Pleasant jog down Memory Lane

By Brett Hess

of The Fort Wayne News-Sentinel

October 12, 2004

I'm always fond of proclaiming that running is the greatest of all sports. On Sunday I discovered yet another reason: It brings old friends together.

Sunday's Zoom Thru Zulu 10K marked the first time in 25 autumns that three of my former Harding High School teammates and I were entered in the same race. To see us standing together afterwards in our bulging singlets, complaining about sore muscles, brought a wave of nostalgia over me.

I'm sure old basketball players get together on the hard court and maybe golfers do the same on the links, but running is just different. No matter what shape you're in or how long you've been away from the sport, once you toe the line again it's just like old times: we were giving our best efforts even if we weren't wearing green and gold and coached by Larry Yant.

The four of us took different roads over the past 25 years to get to this place a few miles east of New Haven on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Two of the former teammates I hadn't seen in 12 years; the third I saw for the first time in 15 years earlier this summer. I wasn't expecting to see any of them Sunday.

Jesse "Junior" Martinez graduated from Harding in 1980 and joined the U.S. Marine Corps. Of the four of us, he has been the most faithful to the sport.

"I've never really quit running," Junior said Sunday after finishing the 6.2-mile race in 39:08. "I had a heart attack several years ago, but that was really a hereditary thing and from eating badly. I run now to stay healthy. I'm not too fast (4:30 marathoner) but I just love it."

Manuel Martinez, Junior's brother, graduated from Harding in 1981 and despite earning some local honors, quit running a year after high school. Sunday marked his first race in 22 years. Manuel only started running this summer and his 38:59 Sunday says plenty about his natural abilities.

"Every spring I'd start to get the fever to run again, but it would go away before I would do anything about it," Manuel said. "Finally I decided to do something about it. I still can't run every day, it hurts too much. But if I run every other day, 4-6 miles, I do just fine."

Scott Eberle, Class of 1982, was an All-SAC, All-Sectional and All-Regional performer and outdid all of us with a 12th-place finish at the semistate his senior year. He'd probably tell you his biggest accomplishment was marrying Junior and Manuel's younger sister, Suzie. Like Junior, Scott joined the Marines after high school. But once he retired from the Marines several years ago, he quit running. Only a year ago, at the urging of Junior, did Scott come back to the sport.

"I read in Runner's World that 70 percent of new runners were women in the 20-29 age group. That's really why I came back," Scott said to jeers from his brothers-in-law. "I started running because I wanted to do the Indianapolis Marathon in 2002 with Junior. It was great and I haven't stopped."

Scott, a good 50 pounds over his high school running weight, ran a respectable race Sunday and finished a few minutes ahead of Junior, who is on the mend from an injury this summer. Eberle is planning to run the Indianapolis Marathon again this year.

As for me, Class of 1983, I parlayed moderate success at Harding into four years of cross country and track at what's now Indiana Wesleyan in Marion. Then I hung 'em up for 14 years. And, of course, since the summer of 2000 I've been proclaiming the virtues of our sport.

One other thing about running: It naturally fosters mentors and their proteges. Back in the mid-'80s, whenever I'd get together with these guys, they'd give me a hard time for being a "big-time college runner." I didn't say it then, so I want to say it now: it was partly because of Junior, Manuel and Scott and their mentorship throughout high school that I even became a college runner. And it's certainly part of the reason I count myself a runner today. Thank you, guys, for being friends on the run 25 years ago and again today.

This column is the commentary of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of The News-Sentinel. E-mail Brett Hess at nssports@news-sentinel.com.