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110 degrees magazine - Index

110 degrees magazine - magazine - Index

classes never again would be scheduled to be held on the first
Monday in September.
My daughters played the role of matchmaker. They invited Patty
to go with them to Max’s Opera Café in Walnut Creek. After she
agreed, they invited me, as well. To tell the truth, I was a willing
participant in their little scheme. I realized that Patty Mantelli had
the exact set of eccentricities needed by any woman in order to be
in a successful relationship with me.
That first “date” with Patty, though chaperoned by my daughters,
merely confirmed what Patty and I had felt in our hearts for some
time. We were soul mates; we completed each other. Fifteen months
later we were married. When you hit a homerun like I did with Patty,
you might as well not wait to run around the bases.
RUNNING FOR MY LIFE
By the time I was 65 I had been battling with cancer for ten years and
enduring unending rounds of chemo treatments, radiation treatments,
and operations. Plus, I willingly played the role of guinea pig
for an experimental drug that, fortunately, seemed to work well in
combating my disease.
I have been physically active all my life, always playing softball on
some team or other, and continued to do so while undergoing treatments.
I refused to let my battle with cancer change that.
But I still wanted to run track.
One evening at Laura Nunn’s 40 th birthday party I had a conversation
with a marvelous human being, Dr. Hugo Maiocco. He was
already in his 70s, but in his younger days Hugo had been a champion
in the Pan American Games. He couldn’t go to the Olympics
because they took place while he was in the midst of his senior year
in medical school. Since Hugo was the 600-meter world record-holder
at the time he would certainly have brought back at least one gold
medal if he had gone.
I knew about Hugo’s mastery of the sport so I told him that night.
“I want to become a runner, and to compete in the 100-meter dash
at the Senior Games.”
“Let me get this straight,” Hugo said. “You didn’t run in high
school. You didn’t run in college. You’re 65 years old. And you have
cancer….”
And then he added an observation that I would have found offensive
if I hadn’t known that it was completely true.
“And looking at you it seems you have no talent.”
Hugo tried to give me a reality check. “Do you know who runs in
the senior games?” he asked. “Ex Olympic candidates, former college
all-stars — people who have been running all their lives. Do you really
want to compete against them?”
“Yes!”
“Well, I never coached anyone,” Hugo said. “You never ran. Together
we’ll be perfect.”
Hugo and I began working together. For a month we would simply
walk side-by-side while he told me how to think about running. He
taught me the important concept of “floating” by which a runner
invests energy in five paces and then uses momentum to “float” for
seven paces.
“A successful runner never performs at 100 percent,” Hugo said.
“That tightens muscles and creates friction. It makes your body work
against itself.”
September/October 2008 www.110mag.com 33