Uncanny recall, slow-moving reptiles and celebrity deaths

I have a perhaps an unusually reliable long-term memory in general, even if I sometimes can't tell you what I ate for dinner two nights ago. But without a doubt my memory for running-related things borders on the supernaturally vivid and accurate. Here's a great example and one that relates to current -- and unfortunate -- events.

I started running in the late summer of 1984, as I headed into ninth grade. I ran my first cross-country 5K in a blistering 21:06 at White Park in Concord, N.H and ended my season by notching a 19:31 on the same course (after going out in 5:38 for the flat first mile and running with an untied shoelace for most of the race; I was clueless as a freshman, believe me). I for some reason fell in love with the sport, and trained diligently through a typically rough New England winter -- reaching a high of around 30 miles a week. That spring I would run a Rundlett Junior High School record 4:55-high in the 1,600 , But before that campaign began, in April, I also ran my first-ever road race: A dead-flat five-miler called the Turtle Trot 5M, which has been defunct since the George H.W. Bush administration.

Did any of you ever have unofficial "theme songs" for particular." races or racing seasons? I did, and going into this race, I was deeply enamored of the late Glenn Frey's "The Heat Is On." This was owed in part to its appearing close to the beginning of Beverly Hills Cop. In any event, it was playing in my head in the early miles of the race, which I covered in 32:28 after going out in 6:03 and settling into more or less steady 6:35 to 6:40 miles thereafter. In the final mile, I was trading places a runner I believed to be the lead woman, Terry Hersh, who was nice enough to encourage me even while huffing and puffing like a longshoreman (while I inwardly swore like one). I outkicked her, and later learned that the first woman, Anita Bagley Teschek, had in fact beaten me by about a minute, as had a kid my age named Tom Alsheskie from Bedford; Tom and I would later become rivals and a couple of the top cross-country and 3,200-meter runners in the state.

I finished 28th of 71 finishers -- and 71 people seemed like a huge field to me at the time. I was second in my age group. The winner was 24-year-old Larry Sayers in 24:25; Larry and I would later become well acquainted as Central Mass Striders teammates and coaches in NEw Hampshire's Class I high-school division. Second was someone named Charles Hewes, who also broke 25:00. George Frost was third, J.R. Stockwell (whom I also got to know fairly well) was fourth, and masters runner Chip Morgan was fifth. I was wearing blue shorts with an elastic waistband and pockets -- not running shorts -- and a green "Lets's Get It Back Celtics" T-shirt. It was a great experience overall.

It upsets me at some distant level to know that a number of participants in that race, like Mr. Frey, are no longer alive, even if I don't know which ones.