This week I told a few "glory days" stories to Mike and John. Figured there's plenty more where that came from so as they strike me I'll try to get them down here. Something made me think of my very first "track meet" so I thought I'd spin that yarn.
In the 5th grade my parents decided I was a troubled kid and sent me to a special school in my town. The school, Krzic Elementary, is still around. It has mixed classrooms of 4th, 5th, and 6th graders all together. It has 3 rooms and around 75 students total. My parents thought more oversight from the teachers would help with my behavior, mediocre grades, and rebellious behavior.
Just down from Krzic, and on the way to my friend Mike's house, was a store (JJ's groceries) where the Asian owner would sell anyone anything. It was a meeting place for the bad kids after school who'd go there to buy cigarettes. Just down from JJ's was a trail to the railroad tracks and a clearing in the woods where we'd all go to tell dirty jokes, get in fights, and whatever "cool kids" do.
One one occasion as I was heading to the store I came across Victor heading away crying and with a bloody nose. An older kid (I don't remember his name for some reason right now so I'll call him Denny) who was a bit of a bully had bashed him in the nose for not buying him cigarettes. Victor had a particularly tough time in school because he was a bit clumsy. He also had warts all over his hands. I didn't realize it until I was nearly 30, but Victor was also gay. I'm not sure that anyone picked up on that specifically at 10yrs old, but he seemed to be always getting bullied so I suppose kids just saw him as different.
I didn't particularly like Victor, I didn't really know him, but I didn't like Denny much either. Here was a junior high kid coming down to the elementary kids hang out and trying to bully everyone around. Denny was pretty big for a 7th grader and I was pretty small for a 5th grader. For a while he liked me because he knew I was a fighter. He would often pester me to fight someone or other that he didn't like just so he could watch. Sometimes he'd talk me into fighting someone much bigger than me with the reassurance that if things go too tough he'd break it up.
I don't think you could have called Denny and I friends, but I liked having an older kid think I was cool. I'm not sure why, but on this day seeing Victor with his nose all bloodied just pissed me off. I told Mike I was going to go fight Denny. Mike was all worried. He said if we showed up to his house all beat up again his mom would kill him. Victor told us Denny and most of the gang had soccer practice at Eagle Street park and were headed there now. Mike had his bicycle and nervously rode along beside me as I detoured over to Eagle Street Park trying to think of how I could beat up Denny, or at least put up a good enough fight so that everyone would think I was brave.
Victor warned me that Denny was the fastest runner in the school. In fact he had set the 7th grade school record in the mile recently running 5:32 (or something like that)As we got there Denny was running around playing soccer. I picked up the ball as it went out of bounds and pretended I was going to join the game. I stood on the line as though I was going to throw it in and Denny switched to cover me. Instead of throwing it over his head I threw it as hard as I could right in his face. Then we started fighting.
Before long I realized his friends were kicking me in the back as we tangled on the ground so I got up and started running. Mike flew by me on his bike heading down Eagle Street to his house. He was screaming run Terry, run! I made my way through the park and into the wooded trails just in case any of them had a bicycle (this was before mountain bikes and those trails were too rough) I looked back and about a dozen of them were chasing me.
I ran just fast enough so they couldn't catch me in order to lure them into keeping up the chase. If they got too close I turned on the afterburners and left them in the dust. I remember passing Sam and Shane's house and them cheering for me. It's about a mile back to Mike's house and I got them to chase me almost all the way to the railroad tracks (about 3/4 of the way) When they stopped and stood there trying to figure out what to do I got the bright idea to turn back and run at them. As I approached Denny picked up a rock and tried to hit me. By then the gang from the park had all caught up to us. 1/2 hoping to see Denny catch me and pummel me, the other half hoping to see Denny humiliated. As Denny flung rock after rock at me I taunted him.
After that everyone started laughing at Denny because he couldn't catch me. Over the remainder of the school year we got in a couple more fights, all of which he won, but he still got taunted about getting beat in a foot race by a 5th grader. Word got around to Mr. Pizon, who at the time was the junior high track coach, that I had outran Denny. He arranged so that I could run the 800 meters in a home meet.
At the meet I didn't do any warm up, just walked around watching the field events. The starter called out the men's 1/2 mile run and we lined up, Denny was there in his red and white Geneva track outfit and shiny white track spikes. There were about 6 other kids from our school going to run along with a few from Ashtabula City and a few from St. John. Victor, myself, and a few more local elementary school kids were allowed to join. I was wearing white high top basketball shoes and jeans. There were about 50 or 60 parents there spectating. I remember one of the parents pulling us younger kids aside and telling us to pace ourselves, that it was a two lap race and giving us high fives.
The gun went off and I tore off the start line as hard and as fast as I could. By the time I got to the far straight away I had pulled clear of everyone. I had no idea how to pace myself, but I knew I could beat Denny so my plan was just to stay in front of him. The problem was that once I got in the lead I got so excited I just put the hammer down. I ran as fast as I could possibly go. I crossed the line for lap one in 64 seconds. As I turned the corner to start the last 300meters I just died. I ended up looking back a million times in the last 200 meters. I finally finished in 2:25. I'd won by a good margin. I had never felt better in my entire life.
After that teachers were always pestering me to join track. Because of grades I was only able to run 2 races in Junior High. Each season I did the first race and then grades came out or parent conferences would come around and Mr. Anderson would ground me and make me quit. All the while though my teachers were always trying to get me running. I suppose I'm glad they never quit trying.
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