Discussion: Jarrow

He really supports and pulls for you...with some sarcasm and jabs here and there.

We have a long and varied history, but remain good friends. He's been there with me in racing and training longer than even Jay.

I just read Jarrow's name and Bill Austins in Jurek's book. It was weird to see those names. I had gotten used to Proctor, Duluth and names like that. Then there was Chester Park and a workout with a bunch of people and some sort of veggie chilli...I wondered if you might have been in that workout. It was winter and he mentioned ski people.

I have no ambition to be a vegetarian...probably for the worst. I am putting the berries and yogurt, peanuts and almonds in me. Apples...love honey crisp. Eating raw carrots, celery, radishes (I had gone years and barely ate any radishes even though I liked them and we do not eat lots of meat, but I do eat meat. Way more chicken and I've liked chili. My grandparents ate a lot of pinto beans.

Switched to Truvia, combination of sugar and stevia. I don't drink regular coke...just stevia/sugar coke in small glass bottle like old days and only half of it half the time and I miss lots of days with nothing fizzy. There is a stevia only clear 'coke' variations. Getting used to them. Way more water.

But I won't pretend not to eat my MM's, Hershey's (did stop the gummies after hearing about what they used to be sugarless). Chrissy started before me weeding out a lot of the bad ingredients like high fructose sugar as much as possible. I love cookies.

The squashes and other veggies do not appeal to me at all.

Jurek seems like a nice guy, but life is weird. You can relate to someone you shouldn't and vice versa so I do not know what I would think of him if I met him. Several of the girl ultra's did not seem to worry about diet at all. They ate junk stuff even during race...not saying they didn't eat healthy at times.

Anyway liking the book. I've had two glasses of the chia drink now. And also added chia seeds to my morning health fruit/yogurt/honey (I used to hate honey) bowl.

It's weird to hear you talk about how hard Jay trained. I don't think I really saw him at his peak.

That Dusty sure is in there. Too bad what happened to him, but he did sound crazy. Don't mean to slam him too much as he and Jurek sure were buds.

My sister had a handicapped son. Derek. My sister caught a virus she had little or no immunity to while pregnant and it short circuited his brain and body. One doctor said Derek would not live to 18. He died one week short of his 18th birthday. My sister Vicki wore herself out taking care of him. Got all the govt programs she could to help take care of him. Special buses, teachers, schools, therapist.

He was wheelchair bound, could not speak and his body twisted up bad even with all the stuff Vicki and the therapist did for him. I wondered how much his brain worked. He recognized people and laughed. When he was little we figured he might not have lots of brain activity and we'll never know for sure, but he was aware of things for sure.

Good luck up there.

Just a few pages over from the above Chester Park story up popped the Koski's. I knew you were in the book, but for at least half a page you two were the stars of the book. I can't believe you didn't follow up on your stardom with a book of your own, movie, tv series, Netflix show and a lecture tour!

My bumbling style of writing is getting worse. I keep leaving words out of what I'm writing. I was calling Chester Park...Lester Park...I should have left that so you would have a laugh. Maybe you can rename it. I really do need to edit everything I write now.

You've probably referenced this over the years but it did not stick. I knew there was a running store, but I did not realize it was Bill and Jarrow. I guess it was Bill Nelson that I bought my goretex suit from in 1980? There was a picture of their anniversary on Feb 29th (so far can't tell what year) with a picture of them. Bill Nelson looked nothing like who I remember (which is fuzzy).

I'm thinking Bill does not run much anymore. He looked way older than 60 in the picture. And I say that perfectly aware in the last decade I wrinkled up way more than I ever expected to be and at the same time I had lasik done and lost my glasses (except for reading) so what wrinkles I had were not hidden by glasses so it looked like I aged 10 or more years in about 3 years time.

I wished I had been able to keep coming up and stay more connected with that gang up there.

If Jurek ever runs Western States it would be something to crew a race like that. The equivalent in golf was I got to caddy for Chrissy when she played Olympic Club in San Francisco one year. It was like getting to be on the field in Yankee Stadium or watch someone do a workout at Hayward Field.

Speaking of...I guess the stadium is done now. Wished the US would build several more tracks like that to help revive the sport (track part).

The store anniversary of 29th was a nice twist to store history. My great grandma Rosie Hinton was born Feb 29th, 1896. I'm proud of that. Just a little family lore. I just learned in past year she only celebrated her birthday on the 29th, every 4 years, not on 28th or Mar 1st.

Finally saw the date 2012. So this year would have been '9th' anniversary.

Ha... there is a Chester Park and a Lester Park in Duluth. Both are really popular trail running areas.

You bought your jacket from Bill Austin.
He is kind of out of it nowadays. He has little to do with the store. Runs and walks some. Married a Phillipino worman and has one daughter who just finished college. (Phoebe texted me last night and said she'd finished her last work for college!)

Austin Jarrow has a big anniversary sale every year on the last day of Feb. with @ 35% off.

Jurek and Dusty don't even talk anymore. Dusty claims that Scott short-shrifted him in the book. But now that I know how nuts Dusty is, I think there is blame enough to share for the falling-out.

I don't know full story of Dusty-Jurek but seems like he gave him all kinds of credit in the book so far.

Thanks for update. In 2012 it was a leap year so the anniversary was on the 'official' date...the discount was 29%...for Feb 29th...I didn't get it at first. Like lots of other things in life.

Ole Greg Owings dusted (no pun) me off when I moved back from Calf. I was absolutely so dumb (more than usual) it took me a year to figure out our friendship was over. Nothing bad happened where we have grudges or an all out fight (not meaning physical) but he just would not hook up with me.

The last workout we had together was June of 1994. He had been fighting injuries and so we rode bikes to the OU campus about 4 miles away. I ran a mile time trial in 5:29 (last time I ran a mile that 'fast'). As I got in the car I told him I understood the situation and I wouldn't bug him anymore and I drove off. It was friendly but I wanted to just finish it that way rather than fade away like it had been for that whole year.

I was mixing up Jarrow and Austin for some reason. Like I said things go over my head. I'm the walking white male dad cliche. :)

Thanks for updates. I understand you may not read all this crap I just let it out and I can't believe how long some of this stuff is. I glanced at the main list for running today for first time in long time...2 Duluthians in top 10. A woman was at top of list. I noticed in the winter the overall 'membership' of AP was under 1000, but it's back over it again. I've never donated any money, but everywhere you look now on line sites that were free are begging for money. I've donated to Wiki couple of times $2. I know that floated their budget.

I have my first RW subscription in 30 years and I cannot even read their website stories regularly unless I pay triple of what I paid for magazine only. I could see maybe $5 but not $50 versus $15 or 20 for magazine only.