By Michael Newman, DyeStat Illinois Editor

Chapter 9: Coming Out Party

Things got busy in a hurry, with two meets per week. It did not bother us that much since some of our hard runs were as intense as any race. My legs were still tired from working down at the marathon the day before. Our morning run usually went about 25 minutes. On this particular Monday morning it was nice and slow. We were feeling our way through the soreness that had encased our legs.

The workout stage that we went through has not changed through all these years. Monday would be an intense workout on the track. Tuesday would be a ladder of 220s. During the middle part of the season we would run 4 sets of 5 x 220 with the first set rest of 60 seconds, the second set of 45 second rest, the third set of 30 second rest, and the fourth set was only a 15 second rest. For someone who could not break 30 seconds if I had a wind at my back and falling down a mine shaft, that last set was a killer. Wednesdays would be a summer-type workout (long continual in front of the school). Then we would race on Thursday and come back Friday with 6 x 220 with a 60 second rest in 32 seconds to get the lactic acid out. Then we'd go to the Saturday invitational.

We were all looking forward to Saturday. Last year we were embarrassed at the DuPage County meet in a loss to Glenbard West. They were our big conference rival. In our heads we wanted to let them know that we had improved and were better than the year before. Hell, we wanted to beat them, and badly.

We still needed to get through the Monday workout first. As I came out of the locker room, I noticed that there was a kid sitting next to Mr. Newton in the lobby. From the back, I did not recognize who it was. When I went to check in, I noticed that it was John Keen, who was a runner from Riverside-Brookfield. He was writing an article on Mr. Newton for a publication, Illinois Track & Field News, that came out monthly. John was going to spend the afternoon with us, and that included jumping into our workout. On that day it was 10 x 880 with a 2 minute rest. How fun, we thought!

The Keen family is one of the most influential families in running in Illinois that most people today may not know about. In the early 70’s, Mr. & Mrs. Keen had sons who ran at Riverside-Brookfield. They started a weekly newsletter called Timely Times. It had the recent weeks' results and also included the coaches’ polls. In the spring, it would have the top lists for each of the track events. The newsletter would arrive Tuesday in our mail. I would rush home each Tuesday in my free periods to take a look to see results from the other teams. If you were a coach or a track nerd (like me), this yearly subscription was worth it. It was tough to wait to see results on Tuesday. Can you imagine now if the readers of DyeStat would have to wait until Tuesday for results? (There would be a civil war!) The Keens influenced the running culture in Illinois more than they will ever know. They were predecessors to John and Donna Dye.

John was a nice guy and the top runner on RB’s team in 1978. The warm-up was hard but not a blood bath. We stayed together and kept John in the group. We ran 880s on the soft cinders in 2:22. On this day, Mr. Newton was a little quieter than in some of the recent workouts. In each of the intervals, we looked at each other and thought that Keen was not seeing the true side of Newton. When we were cooling down, we let John know that. He got a good laugh from that, as did we.

It was a coincidence that Keen ran that half workout with us. Three days later, we saw RB at East End in a dual meet. Thursday’s meet was just a formality that we had to get through in order to get to Saturday. We knew we had a better team than them. The lineup was set for Saturday based on the results from the dual meet the previous Thursday at Hinsdale. Willie, Heds, Henry, Mac, Freegs, Lisy, and I would be toeing the line at Newton Park. Rags and Wags would run JV. After the county meet, Mr. Newton would look at the times and the best seven would go to Peoria.

Before I went to sleep on Tuesday night, I did my new two-day-before ritual of running the race in my mind. I spent a little more time on it. After the first time I “ran” the race, I opened my eyes, thinking it was too easy. I did it again and this time I fell asleep. 

There was one thing that worried me as we took the short 10-minute bus trip from York to East End. Keen ran with us on Monday and was able to stay with our group. Would he feed off of that for the dual meet?

For some reason, there was not a real tenseness in the air. We were pretty loose when we got to the starting line. Confidence was starting to grow within us. The idea was 'let’s get to Saturday.' My parents told me after the race it was impressive to see us run, especially early in the race. There was Keen towards the front of eight green-clad York runners. Each time we passed Newton, he was yelling encouraging words, telling us that we looked great. We were running fast, faster than we had two weeks before, but our comfort level was at a point where we were talking to each other.

Keen made a move to increase the lead at two miles. We all looked at each other and none of us made a move to stay with him. We passed Newton with less than a half mile to go and he did not say one word to us. In my mind … crap.

Keen was going to win this race but there was another problem, too. We were still eight runners together. Which of us was going to enter the chute first? Here we were less than 400 yards to go and we were getting into a vocal argument about who would be first. This continued for the next 20 seconds. It did not matter to me. No positions were on the line and I won the last meet. Our kick got a little more intense as we got closer. Rags and I came in together at 14:18. Heds was at 14:19, Henry at 14:20, and Wags 14:21. Willie came in at 14:23 followed by Freegs at 14:27, then Mac at 14:31. I could tell that those three wanted nothing to do with the argument and dropped back. Even though it looked like we ran easy, our times were close to 20 seconds faster than our meet two weeks earlier.

Newton hardly said a word to us. Parents were around and I think he was a little mad about Keen beating us. A little mad?

There were two buses that went to the park. I was on the bus that Newton was not on. Heds was on the other one. He said that Newton got animated about how we could let that guy who ran with us on Monday beat all of us. He used a phrase that he should not have been with us, but this story is PG-rated. When we got off the bus, we had to check out and Mr. Newton shook our hand. He asked me how it felt. I told him it felt faster, but felt good. I think he was looking for the phrase "it felt easy" so that he could vent. That was not going to happen.

One thing that we did find out after the meet was that Mark Lisy was under the weather. Newton did not know if the Thin Man would be ready. He did not hesitate to put Rags in that spot. He had earned it, especially the last couple of weeks. Rags coming in as our first runner cemented that for him.

Newton was hot during the next meeting. It was a vintage Newton meeting, but surprising considering it was the day before a big meet. “How could you let that guy beat you like that?” He looked at each of us as he said that. I thought that he was going to change the workout. He told us that instead of the county meet being the challenge race to see who went to Peoria, it would be our dual meet the following Thursday. There would be no spots guaranteed. The talent level on our team was so close. May the best man get in there, is what he said.

The workout did not change thank goodness. We got it done quickly and got out of there. My mind was already on the race on Saturday.

The DuPage County Meet was held at Newton Park in Glen Ellyn (not named after Mr. Newton). It was one of my favorite courses because of the rolling hills throughout the course. They were not major hills, but enough to tire your legs out if you were not in shape. It was also one of my favorite meets. I ran my best race of the year freshman year in county, finishing ninth among all of the freshmen. My parents did not watch me run. They were in England on vacation. My grandmother was taking care of us that week and sent my mom a postcard. When she read it she was on the metro … and she started to scream with happiness. My sophomore year was another story. I was just coming back from an injury and ran 17:12 to place 19th as the seventh man on the sophomore team. I wanted to run a great race this time out.

The Thursday night after the dual meet, before I went to bed, I “ran” the county meet in my mind. The goal, of course, was to win the team championship at county. I had three things that I wanted to conquer in my run through. In my first big invitational meet, I had a fear that I would lose sight of my teammates. The second was having the goal of placing in the top 15. If I was there, I would get a medal. The third was beating Brad Rutherford, a runner from Glenbard West. I started racing Brad when I was in eighth grade. Let me change that. I was in the same race as Brad. He was always so far ahead of me. I was never in the same zip code as him in eighth and ninth grade. In my sophomore year in track, I got within six to seven seconds of him in the 2-mile.

I was getting closer. At the end of that sophomore year, I had the belief that I was not in a different book anymore when I was racing Brad. I was at least in the same paragraph. Coming into this race, I thought I could be in the same sentence as him.

We knew we would have a tough battle on our hands in the team race. Glenbard West beat us in our conference meet last year and we wanted to let them know that we did not forget that. They had two great seniors leading them in Jeff Hill and Steve Pugsley. Their junior class, led by Rutherford and Jay Hogge, made them one of the reasons why they were ranked second in the pre-season. The other team that was ranked ahead of us was Willowbrook, who was winning invites early in the year and had five studs that could place ahead of us according to Newton. Those were the two teams that Newton thought would give us the biggest challenge. He thought we could have five runners in the first 20. If we could do that, according to him, we could win the title. In that meeting, he preached to us staying close together throughout the race. That is what I wanted.

The newspaper preview did not give us a chance, which kind of pissed us off. Kind of? “Without returning #1 runner Tim Krull, who is injured, it will be tough for York to place high in this race.” That is the one quote that stuck with us. We were a different team that had a hidden agenda with more than enough hidden confidence. As we got off the bus, we wanted to let people know that York was back.

It had rained the night before and the course was kind of soggy and somewhat sloppy. Since we were in one of the last races on the course, this was going to get messy for us, which we did not mind. I watched the freshman race and my brother Dan. He took control of the race at the end, winning the freshman individual title. He broke Rutherford’s course record in the process. Seemed like a good omen.

We warmed up. None of us said a word. I guess it is that kind of quiet nervousness that we were hoping that we would race great but we did not know. I was putting on my spikes and just kept thinking “Stay with the pack.” We went to the starting line and I wanted that gun to go off. I was ready. That nervousness in my stomach was gone. Let me at them.

We had a good starting box that would allow us to get to the left of the first turn 500 yards into the race. I noticed that there were some other teams that were looking at us as we did our stride outs. I had never noticed that before. I was in the front row with Willie, Henry, and Heds. Freegs, Rags, and Mac were right behind us. The gun went off. It was just another workout.

As usual, I went out slow. I saw Freegs, Heds, Willie, and Henry in front of me. For the next half mile, I worked my way up to the pack. I just wanted to stay in touch with those guys. By the time we got to the mile, there was a pack of four with Willie, Henry, Heds and me. We were in the top 25 at that point and where we wanted to be. Freegs, Rags, and Mac were about 10 places back.

In the second mile, we started to pick off runners. The most confidence that you can get in a race is when something positive is happening … like passing people. All of a sudden, Willie started to fade a little. Under each breath, he was moaning: “I can’t.”

Henry and I were on each side of him. Heds got behind Willie. We had him in a box so he could not slow down. Our group of four had reached to around 11th place. We were in great shape as we were about to make a final lap around the park. I looked forward to see who was ahead of us. I noticed three Willowbrook runners ahead of us at that point. I only saw Pugsley from Glenbard. Newton was yelling at us that we needed to continue to move up. Rags and Mac were around 25th. We could hear Newton yelling at them that they needed to pass men if we wanted to win. I looked ahead and I did not see Rutherford ahead of me. I was beating Rutherford?

The last mile was a blur. With 800 meters to go, three runners, including Willowbrook’s fourth runner Jim Willer started to go by us. We responded. The pace quickened going into the final straightaway. I had nothing left in my legs. One of the York runners on the side told me that I was in 15th and that I needed to move. I could see Willie, Heds, and Henry picking off guys left and right.

Carl Bicicchi of Willowbrook won the race, running 14:39. Pugsley was second followed by Biccicchi’s teammate Jeff Bowes in third. Then Keith Field of Naperville North. Then Willie, Heds, and Henry finishing 5-6-7 within a second of each other. I was seven seconds back in 13th running a PR of 15:10. Willer had just finished ahead of me, making four Willowbrook runners ahead of me. As I was going through the chute, I looked back and saw Rags, who was 18th. He made one heck of a move in the last mile to get to that point. I kept looking and I could not see the fifth man of Willowbrook. I did see Glenbard’s next three runners but I was the fourth and Rags was in between the Glenbard guys.

We were in the team area and each of us looked at each other in amazement. We made it through, but did we win it? No one knew for sure. With all the Willowbrook guys there, we thought they had it.

Gary Goss, a former York runner who was doing the timing and scoring for the meet, came over to Newton just before the junior varsity was to go to the starting line. He whispered to Newton that we had won 49-56 over Willowbrook. The fifth runner for them finished 32nd. They had four up with us, but no fifth runner anywhere close.

Mac was our sixth man and finished 25th. Freegs did not run his best race and finished 41st. We were happy that we won but not overjoyed. We knew that it was a close call with Willowbrook. There was more work to do. The junior varsity race showed our depth, as Wags won and ran the same time as Mac. Mike Custer was nine seconds back for us with the same time as Freegs. After the junior varsity race was over, we started to jog around with some of our other teammates. The running joke was Willie moaning in the race. In unison some of us would moan “I can’t” … we all started to laugh.

Heds then went after me. “Newms, I could see the only thing you were thinking during the race was that you were ahead of Rutherford.” He started impersonating me … ”I’m beating Rutherford.” It was a good laugh that I deserved. Brad finished 30th in that race.

It was a great feeling compared to the previous year. “We don’t have any stars this year, but we have a bunch of guys who work together,” Newton told the press afterwards. “We don’t really have too many guys that people know, but their stepping in and doing the job. The guys worked hard and they deserved it.”

We ran a 21-second split on our first five. We swept all four levels for the team championship. That is what made Newton the most happiest. This was a team effort from top to bottom. He told us to enjoy this win today. We all knew we still had a ton of work to do. That win was too close for comfort for us. But … we showed people that day that we would not back down. We would be a factor at state.

I walked home and was genuinely happy, but not satisfied. I was questioning myself why I could not stay with my teammates at the end. The thing was, I achieved the goal I had set for myself but also wanted more.

I took a nap when I got home for about 90 minutes. Then I went for a 25-minute run where my legs refused to move. So sore. So tight. 

I celebrated that night by finishing a paper for history and then watching Saturday Night Live. Not the celebration of champions but we did have bigger fish to fry. It was just the first step.