Happy 70th birthday, Marty!

 

We had been playing "phone tag" for the past week or so. Our most loyal blog follower and alum, Marty McGowan (Class of 1973), pictured with me here at Ocean Breeze back in December of 2018. Every time he called, I was busy dealing with whatever crisis du jour was coming our way, and I kept forgetting to call him back. Finally, this afternoon, I had a free moment and we had a nice long conversation, mercifully uninterrupted by whatever crisis du jour is surely looming on the horizon. It was good catching up with him, checking on his family, hearing that they're all vaccinated (great news!) and talking about track tales old and older. Somewhere in there, he slipped in that it was his 70th birthday. That's a biggie! That's huge! I could have been disingenuous and said "yes, of course, I was calling to wish you a 70th birthday" ... but alas, I just got lucky. Listen. If you meet Marty and talk to him for a few minutes about his beloved alma mater, his beloved Staten Island, his beloved family, you too will consider yourself lucky. He's still going strong, his surgically repaired hips making it through 1 hour and 15 minutes of exercise this morning. We're lucky to have him in our Marist Running universe; 70 years old. Very neat!