, which disqualified him from the rest of the competition and nullified all his marks, so at the end of the first day I was moved up and listed as first in the SP, so that was very pleasing. The actual track and field team roster was pitiful that year, almost non-existent; maybe eight boys total (in 1973, there were girls’ sports, but not for track and field), and the boys’ team had no throwers at all, so I also beat any of the track and field team members throwing the shot put in their division. I really got an ego boost by being the best shot putter of the entire competition.

There was also a discus throw, on the second day, which I won, but I have no memories of that. (I still have, to this day, the paper booklet that Rich Stevens prepared, of the "standards and rules" and the records of previous year's competitions, so I have a paper record and my handwritten notes, on how I performed). I did a barely acceptable performance in the 440-yard dash and the 1-mile run, and not that good in all the other events, finishing in the middle of the pack at the end of the second day; and even though we ran 4 miles or so during occasional preseason crew team practices, and did a lot of cardio and endurance practice workouts - since I did not do well in any other event, this was not making me consider anything else, especially a running event - but I did cause me to change my seasonal sports interests, and I did not join crew team my senior year, but instead went out for track, for the first time.

What were some of your high school track highlights in terms of best marks and placements in meets and championships?

It was my very first year in the sport as a senior, in 1973, and unfortunately there was not a knowledgeable and experienced throws coach. There was a Marist College senior, Don Paulson, who did not know any technique or have any background in coaching; he was just a friend of the running events coaches, Bob Mayerhofer and Bob Salomon, who had themselves just graduated from … Marist College! In the 1970s, New York State track and field boys could only enter two events per meet, and I was still kind of blasé about the discus, so for my two events I did shot put and leadoff leg on the mile relay.

My high school season was not memorable and didn't contain any highlights. I had to try and learn the shot put technique by myself, mostly by observing throwers from other schools, and maybe reading illustrated books -- no YouTube videos to study! I made some distance improvements occasionally during the season, I actually won some dual meet shot put competitions, and practice was fairly relaxed and had no urgency to "Be Better."

The mile relay was my second event. I was always the second-fastest split of the team, and doing leadoff leg meant all I had to do was hand off; I never had to "receive" and learn to time the acceleration in the zone. And every daily practice except one, I exclusively did my shot put practice, and didn't have to endure the endless repeats and gut-wrenching track workouts like the other runners. In meets, the shot put event always started at the beginning, and when I was done, I wandered over to the track, casually watched some other events, then met up with my teammates, and we did the mile relay as the final event of the meet, and I went into the event "rested." I never remember any warmup (!!) - it was just relying on my natural strength and stamina and fast-twitch leg muscles, and the "mano a mano" idea of a one lap race against one other competitor. After the start I would tuck in behind that other boy, just follow him around the track and keep as close as I could, and then in the final 80 yards of the final straightaway, I would try and sprint and get as close/pass him as I could, in order to handoff to my teammate. I had no thoughts about "winning"- actually beating this other kid to the line was never a goal - even if I handed off behind- well, it was up to the other three runners to make up the gap! I had no real "team spirit," it was just individual pride - stay close - after all- I was not a "runner"! My fastest split was 55.5.

During the early summer after that high school season, I entered an age group Junior Olympics meet locally, and had a "breakthrough"- three of my six attempts with the 12-pound implement were better than my high school season marks, and my best throw broke the existing school record, but Bob Mayerhofer, the high school coach, said it was done out of school, so would not count. I was disappointed not to gain recognition as school record holder, but it sparked the idea that I had "potential."

Later in August was an annual four-meet Friday night track series, at a local high school, started by local running scene icon Joe Maggi and the Mid-Hudson Road Runners Club, maybe 1970, maybe earlier. The 1970s/1980s was a serendipitous "golden age" for me as a throwing events athlete, and one piece of this was that the Friday night series, in those "innocent" years, included shot put and discus, as well as all horizontal and vertical jumps, as well as the standard track running events. Besides Friday nights at Arlington, there was, simultaneously, Wednesday nights at Pine Plains, also full events, and Monday nights at Valley Central High School in Orange County.

Nowadays, because of liability and volunteer shortages, the weekly Friday night series is only running, and there is no more Pine Plains or other night series, except for Somers, organized by the Westchester County recreation department. Having all those four consecutive weeks of competitive opportunities, 2-3 nights a week, was a great way for a newbie like myself to observe other competitors - there were several that threw really well, and the more chances to try the event for myself, the better, and in a relaxed, informal, summertime setting.

At the Arlington and Pine Plains summer track series meets, there happened to be a throws competitor named Len Olson, who happened to be the throwing events coach for Marist College! He was 42 years old and a podium finisher in the men’s 40-44 age group in Masters National Championships, and had placed top 10 in the world at a few world Athletics championships during his 40s, and when he found out that I was entering Marist as a freshman that fall, he started working with me a little bit during the summer meets, giving advice, and encouraging me to keep at this.

How did you choose Marist College? Were you recruited to participate in track at Marist? Were you recruited by other schools?

At that time, I lived with my mother, in Hyde Park, in the house I grew up in. My father died the summer before my junior year, 1971, so psychologically, to "help around the house," I figured I would go to school locally, and entering Marist as a freshman seemed better than going to the local community college for two years and then transferring. My mother thought that Vassar College was prestigious, but at the time, to gain consideration, you needed four years of a foreign language study - and I only had three, (Latin!!) so that was out. (I really did not have the grades or intellectual capacity to handle the Vassar requirements, anyway). SUNY New Paltz or Bard College were not considered.

I had been on the crew team as a high school freshman/sophomore/junior, so during the beginning part of my senior year, I was recruited over the telephone by the Marist College freshman crew coach. I had already been accepted at Marist College, "early decision" - Marist was the only school I had applied to, so I knew in December - and freshman crew coach Bill Lenehan also knew this, so was urging me to go out for the crew team once I arrived in September. However, when spring came around and I told him that, instead of a fourth year in crew, I was now on the high school track team, the telephone calls stopped. So, I was not "recruited" to participate in track at Marist, but like I said, Len Olson knew the summer before, that I was enrolled, and was very welcoming. Rich Stevens probably knew me a tiny bit from high school, but I did not have him as a teacher for any of my math classes, and so he did not devote a lot of time to me in this pre-season period - and besides, I was not a "stud"- no high school credentials.

For our younger readers, try to describe what Marist was like in the 1970s and how it differs from the modern-day Marist College?

Wow, the 1970s. Hopefully you read Marty McGowan's April 17th answers to the "Quarantine Questions"-- Marist was Division III - no scholarships, the total school enrollment of men and women was only 1,600; no McCann Center at all - it was partially constructed, but didn't open until the summer after I graduated -- and the track and field outdoor program had DUAL MEETS-- think of it, just one other school, maybe a triangular, two other schools -- and we had meets twice a week during the season, so including week days. Our outdoor “home’’ meets were at SUNY New Paltz. It was an aging rubberized track surface. For hammer throw, Len Olson found a flat, smooth concrete slab down an interior road aways, with a level grassy area to use as a sector. ... HAH, I can't believe it as I am typing this- it didn't have any safety cage, or a lined sector … wow … the discus area was up on the track infield, again, with no safety cage (!!) and the shotput circle was also alongside the track, javelin on the grass infield ... because of Len Olson and his knowledge and personal technique skills, we always had hammer throw as part of our home meets, and HAH, we always won, many times finishing 1-2-3 … away meets, the hammer throw was usually offered, but it was iffy.

Indoor meets - one thing I can say, falls into the "unbelievable" category -- during my time on the Marist College team, the 168th Street Armory in New York City was -- a wooden flat surface! You have no idea!! Splinters!! It may even have been 11 laps to the mile! I wasn't a runner, but I did some weight throw competitions at the Armory, and yes, it is in the exact same geographic location as today- where you now go and compete on that banked artificial surface "tuned" track, with the balcony seats and all the rest- Millrose Games....Hall of Fame...all that- was a wooden surface in the 1970s! And I don't know the year, but for a little while (1980s?) the interior was turned into a homeless shelter!

For indoor practice, the runners (and myself) ran around the interior of Donnelly Hall, on that smooth floor, at night after classes had finished ... no idea how many laps to a mile … considering what you currently have with the "square track" in McCann, that is an "improvement", but I guess the 1970s Donnelly wasn't too bad.

I came into track and field at exactly the right period for me - frequent, "low key" dual meet competitions honed my developing "beginner" technique, and allowed me not to get "squashed" by the "advantaged" DI competitors like  might have happened to me as a beginner in the 1990s/2000s ... there were 3-4 other throwers on the team all my years, but a combination of my strength, my speed, my "focus", and the fact that, as a "blank slate"- Len Olson could impart in me the correct, most efficient technique, rather than me having come in with bad habits that I might have been unable to shake off. I was instantly the #1 thrower on the team. My freshman year, all my throwing teammates were also freshmen, and as the years went on, I improved and excelled, and any incoming younger throwers weren't as good, so I was always #1 thrower, all four years, in three of the four events.

We were in a sort of competitive DIII conference - "Collegiate Track Conference"- all metropolitan tri-state area schools; no flying to the Disney World Cross Country MAAC championship site, LOL. Rich Stevens even cobbled together a "second" conference, with weaker schools, so my junior year we won that, and I won all four events in that meet, and got medals that Stevens arranged for, as individual event awards- as well as a team trophy.

Division III level also gave me the opportunity to barely meet the minimum qualification standard for the NCAA DIII national outdoor championships my junior year, and then again my senior year. I could not have met the DII or DI standards, and as the years progressed onward from 1976 and 1977, and I kept observing the 1990s and 2000 era standards, I could not have met the current level of distance for minimum entry into the DIII championship of this recent era. I "peaked," I was at my highest skill capability, at exactly the right time, for the standard of 1976 and 1977.

Talk about your athletic career at Marist. What are some of your highlights, best marks and school records? What are your fondest memories about your time as a track athlete at Marist?

During my Division III career, especially with the dual meet format, I was a "big fish in a small pond." I won almost every dual meet I competed in - hammer, shot, discus, and placed in the top four in javelin. Because of racking up all those points, I led the team in total cumulative points scored in those dual meets, for every season; freshman through senior. I respect my predecessors, and appreciate the work and the effort they put into competing and representing Marist College, like John D'Arcy, and Hank Blum, but as a freshman I broke the school men's shot put record, and as a junior I broke the school men's hammer throw record. The shot put record, 12.99m, lasted 24 years, 1974 until 1998 (Jeremy Smith), and the hammer throw record, although it is "soft," 46.64m, still stands. Aside from Adam Waterbury in 2002/2003, no one else who throws has ever surfaced, and Adam was involved in spring football practice, so his outdoor season was very compromised, and he only had time to fully concentrate on the indoor weight throw. I don't know if any high school potential throwing events attendees are reading this, in future years - but I am willing, and could arrange to be available, to coach and guide you into breaking that hammer throw record!

My best collegiate discus throw was 40.60m and javelin was 52.50m.

Another commentary and assessment of the 1970s state of the Marist College program, was that I did a few mile relay legs for Marist, especially my freshman season – and -- I ran on the Marist College Mile Relay entry at Penn Relays in 1974. That was not exactly a "highlight"-- In my ignorance and reliance on my high school "magic", I barely warmed up. I remember a previous Running Red Fox Blog post, where Pete took on the question the athletes frequently ask him, "coach, what time should I start warming up," and I was flabbergasted at some long distance athletes warming up for 30 minutes or so prior to their event on the track ... at Penn that year, our Marist team was a distance guy, me, and two substitute runners. I did some strides in the paddock marshaling area, but that was all ... I was leadoff, it was a California start; I was out on the outside with just one guy, from the Merchant Marine Academy. At the gun he took off, and I tried to keep up and then cut in, but the other leadoff legs on the inside lanes swept past me ... I ended up with "Rigor Mortis" in the homestretch, seizing up, struggled, and felt awful trying to get to the exchange zone for the handoff. Even so, I was the third split, not the worst.

My lifestyle and emotional makeup is different from everyone else who has contributed to the Pandemic Papers so far. I am an only child; during my early years I was content "taking care of myself." I had neighborhood friends, I had friends in elementary school and high school; during my early years, I regularly met other boys for pickup casual football and baseball games, in the neighborhood, in the summer or weekends- I felt I was sociable, but I was in a "bubble", I was cocooned and in my "comfort zone" by living at home and commuting to class and practice and college events- so unlike all the previous contributions- I have no significant team bonding or shared memories or friendship or connections to my teammates. We went to the meets, we competed, the throwers had practices together in between- but I have no current association or attachment to anyone from my four years, either classroom and Communications Major students, or teammates or organizations like the school newspaper and school yearbook.

Marist College was a wonderful, positive, "right" fit for me - absolutely no regrets - but I did not form any lasting connections or carry with me a lot of memories. The opportunity to be friendly and "bond" was always available, but my personality and inward nature just did not "open up" to let that happen. Certainly, the aspect of "dorm living" is key in forming relationships and connections, and since I lived at home and came to school and then left and went home, and didn't often stay around or come back for social events, I didn't interact with other students on a "fun" level.

Where and how did you practice your events? Did you get event-specific coaching?

Throwing events practice indoors was in the old gym (you have NO IDEA what that means, do you? Before there was the Marion Hall freshman residence, that building was the only indoor gym on campus...no seating, by the way. A lonely piece of "Universal Gym" strength training apparatus in a small room in the back (probably you don't know what a "Universal Gym" is, do you?)

Outdoors, in the 1970s, there was a lot of undeveloped open space on campus, so sort of where Fontaine Hall and the North Campus Housing Complex is today, was empty, but there was a flat smooth concrete slab, maybe even an older building site, I have no idea, but there was space to throw the hammer and discus, and it was off on its own, away from everyone else; no problem about safety. We had no circle/toeboard for shot put, but could do enough without, to have a fairly satisfying practice. Javelin wasn't a priority for me- I never practiced, I just did it in meets.

I received unparalleled event-specific coaching! Coach Len Olson was exceptionally qualified to teach me- he was a very, very strong man, had excellent technique and skills; actively competed in all the masters throwing events and achieved national and world placement recognition, and he was able to talk and demonstrate and guide me to learn an efficient technique, that maximized my physical structure and speed and strength. Like I indicated earlier, he met me in the summer before entering Marist, and advised me to get stronger, because up to that point I had actually done very little muscle building in a gym- it was all natural. I joined the Poughkeepie YMCA, lifted barbell weights 3x a week, consistently, and pumped up. As I also indicated earlier, I came to Marist with no skill technique in any of the events- had never done any hammer throw and javelin or even discus, and had no technique in the shotput- high school was all a guess and improvised, and changed frequently with no consistency. Len Olson took this "empty vessel", and during the winter break between fall and the return to school in January, when the indoor season would start, he worked with me one on one, in the "old gym", and as a beginner he taught me everything I needed. I worked with him a few times a week on shotput technique during that break period, and he continued to advise me and show me, and help me improve, as the indoor season progressed. A second indoor event, Weight Throw, was a brand new event for all of us throwers, so he taught all of us that, as the indoor season and group practices started.

Hammer throw is very underappreciated in the United States, but Len Olson kept teaching me and encouraging me- and I kept improving each year.

Talk about your academic career at Marist. What did you study, what was your degree and how well did it help you prepare for your career?

I was part of the first class to start as a freshman with a declared major of a Bachelor of Arts in Communications- before this, everyone had an "English" degree. To bring the academic discussion back to the 1970s- Danisha Craig (2018) in her "Quarantine Questions", mentioned the "large and well-resourced library" (James A. Cannavino). No offense to anyone employed or in charge of the upkeep of the 1970s college library, but during my time at Marist, students would joke that the library contained 100,000 books- 70,000 specifically on the Virgin Mary, and 40,000 of those were written in French.

I enjoyed and took advantage of an internship in a variety of local communications outlets for three years, and I enjoyed my courses and the professors. By senior year I had fulfilled the completion of all required courses, so I got a final spring semester fulltime public relations internship, where I reported to the United Way of Dutchess County offices in the City of Poughkeepsie, stayed 4-5 hours, and had no class obligations, and my final grade from the Public Relations director at the United Way, combined with preceding internships with a City of Poughkeepsie advertising agency, and some "creative finagling", enabled me to bump my cumulative grade point average for my four years up to a 3.2 at graduation. I did take a variety of courses- marketing, and other business courses, and the degree required some "liberal arts" kind of extra courses in religion, psychology, etc.

I vaguely wanted to go into advertising- copywriting, but after graduation and two false starts locally with two brief duration jobs that I left on my own accord, I was hired at the Gannett owned daily Poughkeepsie Journal newspaper in a clerical, "paper pushing" role in the "Ad Services" department in September 1977....and not to belabor my personality all over again, but I stayed living in my mother's house until I was 39 years old, and I stayed in the Ad Services department, the exact same place- no advancement, no challenging my capacity- for 33 years, until the Gannett corporation eliminated my job in October 2010, and I have been blissfully and satisfactorily "unemployed" ever since.

You have had a long and illustrious post-collegiate career as a masters thrower. Did you continue with the sport uninterrupted from your graduation until now? What are some of your biggest accomplishments as a post-collegiate thrower?

I was able to achieve my collegiate "destiny"- I had a hammer throw PR and my current school record at the NCAA D3 national championships in May 1977, Calvin College, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, my second consecutive appearance at a national championship- and I thought I was finally "getting it" in terms of technique and consistency, and I was hungry to do more, to keep throwing and improving ... and the universe rewarded my blessed life, because in 1978 the New York State government used taxpayer funding from the state budget to create "Empire State Games"- the first ever multi-sport state competition featuring many of the Olympics sports- "the largest state supported amateur athletic competition in the nation", it says on the Wikipedia entry. Archery and Boxing to Rowing and Synchronized Swimming and Volleyball and Wrestling ... and Track and Field. Depending on who is counting and how you "split hairs," 27 sports total. This was a wonderful bonanza, and I was right there at the beginning. Three divisions- "Scholastic"- athletes up to age 17, "Open", age 17 and beyond, actually unlimited, and "Masters", age 30 and up.

While I didn't know this was coming when I graduated in 1977, I kept practicing by myself, alone, and I started searching through magazines and other sources (no internet search capability in 1977!) to find track and field meets for "open" athletes. Because I wanted more channels to search for available meets, I got together with some other recently graduated and local track and field athletes, and formed and incorporated an AAU sanctioned club, called "Railroad Track Club." We were governed by the AAU in the Metropolitan region- which was New York City and Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess counties, and the ones on the other side of the Hudson River down. I would go in person to the Association offices on Park Row in New York City, near City Hall, and pick up paperwork and submit entries for upcoming meets -- here is another 1970s reference -- you have no idea, when you see and compete in Icahn Stadium on Randalls Island- but at that time it was called "Downing Stadium," and had been the site of the Olympic Trials for the US summer Olympic team for the 1936 Olympics, the "Jesse Owens" Olympics ... but by 1977, it was decaying.

There was a need for a track and field club in the mid-Hudson Valley, because there were none - only distance running clubs existed, and athletes joined RTC for sprinting and jumping and distance and racewalking-- and throwing, and we competed in meets in Oneonta at Hartwick College, and a big relay carnival at a community college in Manchester, Connecticut, and Albany and New Jersey … we also organized a dual meet with the Onteora Runners Club, going to a high school track in Boiceville, in Ulster County ... and helped to encourage participation in the newly formed Empire State Games … we entered and traveled to a 2-day indoor meet in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania ... (THAT was an adventure) ... but after a couple of years, I had satisfied myself with my knowledge of available meets, held annually; I had enough sources of my own personal hammer throw competitive opportunities ... so I didn't lend any energy and administrative oversight to the club, and no one else did either, so it folded after only four years.

I was able to increase my hammer throw PR slightly at the 1978 trials to choose the regional team for that first Empire State Games, and I also qualified in javelin, but I didn't throw well at the statewide finals in Syracuse. In 1979, I qualified at the regional trials at West Point in the discus, and went to Syracuse again for the finals, but again did not throw well or up to my capability. By the third year, 1980, word was out about the fun and rewards and benefits of competing in the ESG, so a lot more skilled athletes entered the regional, and also, for budgetary reasons, they limited the athletes per event to just two; down from three the previous games- so I did not qualify. By then, however, I knew the Regional Director, Jim McPoland, from Yonkers, and when he found out I had not made the team, he appointed me as a volunteer to help with the administrative regional staff, so I ended up going to Syracuse a week ahead of the start of the games and working as a media liaison for our Hudson Valley region, all the way through to the closing ceremony. Oh yes, this thing had an opening ceremony with a parade of all the athletes and a torch lighting, and a closing ceremony, and in as many ways as possible, tried to mimic the worldwide Olympic Games.

Even without being an athlete at ESG in the 1980s period, I kept practicing by myself, and kept entering multiple meets, every year. One of them, in 1985, turned out to be a national Masters championship, in Uniondale, Long Island, at Mitchel Field, when I was 30 years old, but I actually had no significance of the idea of a "Masters national championship," and I was second in the hammer throw during a frustratingly subpar throwing day- I normally was capable of beating the distance by the first place guy, but had several fouls, and so undermined my potential "brag moment" of saying I was a "national champion" in the men's age 30-34 category. In 1995, I was about to turn 40 in August of that year, and that was the first year of having a world athletics championship conveniently within driving distance- Buffalo, New York- the first time the world master's championship would be held in the United States- at that time the world competition started at age 40- but the meet was at the end of July, and I didn't turn 40 until August, so I couldn't enter.

In September 1998, I bought a house together with a very special woman, and in September 1999 we got married -- I was 44 years old that year, and by now the college weight implements were becoming difficult to handle, and my technique was deteriorating, so I stopped competing.

In July 2005, I was age 49, and for the first time the Empire State Games came to the mid-Hudson Valley, right before my 50th birthday, so I decided since the Masters division competition would be so close, Beacon High School, I once more got out my 16-pound hammer and shot and 2k discus, and trained a little, and entered, and won the men's 45-49 hammer throw. I entered all the other throwing events but don't remember the results. At that meet, after the events, I met a guy who was moving up from the age 55-59 category into the next age group, where the weight of the implements at age 60 would get lighter, so he sold me his age 50 implements, which is 6k for shot and hammer and 1.5k for discus, so I now had lighter implements, easier to handle, so I resumed training and competing- in March 2006, by now I was age 50, at the beginning of an age group, which is slightly an advantage, so I went to the indoor Nationals in Boston for shot and weight throw (25 pounds as opposed to the college and open 35-pound), and in July I flew to Charlotte, North Carolina, for the outdoor nationals, and finished 6th in the country in the men's age 50-54 hammer throw. In 2007 I drove up to Maine and finished 7th in the men's 50-54 hammer throw; not competing up to my potential that day.

In 2011, I flew to Sacramento, California, and competed in the World Masters Athletics outdoor championship, and finished 12th in the world in the men's age 55-59 category throws pentathlon (I seem to be always stuck with these big championships taking place in late July and I turn older in August, and have to stay down as one of the oldest in the group, instead of being the "baby" of a new classification, like I would for a meet that would be held in mid to late August or later).

Finishing 12th in the world in the (five events all in one day) Throws Pentathlon sounds like an "achievement", but there are a lot of "strings" attached - there are no qualifying standards or minimum required distance to enter - if you are willing to pay the rather high entry fees, transport yourself to the meet, (which except for Sacramento, have been in Finland and Italy and Spain and Brazil)...find accommodation, feed yourself, pay for transportation around the city and to and from the venue, and record at least one legal throw -- if there are only 14 athletes entered in your group for the Throwing Pentathlon, it is possible to finish 12th out of 14 ... I had three "flat, no mark" throws in the javelin for my three attempts- zero points, so I only accumulated points for four events- and I still maintained 12th place. I did not throw well, I was on a downward spiral in 2010 and 2011, I did not have good technique in practice, I did not throw very well when I entered individual events during the world championships- I was much lower than 12th in the individual men's age 55-59 shot and hammer and discus.

In 2017 I did just one meet all year - the national Masters Throws Pentathlon, in Worcester Massachusetts; not doing very well, and I didn't compete at all in 2018 and 2019.

In 2020, I was intending to drive to Toronto in late July for my second ever outdoor World Championship, but that was cancelled because of Covid-19. The next one is scheduled for 2022 in Sweden.

Right now, because the winter was so mild, I got an early start, and I have been practicing, in a half-hearted way because I thought there might still be the World meet in Toronto, but my technique is flawed and I now have bad habits and low quality distance and many sector fouls, (which indicates deficient technique), and no strength workouts at the local Planet Fitness because they were ordered to close, to "stop the spread" and I am not sure if I will ever compete again.

How are you coping with the pandemic currently? How has it changed your life and what adjustments have you had to make?

I am currently healthy, my wife is healthy - she has two age 50 plus children from a previous marriage, but she and I have no kids ... no elderly parents; both sets of parents, owing to our own advanced ages, are no longer living. I must honestly say the pandemic has so far only very minimally affected me. I practiced by myself when I was doing workouts for almost the entire 40 years of post-collegiate participation, and I haven't been employed in a company of other department co-workers for 10 years now. I am used to being alone and not in a gathering of other people; I can "social distance" very easily. I never had a deep connection to family, or friends, or fellow school classmates, which would cause me to miss the personal face to face contact during this time.

My wife and I are coping extremely well with the restrictions and procedures. We walk slowly together for 45 minutes or so, most days, along a macadam path on the other side of the road from our house, slightly over a mile one way; we attach our bicycles on my car rack, and ride on the Dutchess County rail trail; tidy up and care for the Japanese Garden in our backyard; I go food shopping once a week, but otherwise stay inside. I spent a lot of time on the computer for years, before all this - researching interests, on various websites, email, a little social media ... I love the internet! We have television, and the day before the local public library system shut down, I went to both branches, plus another local library in Hyde Park, and in total scooped up 15 DVDs, including some multi-disc miniseries, so I have been making my way through those, which aren't due back until the libraries reopen to the public. And I never had much of an interest in watching any professional sport, of any kind, on television or in person - I might casually get an idea of what team is winning the championship, or if something unusual happens, but I do not miss watching sports on TV, or college sports, or any kind of radio broadcast or magazine coverage of sports.

What message would you give to our athletes – seniors and otherwise – on the shuttering of their outdoor track season and last two months of their senior year?

From my perspective of being 64 years old, 65 in August....just hang in there. As you get older and older and older, there will be more disappointments, more sadness, more tragedies; more thrills, more triumphs, more pleasure; more significant occurrences that DO take place as planned -- more things will start to pile up and affect your life and direct your attitude and your character.

Covid-19-required adjustments to your daily life is different from events that were cancelled by a visible force of destruction like a hurricane or fire or earthquake or a car crash, and take place in one self-contained region or small slice of the planet. If you can reflect on this shocking and wrenching change of plans that was forced upon you by some far off politician or some "elder", then you will have a comparison. The next slamming defeat or thing you had your heart set on, but gets yanked away - compare it to this. The next explosion of joy, wondrous fun, fulfilling success - think of it as "vindication" for the low depths that you just fell into because of how the Coronavirus ruined the end of your senior year, or your "breakthrough" year on the track. Take the long view - but at the same time, because you now realize that life expectations can change in an instant - and there are people dying, who didn't expect that to happen in this way - make every immediate present moment as significant as it can be.

And even if you are bummed out and don't want any reminders of track and field and cross country running- keep reading Coach Pete's blog, and enjoy the Pandemic Papers stories from other athletes, that are coming up!