What we missed: Special alumni weddings

Coach Horton left me a funny voicemail recently, asking me if I was enjoying the cooler weather here back East after record-setting temperatures out in Oregon! To which my reflex reply would be, “well, it’s more humid here than it was out there.” Which of course leads me to one of my favorite tabloid headlines of all time: “It’s not the heat. It’s the stupidity.” Fortunately for all of us, the heat and humidity are breaking very soon. I’m sure it’ll be back. It’s summer, after all. It is what it is.

While we were out in Oregon for several days, unfortunately we missed out on two alumni weddings – both held on Saturday, June 26, same day as our racewalkers’ competition. Michael Schab (Florida Gulf Coast, Fort Myers area) and Matt Panebianco (Maine Coast, Kennebunkport area) tied the knot and both ceremonies were well attended by our beloved Forever Foxes. This is not the first time we have missed alumni weddings because of special track trips – most recently, it was Brian Townsend’s wedding five years ago, while we were at USATF Juniors at an equally blazing Fresno area venue (Clovis, California).

Speaking of Forever Foxes, Billy Hild was out in the Pacific Northwest at the same time as us, and we connected on Thursday evening at Hayward Field and then again on Friday morning for a jog at Pre’s Trail. Hild pointed out that it was the first time we had ever run together in all the years we’ve known each other. He was nice, took it easy on me, although the low-8s pace felt peppy to me in the blazing morning sun.