President’s Letter

Back To the Future of the Lone Star Runners Club.

I, Bob Roach, was recently elected as President of the Lone Star Runners Club.  What you probably don’t know is that I was the President of the Runners club approximately 30 years ago. 

 This got me thinking about the 1985 Movie “Back To the Future”.  In 1985, teenager Marty McFly lives in Hill Valley, California, with his depressed alcoholic mother, Lorraine; his older siblings, who are professional and social failures; and his meek father, George, who is bullied by his supervisor, Biff Tannen. After Marty’s band fails a music audition, he confides in his girlfriend, Jennifer Parker, that he fears becoming like his parents despite his ambitions. 

That night, Marty meets his eccentric scientist friend, Emmett “Doc” Brown, in the Twin Pines mall parking lot. Doc unveils a time machine built from a modified DeLorean, powered by plutonium he swindled from Libyan terrorists. After Doc inputs a destination time of November 5, 1955 (the day he conceived his time travel invention), the terrorists arrive unexpectedly and gun him down. Marty flees in the DeLorean, inadvertently activating time travel when reaching 88 miles per hour (142 kilometers per hour). 

Arriving in 1955, Marty discovers he has no plutonium, so he cannot return to 1985. Marty ditches the DeLorean and walks back to his hometown Hill Valley where he discovers the simple life in 1955.  Marty is used to hard rock music, but in town the music store is playing “The Ballad of Davy Crockett.”  He notices that a car that pulls up to a Texico gas station is greeted by several attendants who fill the car with gas, check the tires for air, and clean the windshield.  In the 1985 world, you pump your own gas and perform your own maintenance on your car.

So, what was the running community like 30 to 40 years ago from 1985 through 1996?

1. Back then, running wasn’t just a hobby or a doctor’s suggestion—it was an exciting trend, much like pickleball is today. Nearly every weekend, there was a 10K race in the Panhandle. Friends would participate together, turning these events into lively community gatherings where everyone got fitter through friendly competition. Runner’s etiquette and pre-race rituals were common, which are less visible now. In 1985, running was often a communal activity, with groups led by a chosen leader. In Amarillo, all were welcomed to Red Spicer’s group. Anyone looking for community gravitated toward him. Red was a warm and inviting leader beloved by everyone, especially the young women.
2. Since there was a race every weekend, the race directors made sure there was only one race per weekend.  Every race had its own weekend and was normally not scheduled on top of each other.  Amarillo had a Midnight 5 race.  The 5-mile race began at midnight and ran around the parking loop at the newly constructed West Gate mall.  It was fun and well attended; however, it was difficult for me to keep from being sleepy while I waited for midnight!
3. Corporate sponsors contributed lots of money and really pushed the advertising on their races.  The ANB 10K, Baptist Hospital 10K, and Fun Fest 10k/Half Marathon come to mind.  ANB had a band, free hotdogs, and lots of beverages at their finish line.  From 1978 to 2002, The Junior League sponsored the Fun Fest race and had a Memorial Day weekend celebration which consisted of various booths at Thompson Park.  The whole park was full of various food booths and major country music acts.  It was quite a celebration.
4. Since running was so popular, the races attracted many very fast runners.  The Fun Fest half marathon had at least 30 or more runners who ran between 1:15:00 and 1:24:00.  Since I was a beginner, my running goals were to compete with OLD slower runners. Once I could outrun the older folks (or they died of old age!!), I worked to compete with the women runners.  There were some good female runners such as Karen Cooley.  After competing and outrunning the female runners, I worked to compete with the male runners.  Mike Glascock, Mike Flores, Monte Wells, Ed Craighead, and David Lard competed back then.  They were excellent runners who trained hard and who consistently ran fast.  David was probably 20-30 years my senior and was a nationally elite 800-meter runner.  It took me several years before I could finish in the same time zone with them.  The triathlon became popular in Amarillo, and we had both male and female competitors run the Kona Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii.
5. Running in our area was in its infancy. There was one runner’s store in the Amarillo area called “The Swift Foot”. Since runners weren’t used to buying running gear as a necessity, it didn’t stay in business very long.  Runners didn’t know how to access the internet for running gear like they do now.  We acquired most of our running strategy and running gear knowledge from our runner’s bible known as the “Runner’s World” publication.  I believe there were big bulky watches which had GPS capability, but there was no such thing as smart watch with all the cool technology we have now.  We thought the 8 memory Timex Ironman Triathlon watch launched in 1986 was technology from heaven.  I ran my first race in Nike basketball shoes.  When I discovered the New Balance 574, I thought I died and had gone to heaven.
6. There weren’t very many running trails in PDC except perhaps the Lighthouse trail.  Sometime during this period Red Spicer, Bob Givens, and Tom Lowry, built the GSL trail.  Red Spicer and Kevin McClish spent lots of time building trails in PDC. PDC was their sanctuary. Now we have 31 miles of trails in PDC. 
7. Timing equipment wasn’t computerized or electronic, In Amarillo, the timing equipment consisted of a bib, a popsicle stick, a handheld Seiko timer/printer and an 8 1/2 x 11 pad with lines drawn on it.

As you can see the running community has changed quite a bit in the past 30 to 40 years. I believe biggest changes occurred in technology and community. We have fantastic smart watches and a great deal of shoe choices.  We spend too much time buried on our smart phones instead of interacting face to face.   I am thankful I got to be a part of the early stages of the running community 30 to 40 years ago.  I am also thankful the LSRC survived my first stint as President!!!